I have been using Z8 for a while and have borrowed a R5m2 for testing. I am mainly attracted to Canon because I can get 14-500mm in three lenses with a single filter thread size. Very useful for traveling. With Nikon I get 14-400 and have to use two different threads. So I have been mainly testing R5m2 with 100-500mm and Z8 with 100-400.
In my tests using this Canon combo I have gotten some incredible great images but also a few head scratchers (AF wise). However, for every amazingly sharp picture I got from R5m2, I get an equivalently sharp picture from Z8 (shooting side by side but different subjects and angles). So the keeper rate is about the same or tilted in favor of Z8. This even though in my static test, 100-500 is more sharp then 100-400. Also if there is a lone bird in the sky, and I lift the camera to get the bird in focus, sometimes R5m2 will take a while to find the bird; sometime Z8 will too, but R5m2 more so. This is all with those said lenses. It might be different with other lenses.
I am personally not doing the kind of shoots where I care if it is the eyelash or the retina in focus. At f/2 or f/2.8 at about 6-10 ft distance, if one is in focus the other is too. My sympathies are with those using f/1.2
So, no, maybe in some cases the lash AF is an issue (that I have not tested) but in the outdoor (even in low light), shooting people and fast action, Z8 is not behind R5m2 at all. Oh yes, one small thing. R5m2 will pick human eye a little further away from the subject then in Z8. However in both cases, the subject is so small in frame that it doesn't matter.
Nov 15, 2024 at 02:25 AM
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