Wildlife videos with Nikon D500 + Nikon 200-500/5.6

EduPortas wrote:

RudyPohl wrote:

Out of curiosity, why do you want to change your current gear for?

I'm seeing pretty good results already, friend.

Hi EduPortas,

Thanks for your encouraging remark and yes, you ask a very good question. Lately I've been wondering that myself.

The one thing my gear can't do is autofocus tracking which limits the kinds of birds in flight and other action recoding I can do. I use the back button focus method on my D500 with birds on the ground and perches and as long as they stay within the horizontal focus plane everything is fine. But as soon as they move either away from me or towards me they go out of focus. When this happens I refocus with the back button and then in Davinci Resolve I cut and blend these clips together as best I can.

I have been working on my birds in flight techniques and strategies to try to mitigate this limitation. I think I have now gotten to point where I can make fairly satisfying and interesting wildlife videos with lots of action included without the benefits of autofocus tracking and I'll probably continue this way for a while yet.

That was actually the reason I was interested in looking into going mirrorless, but after doing endless research and video reviews into all three major camera producers, Sony, Canon and Nikon and seeing the staggering costs for a quality body and lenses that would match what I have now I just feel that it isn't worth it for me. Perhaps if and when the prices come down I'll look at it again. In the meantime I will work at making the best of what I've got.

Best,

Rudy