fgbd70
Forum Enthusiast
Being a wildlife (and landscape) photographer, for quite some time I was very jealous on a friend of mine who owns a Sony A1. The unbelievable accurate eye-detect on birds and other animals was something that I really envied, because my Z6 did not come close to that. I was already happy if once in while it would detect the eye of a deer.
Anyway, the Z9 arrived, too expensive and too bulky but promising in the AF department. Then the Z8, still quite heavy and still too expensive for me. The Z6 is nice and small, and if I put bigger glass on it then I add the SmallRig L-plate, makes the grip bigger and the whole thing more balanced. And my ‘bigger’ glass is my trusty lightweight 300mm f/4 PF VR with a TC17 and the FTZII, giving me 500mm f/6.7 with a weight of 1185 grams.
Nice and lightweight, but the AF speed on the Z6 was very slow, certainly compared to my old D500. But I had made the switch to mirrorless and sold all my DSLR’s a few years ago in order to finance the switch. I really like the Z6, the ergonomics, the wonderful image quality, also in very low light and to me it seems that 24 Mpx is a sort of goldielocks for an image sensor. I never print bigger than A3+, and I create 4k slideshows for my 4k TV.
Then the Zf was announced, I like the retro look but what really caught my attention was the AF system from the Z8 and Z9 using Expeed 7. Would it be good for wildlife? Ok, burst speed would be slower but 8 to 10 fps would be fine for me.
Anyway, a few days ago I decided to purchase it, already having studied the Reference Manual knowing I could configure quite a few knobs.
The result is that now I have a mini Z8 at almost half the price! Bird-eye detect is incredibly fast, also far away and with small birds. When holding down the Fn button it instantly switches to 3D tracking which works amazingly well. The AF acquisition and tracking speed with my lightweight 500mm combi is superb, much, much faster than on the Z6 and also much faster than on my old D500.
I like the fysical dials, also the fact that the monitor can be set facing inwards, I shoot mostly using the EVF. Startup time after sleep is almost instant, battery life much better than on my Z6 and with the Smallrig grip it feels very comfortable in my (medium size) hands, total weight of body and grip being 820 grams.
So I am very, very happy with the Zf for wildlife and I thought I should share these experiences with you in case you are in a similar situation.
cheers, Frank
Anyway, the Z9 arrived, too expensive and too bulky but promising in the AF department. Then the Z8, still quite heavy and still too expensive for me. The Z6 is nice and small, and if I put bigger glass on it then I add the SmallRig L-plate, makes the grip bigger and the whole thing more balanced. And my ‘bigger’ glass is my trusty lightweight 300mm f/4 PF VR with a TC17 and the FTZII, giving me 500mm f/6.7 with a weight of 1185 grams.
Nice and lightweight, but the AF speed on the Z6 was very slow, certainly compared to my old D500. But I had made the switch to mirrorless and sold all my DSLR’s a few years ago in order to finance the switch. I really like the Z6, the ergonomics, the wonderful image quality, also in very low light and to me it seems that 24 Mpx is a sort of goldielocks for an image sensor. I never print bigger than A3+, and I create 4k slideshows for my 4k TV.
Then the Zf was announced, I like the retro look but what really caught my attention was the AF system from the Z8 and Z9 using Expeed 7. Would it be good for wildlife? Ok, burst speed would be slower but 8 to 10 fps would be fine for me.
Anyway, a few days ago I decided to purchase it, already having studied the Reference Manual knowing I could configure quite a few knobs.
The result is that now I have a mini Z8 at almost half the price! Bird-eye detect is incredibly fast, also far away and with small birds. When holding down the Fn button it instantly switches to 3D tracking which works amazingly well. The AF acquisition and tracking speed with my lightweight 500mm combi is superb, much, much faster than on the Z6 and also much faster than on my old D500.
I like the fysical dials, also the fact that the monitor can be set facing inwards, I shoot mostly using the EVF. Startup time after sleep is almost instant, battery life much better than on my Z6 and with the Smallrig grip it feels very comfortable in my (medium size) hands, total weight of body and grip being 820 grams.
So I am very, very happy with the Zf for wildlife and I thought I should share these experiences with you in case you are in a similar situation.
cheers, Frank
