Giving up on F selling up for Z

Pistnbroke

Looking at the dropping prices of my 4 F mount cameras I decided to sell and change to Z mount.
Fortunately, my wife does not know one camera from another though she takes great wedding and bird photos so I will need to buy two Z cameras one for me and one for her. Would like to keep my 100-400 and use FTZ but what camera to buy? Zfc is cheap at present at £669 with E-infinity and in stock but I am not sure how it would go with the birds.
Any suggestions before I do the swap?

photobunny

The Z6 is always my recommendation for the do everything Z body and it has gotten me and many other a wildlife pro many fantastic images to sell. The Z fc is about as capable and a great little camera but I advise buying a couple more batteries as it wont last all day.

October is the expected time to see the Z6iii and Z7iii with Expeed 7 processors and over 2023 we should see the lower end bodies getting upgrade to.

If you are going to perched birds the Z6 or fc are both fantastic options. If you are going bird in flight then I highly recommend holding off for an Expeed 7 model as while the older models can work great for bird in flight and action, you'll get way more hits with the fancy eye AF and improved frame rates.

One note on all Expeed 6 generation bodies is that they are all 5.5 FPS regardless of what they are marketed as. The higher FPS mode is a slideshow which is a miserable experience.

photobunny

Are you able to get your hands on one for rent?

https://lensesforhire.co.uk/product/nikon-z6-with-ftz-adapter About £130 to have delivered and picked up from your door for 3 days. The Z fc has mostly the same AF and EVF feel.

donaldejose

I second photobunny. The expeed 7 AF in the Z9 is best and should trickle down to the Z6III when it comes out soon. But it will require a wait until about next summer before one can likely get one. Z6 and Zfc has enough pixels for what you are doing now but Z6III is expected to be 33 mp and more mp is always good for birding as the more megapixels you can get on the bird the sharper the feathers. While the Z9 AF in a Z6III body is the best advantage of waiting for a Z6III any increased megapixels could be helpful. Z6 works and AF is improved with firmware updates but Z6II focus is noticeably faster because it has two processors. It also has two card slots. Another option, not yet available is a top of the line Z90 mirrorless crop sensor body to replace the excellent D500 and pair with the Z9 like the D500 and D5 did. No one yet knows if such a body will appear. Hopefully, it will. Since Nikon says it will not produce any more 24 mp bodies a Z90 may well be a 33 mp crop sensor which would give even more pixels on the bird and make your tele zoom even more powerful. I have no experience with the Zfc. A minimum requirement should be a body with animal AF and fast focus speed. I should add that I don't do bird photography so am just commenting based on general information and not personal experience shooting birds. The last time I shot birds was with a D500 and most were roosting. Here are some examples of birds I took over the years with different Nikon bodies and lenses. Click through on flickr to see the original full size.

Common gull - Nikon 1 J4 with 10mm lens




Black-capped Chickadee in ice storm - Nikon 1 V2 body and 30-110 zoom lens




Immature bald eagle - D750 and Nikon's 200-500 zoom at 1/1250 sec.




Male and female red headed house finches - D800 and Nikon 300mm f4 lens




Red Cardinal in snowstorm - D500 and Nikon 200-500 lens




Egret with young - D500 with Nikon 70-200 f4 zoom.




Flying egret - D500 with Nikon 70-200 f4 zoom at 1/6400 sec

Pistnbroke

Good points . I could just stash the money where the wife can't see it and wait for an improved Z body.

photobunny

The Z6ii and Z7ii are 2 years old now and based on that same 4 year old chip that was asked way to much of. The Expeed 7 is 12x faster than dual Expeed 6 so even if the lowest end bodies get a cut down chip with half the cores disabled, it is still markably more capable and will give you things like improved AF, but also improved battery life. The next second generation Z bodies are going to be worth the wait and quite special in my opinion.

donaldejose

Pistnbroke

With improved bodies the price of the old F drops even more so I think its time to move and sell and think about waiting once its all gone.

Ton14

The Z6 is no longer for sale in the big shops here, or the delivery time is unknown. At Nikon.NL it says : Not in Stock", My Z6 still works like new and is almost 4 years old now. I bought the Nikon Z, FTZ adapter and 64gb XQD card at the end of 2018 for €2050.-.

The current prices right now, Nikon Z6 Body €1499.-, FTZ adapter €218.-, Sony XQD card €128.- Total €1845.-. Although it is still a great camera I would not buy the 1st version. The Z6 II and 7II are of course great cameras, but the Z6 II body is €2349.- and all prices are periodically going up now and of course you don't buy XQD cards anymore but CFexpress.

Note: the total amount of my lenses went up €3000.- from end 2021 till now, but that is because of the insane world we live in at the moment.

I would totally pick what I want and wait for a deal on "black friday" in November.

My 70-200mm f/4 with FTZ works perfectly on the Z6, I kept that, but for all other lenses I bought the native Z lenses.

The macro 105 f/2.8 S is unbelievably good and can be used for everything. The 24-120 f/4 S is an excellent pro lens for everyday use, skip the 24-70mm f/4 S, or buy it dirt cheap 2nd hand or bulk version. From the f/1.8 prime lenses you get an image quality that stands out above everything else.

To go out very light I always have the 24-50 f/4.5-f/6.3 on the Z6, price now for the 24-50mm is between €400.- and €500.-, but I would buy the "bulk version". In normal light this combo makes great pictures.
In my small Peak Design bag, I have some stuff, the 40mm f/2.8, the 28mm f/2.8, for darker circumstances and 3 small round Rollei LED lights (which were discounted from €99.- to €29.-, further I catch myself, that I more often have the Z6 with the 24-120mm f/4 S on my belt.

On my wish list the 400mm or the 100-400mm.

This is what I build up in the last 4 years, hope it is some help.

Ton14

Oh forgot to mention, I only go for a DX body when it comes with IBIS, because IBIS is the best camera improvement by far for me.

ggbutcher

Ton14 said:

Oh forgot to mention, I only go for a DX body when it comes with IBIS, because IBIS is the best camera improvement by far for me.

I love my Z 6. Mainly for the increased dynamic range over the D7000 (one might say, that was like beating my thumb with a hammer - felt good when I stopped.. ), but IBIS has also been a boon. I can hand-hold down to 1/10sec, and hand-hold the 70-300 at normal shutter speeds, all with confidence I'll not get a blurry photo. You don't have to hold the camera rigid-still, just make the movement small enough to fit in the IBIS control bounds...

donaldejose

I am 75, IBIS is an old man's best friend. LOL

Pistnbroke

If you are moving from a D7000 anything will be an improvement but moving from D850 its not so easy. My best bird pictures at present come from a D7200 and 100-400....Light and reasonable reach hence thinking of keeping the lens and changing the body.

Ton14

donaldejose said:

I am 75, IBIS is an old man's best friend. LOL

Yeah, 80 here.
@Pistnbroke, I moved from the D810 and your biggest problem is to get use to the new camera. Keep that lens and change the body, is a good one.

Pistnbroke

This is not going well.. Sent only my D810 and a 28-300 to WEX all boxes with instruction books etc.
Not only did they offer me hundreds less after "inspection" but wanted me to pay for a repair to the D810 before I got the silly price . The lens was full of dust ( ? ) and a grey import despite the markings on the box.
I had used both at a wedding a week ago with perfect results so its all coming back and I am rethinking. They are not on my happy list.

photobunny

Pistnbroke said:

This is not going well.. Sent only my D810 and a 28-300 to WEX all boxes with instruction books etc.
Not only did they offer me hundreds less after "inspection" but wanted me to pay for a repair to the D810 before I got the silly price . The lens was full of dust ( ? ) and a grey import despite the markings on the box.
I had used both at a wedding a week ago with perfect results so its all coming back and I am rethinking. They are not on my happy list.

Try https://www.mpb.com/ instead, they have always gave me a good price. Not as much as selling on eBay myself, but a good price that meant eBay wasn't worth the extra effort.

Pistnbroke

I have sent all my FX F mount stuff off and when I get a price will decide what to do.
Problem is you dont get the same quality with 24 mp DX as you do with FX unless you have the best lenses ...the samyang 14mm has spoilt me for quality images.

Pistnbroke

Well this is getting worse ..Sent two cameas and two lenses to trade and they valued the D810 at £0 and a 28-300 at £0 ..both in use two weeks ago at my daughter's wedding and gave better sharper pictures than the moron of a pro.
So it illustrates time to get shot and probably via ebay

mhedges

Wow what was their excuse for giving them no value?

spraynpray

Likelyhood of selling it based on the stock they've got I expect.

Pistnbroke

This is the second lot I have sent it to and they both came up with different non matching excuses for downing the price . I will check what they say against the goods when they return tomorrow.

spraynpray

Pistnbroke said:

This is the second lot I have sent it to and they both came up with different non matching excuses for downing the price . I will check what they say against the goods when they return tomorrow.

My point is that mirrorless is the newest thing and demand for old stuff is probably very low. I expect they have loads. it is not a good business model to payout cash for stuff that won't sell.

Pistnbroke

And its not good policy to hold on to stuff the value of which is dropping fast ..get out !

dissent

Pistnbroke said:

And its not good policy to hold on to stuff the value of which is dropping fast ..get out !

I can see the merit of this, but I also am invested in the F bodies and lenses, and at my age (66) I have trouble seeing why I should dump them just to go mirrorless because that's the new "thing". It's not a business financial decision for me; I do this for fun. Sure I could get great images, but I'm getting nice images now and I don't know how much longer I'll be doing any of this. Lower weight could be a factor, but for me that's only in certain applications, so I can get by fine with what I have.

One of my issues is sports shooting in lower light situations, so I could use a body that has cleaner high ISO at the needed higher shutter speeds. What are the best Nikon bodies for that, either F or Z mount?

edit: and since I can't remember how to edit my sig text, my current equipment list also includes a D500 and D7200 body - so that's where I am, sensor-wise.

mhedges

If you want better low light performance then FF is really the only way to go. It gives very noticeable improvements over DX in my experience.

As far as which FF camera - that's a bit of a trickier proposition. Honestly, I'd probably wait for the Z6III and see how it is. I do OK with the OG Z6 but I can't really recommend it as a sports camera. And to me it's hard to recommend any of the current F mount cameras either - D850 is good for AF but not as good for low light. D780 is decent but overpriced IMO. D6 is of course great but $$$

Pistnbroke

I have 4 bodies and intend to keep the two D7200 with Tamron 100-400 as this is giving me the best bird photos I ever took. better than D850. But I dont need the two FX bodies with 28-300 lenses. Then I think we wait to see what nikon comes up with next.