BackdoorArts
Senior Member
I've often made the argument as to why I couldn't see myself switching from Nikon to anything else, and I woke up yesterday feeling the same way. I went to sleep with a completely different mindset.
Setting the stage, I shoot wildlife 90% of the time, primarily with a pair of D500s and 300mm & 500mm PF's among others. I added a Z6ii to start the transition to mirrorless, replacing my D750 and D610. The Z6ii is great for everything but wildlife for me, speaking primarily about birds in flight and things where I need high frame rates. I figured that when I bought it and I'm happy to use the D500's until Nikon comes up with a mirrorless replacement.
That is until yesterday when I had the opportunity to play with an R5, the RF 100-500mm f4.5-7.1, and an 800mm f11 IS STM.
First off, shooting with the R5 showed me just how far behind Nikon is in mirrorless tech. I got to play with an R6 as well and for the first time I regretted buying the Z6ii. Focus tech is a couple notches above Nikon. You don't lose the viewfinder as you shoot, even at 20fps. I know Nikon will get there eventually, but the gap I'm seeing leads me to believe they may never catch up, and the price points are close enough that they can't be used to justify one over the other - in fact you have to ask why the Nikons are so close in price but not performance?
Now to the lenses. The 100-500mm is a wildlife and sports photographer's dream lens, and while it's not super fast from an aperture perspective, given than I've been shooting with a 300mm f4 and a 500mm f5.6, usually stopped down a touch, I'm not losing a lot for all that flexibility I'm gaining. Oh, and it weighs in at 100g lighter than the 500mm and costs $900 less. Crisp, sharp, with great optical stabilization. But the real surprise was the 800mm f11. Yeah, I know, you're saying , "Who would want something that slow?!" Well, when you consider it weighs 2.77lbs and is shorter (in its storage configuration) than the 500mm PF I would say, "Just about anyone hiking out into the wild who doesn't want to carry pounds of gear and a tripod." The lens has a retractable barrel at the mount end that shortens it for transport and then extends it to about 5-6" longer than the 500mm PF when shooting. The weight is nothing, so even fully extended you can hold the camera by the body only and not feel like the lens is in any way pulling on the mount. The quality is extremely good when you consider this will only hit your wallet for $899, and the image stabilization was so good that I could shoot at 1/100s handheld sitting with my elbows on my knees. The high minimum aperture means that you can only focus in the center part of the viewfinder, but that's an incredibly small price to pay if you consider what it adds to your range - and if you're shooting it in cropped mode on an R5 that's almost full frame!!
So I've been thinking about them ever since. For the price of the 500mm PF I can get both lenses and sooooo much more flexibility. The R5 is a few hundred more than the Z7ii, but it has none of the barriers to wildlife shooting that the Z's currently have. I know Nikon may get there eventually, but my mirrorless journey is currently one body and one lens (24-200mm), and I am not sure I want to wait, even with the rumored 200-600mm, because the cameras aren't ready to use them. When I consider where both companies are now, both tech and financially, if I'm gonna change I don't think I'll find a better excuse. And if I act rationally I can likely replace the 3 bodies and mostly F mount lenses I have with the perfect kit for what I will really use moving forward and not really "lose" money.
Yeah, I know. I never thought I'd get a divorce just because I felt like I'm "trading up", but given that no vows were ever spoken here I may just need to start making separation plans.
Setting the stage, I shoot wildlife 90% of the time, primarily with a pair of D500s and 300mm & 500mm PF's among others. I added a Z6ii to start the transition to mirrorless, replacing my D750 and D610. The Z6ii is great for everything but wildlife for me, speaking primarily about birds in flight and things where I need high frame rates. I figured that when I bought it and I'm happy to use the D500's until Nikon comes up with a mirrorless replacement.
That is until yesterday when I had the opportunity to play with an R5, the RF 100-500mm f4.5-7.1, and an 800mm f11 IS STM.
First off, shooting with the R5 showed me just how far behind Nikon is in mirrorless tech. I got to play with an R6 as well and for the first time I regretted buying the Z6ii. Focus tech is a couple notches above Nikon. You don't lose the viewfinder as you shoot, even at 20fps. I know Nikon will get there eventually, but the gap I'm seeing leads me to believe they may never catch up, and the price points are close enough that they can't be used to justify one over the other - in fact you have to ask why the Nikons are so close in price but not performance?
Now to the lenses. The 100-500mm is a wildlife and sports photographer's dream lens, and while it's not super fast from an aperture perspective, given than I've been shooting with a 300mm f4 and a 500mm f5.6, usually stopped down a touch, I'm not losing a lot for all that flexibility I'm gaining. Oh, and it weighs in at 100g lighter than the 500mm and costs $900 less. Crisp, sharp, with great optical stabilization. But the real surprise was the 800mm f11. Yeah, I know, you're saying , "Who would want something that slow?!" Well, when you consider it weighs 2.77lbs and is shorter (in its storage configuration) than the 500mm PF I would say, "Just about anyone hiking out into the wild who doesn't want to carry pounds of gear and a tripod." The lens has a retractable barrel at the mount end that shortens it for transport and then extends it to about 5-6" longer than the 500mm PF when shooting. The weight is nothing, so even fully extended you can hold the camera by the body only and not feel like the lens is in any way pulling on the mount. The quality is extremely good when you consider this will only hit your wallet for $899, and the image stabilization was so good that I could shoot at 1/100s handheld sitting with my elbows on my knees. The high minimum aperture means that you can only focus in the center part of the viewfinder, but that's an incredibly small price to pay if you consider what it adds to your range - and if you're shooting it in cropped mode on an R5 that's almost full frame!!
So I've been thinking about them ever since. For the price of the 500mm PF I can get both lenses and sooooo much more flexibility. The R5 is a few hundred more than the Z7ii, but it has none of the barriers to wildlife shooting that the Z's currently have. I know Nikon may get there eventually, but my mirrorless journey is currently one body and one lens (24-200mm), and I am not sure I want to wait, even with the rumored 200-600mm, because the cameras aren't ready to use them. When I consider where both companies are now, both tech and financially, if I'm gonna change I don't think I'll find a better excuse. And if I act rationally I can likely replace the 3 bodies and mostly F mount lenses I have with the perfect kit for what I will really use moving forward and not really "lose" money.
Yeah, I know. I never thought I'd get a divorce just because I felt like I'm "trading up", but given that no vows were ever spoken here I may just need to start making separation plans.