Clovishound
Senior Member
I've only had 4 outings with the Z8. Actually 3, it never came out of the bag at the beach. New, expensive camera, salt and fine sand. 
First of all, this thing is a beast! I was surprised it wasn't the same form factor as the Z7ii. Bigger, heavier, although that's not a problem for me.
You can customize this thing 6 ways to Sunday. Nearly every button can be reprogrammed. I just changed a few, until I get some more experience with it.
AF tracking is great. Even using my old 200-500 with an FTZ, this does a very good job of tracking moving birds. Static subjects are really spot on, unless there is some grass or branches in the way. I took a fair number of BIF shots Sunday, and was very pleased with it's performance. It wasn't 100%, but a huge upgrade for me. Perhaps a good native mount long tele would do better, but I'm quite happy with it and my old lens for the moment.
Lots to learn. It was rainy yesterday and I spent some time going through the menus and changing a few settings. Lots more options that I was used to. There are a lot of features that sound intriguing, but will have to wait for a while to explore. Things like precapture, pixel shift, high fps (120 fps is insane, even with JPG).
20 fps eats up a lot of images. Right now, I don't want to miss anything, so I'm putting up with the large number of shots I'm taking in a short time. I either need to learn how to have a lighter touch on the shutter when I only want one, or figure out a button to program to easily change between single and continuous release. I know, there is a button labeled for that on the left top of the camera, but that one seems a little awkward for a really quick change. I'll worry about that later.
I absolutely love the sensor cover. I hate having the sensor exposed during lens changes on my previous mirrorless cameras. This rather neatly takes care of the problem. Not saying I'll never need to clean the sensor, but it should drastically cut down on foreign materials on the sensor. Now I just have to remember to turn the camera off before changing lenses. That's a good habit anyway, especially with VR lenses.
In case you haven't gathered, I'm quite pleased with my new camera so far. From what I can ascertain, it is pretty much a Z9 with a smaller form factor, and less batteries.
First of all, this thing is a beast! I was surprised it wasn't the same form factor as the Z7ii. Bigger, heavier, although that's not a problem for me.
You can customize this thing 6 ways to Sunday. Nearly every button can be reprogrammed. I just changed a few, until I get some more experience with it.
AF tracking is great. Even using my old 200-500 with an FTZ, this does a very good job of tracking moving birds. Static subjects are really spot on, unless there is some grass or branches in the way. I took a fair number of BIF shots Sunday, and was very pleased with it's performance. It wasn't 100%, but a huge upgrade for me. Perhaps a good native mount long tele would do better, but I'm quite happy with it and my old lens for the moment.
Lots to learn. It was rainy yesterday and I spent some time going through the menus and changing a few settings. Lots more options that I was used to. There are a lot of features that sound intriguing, but will have to wait for a while to explore. Things like precapture, pixel shift, high fps (120 fps is insane, even with JPG).
20 fps eats up a lot of images. Right now, I don't want to miss anything, so I'm putting up with the large number of shots I'm taking in a short time. I either need to learn how to have a lighter touch on the shutter when I only want one, or figure out a button to program to easily change between single and continuous release. I know, there is a button labeled for that on the left top of the camera, but that one seems a little awkward for a really quick change. I'll worry about that later.
I absolutely love the sensor cover. I hate having the sensor exposed during lens changes on my previous mirrorless cameras. This rather neatly takes care of the problem. Not saying I'll never need to clean the sensor, but it should drastically cut down on foreign materials on the sensor. Now I just have to remember to turn the camera off before changing lenses. That's a good habit anyway, especially with VR lenses.
In case you haven't gathered, I'm quite pleased with my new camera so far. From what I can ascertain, it is pretty much a Z9 with a smaller form factor, and less batteries.
