mike_halliwell Posted November 25, 2020 Share Posted November 25, 2020 Neutral question here..(!) Is any current mirrorless camera's AF as good as the D500? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick D. Posted November 25, 2020 Share Posted November 25, 2020 Remember when Nikon prided itself on "never" abandoning it's base by changing their mount, unlike Olympus, Pentax, Canon, etc. who felt they needed to modernize for the coming AF revolution. Now I'm locked into the disappearing D mount lenses if I want things to operate properly on my two old Nikons. No such thing as D mount, it was always F mount and last time I was in the store anything you want in F mount, was available. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick D. Posted November 25, 2020 Share Posted November 25, 2020 That's very insulting. Ilkka he just trolling, he never said why exactly Nikon impending his photography, probably lack of "pulitzer prize" mod on dial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanford Posted November 25, 2020 Share Posted November 25, 2020 No such thing as D mount I meant the "D" variation "F" mount lenses. No more stores around here for used stuff, and we had some good ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilkka_nissila Posted November 25, 2020 Share Posted November 25, 2020 (edited) Neutral question here..(!) Is any current mirrorless camera's AF as good as the D500? I don't usually speculate on cameras that I don't use but I'll give it a go based on reading other people's comments. I believe the Sony A9 and A9 II and Canon R5 are considered the state-of-the-art in mirrorless autofocus and while I have not used these cameras myself, my reading of the comments by several people who have used both is * initial subject acquisition when the subject is at first really out of focus can be faster in DSLR (such as D500, D5, D850 or D6); sometimes one needs to manually assist the mirrorless to pick up a far out-of-focus subject where the DSLR drives it into focus instantly (given fast enough lens, i.e. not f/8 which I've myself found to have problems with this) * once focus is achieved, the A9 (II) and R5 stick to it like glue and achieve a higher consistency of focus in a sequence than DSLRs. R5 can see animal eyes from greater distance but A9 (II) can track fast-moving subjects more easily * A9 and A9 II maintain a blackout-free viewfinder so keeping the subject in the frame during burst shooting is easier * D6 may pick up focus better when photographing dark subject in dim light than the A9 II (Steve Perry's comment on black bear photography); D500 may not be quite as good as D6 but should be close * mirrorless cameras focus better with lenses that have maximum aperture of f/8 or smaller. Hence now Canon are launching f/7.1 and f/11 maximum aperture lenses. However, the A9 II is a 24MP full-frame camera and so you don't get the same pixel density as you can with the Nikon D500. R5 sort of gives everything in one ... but may show some glitches (which some say can be related to CFexpress card problems, but it's not clear if this resolves all the issues) and if battery is not full, or with some older lenses, fps rate may fall. If you really want to replace your Nikon system with another brand's mirrorless, you could take a look at the Canon R5 and Sony A9 or A9 II. However, this basically means getting all-new lenses. There are now some rumors about two new Nikon DSLRs to be launched in 2021; if these materialize, one or both might use the D6 AF system which is at another level especially for sports photography (less so for wildlife since there is no animal face or eye detection). With the D6, you can define the size and (rectangular) shape of the focus point sub-array which is used for group-area AF, and if you turn on face detection for group area, it'll basically focus on the closest face within the defined region, and if it can't really see a face, it'll focus on the closest subject within that region. This works wonderfully well for figure skating. For birds in flight, I find it also useful (with face-detection turned off) but without the face-detection features it's just focusing on the closest part of the subject within the defined rectangle (which you can adjust). It works well but sometimes the closest part is not what you want to focus on, so then you're back at using some of the other modes such as dynamic-area AF. Low-light focusing is also improved using the center point particularly. Edited November 25, 2020 by ilkka_nissila Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petrochemist Posted November 25, 2020 Share Posted November 25, 2020 Remember when Nikon prided itself on "never" abandoning it's base by changing their mount, unlike Olympus, Pentax, Canon, etc. who felt they needed to modernize for the coming AF revolution. Now I'm locked into the disappearing D mount lenses if I want things to operate properly on my two old Nikons. Pentax's mount is actually more backwards compatible than the F mount. Yes there are added features, but all PK lenses work on my Pentax DSLRs, supporting AF if the lens has it. Not only that but the bayonet mount was designed to be compatible with the earlier screw thread M42 lenses just needing a simple in the mount adapter (same mounting flange used) Nikon users make a big thing of their backwards compatibility, then it turns out using pre AI lenses dosen't work - and the wrong combination of lens/body can apparently even damage kit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c_watson1 Posted November 25, 2020 Author Share Posted November 25, 2020 I have also read about Canon 5D's dropping mirrors, the 1D X II and III accumulating a lot of sensor dust / oil specs (I have only needed to clean my D5 sensor a few times in 140000 frames), and now users are reporting the Canon R5 to occasionally hang in use, requiring e.g. taking out the battery and reinserting it in some cases. Jim Kasson has long been reporting that the Fuji medium format cameras lenses don't maintain focus consistently so even when the lens focus should not be changing, it can jump a bit, resulting in variable sharpness of his test shots. It's not like other manufacturers don't have issues. In recent years I've found Nikon have dealt with issues very well, but I realize this may be region-dependent. Nice pivot but we're talking Nikon. Kasson isn't gospel and the only issue I've noted is AF speed with Fujinon GF lenses--still quicker than Hassie and PhaseOne. Region dependent service issues? Try N. America(Canada+USA)--Nikon's biggest market, no? That's where Nikon blew it with the D600. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c_watson1 Posted November 25, 2020 Author Share Posted November 25, 2020 I don't usually speculate on cameras that I don't use but I'll give it a go based on reading other people's comments. Maybe you should have stopped there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick D. Posted November 25, 2020 Share Posted November 25, 2020 I don't usually speculate on cameras that I don't use but I'll give it a go based on reading other people's comments. Maybe you should have stopped there? What exactly you can't do with current Nikon line up? It is simple question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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