Dieter Schaefer

Z9, 500PF, Pacific Brown Pelican on approach

+1 I think the 24-200 is nice as a walk-about lens but not as suitable as the 24-120 for your intended use. Like you, I do have the 24-70/4. I knew I would find 70mm too short for the long end but I just wanted a Z-mount lens to hang in front of the Z9 for occasional use; found a good deal on a 24-70/4 and didn't want to cover the expense for the 24-120. I like that Sony just came out with a 20-70/4; still short on the long end but substantially wider at the short end than your standard 24-xx(x) fare. I am actually considering the Tamron 20-40/2.8 instead of purchasing a 20mm prime; Sony threw me a bit of a curve ball with the 20-70/4. F/2.8 in the end might be the decisive factor.

Basic Guidelines: In the strictest sense, nature photography should not include "hand of man elements". Please refrain from images with buildings or human made structures like roads, fences, walls. Pets are not permitted. Captive subjects in zoos, arboretums, or aquariums are permitted, but must be declared, and must focus on the subject, not the captivity. Images with obvious human made elements will likely be deleted from the thread, with an explanation to the photographer. Guidelines are based on PSA rules governing Nature photography which also cover the Nature Forum. Keep your image at/under 1000 pixels on the long axis for in-line viewing. Note that this includes photos hosted off-site at Flicker, Photobucket, your own site, etc. Each member please post no more than just one image to this weekly thread per week. If the information is available, many members appreciate information on your approach to making the image and the names, both common and scientific, of the subject(s). However, while encouraged, these are not required as a component of your contributions. Pacific Brown Pelican, portrait in flight.

This is the additional weekly image thread for the Nature Forum. While images posted to this thread should still be nature in theme, it may contain a small amount of human-made objects and therefore less restricted than the Monday in Nature threads. Please see this discussion for more details: Alternative weekly thread in Nature forum Each participant please post no more than just one image per weekly thread. Many members will appreciate any information you are willing or able to provide regarding location, shooting process, exposure settings, equipment, and information on the subject(s), including scientific and/or common names. American White Pelican

I'd prefer that kind of lighting as it eliminates the often quite distracting background from the images better than the usual attempt to blur it substantially with the use of a large aperture to create a shallow DOF.

Z9, 500PF Brandt's Cormorant Double-crested Cormorant Interference

As I wrote above, for HE*, the identifier would be wrong and also the file size too large. It sure is. If my camera would change file formats mid-burst from a format my preferred image editor can read to one that it cannot, I'd contact Nikon and not adobe or DxO. The issue is clearly with the camera doing something it is not supposed to do - change file formats without my input. The additional issue here is that it appears to change to format to one that the Z9 supposedly does not have: uncompressed RAW. Evidence for that is the fact that NX Studio gives a format identification that is not one of the options the user can select on the Z9: compressed lossless RAW, HE* and HE.

I use HE* (which NX Studio shows as "High-Efficiency, Quality-Priority (14-bit)"); they are generally between 29 and 33 MB in size (less than half the size of your lossless compressed RAW files). By comparison, my D850 uncompressed RAW files are generally in the 55 MB range - which makes me wonder why your Z9 files are some 20+ MB larger. I don't have the Z9 available right now, so I can't check other RAW format file sizes. +1 Glitch in the matrix - would definitely contact Nikon to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Went over the images the first time and ended up deleting about 1/2 of them; further passes will likely reduce this by 1/2 again. I processed some 440 images so far - which is a 1.6% keeper rate of the original bounty.

Basic Guidelines: In the strictest sense, nature photography should not include "hand of man elements". Please refrain from images with buildings or human made structures like roads, fences, walls. Pets are not permitted. Captive subjects in zoos, arboretums, or aquariums are permitted, but must be declared, and must focus on the subject, not the captivity. Images with obvious human made elements will likely be deleted from the thread, with an explanation to the photographer. Guidelines are based on PSA rules governing Nature photography which also cover the Nature Forum. Keep your image at/under 1000 pixels on the long axis for in-line viewing. Note that this includes photos hosted off-site at Flicker, Photobucket, your own site, etc. Each member please post no more than just one image to this weekly thread per week. If the information is available, many members appreciate information on your approach to making the image and the names, both common and scientific, of the subject(s). However, while encouraged, these are not required as a component of your contributions. Pacific Brown Pelican. Choosing the right place to be at La Jolla Cove and pelicans will fly right at you. They will land below your position though - but with luck, they will look up and straight at you. I cropped this one into a panoramic image keeping the original width and just taking off the top and bottom.

Looks like a sparrow to me.

I haven't paid particular attention to the difference in background rendering between the 500PF and the 200-500 (mostly used at the longest focal length setting); both have the same maximum aperture of f/5.6 and hence DOF effects are eliminated. I shoot the 500PF mostly wide open and usually had the 200-500 1/3 or 2/3 stops away from maximum. OOF specular highlights with the 200-500 have a lot of internal structure too and hence are equally distracting as those rendered by the 500PF. The AF-S 80-400 seems to render a bit smoother but I have pretty much given up on using that lens as - especially towards the longer focal length - it is not as sharp as the 200-500 or the 500PF. I have not used the 200-500 at La Jolla even though a zoom would come in very handy at that location. It's just that I can't turn the zoom ring of the 200-500 fast enough to adjust the focal length while panning with a bird in flight; the angle of rotation to go from maximum to minimum focal length is just too large and requires to change ones grip on the lens at least once. At La Jolla, focal lengths from 80 to 800 mm can be used and are useful; even having 1200mm can come in handy on occasion. I hope Nikon's Z-mount 200-600 will function similarly to the Sony one and have IF and a short throw for changing focal lengths. Maybe it even comes with a PF element which would be more than welcome to keep the size and weight down - but would certainly drive the price point up.

Correct assumption. I doubt any conventional super-tele lens would have made that background pretty. Rendered differently, yes. But still distracting.

This is the additional weekly image thread for the Nature Forum. While images posted to this thread should still be nature in theme, it may contain a small amount of human-made objects and therefore less restricted than the Monday in Nature threads. Please see this discussion for more details: Alternative weekly thread in Nature forum Each participant please post no more than just one image per weekly thread. Many members will appreciate any information you are willing or able to provide regarding location, shooting process, exposure settings, equipment, and information on the subject(s), including scientific and/or common names. Pacific Brown Pelican over La Jolla Bay. When the light's nice and in your favor but the background is definitely not. At this particular location (Goldfish Point) facing East yields a lot of "hand of man" in the background. Lots of pelicans and cormorants with very easy access along La Jolla Cove. But just like other places in California that I am familiar with, one finds oneself often on higher ground than the birds. Also, there's no access to some prime shooting locations. Some of the good ones though has one facing the ocean which often yields a very nice background. And with wind from a favorable direction, bird-in-flight photography is supreme.

Z9, 300PF

Basic Guidelines: In the strictest sense, nature photography should not include "hand of man elements". Please refrain from images with buildings or human made structures like roads, fences, walls. Pets are not permitted. Captive subjects in zoos, arboretums, or aquariums are permitted, but must be declared, and must focus on the subject, not the captivity. Images with obvious human made elements will likely be deleted from the thread, with an explanation to the photographer. Guidelines are based on PSA rules governing Nature photography which also cover the Nature Forum. Keep your image at/under 1000 pixels on the long axis for in-line viewing. Note that this includes photos hosted off-site at Flicker, Photobucket, your own site, etc. Each member please post no more than just one image to this weekly thread per week. If the information is available, many members appreciate information on your approach to making the image and the names, both common and scientific, of the subject(s). However, while encouraged, these are not required as a component of your contributions. Double-Crested Cormorant

Not sure how "keeper rate" is defined here. I came back from my recent trip to La Jolla with some 26,000 shots and am currently culling them down. On account of using 10 or even 20 fps, I have many duplicates that are all in focus (not always the case with the D500/D850) and have hence the luxury to choose. Based on that, my "keeper rate" has gone up. Nonetheless, after culling I might end up with 10% or less images I am going to keep. This was my first time using the Z9 in earnest and many missed shots were due to operator error.

Same here. Used the D850 for a few shots on a recent trip to La Jolla and packed it away when I realized how much louder it was compared to the Z9 and how much better the Z9 performed. The Z9 pretty much already has for me - at least when it comes down to wildlife photography. Keeping the DSLRs for other photography though - mostly because there isn't much money to be had from selling them off.

On the D850, I was mostly using the GRP AF mode as 3D was too easily distracted. The AF performance of the Z9 is a lot better; tracking, even with twigs etc getting in the way is as sticky as can be expected. I always felt the D500 was just a tad better at tracking (again, mostly GRP AF mode). On the Z9, I am using Wide L AF and hand it over to 3D once the subject detection has identified a face or eye. I will be experimenting with using Auto instead of Wide L soon. Mine has some trouble with the 1st image (most likely I have set the camera differently from yours) but once the subject is acquired, tracking is very very good - though in long burst following a subject over some distance, a few drop-outs occur (but almost every time, the camera re-acquires focus and continues to track). My Z9 also sometimes needs to be persuaded to focus on something very close when the lens is at or near infinity.

This is the additional weekly image thread for the Nature Forum. While images posted to this thread should still be nature in theme, it may contain a small amount of human-made objects and therefore less restricted than the Monday in Nature threads. Please see this discussion for more details: Alternative weekly thread in Nature forum Each participant please post no more than just one image per weekly thread. Many members will appreciate any information you are willing or able to provide regarding location, shooting process, exposure settings, equipment, and information on the subject(s), including scientific and/or common names. Western Scrub Jay

Z9, 500PF

For avian photography, I have no easily accessible function button to spare for this. Fn1 and Fn3 are to switch to 3D AF (my default currently is Wide AF Large; I will experiment with Auto); Fn2 is set to Custom AF area with 1x1 pixel (the advantage over single point is that the Custom AF is part of the Wide AF group and does track). Fn1 and Fn3 are set identical for landscape and portrait orientation. DISP is used to engage/disengage subject detection and the joystick is set to give me AF-ON with 3D AF. AF-ON, of course, is set for Back-Button Focus. All other function buttons aren't easily reachable without taking the camera down. Sure is. Especially with birds but also with people I don't mind having a short burst of similar images - had many instances were a single shot just caught the subject with their eyes closed or blinking.

Came when they introduced the C30/C120 option.

Sea lion, La Jolla Cove