Anyone using Nikon Z8 for wildlife here?

[gvallee]

I just received my Nikon Z8. I was very happy with a quick initial test with regards to sharpness but mostly focusing speed.

 

I downloaded the Nikon manual specifically for wildlife and birds in particular. I followed the settings recommendations for bird photography. Namely:

AF-focus area: 3D tracking

ISO Sensitivity: Auto ISO

Set picture control: Standard.

 

I also set maximum ISO 12,500.

 

Today I shot a series of birds flying in front of their mud nest against a wall in the shade. I was surprised to see the results:  all shots at ISO 12,500, f/52!!, resulting in a shutter speed way too slow. All pics were binned.

 

Anyone else using z8 for wildlife?

 

 

 

 

[Steve F]

Sorry, can't help Gen. What was the shutter speed and ISO you ended up with?

 

Auto ISO probably setting ISO too low at a guess.

[gvallee]

6 minutes ago, Steve F said:

Sorry, can't help Gen. What was the shutter speed and ISO you ended up with?

 

Auto ISO probably setting ISO too low at a guess.

 

All pics were ISO 12,500. Shutter speed around 1/150th. Why o why f/52!

 

Sorry, I am in the Bush in the dark and have to disconnect Starlink now. Thank you for chipping in.

 

[Steve F]

Wow. Didn't know lenses went to F52! So not auto ISO, but set to 12,500?

 

You've got a lot of experience Gen, maybe ignore the instructions and just go with aperture priority mode and get some test shots of magpies or something else that's very common. Annoying you had to bin a whole shoot, you have my sympathies!

[MDM]

Why use Auto ISO at all? You are allowing the camera to decide something the photographer should be deciding. You lose control over the noise level and dynamic range by using Auto ISO. The Z8 has dual gain ISO so you are best to shoot at ISO64 or ISO500 (2nd native ISO) if possible. It is not ISO invariant. I have no idea why Nikon would recommend this setting but I would ignore it. That is non-sensical to me. Also perhaps you were in Program mode. Why professional cameras still have a P mode beats me and it is usually the default setting. 
 

I prefer to use manual exposure mode almost always unless shooting in rapidly changing light. If I was using auto anything for wildlife, I would use shutter priority and allow the camera to choose the aperture. Choose your ISO depending on the light levels but preferably stick with the second native ISO of 500 if going to high ISO. If you can’t do that, you have Adobe Denoise anyway. Check it out if you have never used it 

 

Enjoy the Z8. You will get over the teething problems in no time. If coming from a D4 which I recall you mentioned before, you need to get used to the much larger MP size sensor. 

[Mr Standfast]

 

1 hour ago, Steve F said:

59 minutes ago, Steve F said:

Didn't know lenses went to F52!

 

 

Oh yes....

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_f/64

 

Not on my list of action photographers though. 😉

 

[Mr Standfast]

40 minutes ago, MDM said:

 

 teething problems

 

 

Nail on the head. 🙂

 

 

 

 

[IKuzmin]

Hi Gen. I am not a frequent poster here anymore but seems that I can answer your question based at least on 1.5 year experience using Z8. And I first wrote a long text but now deleted most of it. So, long in short, I’ve been very much pissed off with the AF, compared to Canons, even my old ones. It is fast but not as “intelligent” as I used to have in Canons. When Nikon updated FW to version 2, some folks said that for birds it became “almost Canon-like” so, hopefully, next FW updates would improve it again, particularly to non-bird critters which the camera often does not recognize even as objects, not mention focusing on their eyes.

 

Then, I never use auto ISO, just the manual within 3200, and aperture priority, the common old style. I think you can go up to 6400 but I used this in some tests only, and they were acceptable (after use Denoise on ACR or Topaz apps).

 

As for the AF modes, I jump between the 3D, point, large area, and small area having them all circling on a button next to the shutter release.

 

Also the camera feels flimsy and behaves flimsy compared to many Canon bodies, I lost lugs and eyeclip ring during a year, what a mess... And the electronic shutter leaves so much dust on the sensor when I replace lenses in the field, even with the shield closing at camera shut-down that I need to clean it at least with a brush every ~month.

Edited October 18 by IKuzmin

[sb photos]

1 hour ago, Mr Standfast said:

 

 

Oh yes....

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_f/64

 

Not on my list of action photographers though. 😉

 

 

I have a few lenses that stop down to F64, they belong to my Toyo 45a 4x5 field camera kit. Haven't used it for a long long time, although I still regularly cock and fire the shutters. Used to shoot with the F32 UK based group, now long gone.

[Michael Ventura]

So envious Gen! I would love to try one out.  I don't shoot wildlife but I have heard great things about the focusing system.

 

[MDM]

 

Well now that Gen’s question has been answered so concisely and knowledgeably: summary - should have bought a Canon BLA BLA BLA BLA, flimsy BLA BLA BLA BLA, use as a door stop BLA BLA BLA BLA. 
 

But just in case Gen decides to keep her Z8, here is some advice on getting started that might be useful.  There is a control on the top left which replaces the PASM dial on most Nikon cameras. One of the buttons says Mode. Hold that down and use the main command dial to take the camera off P mode, anything but P mode. Then hold the ISO button and use the sub-command dial on the front to take it off Auto ISO. At that point you are ready to begin enjoying the camera, which in my opinion is the best camera Nikon have ever produced and extremely good value in comparison to the offerings from competitors. 

Edited October 18 by MDM

[Sally Robertson]

5 hours ago, gvallee said:

I just received my Nikon Z8. I was very happy with a quick initial test with regards to sharpness but mostly focusing speed.

 

I downloaded the Nikon manual specifically for wildlife and birds in particular. I followed the settings recommendations for bird photography. Namely:

AF-focus area: 3D tracking

ISO Sensitivity: Auto ISO

Set picture control: Standard.

 

I also set maximum ISO 12,500.

 

Today I shot a series of birds flying in front of their mud nest against a wall in the shade. I was surprised to see the results:  all shots at ISO 12,500, f/52!!, resulting in a shutter speed way too slow. All pics were binned.

 

Anyone else using z8 for wildlife?

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Gen,

 

Firstly I'm excited you have the Z8. Awesome!!!

 

Personally I don't use Auto ISO. I used to shoot shutter priority and now shoot aperture priority for wildlife, but always set ISO myself. I'm interested to try going fully manual actually as opposed to priority modes.

 

However, there are some situations where Auto ISO can be useful in wildlife photography. A video that may be helpful is this one by bird photographer Duade Paton about getting the correct exposure in manual mode. Initially he shows doing this setting all parameters himself including the ISO. However, later in the video he shoots in Manual + Auto ISO. He shows a scenario near the end photographing spoonbills with strong light and dark contrast where he didn't use Auto ISO but where it would have come in handy if he had. Overall I found this a very good video on the topic of getting settings right for bird photography.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=kh1MBfSaCUI

 

He is shooting primarily with the Canon R series, but does try out various other systems in his videos. He was loaned the Nikon Z9 and has a few videos on using it plus some of the Nikon lenses which may be of interest to look at and provide some inspiration. Which lens or lenses are you using with the Z8 Gen?

 

He mentions having some issues with the 3D tracking and was switching between that and wide area focus, but also mentions he still getting used to the system. So I think with any system it is understanding how to get the best out of it and increasing familiarity over time.

 

I am shooting with Fujifilm mirrorless now and find so many benefits for wildlife photography and I'm sure you will with mirrorless as well. It's great being able to see the exposure live before you take it and being able to immediately adjust accordingly. The eye tracking can be amazing and I have found shooting at much lower shutter speeds possible. I have got very sharp images of small birds at speeds as low as 1/30 of a second which can be really helpful in low light. I read somewhere else you are going to Colombia soon. Having the Z8 will be amazing for the beautiful birds there. Just keep practising with it and it will get more and more familiar and you'll be ready to go when you get there!

[Chuck Nacke]

I played with a Z8 courtesy of NIKON, I have the T-shirt to prove it.  I like the shirt, but.

 

I don't like EVF, the camera is cool, but my 800s just feel better in my hands.  36 vs 45 MP does it really make a difference 

in 2024?  I also have a lot of F mount glass.

 

I also recently did a candid shoot, used my 800s at 3200 and the results, shooting NEF and processing in updated LR and PS

are excellent.  More than good enough for a paying corporate client. 

 

The only "birds" I do are fingers during political demonstrations......

 

Happy Friday,

 

Chuck

[IKuzmin]

1 hour ago, MDM said:

Well now that Gen’s question has been answered so concisely and knowledgeably: summary - should have bought a Canon BLA BLA BLA BLA, flimsy BLA BLA BLA BLA, use as a door stop BLA BLA BLA BLA. 

MDM: What a BS? Let me just red-arrow you instead of falling into a baseless discussion.

[Mr Standfast]

 

Please no more Canon vs Nikon stuff, said the wise old Fuji user...😉

 

Enjoy the camera Gen.

 

 

 

 

[MDM]

1 hour ago, Mr Standfast said:

 

Please no more Canon vs Nikon stuff, said the wise old Fuji user...😉

 

 No fear of me doing that. I only talk/argue about things I know about and I know very little about Canon cameras. I do know a lot about the Z8 though so happy to answer any questions about that. 

[gvallee]

Thank you all very much for your input and guidance, I knew there would be some knowledgeable souls on this forum.

 

My situation is the following. I received my Z8 a week or so ago, downloaded the manual from the Nikon website, all 948 pages of it!! I also found an additional manual for wildlife settings, in particular birds.

 

I had no time to test the camera properly at all before my current trip which will find me crossing the Simpson Desert for a month. Not many birds to test on there!

 

Based on the results of the quick test I made, I had an inkling that I should ignore those guidelines and play around with different settings or even revert to the settings I've always used for bird photography: aperture priority mode, manually changing ISO as the lighting situation and bird speed arise.

 

I have never ever used Program mode for anything before but I noticed that through the various settings recommended by  Nikon, this is how it ended up. I will not use it in the future.

 

I use my z8 with a 100-400mm Z lens with a x1.4 teleconverter. I'm very happy with the focusing speed as opposed to my old combination of D4 - 80-400mm. The eye focus function of the Bird program works very well for single birds but find that the focus confirmation circles (or are they squares?) in the viewfinder jump around a lot when there is more than one bird, not able to decide which eye to focus on.

 

I'm also happy with noise results at high ISO which was a worry. Sorry but after extensive testing, I still prefer Topaz Low Light to PS Ai Denoise. Just have to be reasonable with the sliders.

 

Lastly, I still have to get used to the light weight of the Z8 while shooting birds in flight. It tends to dance around.

 

All I need now is to settle down for a few days around a birdie place and test all the possible permutations. Won't happen in this trip.

 

As an aside, yesterday I found myself in an incredibly lucky situation. I was driving in the Outback and there was yet another Bearded Dragon sunning itself on the road. I almost didn't stop as I had just photographed another individual. While taking close-ups of him, in the corner of my eye I saw a bird swooping. A magnificent Brown Falcon with a silver snake landed in a tree next to me. After eating the snake, he proceeded to attack the Bearded Dragon whose body turned black as they do when stressed. I have very good results taken with the z8, some of you following me on FB will have seen. I will have to redo proper editing for Alamy.

 

Thank you all again very much for your thoughts, testing my Z8 will be on-going.

 

 

 

Edited October 18 by gvallee

[Dave Richards]

17 minutes ago, gvallee said:

Thank you all very much for your input and guidance, I knew there would be some knowledgeable souls on this forum.

 

My situation is the following. I received my Z8 a week or so ago, downloaded the manual from the Nikon website, all 948 pages of it!! I also found an additional manual for wildlife settings, in particular birds.

 

I had no time to test the camera properly at all before my current trip which will find me crossing the Simpson Desert for a month. Not many birds to test on there!

 

Based on the results of the quick test I made, I had an inkling that I should ignore those guidelines and play around with different settings or even revert to the settings I've always used for bird photography: aperture priority mode, manually changing ISO as the lighting situation and bird speed arise.

 

I have never ever used Program mode for anything before but I noticed that through the various settings recommended by  Nikon, this is how it ended up. I will not use it in the future.

 

I use my z8 with a 100-400mm Z lens with a x1.4 teleconverter. I'm very happy with the focusing speed as opposed to my old combination of D4 - 80-400mm. The eye focus function of the Bird program works very well for single birds but find that the focus confirmation circles (or are they squares?) in the viewfinder jump around a lot when there is more than one bird, not able to decide which eye to focus on.

 

I'm also happy with noise results at high ISO which was a worry. Sorry but after extensive testing, I still prefer Topaz Low Light to PS Ai Denoise. Just have to be reasonable with the sliders.

 

Lastly, I still have to get used to the light weight of the Z8 while shooting birds in flight. It tends to dance around.

 

All I need now is to settle down for a few days around a birdie place and test all the possible permutations. Won't happen in this trip.

 

As an aside, yesterday I found myself in an incredibly lucky situation. I was driving in the Outback and there was yet another Bearded Dragon sunning itself on the road. I almost didn't stop as I had just photographed another individual. While taking close-ups of him, in the corner of my eye I saw a bird swooping. A magnificent Brown Falcon with a silver snake landed in a tree next to me. After eating the snake, he proceeded to attack the Bearded Dragon whose body turned black as they do when stressed. I have very good results taken with the z8, some of you following me on FB will have seen. I will have to redo proper editing for Alamy.

 

Thank you all again very much for your thoughts, testing my Z8 will be on-going.

 

 

 

You will love the camera. I invested in a Z6 ll when it came out and it is brilliant. Not being great at the tech side of things I found the Nikon manual a bit difficult but a guy named Darrell Young produces books on mastering Nikon cameras which detail everything in an easy to follow way and provides recommendations for settings. Not sure if he’s covered the Z8 yet.

 

[IKuzmin]

1 hour ago, gvallee said:

the manual from the Nikon website, all 948 pages of it!!

You will surely need this manual in some instances, e.g. I never remember how to make the sensor shield Off and On at the camera shutdown to be able to clean the sensor. Another situation is renaming/reassigning storage folders. Of course, it is possible that you remember these places in menu, but I did not.

 

Otherwise, it is still a camera, with all same your favorite settings and approaches to use.

 

I watched a few youtube videos, usually they were similar to each other but in general quite helpful (Jan Wegener, Steve Perry, etc). And hey, I found it really useful to set cycling through AF modes on a button like explained here when I switch between different subjects. If you go to my Alamy port, in the 7-8 most recent pages ~75% were done with Z8 and the remainder with Canon DSLRs (20 FPS make a difference 😉). Still, the best images that I made with Z8 so far were taken with manual focus.

 

You may or may not like to use exposure imitation in EVF that Sally mentioned above. I do not, I use flash relatively often and do not want to look at black screen. Other little tweaks to your taste...

 

And, even though I like Canon bodies better, I am going to buy a second Z8, because of some Nikon lenses (180-600, 600PF, 800PF) which are right on my budget and not as heavy as Canon's fast super-teles. The first Z8 went actually to my wife so I am going to get another one for myself (awaiting for a time when I accumulate enough vacation days for a reasonably long time/distance wildlife travel...)

Edited October 18 by IKuzmin

[Betty LaRue]

1 hour ago, Dave Richards said:

You will love the camera. I invested in a Z6 ll when it came out and it is brilliant. Not being great at the tech side of things I found the Nikon manual a bit difficult but a guy named Darrell Young produces books on mastering Nikon cameras which detail everything in an easy to follow way and provides recommendations for settings. Not sure if he’s covered the Z8 yet.

 

He hasn’t yet finished the Z8 book because of a health problem. He said it should be done by the end of the year.
Yes, his books are good. He used one of my images in…dusting off the cobwebs…I think the D7000 book. It was an American Robin eating a crabapple, I think. I didn’t have a good copy of that camera. While I loved the way it rendered colors, I had a hard time getting sharp images. Probably back focusing or whatever it’s called with me not having a clue at the time. My husband had the same and his was sharp.

[Betty LaRue]

I entered serious photography with Nikon, first with film then 8 months later, the D70, then D200, 300, D7000, D800.

i wanted to go mirrorless and Nikon dragged their feet. Since I didn’t care for the FF D800, and didn’t want to be stuck with it waiting for a Nikon mirrorless, I went Fuji. Had Nikon been timely with mirrorless, I’m sure I’d be shooting with the Z system right now. Changing systems is expensive, so I am still happy with my X-T4 & a boatload of lenses. Coming from the D800, I was blown away with the Fuji images, but it took me a while to understand the camera & get the best out of it. What worked for my Nikons (nuts & bolts) didn’t work for my X-T1. I spent about a week or two shooting horrible images.
Probably my best-loved Nikon was the D300. But the D800 megapixels beckoned. My most disliked Nikon. But that was personal preference, not the camera’s fault. 

Gen you will conquer your new kit as time goes on. I’m already blown away with your images.

 

[Sally Robertson]

Hi again Gen,

 

I just thought I'd mention a +1 for Jan Wegener. I've watched some of his bird photography videos before and found them helpful, but importantly for you he has some really good ones on the Z8.

 

This one covers his basic setup for the Z8:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB8zRWvQCKc

 

And this one has practical examples and advice in a field review. He covers some autofocusing and tracking issues that may help you solve your issues. He mostly uses initially wide area focus and then combines with 3D tracking. However, he found this wasn't working so well with birds in flight where it was taking a long time to lock onto the bird. He solved this with two approaches:

1. Reducing the box size for wide area focus.

2. Not trying to focus on a bird before it takes off when the background is a bit too busy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L103gKExcE

 

I've found similar issues with my Fujifilm X-H2s with regard to birds in flight and I'm going to apply some of his ideas. I also have had the problem where you describe where there is more than one bird and the eye tracking keeps jumping between them. I try moving my focus point manually back to the bird I want and press the shutter before the camera changes its mind again! Obviously not ideal though in terms of instant responsiveness to whatever the bird is doing.

 

All the best and with the amazing images you already take I'm sure you will fly with the Z8!

 

[Sally Robertson]

4 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

I entered serious photography with Nikon, first with film then 8 months later, the D70, then D200, 300, D7000, D800.

i wanted to go mirrorless and Nikon dragged their feet. Since I didn’t care for the FF D800, and didn’t want to be stuck with it waiting for a Nikon mirrorless, I went Fuji. Had Nikon been timely with mirrorless, I’m sure I’d be shooting with the Z system right now. Changing systems is expensive, so I am still happy with my X-T4 & a boatload of lenses. Coming from the D800, I was blown away with the Fuji images, but it took me a while to understand the camera & get the best out of it. What worked for my Nikons (nuts & bolts) didn’t work for my X-T1. I spent about a week or two shooting horrible images.
Probably my best-loved Nikon was the D300. But the D800 megapixels beckoned. My most disliked Nikon. But that was personal preference, not the camera’s fault. 

Gen you will conquer your new kit as time goes on. I’m already blown away with your images.

 

 

Betty, if you ever wanted to upgrade from the X-T4, the X-H2s is a really good option if you are especially interested in wildlife, and you can still use all your existing lenses. It's actually quite similar to the Z8 and Z9 but in a smaller, lighter package. It's obviously APS-C and doesn't have all the advantages/features of the Z cameras. It is built like a tank but a mini tank. It has a stacked sensor like the Z8 and Z9. The 150-600mm lens I'm using is really quite light weight for a lens of its focal length and I find it very comfortable to carry around and hand-hold. The image quality and detail is excellent. I would be with the Z series too but for me in a cost-benefit analysis the lighter weight and lesser cost made me go with Fuji (which is still not cheap but cheaper). I've also got the X-H2 which has the 40MP sensor. So between the two of them they cover all scenarios and with their excellent build quality I think they will last me for many years.

[Malcolm Park]

I can’t say I do much bird photography but I do a lot of fast action and also very low light photography (very dark theatres, indoor low light tennis, astronomy) amongst my news stuff. I use two Z8 cameras and am very happy to have them in place of previous D850 & D5. I NEVER use auto iso and have never had the need to shoot at 12,500iso, my lenses range between f1.8 to f5.6, but mainly in the f2.8 to f4 range. Theatre & dance work is generally shot between 5000-8000 iso, mostly at the 5000 end sometimes on a monopod. Astro imaging (not fast action!) usually between 1000-2000 iso on tripod. Any grain on the higher iso images is easily dealt with in Photoshop denoise. Camera build quality is very good, dust on sensors not an issue for me. I don’t get involved in Canon vs Fuji vs Nikon vs whatever, and shoot approx 1000 images per month constantly. Hope that helps a bit.

[MDM]

2 hours ago, Malcolm Park said:

I can’t say I do much bird photography but I do a lot of fast action and also very low light photography (very dark theatres, indoor low light tennis, astronomy) amongst my news stuff. I use two Z8 cameras and am very happy to have them in place of previous D850 & D5. I NEVER use auto iso and have never had the need to shoot at 12,500iso, my lenses range between f1.8 to f5.6, but mainly in the f2.8 to f4 range. Theatre & dance work is generally shot between 5000-8000 iso, mostly at the 5000 end sometimes on a monopod. Astro imaging (not fast action!) usually between 1000-2000 iso on tripod. Any grain on the higher iso images is easily dealt with in Photoshop denoise. Camera build quality is very good, dust on sensors not an issue for me. I don’t get involved in Canon vs Fuji vs Nikon vs whatever, and shoot approx 1000 images per month constantly. Hope that helps a bit.

Agree with all of the above. And then there are the world class for hybrid camera video specs for anyone going in that direction.
 

Should anyone find the Z8 too light with big telephotos, there is always the Z9. Not a lot of difference in the specs apart from the built-in GPS and the larger and mire powerful battery. 

Edited Saturday at 09:58 by MDM