Nikon Z6II - Subject Tracking for Birds
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- Опубликовано: 3 авг 2023
- The Nikon Z6II doesn’t have Bird-Eye AF, so today I decided to give the only Auto-area AF with Subject Tracking another go to see if it’s worth using, has I’ve recently received feedback from photographers using this AF Mode and it works quite well.
There are 9 Auto-Focus Settings on the Nikon Z6II that you can use when taking photos, only 3 of those are able to use Subject Tracking and they are:
Auto-area AF, Auto-area AF (people), Auto-area AF (animals) (cats and dogs).
Social media Links!
Facebook: bit.ly/39TcPEO
Photography Gear used:
Nikon Z6II
Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E VR
DJI Mic
Monopod
LEOFOTO VH-10S Tripod Head
Glad to see some AF reviews on the Z6ii system.
Thank you so much 🙏 Glad you liked this video
Very nice video as always. For large groups of birds in the sky, the use of Wide Area Small or Large works great. I find these two modes act as a Group AF in a DSLR like the D850. It seems to lock onto the closest subject to the camera. In fact, in my airshow pictures I recent posted on my IG, I used these two modes exclusively and had about a 95% hit rate using a Z5. Since the airshow and having shot the Z6II before, I picked up another Z6II and with the better AF sensitivity than the Z5, my hit rate is close to 100% using the aforementioned area modes. I find the Tracking modes on the Z6II work very well on slower moving, non-erratic subjects. Overall, it's a heck of a camera. It's a dream shooting airshows here in Florida at 14 fps. Fast enough speed to satisfy most photographers.
Thank you very much for your feedback, very much appreciated 🙏
Thanks, I’ll give it a try!
Great, I hope that you get some great photos using this AF Mode 😉
great stuff Brother -- i'm learning lots! GOD Bless
Glad to hear it, and thanks for letting me know that my Tutorials are of benefit to you. 🙏
Agree with your test Charles im not confident it always work, thankyou for another vlog
My pleasure, and thanks for commenting, really appreciate it. 🙏
Still waiting... Z6 and Z7's update for birds :) People and animal detect are brilliant. Tracking is pretty good for birds but yes the box is too big, missed eyes quite often. I have tracking programmed to a function button on the lens, so it's really easy to turn it on and off.
Bird-eye af won't happen on the Z6. The Z6III has just been released and it has bird-eye af.
Food for thought, I am now shooting the same combo you have so on a learning curve for bird photography. Loving the 200-500, it's very sharp.
If you haven't seen it yet! I've just released a new video about using Subject Tracking for Bird-in-flight. ruclips.net/video/6NNzKIDGyAg/видео.html
I have just invested in a telephoto lens. I use the Z7ii. I am also trying different focus modes to see which works best. There is a lot of trial and error. Like you, single point is very reliable. 🙏
Yes! Single Point is very reliable. My next video that I'll be uploading to RUclips will show how I've setup my Nikon Z6II for Wildlife Photography
TY. What was your lens length? I see you're shooting at 1/2500 and F8 in some shots. Is that the sweet spot? ISO is pretty high when the birds are on then water. What's your ISO max?
I generally shoot at f5.6, but at times will use f8 if I want a bit more depth of field in the photos. F8 will give me the best sharpness across the frame, but it does mean that the ISO is twice as high as f5.6, which is why I shoot at f5.6 and f5.6 gives me the sharpness I want for 2/3 of the frame. I've set the ISO to a maximum of 12800.
Another great informative video Charles. When you engaged the focus tracking did you take your finger off the back button focus? Thanks Ian
Apologies for the delay, but I've been really busy. Yes you have to keep for finger on the Back Button Focus to keep tracking your subject.
@@CharlesNPhotography no worries Charles but thanks. I’ve tried this mode but couldn’t get used to it but may try with it one last time! 👍
@@ianwilsonwildlifephotography It's not the easiest mode to get used to that's for sure. Maybe try to track cars or people riding bicycles
When I use my z6II on H extended I have 8-9 seconds of shooting on raw L. I wonder if that's going to change with a long lens. Saving up for one! But good video!
That sound like your SD card can't keep up with writting the files to the card.
This is the card that I use and have not problems at shooting over 40 frames before it slows down.
SanDisk 128GB Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I Memory Card
Thanks for video. I heard rumours that 'shortly' we have a firmware update focusing, so hopefully it solve most of the problems.
We shall see, but I don't think that the Z6II will get eye-AF, the processor isn't fast enough for that.
It already has eye AF for humans and dogs and cats. There’s no difference for birds you would think.
Thanks so much for the video upload. It's always good to try techniques again, especially after firmware updates. I have a Z6_2 as well and went mirrorless to try to utilize the latest tech. Well, I love the camera in many ways and the Z glass is amazing, mostly, but the tracking systems on this camera are really an unfinished job, quite shameful. It's possibly that there is too much data being used / read and the Expeed 6, even two of them, can't cope with decent tracking on top of the load. For that reason I don't think we will get any meaningful further firmware updates regarding the auto-focus system on the Z6_2 and would have to upgrade to an Expeed 7 camera to use those features reliably. That said, I use it like a DSLR, like you, and get some decent results using traditional good technique with single point, Dynamic and area small. The eye tracking for humans does work much better. Unfortunately it negates the reason that I went mirrorless in the first place but it's a great camera in all other ways other than that sort of "auto-tracking". Cheers again, Robert.
Yo're 100% correct on that. 😃
Buongiorno sono Rosi Fulvio e la seguo da Verona in Italia. Lei è un grande fotografo che si mette in gioco 2 volte, la prima perchè ha la curiosità di provare varie tipologie di af e renderci partecipi di quali sono le migliori da usare con la nostra Z6II, la seconda perché ci rende partecipi dei suoi successi e insuccessi documentandoli in modo impeccabile. Detto questo la nostra unica differenza sta nell'uso di un FTZ e Tamron 150-600 che non ha un F5,6 costante e che visto che lo uso per caccia itinerante raramente lo abbino a mono e treppiedi. Da poco sono passato da D7200 con 17-50 2,8 Sigma e 70-300 Tamron a Z6II presa in kit con il 24-200 ma è rimasto il 150-600 che avevo prima. Ho pochi scatti perchè mi stò abituando al mondo Mirrorless ma la ringrazio per tutto il supporto che mi danno i suoi video nel capire questa macchina fantastica. Continui a regalarceli grazie!
Hello, I'm Rosi Fulvio and I'm following you from Verona in Italy. You are a great photographer who gets involved twice, the first because you have the curiosity to try various types of af and let us know which ones are the best to use with our Z6II, the second because you let us share your successes and failures documenting them flawlessly. Having said that, our only difference lies in the use of an FTZ and Tamron 150-600 which does not have a constant f/5.6 and since I use it for itinerant hunting I rarely combine it with mono and tripods. I recently switched from D7200 with 17-50 2.8 Sigma and 70-300 Tamron to Z6II taken in kit with 24-200 but the 150-600 I had before remained. I have few shots because I'm getting used to the Mirrorless world but I thank you for all the support that your videos give me in understanding this fantastic machine. Keep giving them to us thanks!
You are very welcome, and I appreciate the time you took to message me. 🙏
Hey, great video. Can the Z6II also use Subject Tracking while recording a video?
Yes you can! 😁
@@CharlesNPhotography Thank you 😊
A used sony a9 VER 1 from 2017 blows nikons focus system on these out of the water, I have tried and tested them both.. you can get a used a9 ver 1 for about the same price as a new z6II
That's great if you like Sony, but I found it difficult to hole a Sony camera for any extended period due to their body design.
Great video, I’ve tried all systems. Sony by far is the best auto focus and tracking but Nikon has lovely colour reproduction. Pity we couldn’t squash them both into one system. Nikon and Sony improve frame rates in lower end cameras. Take a note from canon.
Thanks for sharing😉
maybe try the same on a Z8...
@vueport99 I had the z9 but Sony still outperformed it.
@@kevinastley2562 in terms of auto focus, Sony has had decades of expertise lead in that area thanks to their video business. Even back in the analog video days, Canon had consistently back focused and missed focus while Sony was bang on.
But if you have a Sony, take care not to use it in challenging environments. They're not as good compared to the other two
I have the same camera and lens as you. I too use single point for birds but I'm going to try the tracking box and see how I like it too. Thanks for your video.
That's a great idea!
ممنون از ویدیوی که گذاشتی🙌
بنظرت بهترین دوربین با بودجه ۲-۳ هزار یورو برای عکاسی از حیات وحش کدام دوربین است؟
Thank you for the video you posted
Which camera do you think is the best camera with a budget of 2-3 thousand euros for wildlife photography?
That's a hard question, Nikon ZF, or a Sony or Canon. Just depends on what you prefer 🤔
I am of the view that Dynamic area mode will be better than larger box
I have found that Dynamic Area, isn't very reliable when you are shooting low to the ground or if there's branches very close to your subject as it get confused about where to focus.
Hello, thanks for your vide, but i'm not understand why are you a red case of tracking? I have the case yellow for tracki,g, but i dosn't have a red case for traking. Thank's so mutch for tell me please. Greats from germany!
Yes! The box is Yellow when you look at it through the viewfinder, but when you look at the photos in Playback and have the Focus point showing, it will show as a red box. I record the playback to my PC
@@CharlesNPhotography thanks for answer.
😀 @papaschultz5678 No problems
Hi Charles watching your very informative video. I noticed a very noticeable shake in your left arm. Hope you have seen a doctor about it. God Bless
Thank you for watching my video 🙏😀. I suffer from PTSD and when I'm very tired or stressed my hands start shaking by themselves. It's just part of my life, but I don't let it get to me 😊
Bummer to see how bad these NIKON's (still) are in tracking a subject. That's one of many reasons why I switched from NIKON to SONY in 2019 and never looked back. Every A7III can do it better and that's the much older and cheaper camera. So you if you are a NIKON shooter you are basically forced to invest in Z8/Z9 ......
Thanks for your feedback and although I'd like A Z8, it's above my budget. The Z6II does just about everything I want it to do, sure I'd be more hay with it if it had more features, but I bought it knowing its flaws. I sold the Nikon D500 and bought the Z6II purely for the purpose of being able to shoot 4K videos of birds and it does this perfectly.
And to think that Nikon used to be the best, what a shame! They committed suicide just because of the autofocus.
Hopefully the Z6III will be much better 🤔