It’s Nikon’s fault that I’m here writing this....

[gm3sf]

I’ve been a Nikon shooter for 25+ years. For the past few years I resisted getting another manufacturers mirrorless camera in the hopes Nikon would come out with something of their own. After all, I had all the glass, right?  

Well, the day finally came and Nikon announced the Z6 and Z7. I put my order in right away and eventually got my camera.  Opening up the box and it was pure Nikon. Ergonomics were great. All the menus were what I was familiar with. Sure, it was missing some of the physical buttons I was used to , but I’ll assign what I need to the function buttons. I could live with that, I mean, the EFV was great, in camera stabilization great as well.  Picture quality was what you’d expect and finally the video was just as good as the stills.  

That’s where the high marks ended and where the problems (for me) began. The list of deal breakers wasn’t long, but the items on it were VERY heavily weighted. 

Focus acquisition and tracking: this was a real problem.  for years I had depended on Nikon’s 3D tracking.  How could they release something without it?  

Shutter blackout:  One of the first real shoots I had with this camera was shooting low level flying Jets. What I found was that the shutter blackout made it to where I was essentially counting on being able to maintain a steady pan (speed) and found I was pretty much using “The Force” to track the jet.  If I went off what I was seeing, or rather, the image flashed to me in the viewfinder, I was too late and simply couldn’t keep up.  I eventually got the hang of it, but found myself wondering why I should be guessing.  This should be better than what I’ve had for years already  

Back to the focus tracking.  When I encountered this I thought maybe it was me.  Maybe I wasn’t using the right “tracking” mode.  On the forums people said to use this mode or that one.  I tried all of them and it worked ok for say a moving car that took most of the viewfinder, but for something as simple as tracking my dog as he walked towards me, it just was so inconsistent that I couldn’t see keeping it.  How could I?  How could I justify keeping something that couldn’t do what my several year old D500 could do without missing a beat?

So, I had heard of this A9 from Sony.  I watched review after review on YouTube.  I marveled at the atimos footage showing the focusing sensors shimmering over a fast moving subject. I drooled when I saw there was zero blackout. After a few weeks that was it. The decision was made. I would buy the A9 and then sell all the Nikon gear I had. When I stopped to think about it, it didn’t matter that I had all the Nikon glass.  I knew I’d eventually get all the native Z-Mount lenses just like I would need to buy new glass for this new A9.  Also, I’ve been shooting long enough to know what I do and don’t need.  I simply don’t need all the lenses I had bought for my Nikons over the years.  So for starters I bought the 24-70 f/2.8 GM and the 70-200 f/2.8 GM.  Next up is the 24mm f/1.4 then we’ll see  we travel a lot so I prefer to keep the gear to a minimum.

So far the camera is amazing and it worked (and tracked) perfectly right out of the box.  If I change focus mode now it’s sinply a fine tuning, not a matter of it flat out working or not.   

I also found the camera quite intuitive.  Not sure if that just because I am so familiar with camera menu systems as a whole, but really, it hasn’t been that big a curve.  I also really like having my physical dials and buttons back. I wouldn’t mind a beefier camera body and the weather sealing could be better, but hey, overall, I couldn’t be happier with it.  

Gus M. | www.gm3sf.com |  IG: @GM3SF

Edited March 7, 2019 by gm3sf
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[LiveShots]

I’ve had my a9 for a while now and I’m impressed with it every time I use it. The upcoming firmware updates  (if they are are good as Sony claim) will take the camera to a level far beyond what any other manufacturer has on the market.

[danrhiggins]

Though I had been a Canon shooter for years, when I switched to Sony (a7r3 as I shoot mostly landscape) I found the "purge" of Canon glass to be quite refreshing.  The fact is that over the years I had acquired far more Canon glass than I needed.  Lots of overlaps.  Half of the lenses were very rarely used.  I went from 8 Canon lenses to 4 Sony lenses and actually came out ahead financially.  Yes, it took time but it was worthwhile.  And I also found the Sony to be different but after I spent the time establishing the Mode 1, 2 and 3 settings and the Fn menu I find the Sony very easy to use.  Enjoy yours!