[davidmanze]

I've already seen this camera in the field on a Bird Club outing.  I could not believe it!  This lens is beautiful.  I know that is sort of irrelevant, but still it was.  The owner was not using a lens hood so you could see this gleaming perfect front element, and the curving contours of the lens housing.  $6,500!  Well, we know that's a chunk of change, but for that class lens it is nothing!  Were were in a wooded riparian area with lots of interesting birds.  One is a Wilson's Warbler.  It is very small, mostly yellow with a black cap.  An it constantly is moving in the tree branches.  I got a picture -- not a good one.  But I saw the photo the guy took with the new Nikon.  It was amazing! 

I still don't know why this lens can not be made for a DSLR.  But I'm not to surprised.  The price for owning this lens is having to switch to the Z-Mount. 

This has a minimum focus of 14 feet.  That's not bad!  I was using a Canon R5 and the RF 800 F/11.  Obviously not the same class lens.  Say what you want, I love using my lens.  It is not the greatest lens, but it can be very effective.  And under $1,000!

I don't know how Nikon pulled this off!  It's pretty miraculous!

I would be happy if Canon would offer an economical 600mm f/6.3!

-Mac

   Hi Mac .....

        Yeah, Nikon hit the ball out of the park with the Z9 /800mm PF combination ........ both in concept and in price ...... they now have the 300mm PF / 500mm PF and now the 800mm PF ...... all super compact, light and mostly affordable ..... 
    Nikon came out with their new Z9 FW 2.0 which addressed many AF issues and upped the EVF frame rate to 120 Hz, but there is still more work to be done ...... Nikon have obviously been trying hard with AF-C / eye detect but they still don't have a ....... "one size fits all eye detect" ...... like the R5 / A9 /A1 .......... where you just put the subject in the finder and it does the rest simply and reliably .... Z9 has now too many choices which confuses people .... 
   I also like no mechanical shutter ..... nothing to wear out!

   I've seen some your images with the 800mm F11 / R5 combo and they look good and sharp ...... the R5 has proved itself in terms of AF ...... hope you're enjoying it ? ...... 
 ...... for my part I want to know where are the birds this year so much so, I had to go the African reserve at Sigean (France) to get a few shots .....

 https://www.flickr.com/photos/124690178@N08/


  Go well !!

 dave's clichés