This is a photo my friend took there a couple of weeks ago with his Nikon Z8 - it’s a screen capture from his Instagram account:
If I can capture a photo like this, I will be very happy.
I want the image to be sharp to the eye.
I would like all the feathers to show up clearly.
I especially want the eye to be clear and in focus.
I want something else in the photo, in addition to the bird.
If I get my friend to send me the original (raw) image, I’d love to process it in PhotoLab.
Z8 and last firmware is amazing for those kind of shots. + 600 PF is a top combo for hand held bird in flight.
(maybe Z9 + 600PF is even more balanced).
completly possible with your gear.
For this weekend, I will do the first choice - need to start somewhere. If I want the on-sensor PD focusing and eye detection you described, if it came from the Z6, it might already be in my D780. Who knows, maybe I’ll get zero good images, and need to start all over again. I have no interest in renting a Z6, and if I rent a Z8, I might not be able to resist buying one. I do NOT want that to happen, and if I want a Z8, why not get a Z9 ? All far too complicated for me right now. I’m hoping I’m (eventually) satisfied with the D780 bird photos.
Something else I need to figure out, so I understand what this fellow is doing, and why:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH2H70LiRr4
I’m starting to feel overwhelmed by all this, but eventually I figure it will all make sense.
Have a good visit. Roseate Spoonbills are good birds.
There’s a lot to learn and the need to make it come naturally.
Besides focus and the other photography details, look for good opportunities to position yourself to get the best shots. This includes filling the frame, sun position, and anticipating bird behaviors. Many of the exposure items can be compensated for in DxO PL, but being in the “right place” at the “right time” also takes some learning.
I’ve the Z6II and never use the back screen. Always use the EVF. Go to your balcony and use the back screen. Remember also that battery live is going down.
George
George
That’s from the manual I think.
George
Z8 and Z9 have (till now, since nikon make those cameras evolve with firmware updates) the same capacity (minor software option more in Z9 not really needed for birding : auto capture, less heating in video because of larger cooling surface and therefore possibility of filming without interruption at all with all possible settings, and other minor details of no real importance to non-professionals).
What’s inside camera is exactly the same for both cameras, but Z9 is way bigger and heavier than Z8. This weight can make a difference after a day of hand-held photography with long lens. Major differences between both are ergonomic. But the engine is exactly the same.
And finding good background, and good distance between subject and background (even if now some fake this with photoshop. But I think with your background @mikemyers you does not like fake).
Birds generally take off and land into the headwind - especially the big ones (you prefer to shoot head than back).
Printing images from photo club members is always a challenge, when they use 300mm and then expect to be able to crop to fill the frame.
Take this image I shot on a Nikon D100 (6Mpx) in Monterey Bay…
This was at 400mm, and displayed in PL full frame.
Nowhere near close enough to see detail. So, I reframed it to get…
Not even 1Mpx and, if I zoom in to try and see the head detail better, at 600%, it is impossible to see enough detail and the edges are starting to fray into clearly visible pixels.
Better still was to sneak up on a bird sat on the pier railing. Same D100, same 400mm lens, but a lot closer, this shot filled the viewfinder and is totally uncropped in PL…
Zooming in to 600% in PL, gives me an image that is only 128Kpx…
… and you can start to see the individual pixels. But, putting it through Topaz Photo AI, at 6x magnification, yields amazing results…
Not perfect but, bear in mind, in order to get this kind of quality, I had to fill the frame, in the camera, with a 400mm lens. Only then, could I hope to get that level of detail. Compare that with the image of the bird on the rock and see why we say that 300mm is often not going to be long enough.
Now, I know that the D780 has a 24 Mpx sensor instead of these shots on the 6Mpx D100 but, that is only really twice the linear size, not 4x.
To be more accurate, it just uses the Z6 sensor based focusing system, when the D780 is used in LiveView.
And the best of luck trying to get your camera back to anything like normal after all those changes.
Well, I hope you’re aiming for a lot more bird and a lot less background than they got for the website. Don’t forget, you said you were going to photograph birds.
What lens did he use, on what camera and did he need to crop in post?
So, do you want detail on the bird or something else in the same picture? Choose one, because it’s unlikely you will get both. You’ve only got a 300mm lens on a 24Mpx camera.
For a more realistic evaluation, here is an uncropped shot taken with my 300mm lens on my D810 (36Mpx)…
And here is a cropped version…
See the proportion of the full frame, giving me a 3Mpx final image size - just about enough to give a print 8½" tall, but it is already starting to show sharpening artefacts.
As long as @mikemyers fills the frame rather than hoping to crop it.
In that case, really that your D780 in OVF mode is perfectly good and get yourself longer lenses.
He’s a wedding photographer and using a tripod. Not really relevant to the kind of photography you normally do.
Couldn’t agree more.
Which goes to prove the old adage, RTFM (read the friendly manual)
There is nothing worse than fake blur. It is easy to spot as it usually doesn’t follow the rules of depth of field by doing things like blurring the background at the same distance as the subject.
It can be handy to put this function on.
When panning to shoot bird in flight you are in landscape orientation.
When bird stops and you make a portrait you often turn in portrait orientation and need your focus point to be in the upper side of the image. Then you may see a bird coming to land and need to fast return to landsape orientation but need your focus point at about the same place than for the previous landing.
You often have to go fast to change those things when not using a Z8 (with which it is really lot of easier when it’s about getting focus acquisition).
This is the goal. But he aims large birds, and it seems that large birds are easier to approach in US parks than in Europe. So maybe 300 could do it with minimal crop (has to be less than 10 meters from the bird anyway).
indeed, I didn’t saw it 
where are the birds ?
If you’re not satisfied the first time you do this, don’t blame your gear. Taking good bird images requires some experience.
And as Joanna told, 300 mm is short. Better to have a 600 mm for birds.
Mike is dreaming of expensive camera’s. He doesn’t think about lenses. Often the most important part of the gear.
George
Not from me but :
Date the camera, marry the lens.
If I understand this correctly, with Nikon mirrorless, it doesn’t matter which screen you use, as both show the same “television image” as recorded by the camera - and what bothers me, is neither shows the “live” image as seen directly by my eye. The prism and mirror don’t change this - I might just as well be looking through binoculars, it is still (to me) a “live image”, not a recording.
With a DSLR I can choose either way of seeing the image, and 99.9% of the time I choose the viewfinder window. With mirrorless, all I can see with either screen is a “video recording” image - what is being recorded on the sensor/camera.
Two years ago I bought an Olympus EE-1 OM-D “Dot sight” viewer. I was going to try it at my brother’s home, to see if it worked for me. The goal was to keep a bird in the center of the frame, as my camera captured images.
I may not get to try this Sunday - the first goal is how to capture bird images. Once I’m familiar with that (if ever) the dot sight might be useful, especially for keeping the birds centered in the frame.
If any of you understand what a “red dot sight” in Bullseye Shooting is, that’s essentially what this device is, and does.
Ha! I understand - but. for me, all I need to do is set the camera for U1 or U2. If I’m smart, once I get all the appropriate settings, I should perhaps save them to U2.
U1 will be “Joanna recommended settings” and U2 will then be for bird photography.
Dreaming is free. Unless/until I get serious. I went with a friend of mine in Colorado to buy a 600mm lens, and I got to use it quite a bit. I think the real question isn’t what focal length, but which 600mm lens to buy, preferably used.
Auto-focus
f-mount
preferably light, not heavy
preferably built-in motor drive
Perhaps something like this:
https://www.keh.com/shop/sigma-150-600mm-f-5-6-3-dg-os-hsm-c-contemporary-lens-for-nikon-95-681970.html
Just dreaming…
Added later:
You’re unique 
be careful: if you come across a bull, it could charge you.
