Yep, most of the things I photograph these days don't really move very much (trees, hills, wide open moors), so I've not needed to delve too deeply into the configuration options for AF tracking or rapidly switching AF modes so far and I think it takes a good few sessions with the camera in these sort of circumstances to refine the ideal setup, so I'll probably need a few more bird encounters before I'm completely happy with the setup for this application. I also need to get back into tracking moving subjects myself. When I used to video skating events I was a dab hand at tracking the skaters with a video camera, but I seem to have lost a lot of my ability to do this well over the years. Again, it's lack of practice (possibly a bit of age related crapness creeping in too), so I just need to get out more and do this sort of thing.
As for the Z8 vs Z7, there's no real advantage with the Z8 for landscape or architectural work, other than being able to see the histogram and horizon level simultaneously. IQ is about the same, there's supposed to be a slight loss of DR on the Z8, but I've never noticed it in practice and I do like to push my raw files to breaking point from time to time. The Z7's advantage here is probably negated by the banding issue which I have seen a few times. The only thing I would say is it's a much nicer camera to use. The controls fit my hands better and it seems much more responsive than the Z7. There's also a substantial discount on it in the UK at the moment (£3,299 vs the normal £3,789 price), I'm not sure what the situation is where you are, but if you were tempted it's worth waiting for such discounts to appear.
