What's going on with Nikon?

+1...

In the summer of 2018 Nikon finally released their Z program and joined the upcoming ML camera world.
I was lucky to try out Nikon Z7 months before availability, and it was a great first ML product at that particular moment, and I sold my D500, D850 & D4 to finance the Z6 + Z7 combo & Z lenses.
Z6 & Z7' AF was nowhere near D500' AF, but "good enough" compared to other ML options at that time point. ZZ & Z6' AF was sometimes great & sometimes even "fantastic", but unfortunately sometimes (very) frustrating...
The Z6 & Z7' LCD resolution, slow refresh rate, and movement limitations were other points I didn't like.
... But being able to shoot totally silent compared to former Nikon Dslr' machine gun sound, next to the outstanding IQ, unbeaten Nikon DR and all this in a compact, lightweight body, made me love Nikon Z.
The Z 24-70 F4 (*) is another extremely positive point I'll remember from Nikon Z.
I was using the Z7 next to my D850 for some weeks and even though Z6 & Z7 do not have the AF potential of D500 or D850, there is no problem capturing moderate action, wildlife action or BIFs with Z6 & Z7...

But then -2020- Nikon released their second generation Z cameras...
Thanks to a friendly Nikon representative I had the opportunity to test a Z7II for a couple of hours before release.
Probably loaded with too high expectations I didn't see ANY AF improvement though and that crippled, low-resolution, non-swivel LCD was still there.
Selling Z6 &/or Z7 to get Z7II &/or Z6II meant nothing else than burning money.
I was so disappointed that I canceled my Z7II & Z6II pre-orders.

On November 29th, 2020, and with no plans whatsoever to change my Z6 & Z7 for something else, ... I had the opportunity to try a Canon R5 from a friend.
I was simply blown away... I had the feeling I was shooting with a mirrorless D500, autofocusing even faster than D500 and with potentially 20 x 45Mp frames per second.
The R5 body and button layout please me more than Z and last but not least, the R5' high-resolution swivel LCD is a dream.

On December 12th I got mine at Audiophil Foto in Aachen-Germany.
The first 48 hours were pure horror trying to get along with a totally different system and menus. For a moment I was even thinking about returning it…

On December 20th I started to sell most of my Nikon gear to finance partly my entire brand switch with all glass I need, for fun and for my work...
I bought my lenses @ Audiophil in Germany and @ Art & Craft in Belgium. Both companies provide exceptional service.

The lightweight 800mm F11 is a totally unexpected extra, it provides very good IQ and R5 makes it AF about as fast as my nikkor 200-500 did on my D500 & D850, which means fast enough to capture wildlife action in good light.
R5 is that good.
Under while I added several RF lenses and a R7 for wildlife and macro. The R7 combined with the RF 100 macro is another homerun by Canon.

My Nikon -->Canon move was a one-way ticket and Z8 (3-4 years too late) won't make me change my opinion...
Kindest regards,
Stany

Is this thread mainly about AF? Is it relevant for those of us who mainly photograph things that don't move (architecture, gardens, landscape, etc.)?

Thanks for your reply Stany. This has totally been my experience as well. The R5 & R7 birds eye autofocus is just amazing! Currently I purchased the RF 1.4 extender and I am using it with the RF 100-400 with the R7. It makes for a very light and capable setup when you don't want the added weight of the R5 and RF 100-500.
Thank you, Tom

Oh come on! 😊 The Z9 shoots at 60 fps only when shooting JPEGs and in DX crop. If we are to work within limitations of a camera's processing power, the OM-1 also shoots at 120 fps and 240 fps, but that wasn't my point.

I did not condemn Camera X to praise Camera Y. Every camera has limitations, every system has compromises, and I was simply illustrating that BCG is not as unbiased as someone here had claimed.

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Over the course of a decade, I've only had posts deleted from threads you were involved in. Strange coincidence, don't you think?
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As I did not do the deleting or see what you wrote it is difficult for me to comment.

When I occasionally had a sentence deleted I always got an email explaining why.
Whether you did is probably not a relevant topic for this forum

The way you are going at him here, I am not surprised at all......LOL.

I'm a Nikon shooter (among other brands) and it doesn't bother me one bit if someone claims camera x, y, or z is a better camera. I just keep on doing what works for me with what works for me.