Hey I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your films, I’m a Florida guy but have been to Alaska 7 times. Looking forward to trip #8 sometime in the future. Need to do a fly out for bears next time. I’m now retired and getting into my wildlife photography more seriously. I’ve been a Nikon shooter since the mid 70s and now shoot with a Z9 and a D850 so you have been very helpful. Keep it up please 😉😊
Thanks for the kind words. and YES you need to get back up to AK. If you need any advise or hookups for bear trips let me know. A lot of new outfits up here doing bear camps and such.
I put my pre-order in for the Nikon Z 180-600mm f5.6-6.3 on the 2nd day of pre-orders and just got notice that it's coming on Tuesday. I'm hoping to take it out next weekend to a local small national park that has a nice California Condor population. Your images in this video well stellar! Keep up the great work.
Something went wrong in your editing, The photos are shown in low resolution, even thogh the video is 4k, too bad cause they Look great, I'd like to see the level of sharpness of them. This lens looks like a workhorse for wildlife!!! Apart from that low res pics, The video was great!!!!👏👏👏
Great review, I love my 180-600mm the short throw is really nice and the best thing is the lens doesn’t extend when your zoom. Now if you want a really light lens and shoot at 600mm all the time check out the Nikon Z 600mm PF lens
The 600 pf is very nice but I probably won't pick it up for myself. I'll test it but probably won't buy. The price, fstop, and lenses I already own (big white) will keep me away, but that 3lb weight is tempting. And this may not be a popular stance, I am not. abide fan of the phase fresnal background rendition. If you get any type of atmospheric inversions, you can get wonky bokeh. And in AK its atmospheric temp distortion everywhere all the time. I would like to test the 600 vs the 500pf to see if they have found a way to handle that better. And to me background is everything
@@WILDALASKA I do hope.you get to test the 600 PF because I've read about the background rendition issue with the technology itself. None of the reviewers mentioned it being a problem I'm sure if it's there (or not) you'll speak on it
THANKS. there more I need to cover on it but will in future videos. This wall all handheld perspective, need to play with it more on gimbals and lesnconparisons still. More to come
I'm not a Nikon shooter but no matter. I know that feeling when new gear arrives. Really happy for you. Looking forward to your return to Canon when the R1 and R5 II come on scene. 😉😉😉 Thank you, Scott, for all of your content, regardless of brand, that I always enjoy. Happy shooting!
Oh my Canons still get a workout, but stinking Nikon with all their new releases. Hopefully the next lens is the new canon zoom and next year 🤞 the camera bodies will be out.
Good to see Nikon getting back into the game with its Z8 and Z9mirrorless offerings and even taking the lead, lately, with their long glass. They even seem to be challenging Sony and Canon for AF technology. Even though I no longer shoot Nikon I enjoyed the review and didn't think it was too long.
Glad you enjoyed it. The camera manufacturers always just leapfrog each other. Its a great time t be a wildlife photographer no matter your favorite brand
I have been with Nikon since 1971 and have never had any Problems but 15 yrs ago I voluntarily took a D200 in for a Sensor Clean >> I love my Sony TV and My Canon Printer is awesome and Pre Digital Fujichrome was even better than Kodakchrome
Hey Scott! I, too, just received my 180 to 600 mm lens last Thursday. I have been absolutely thrilled with the way it performs on the Z9. Although I have been getting good results with my Canon EF lenses using the Fringer adapter, using native Z glass on the Nikon Z9 allows for a much more stable viewfinder, and faster, more accurate auto focus and tracking, especially for birds in flight. My images of all been sharp, and show excellent contrast in detail. I’m not sure whether it’s a sharp as my Canon 100 to 500 RF lens on the Canon R5. However, the results have been excellent!
I too am impressed with the lens. I put my 500mm pf on today (with adaptor), and I miss its comparative lightness and manageability. The 500 is also a bit sharper. But I love the flexibility ot the 180-600mm and its total performance. I literally ordered it on a day I had my 500 mounted on my Z9 and missed the shots I wanted on a two different marsh birds. In both cases, I caught their attention, and they flew toward me, instead of away from me. I could only get head/torso shots. I saw their bizarre behavior as a sign to buy. :) The lens performs very well and I am truly enjoying the extra reach.
The pf is great for weight and the 5.6 aperture, but the bokeh rendition on pf can get you at times. And this lens is great and a t a much more affordable price. My advice always is to rent before you buy if you can and see which one works better for you. Thanks for the kind words also
Thanks for this piece! I have had my Z8 for 2 weeks and I’m impatiently awaiting my 180-600! Can you tell me more about the strap you are using and specifically, how it attaches to the lens without messing up the lens! Thanks for taking me along!
Great video!! Would you mind making a video talking about your video settings, both camera and ninja details, what works and what doesn’t. Thank you in advance and keep them coming! 👏👏
I bought the Z 180-600mm rather than the Z 600mm PF and the cost savings paid for half of my Z 800mm PF. Imagine an 800mm prime that fits in a carry-on bag, and is easily hand held.
Thanks for the review, Scott. Timely for me because I’m debating between the 180-600 and the much more expensive 600mm 6.3 pf for my Z8. All the reviews I’ve seen of this one are very positive. I think of the reviews I’ve watched, yours had the most challenging light conditions. The cormorants and seals in the harbour were terrific images. I have seen a couple of reviews where they commented the sharpness at 600mm, wide open was a touch soft. Others had no complaints. What are your thoughts? Again, thank you and I enjoy your style.
It's a great lens. I am not seeing any softness @ 600 myself. I think when I see that in reviews , they are doing those pin cushion tests on cards, etc. and it's usually in the corners and it's very minimal. But in real world use im not seeing anything short of great quality in the shots. And at that very low light and very high ISO, the image holds up so to me that's great performance. Especially @ $1,699. Thanks for the kind words. 😄
Scott, This video is far more than the normal lens unboxing. THANKS! Greatly appreciate your initial take on this lens, as I have one coming. At 35:51 min. you commented on the earlier harbor seal still shot. I really liked the two still seal photos at the 25:21 & 25:51 min. mark, with the reflections in the water you captured. Please provide the brand/model ol the navy blue lens strap you used. Might the Kirk LP-70 plate be an option for this lens when mounted on a tripod? Again, GREAT VIDEO -- THANKS!!
This lens looks really good. I only notice that the stabilization for video is pretty jerky. Not sure if that's the lens or the camera. I really like that short zoom throw. The Canon RF 200-800 has a very long throw by comparison. Plus the external zoom makes it really long at 800mm. It'll be interesting to see you compare that lens, when you get it, to the Nikon.
The stabilization is rock solid. the jerkiness was me. resting the lens foot on the wood dock railing and trying to pan and it would stick a bit and not move smooth ;)
Wonderful work - thanks again! One suggestion/request: I may be the only person who has this problem, but I pause these videos a lot to consider the shooting data and your graphic (with the shooting data in it) falls directly under the *$&## RU-vid pause/timeline, so it is really hard to read the data. Actually, most photography videos have this problem. If anyone knows an adjustment I can make to my RU-vid viewer to address this, I would be grateful for advice.
Thanks for that info. didn't think about the info graphic being low in the frame. I try to place it where it doesn't impact the image itself. Ill work on moving that higher in the frame.
have you compared this to the nikon f 200-500mm on a z body? What are your thoughts on the comparison if you have? In other words, is it worth the upgrade? BTW, love your videos! and photos!
Any suggestions for struggling with the Z9 paired with the 200-500mm ??. Continuously getting soft images regardless of shutter speed or whether I'm in auto area or large area with bird detect on. Images don't have motion blur just super soft. Images are all handheld, auto ISO, 1/3200 - 1/4000 SS, F/7.1. This 200-500mm is tac sharp on my D500, but I'm really struggling with it on my Z9. Love all the vids and info
Shoot full manual. Set aperture to f/5.6-f/8, Shutter (depends on your bird type) 1000-3500 and adjust iso as needed. Get out of auto if you can. I don't have any issue with soft images. the 200-500 is extremely sharp lens. Soft images are 95% of the time on our end, the photographer. Just need to practice more and figure out you're shoting style and settings for capturing the shots you are after.
A great lens - I'd love slip-in filters but i'm being greedy for a lens in this price range. Most surprising is the VR - I haven't shot video handheld at 600mm with such ease before ... 🦘
Yes the VR for video is amazing. The good thing is that front element is 95mm and they make a lot of good variable nd filters for that. Freewell has a magnetic system that goes up to 112mm.
Very good so far. A lot of folks are asking about the f9, but if you put a 1.4 on any of the 600 zoom which are all @ 6.3 your end result f stop will be F9 and the Canon 100-500 @ 7.1 would be f10. SO you get better depth of field @ 800 f9 vs the 100-500 @ 700mm f10. All th glass now regardless of manufacturer and price is excellent. Case in point the $700 Rzf 100-400 glass is spectacular. So I think it will be a very good lens especially @ $1899 list price. Thanks for the kind words also
The Canon 200-800 starts at F6.3 !!!at 200mm and at about 500 its F9 !!! Like Midnight down a Coal Mine >> and its Front Heavy as its Length Doubles in Zooming >> Stick with the Better ,Cheaper Nikon Leading the way with the Z Mount and the Absence of a Mechanical Shutter going forward.. If I need 900mm I go DX on my 180-600 and on my Z7 I get 900mm f6.3 at 20 M Pixels = Plenty
No look at that beautiful Fox you have up there Scott isn't he beautiful in a big bushy tail As far as the lens I would love to see you compare this with the new Canon 200 - 800 . Are you're going to get one of those ?? . Personally Scott I look at the design of the 200 - 800 , Yes the Nikon looks like it's such a better design , the biggest problem I see with the Canon is that it's not internally Zooming like the Nikon you got right there .
It's on order. There was just no way to do internal zoom out to 800mm without making then lens HUGE. Ill have a video out soon on my thoughts etc on the 200-800
Am I the only one seeing the pictures with no definition at all? The video is ok but when changing to a static picture it looks like a small picture resized to fit all screen
SO loos like something has changed with the compression in RU-vid. the last couple videos ive noticed that. The low key images this time really made that really show. normally I can use medium sized images (resolution) and they look fine, but somethings changed. I'll have to use large resolution from now on it looks like. I'll drop some of the images on instagram this week. It sucks as I can't se what the compression will do until it's uploaded. And when I watched that back this morning I was none too happy . Thanks for noticing j/k.
I could see it on my tv. To me the source images look like lower resolution than 4k resolution and are being upscaled to 4k. I could see aliasing on couple of the images. But yes something is going on with the stills in the timeline.
Yah. Its same resolution of every image iv'e used in all the videos. After export from the compressor everything looks fine. But last 2 videos after upload I can see the degradation in detail and more so with this low key images.@@MTBD80
@@WILDALASKA Well that sucks, hopefully you can get it sorted out. I too have enjoyed the joys of seeing things you don't like after the video is up, many times 😅
@@WILDALASKA I believe that is absolutely the excuse I needed to follow you on Instagram. I love your content, thank you! (hello from Vancouver Island btw). I have to say I'm none to thrilled with what Google has been doing with RU-vid lately.
That looks very similar to the G2 Tamron 150-600. If I didn't hear you say Nikon, or if I could not see the Nikon name or read the video title, I would believe it was the Tamron.
Not exactly sure what you are referring to. As the Tamron and Sigma look completely different from the Nikon 180-600. And performance is night and day different.
