Hacker News Reader

Comment by agloeregrets | Hacker News Reader

Yes and no.

Battery life is much worse but when you go all in on next gen Mirrorless cameras there are gains that are just impossible otherwise in a DSLR. The thing that convinced me was using an A7RII 5 years ago in NYC at night. The simple fact of the matter was that the camera could focus and validate setup in the dark better than my own eye with my personal Canon DSLR, even with the wide open nifty 50. I think we are on the edge of major innovations in camera tech. The size advantage makes it easier to carry more batteries as well.

Really the biggest thing is that Nikon is just brutally behind in tech compared to Sony and even Canon. The market has moved past DSLRs. Sony showed up and showed how to do it and that was it.

View on HN

> Really the biggest thing is that Nikon is just brutally behind in tech compared to Sony and even Canon.

I don't see how that is true in the slightest. The Z9 is a true flagship that stacks up well against the competition. Cameras lower down on the segment stack can also hold their own, albeit some would argue the autofocus is lacking. Autofocus is just one piece of the tech in a camera.

Almost went for the Z9 myself but a lot of people were complaining about the autofocus. Supposed to be a firmware update for the autofocus soon, if it hasn’t already been released. Anybody working with it that can talk about the improvements to the AF since the release?

I think you were getting trolled. The auto focus from day one has been excellent and has only gotten better as they have been releasing updates. I own one and don't really care to take part in forum mudslinging, but I would seriously question anyone who thinks that the autofocus is anything but good (for MILC).

There are issues with AF, but that goes for Sony and Canon flagships as well. Overall, Nikon probably still is third in AF performance, but it's a very, very close third with the Z9. You do however need to know how to use the camera. A lot of the complaints about the AF online are from people who pick it up after using a much simpler camera like a D850 and expect to be able to get the most out of it without reading the manual or conducting tests.

Excuse me, a much simpler camera like the D850? I have an ebook here explaining its auto focus system, it's 200 pages.

Yeah, not saying it's a simple camera, but the AF system is simpler.

"a lot of people were complaining about the autofocus"

A lot? This must mean you get your info from Youtube grifters. Every serious reviewer has praised the Z9 for having world class auto focus capabilities that defy belief. People are panning tiny birds in flights and it just keeps hitting it.

The only criticism is that Sony has a tiny notch up in very specific situations, yet that gap is rapidly shrinking. We're talking really marginal differences here.

> Sony showed up and showed how to do it and that was it.

The annoying thing is that Sony simply cannot do software. I love my A7S2, the hardware is excellent even years past its release, but the menus are confusing as fuck, why does it even ship with WiFi with the option to connect it to an existing network when their own software can't detect it there, or why does it need yet another piece of proprietary software to be used as a webcam instead of just implementing USB UVC...

A7IV has a new menu, and I have not needed any software for webcam use. Just plugged it in and it shows up in OBS.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com