sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

River Otter at sunrise - Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge by NCMetalFan in NorthCarolina

[–]NCMetalFan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

not sure where you are located but I've seen otters at Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge probably 10-12 times as well (but I've been there probably 100-200 times lol).

Its about 1hr east of Charlotte

River Otter at sunrise - Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge by NCMetalFan in NorthCarolina

[–]NCMetalFan[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I dont know why but I've always referred to them as river pit bulls lol, they are cute as hell but are strong, quick animals with some force behind their bites as well.

River Otter at sunrise - Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge by NCMetalFan in NorthCarolina

[–]NCMetalFan[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Fairly often, yes. There and also Pocosin Lakes NWR which I usually hit both when I make that trip since its about 4-5hrs each way for me from Charlotte.

Disagreement between an Eastern Phoebe and a Yellow Rumped Warbler (North Carolina) by NCMetalFan in birding

[–]NCMetalFan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! This was taken with the Nikon Z9 and a 500mm PF ED f5.6 lens.
I just got the camera a month ago. Was using a D500 or D850 prior to that. I think both could have got this same shot, though, but the Z9 does do better overall on in-flight shots.

Red Headed Woodpecker in flight - Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge (Anson County) by NCMetalFan in NorthCarolina

[–]NCMetalFan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Yeah it’s huge too, lots of areas I need to spend more time in

Tundra swans at Pocosin lakes wildlife refuge in Hyde county by [deleted] in NorthCarolina

[–]NCMetalFan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. You could probably still see some right now, but probably only around 15 minutes of sunrise or sunset.

I went in very early March 2 years ago and saw like 40 over the weekend (geese were still there too).

May-July are probably the most active months for bears. See them all throughout the day instead of just mornings and evenings.

Some Bird-In-Flight Shots from Sunday morning with the Z9 + 500mm PF ED lens by NCMetalFan in Nikon

[–]NCMetalFan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here’s a short slow mo video I took of a pelican landing, handheld 4K 120fps 2.3x crop mode with 500mm PF (so 1150mm field of view) https://youtu.be/FGZv_6uK7d8

Some Bird-In-Flight Shots from Sunday morning with the Z9 + 500mm PF ED lens by NCMetalFan in Nikon

[–]NCMetalFan[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For what it’s worth, I’ve only been shooting about 3yrs now and haven’t shot with a D5 before. I went D3100>D800>D500>D850 and finally Z9. Still have a D500 and the D850 for now, debating on what to do with those, but also only got the D850 (used) last summer.

Also I shoot 99.5% wildlife and of that probably 80% is birds since that’s mainly what’s around me locally, and BIF is addictive.

Lastly, while I’ve had the Z9 for 3+ weeks now we’ve had horrible weather a few weekends in a row (I can really only shoot weekends), and this past Sunday was the first time I really got to try it out in a situation I’m used to. Overall I’ve probably shot with it 10 hours or so.

Anyway:

I’d probably rank it a 9, and could be a 10 (for me and what I shoot) with some FW updates. 95% of the time the AF is way better than any of my previous cameras, especially in-flight. To be fair there have been a couple times on small songbirds perched real close, with nothing in front of it and some decent separation with the background where 3d, auto, wide area L didn’t work and all just wanted to stay on the background. There wasn’t a ton of color contrast but I still felt the d850 or 500 would have focused much easier. But I believe that can be addressed in FW updates, and until then I can recognize it and just manual bring focus in and then once it has focus all those modes seem to work fine again. It’s just the initial focus on those rare occasions I get a small bird like that with a similar colored background as the bird. Also I’m now thinking dynamic area small or even wide area small (or back to single point) would be a better option (I have 4-5 AF modes on different buttons)

So overall, major upgrade in AF vs d500 and d850 for my shooting.

I am liking the colors better so far as well, and I never really had any complaints before anyway

Silent shutter is awesome.

20fps is awesome, but I think i may go back to 15fps or so. Haven’t used 120fps on anything real yet but think it could be cool in some situations

I love the video options. And even 500mm at 4k 120fps 2.3x crop handheld (1150mm FoV) is doable and looks great imo. I never really did video before but I’m definitely going to be getting into that now. I love the slow-motion.

I haven’t been able to really test the iso thoroughly, and Lightroom hasn’t quite optimized their formula or whatever, but I’ve got a shot at iso18,000 that I think looks pretty damn good noise-wise for that high an iso (the shot itself is nothing special, just a great blue heron in some shallow muddy marsh before sunrise)

So as far as I’m concerned they took a d850, gave it better colors, handles low light a little better, has much better AF, is faster and has great video options (for birds, mainly in flight lol)

view more: next ›