{"id":15417,"date":"2022-04-17T06:31:55","date_gmt":"2022-04-16T18:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/?p=15417"},"modified":"2022-04-17T06:31:56","modified_gmt":"2022-04-16T18:31:56","slug":"photographing-swallows-in-flight-with-the-nikon-z9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/15417","title":{"rendered":"Photographing Swallows in Flight with the Nikon Z9"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Photo<\/a>
Welcome Swallow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Photographing swallows in flight is probably one of the more challenging tasks for a bird photographer. Their small size, rapid and erratic flight all combine against success. Telephoto lenses are needed to get the subject large enough in frame but the size and inertia of these lenses make following erratic flight difficult. The camera then needs to be able to rapidly lock and track focus. To date my best success has been using a Nikon D500 with Group Area AF and a Nikkor 300mm f4PF lens. This combo is small and light and Group Area locks onto the closest subject. Ideally light and wind will be coming from the same direction so that the birds are flying relatively slowly into the wind and light.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Photo<\/a>
Welcome Swallow in flight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I have been trying to get an opportunity to trial the Nikon Z9 with swallows in flight but COVID-19 work and weather have conspired against me so far. I have not been optimistic as the lack of Group Area with the Z9 leaves no focus mode that prioritises closest subject which I find a real limitation in some circumstances. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Photo<\/a>
Welcome Swallow in flight with Nikon Z9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On a brief late afternoon trip to Lake Okareka with the the Nikon Z9 , Nikkor 500mm f4VR and TC17 1.7x teleconverter with the FTZii adaptor I found a cluster of swallows in nice light on one of the perches in the lake. The distant water gave a nice light or dark blue background depending on the light falling on it.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Photo<\/a>
Welcome Swallows<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This situation highlighted some strengths and weaknesses of the Nikon Z9 autofocus. The lack of a closest subject priority meant that grabbing focus on the perch and swallows was not nearly as easy or reliable as with my Nikon D850 or D500. It would routinely grab focus on the water ripples in the background which was frustrating. I would need to search out a high contrast area at the base of the perch to force closer focus and then recompose with the birds in frame. Once in focus the eye AF did a great job of locking onto the swallows. The sooner Nikon can release a firmware update with a closest subject focus mode, the happier I will be*. I’m sure this must be doable with all the processing power available. It is the one limitation that really makes it hard for me to wholeheartedly endorse the Nikon Z9 as a great bird photography camera body at the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using the 500mm with 1.7x teleconverter gave a 850mm field of view and with the weight of the 500mm f4 it was not the ideal option for tracking swallows in flight. On a monopod it was great for the perched birds and I managed to lock onto some birds as they hovered awaiting a landing spot. The Nikon Z9 did fine in this situation – locking rapidly and holding focus well. The 20 fps gave a number of choices of pose when selecting images to edit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding and locking focus on swallows tracking across the scene was another matter completely and very difficult to achieve reliably. In fairness this was largely due to the lens combo rather than the camera. I did manage to get a couple of sharp sequences and again the 20 fps gave some interesting images as shown in this sequence of a bird plunge bathing. <\/p>\n\n\n\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n\n\n\n

Hopefully before long I will get a chance to test the Z9 with the 100-400 and 300PF to see what I can achieve. At present I am not sure that it will do better than the D500. If I had to be sure of getting the job done, I would have most confidence in reaching for the D500 and 300mm f4PF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos with Nikon Z9 and Nikkor 500mm F4E VR with TC17 teleconverter and FTZii adaptor. Gitzo GM2942 basalt monopod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*on 14 April Nikon announced firmware version 2.0 <\/a>for the Z9 for release on 20 April with a number of exciting improvements. This includes some AF updates but nothing that suggests a closest subject priority mode analogous to GroupAF on the DSLRs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photographing a very challenging bird in flight subject with the Nikon Z9 – mirrorless compared to DSLR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"\nPhotographing Swallows in Flight with the Nikon Z9 - WildLight Photography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Photographing Swallows in Flight with the Nikon Z9\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/15417\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Photographing Swallows in Flight with the Nikon Z9 - 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episode 2. Further exploring the challenges of Swallow flight images with the Nikon Z9. Using the Z100-400 and 300mm f4PF.","rel":"","context":"In "Bird Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Bird Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/bird-photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Swallow-NZ9_0326-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Swallow-NZ9_0326-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Swallow-NZ9_0326-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Swallow-NZ9_0326-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10683,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/10683","url_meta":{"origin":15417,"position":1},"title":"Photographing Swallows in Flight","author":"tony","date":"October 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A Welcome Swallow jets past at Matata Lagoon For photographers obsessed with photographing birds, flight shots have their own special challenges depending on the bird species. Photographing swallows in flight is right up there with Fantails in level of difficulty as they are small, move fast and move erratically. They\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "birds"","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Welcome Swallow jets past at Matata Lagoon","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/WelcomeSwallow-D85_3930-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/WelcomeSwallow-D85_3930-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/WelcomeSwallow-D85_3930-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/WelcomeSwallow-D85_3930-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15491,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/15491","url_meta":{"origin":15417,"position":2},"title":"Photographing Swallows in Flight with the Nikon Z9 – episode 3 – Firmware 2.00","author":"tony","date":"May 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome Swallow banking into the sunlight. Nikon Z9 with Nikkor 100-400 Apologies to those who are sick of swallow pictures. This will be the last post for this series after the last 2 weeks exploring the Nikon Z9 with firmware version 1.00. This week we look at how it performs\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/WelcomeSwallow-NZ9_6592-2-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/WelcomeSwallow-NZ9_6592-2-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/WelcomeSwallow-NZ9_6592-2-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/WelcomeSwallow-NZ9_6592-2-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17057,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/17057","url_meta":{"origin":15417,"position":3},"title":"Bushy Park Fantails","author":"tony","date":"July 4, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Bushy Park Fantails - opportunity to practice photographing Fantails feeding in flight. Suggestion for Nikon Z9\/Z8 focus settings.","rel":"","context":"In "Bird Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Bird Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/bird-photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of Piwakawaka\/Fantail hawking a midge","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Fantail-20230607-NZ9_9841-NEF_DxO-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Fantail-20230607-NZ9_9841-NEF_DxO-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Fantail-20230607-NZ9_9841-NEF_DxO-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Fantail-20230607-NZ9_9841-NEF_DxO-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18659,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/18659","url_meta":{"origin":15417,"position":4},"title":"Nikkor Z 28-400mm f4-8 Versatility","author":"tony","date":"October 27, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Nikkor Z 28-400mm f4-8 versatility - a local trip to the park highlights the versatility to cover travel images and challenging birds in flight","rel":"","context":"In "Bird Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Bird Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/bird-photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of a Welcome swallow in flight","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/WelcomeSwallow-20241019-NZ8_9073-NEF-DxO_DeepPRIME-XD2-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/WelcomeSwallow-20241019-NZ8_9073-NEF-DxO_DeepPRIME-XD2-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/WelcomeSwallow-20241019-NZ8_9073-NEF-DxO_DeepPRIME-XD2-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/WelcomeSwallow-20241019-NZ8_9073-NEF-DxO_DeepPRIME-XD2-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15552,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/15552","url_meta":{"origin":15417,"position":5},"title":"Nikkor Z 800mm f6.3 VR S – Another Evolution in Bird Photography.","author":"tony","date":"May 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Nikkor Z 800mm f6.3 VR S - what is it's role in the bird photography ecosystem","rel":"","context":"In "Bird Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Bird Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/bird-photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of a k\u014dtuku ngutupapa\/Royal Spoonbill","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/RoyalSpoonbill-NZ9_6270-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/RoyalSpoonbill-NZ9_6270-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/RoyalSpoonbill-NZ9_6270-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/RoyalSpoonbill-NZ9_6270-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}