When I changed from Nikon to Canon back in 2020 I was sure that this was a one-way ticket.
Changing brands is not only an expensive operation, but it is also a bit like changing lanes in a traffic jam: Once you change lanes, the one you were in before starts moving...(*)
After I sold all of my Nikon gear and bought an EOS R5 with some lenses at the end of 2020 I became a very happy EOS R5 user for about 2 years... But, and even though I still consider R5 as a fantastic camera, I started to be disappointed/frustrated with the lens releases and lens roadmap by Canon for budget-limited wildlife shooters. I felt like having to choose between an affordable F8 or F11 lens (great in good light but unusable at dawn or in the late afternoon), an overpriced RF 100-500 F7.1 (nikon is making a 200-500 F5.6 since 2015 for less than half of the price), or going far over my budget for fast long teles... (*)
Meanwhile, Nikon released their Nikon Z8, the camera that -TMHO-, Z7II should have been, at least at that time point...
I was watching every single Z8' video Nikon Europe or Nikon USA published on their YouTube channels... And wow... What a camera...
After every new publication, a feeling of growing regret about my move was walking into my mind...
When Nikon launched their Z 180-600 F6.3 on June 21st 2023 with a price of under € 2000, I started the first time to count the resell value of my Canon gear...
Last Friday I sold all my Canon gear and got my Z8 with the lenses I wanted and needed for my work at CAMERA-TWEEDEHANDS.NL in Geldermalsen- The Netherlands.
My experience at camera-tweedhands.nl was: Crystal clear communication both on the phone and by email. The camera-tweedehands.nl-team has an excellent product knowledge, good trade-in prices and extensive choice of second-hand photo material. Correct handling, both technically and financially. Highly recommended, both for new and used photo material.
I bought my nikkor Z180-600 F4-F6.3 VR at Art and Craft Media in Ghent(Belgium). Excellent service and product knowledge as well as good prices.
I'm very happy to be a 100% Nikon user again...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (*) Update:Just a week after my switch, Canon released what I was waiting for, the CANON RF 200-800MM F6.3-9 IS USM. I was totally unaware of this... Do I regret my move? No. I wanted the Z8 since its release, and it surpasses by far my expectations... Would I have moved back to Nikon if I had known the CANON RF 200-800MM F6.3-9 IS USM was right around the corner? Very probably not, for financial reasons... -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Body and handling: The Nikon Z8 isn't a small nor a light camera body. It is more bulky and heavy than the EOS R5 I used during the last 3 years (910 grams vs 738 grams including battery and memory cards). The Nikon Z8 is a rugged pro-spec body with an impressive combination of amazing image quality, high resolution, high speed, and mind-blowing autofocus... On the other hand, it's significantly smaller and lighter than the Z9 while keeping the same specifications, dedicated buttons, and button layout.
The Z8' super-fast sensor and fully electronic shutter succeed in producing full-resolution images at very high speed for wildlife, action, and sports.
Autofocus:
The Canon EOS R5' AF is still fantastic as of today (and great @ the time of it's relase back in 2020), but the Nikon Z8'AF is even better, faster, smarter... I was able to compare this with my Canon 100-400 EF with my fringer adapter on the Z8 vs the same lens with EF to RF adapter on EOS R5.
With native Z lenses on Z8 all AF experiences are what I hoped for. Finally a mirrorless Nikon with Nikon D500'AF capabilities, and better...
I was testing my Z8 + Z180-600 with my dog running really fast in my direction and I had a 100 % success rate. Wow.
Circumstances were far from optimal because it was getting dark so I went into very high iso... Thank you Nikon!
Here underneath from the above session, image 0734, taken handheld @ ISO 16000 , with all IQ characteristics as it came straight out of the camera, resized to 1000px widest side, with sharpness just like all the others.
While I loved the dual back button AF-ON setup on my R5, I was spending quite some time making a similar setup on my Z8 and it's functioning as I intended.
I deactivated AF on my shutter button(menu a6), and menu a1 setting on "release". I use the AF-ON button for one AF mode and dedicate the sub-selector as a secondary AF-ON button for another instant-accessible AF mode. All this is saved in one shooting bank. I left the Fn1 to choose the shooting bank.
The focus-mode button in the front of the camera is great for AF- selection and the Fn2 is set to RESET my focus point.
I activated the extended menu settings and saved these settings in my menu bank A.
Image quality
Z8 jpegs straight out of the camera are outstanding. TMHO, this was never the strength of Nikon, Fuji was mastering this much better, until now.
On a recent three cushion billiards competition I used for the very first time my unprocessed jpegs for nearly all of my published pictures on my carom website.
Only for one, I used ADL (Active D-lightning) in Nikon View because of shadow in a face.
I'm very happy with the skin tones and AWB Z8 delivers SOOC, even in rather difficult lighting situations like a billiard club..
Features:
I'm too early in my user findings to comment on all kind of features, and I probably even won't go any deeper on this, but one very important feature that took my attention is the incredible image stabilisation, until now only tested with the combination of the Z8 in-camera stabilization and the VR of the 180-600mm.
I managed with ease, (only 1 trial) to get a sharp image of the nose of my little baby shooting at 1/8 of a second while handholding this camera-lens combo...
Not so happy with... As a downside, the battery doesn't last for many shots. Still have to find out how to save battery power.
Important to mention is that the underneath images have been taken handheld. ( For handhold wildlife photography I normally try to work at shutter speeds of minimum 1/2x focal length or faster)
As a long-time Nikon user, I had the different versions of this kind of telezoom. From the original 80-400 AF VR, over the 80-400 AF-S VRII and the 200-500 AF-S F5.6.
During my 3 year as a Canon user, I had the excellent and lightweight RF 100-400 F5.6-F8, the EF 100-400 and I did a one-week test drive with the RF 100-500
Compared to all former or related Nikon versions, the Z100-400 shines. Sharpness and overall IQ beat all former Nikon versions by a big margin and the AF speed and accuracy is VERY fast.
The Z 100-400 focuses also significantly faster than the Canon versions, but that might be related to the outstanding Z8' AF engine.
Last but not least, the Z100-400 weight, -even though not "lightweight"- is just within my margin of portability limits for a longer walk and handheld shooting, whereas the Nikkor 200-500 and the Z 180-600 are too heavy for my liking....
In the underneath 100% crop I pasted a view of the original image and the exif.
One more, resized after cropping to 1000p widest side.
From this afternoon, heavily cropped, taken in dark, cloudy weather.
This image was underexposed and has been post-processed while lifting shadows and exposure.
Just like all Nikon cameras since D800 & D7000, Z8' NEF files have a very large exposure latitude.
(*) 
Last Friday I sold all my Canon gear and got my Z8 with the lenses I wanted and needed for my work at CAMERA-TWEEDEHANDS.NL in Geldermalsen- The Netherlands.
, with all IQ characteristics as it came straight out of the camera, resized to 1000px widest side, with sharpness just like all the others.
