I'm using a Nikon D500 with a 200-500 lens. I want to improve the sharpeness of wildlife photos, expecially of birds. A friend uses a Canon mirroless for his photos and the sharpeness is incredible. I'd prefer sticking with Nikon rather than making the switch to a new system (Canon) although i have nothing against Canon. i'm thinking of buying a Nikon Z8 and a telephoto, zoom or prime. I'd like to keep the cost uner $10,000 so some of the expensive primes are out of reach. I like the advantages of a zoom-telephoto but concerned i might need to go to a prime to get the sharpeness i want. Advice/suggestions?
Welcome to our forum! I'll put it this way, you can get equally sharp wildlife photos with Nikon as Canon. It's partly down to the equipment and partly down to skill and practice, but Nikon is definitely not at a disadvantage.
I think the answer for bird photography is to get the Nikon Z 600mm f/6.3 ($4300 with current sales). Combined with the Nikon Z8, the total cost is $7800. That affords some wiggle room in your budget to get some fast memory cards, a good gimbal head, or another lens to cover the wider focal lengths. It's also light enough to handhold and is extremely sharp, on par with the exotics.
You could instead (or in addition) go with the Nikon Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3. It's heavier and not as optically perfect as the 600mm f/6.3, but it's more versatile and costs $1700. It focuses nearly as fast as the 600mm f/6.3 and is sharper than your 200-500mm.
Or you could consider getting one of the F-mount exotics used, like Libor talked about in this article recently: https://photographylife.com/is-now-the-time-to-buy-used-nikon-dslr-lenses
At this point, we've reviewed every Nikon Z telephoto lens in the lab for sharpness, so our lens reviews here will be a useful resource: https://photographylife.com/lens-reviews
Mr Cox gave You a good advice.Nikon has an option to adjust camera sharpness.You have many other options, one of them is a Fujifilm X-H2 with Fujinon 150-600 mm with a total price under 4000 USD. Thank You.
I'd go with the 600mm f/6.3 and the Z8. That's the best handheld combination in Z mount. For critically sharp bird feathers, I'd choose this lens over the 180-600, which won't give as much cropping power compared to the 600mm f/6.3 or the ability to get sharp feather detail on the edges of full-frame. For birds in 95% of cases, you'll never miss the zoom, especially with the field of view on full-frame.
The 500PF adapted would also work and be much cheaper.
The advice of Mr Polak about 500PF is very good but first of all it must look inside of D500 where, like in my D850 there is Photo Shoting Menu where it is Set Picture Control. When it clicks on it there are several options like Standard,Neutral,Vivid and so on. I clicked on Neutral and appeared Sharpening ,Clarity ,Contrast, etc.First image is with Sharpening and Clarity at 0 the second is with Sharpening and Clarity at maximum and the last one is with Sharpening at maximum and Clarity at 0 .
Do you know what lens your friend is using with his Canon? Technique also plays a critical role. Are you talking about stationary birds or birds in flight? For example, for birds in flight I tend to go with at least a 1/1500 shutter speed. You may not have reached the limit of what your D500 can do!
Also, reach is a big factor in favor of crop sensors, like the camera you have. It may be more difficult and expensive to get the same zoom that you're used to with a full frame camera. The Fuji that Radu mentioned is a great idea in that case.
I got to hold that 180-600 lens that Jason mentioned and it is incredible btw!
@johngraybosch Has a good point. For the price of a Z8, you can upgrade your lens as well. I actually still use the D500 (though planning on getting a Z8 the moment I can), and it's 95% of the camera I need for most scenarios. Mirrorless does have some advantages though, not denying that.