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| sent on 16 Giugno 2026
Pros: Sharpness, color rendition, easy handling, autofocus, construction
Cons: Lens hood, lack of front cap, maf ring nut too far back
Opinion: I have now spent a month in the company of the older brother of the Z 600 f/6.3 and as for the latter the color rendering and sharpness are excellent. Even the Z 800, PF, should be used with caution in situations where the light is hard and the background is not homogeneous but nothing that affects the overall judgment in my opinion. The autofocus combined with the Z8 (I don't doubt about it even on the Z9) is very fast even set from the minimum focusing distance to infinity. Maybe even a little faster than the Z 600 with the same settings. The subject, birdlife in my case, is locked on with surgical precision and accuracy is maintained throughout the sequence if the subject is moving. On this aspect you can read various opinions, mine is that the subject is "missed" in two conditions that do not depend on the quality of the lens: when the subject is very distant and therefore occupies a small portion of the frame and in low light with a non-homogeneous background (trees or reeds to be clear). In all other cases it is almost infallible. Any further "out of focus", at least in my case, are not such but they are blurred! That is, as much as stabilization does a great job, it does not work miracles. So even if you shoot at 1/4000 of a second but the arm wobbles excessively, the shot will be blurred and nothing hits the maf. And here we come to portability. Out of habit and pleasure I almost never use a tripod or monopod. I like freehand, also because I often do subjects in flight. I can say that I have already done several outings, itinerant, of a few hours and the lens is excellent both in transport and in freehand use in terms of weight and size. The additional kilogram compared to the Z 600 is absorbed after a couple of training outings. The capture of subjects according to the lower angle of view of the 800 did not create any problem for me but I came from a frequent use of the 600 with ZTC 1.4x (therefore an 800). From this point of view I consider the 800 excellent!! Defects: I find it absurd not to equip the lens with a front cap and provide a bulky and impractical leather condom that closes the lens with a lens hood attached. Which is really annoying if, like me, you walk around with glass in your hand and want to put the lens in your backpack! The lens hood itself, made of plastic compared to the solid construction of the glass, is sized for situations of direct incident light (I assume outdoor sports) and therefore particularly voluminous. Nothing dramatic, of course, which I solved by taking a two-piece lens hood with a suitable front cap from Zemlin Photo. Now I can store my Z 800 in the walking backpack with the hood turned up and the cap without scratching the glass and in two seconds. Finally, the use of the manual maf ring is a little complicated by the fact that it has been positioned quite far back on the barrel and therefore its rotation is hindered by the lens bracket. Well made and padded bracket, although not arca swiss which, again for my use, is a godsend because it avoids me from finding the palm of my hand "sawn". I close this mine with a very personal opinion between Z 600 and Z 800: the two glasses are an excellent leap forward for nature photography and choosing between the two depends only on the way (costs aside) you are used to photographing. If, as in my case, you shoot very often at subjects a little further away and therefore the file of a 600 should often be cropped, then the 800 is the glass for you. If, on the other hand, you often shoot in conditions where the subjects are closer, the 600 is the right choice. In my case, weight, which initially worried me a lot, was not a huge problem. Of course, with the 600 you travel really light. But you lose a stop if multiplied... PS: I also tried the 800 multiplied (1.4x no more). The performance is excellent although less bright (+ISO). To be used only if necessary. |
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