For aviation photography I use the Nikon z8 with the Nikkor z 180-600. Actually, the lens is also my sports and wildlife lens. This lens works best at golden hour light and beyond at f8 for its sweet spot. Not THAT heavy to hold with the z8 but at the end of the air show your arms are tired. Some airshows the flybys are close so 600mm is too much. Again, amazing at F8 how sharp this lens gets.

0:39  to avoid this, do what I do, when my wife ask how much the lens cost, I only mention the taxes.
;o)

Excellent analysis

Great review 👏

Nice photos & review..

if they make this lens half the size illl be buying! hopefully in the next 20 years before im too old

Great review!

When you were recording through the  600mm lens I wish you showed what you saw with your eyes (14-35mm) relative to what the lens (600mm) saw. I would give me an idea of close the lens brings subjects.

That lens is $20,000 here and very heavy.  I chose instead the 800mm ($7,700) instead.  It is a fraction of the weight (and cost).  I use it handheld even with either TC (up to 1,600mm).  To shoot hand held at 1,600mm is amazing.  The IBIS in the Z9 is incredible.  The 800mm is my new favourite wildlife & action lens.  I normally take 2 lenses when shooting long.  The 800mm and the 100-400mm.  This gives me the 2 lens option of shooting from 100mm to 1,600mm (with TCs).  The 100-400 is super sharp, and very small … the same physical size as the 70-200/2.8.

Heavy. I use heandhold my 600PF. Good with a tripod and Z9.

Brilliant review, thanks! I have two Sigma 150-600mm lenses because my first one looses AF until paired with an SLR which seems to reset it! This does beg the question, do you have the standard version of this lens, or the Sport version? Thx.

It's refreshing to see a review of a lense that features  various subjects  not soley  Birds


It be good to see how the tc  is capturing ships far offshore

You need a caddie to carry that for you.

My shoulders are sore just thinking about hand holding that lens for an airshow. I'm with you that I will never be able to purchase that lens but I picked up the 180-600 last year and was surprised how good it is so if you are looking for replacement for your 150-600 I highly recommend it. I don't think I'd ever use a 600mm prime for air show but I can see how using that quality of a lens would be fun to shoot. A show I went to last year had the 800mm with him (secondary lens).  Something about getting that close feels like it would be cool to try.  You didn't mention it in your video (At least I don't think you did) was switching over to DX crop.  I know you mentioned 4K.  I actually have fn1 set to toggle between FX and DX and its nice to be able to punch in every now and then. Great video and I hope you get monetized soon.

Same conclusion for me , the Nikon Z 600 mm F4 is very expensive I have bought the Nikon Z 800 mm F 6.3 very easy to make pictures handhold , and in the Netherlands almost 9000 Euro's cheaper

How good is the clarity of images when capturing Jets at 35,000ft  etc

I get that 15k is a lot of money to spend on anything aside from a house or a car, but I don't get why if as a hobbyist you decide to buy this lens, people assume you must have bags of money to burn. It's about priorities and might be as simple as buying a used car instead of a new, "keeping up with the Jones'" fully loaded SUV you make payments on for the next 72 months. I don't own this lens (yet) although I do own the Z800 and while the 1 kg weight penalty is a strong argument against this lens, I just got back from two weeks in Costa Rica and can say that every lumen of additonal light is worth its weight in gold. The versatility of having a 600mm or 840mm lens at the flip of switch along with the faster (compared with the Z 800mm) AF is just the icing on the cake. So I will start saving and eventually will call a copy of this lens mine (unless Sigma makes a Z-mount version of their new 300-600 f4 - that would be a tough decision!) and let people draw whatever conclusions they may regarding my occupation and income.
PS) Crazy cool images BTW.

Nice video,  how was the video Hand held shaky?

I wonder whether you had any issues related to heat distortion / heat haze and bad air quality? All of them negatively impact the image quality in a substantial way. I am in discussion with other nature photographers and they too experienced similar issues.

i subscribed for you to get monetisation