# Art Morris very vocal move from Canon to Nikon (an update)



## privatebydesign (Feb 26, 2019)

So a few months ago I we had a pretty heated thread (it actually spread across several threads) that involved Art Morris’ very vocal and dismissive move from Canon to Nikon because of his perception that the D5 and D850 AF blew the 1DX MkII and 5D MkIV out of the water. He railed against the Canon AF for quite some time suggesting that the Nikon AF was his utopia and he had never found anything close to it and that his old Canon AF was akin to a blind man using manual focus.

Well here’s the funny thing, I saw him this evening and he has sold all his Nikon gear and is now using exclusively Sony, specifically for BIF he uses an A9 and the 100-400 often with the 2x TC. He says the handholdability of the effective 800mm and 92% AF coverage is the best he has ever used (along with several more very harsh digs about Canon AF).


----------



## Talys (Feb 26, 2019)

Wow. that's kind of crazy talk. It basically just sounds like he's Anything But Canon. *Shrug* 

I've tried both the D850 and the A9, and in my opinion the D850 is an order of magnitude better for BIF. But I mean, whatever, I hope Art is happy with Sony. Perhaps someone will be really happy that they got a D850 cheap


----------



## AlanF (Feb 26, 2019)

It's now all over his blog. Mind you, he rubbishes the A7RIII for BIF because of the viewfinder blackout between shots and the 100-400mm GM is hopeless with a 2xTC. It convinces me more than ever to stay with a Canon DSLR for bird photography.


----------



## AlanF (Feb 26, 2019)

It's not good news for Nikon. They have invested heavily into nature photography with the D500 and new lenses, and the D850 is a very good camera. The A9 is very good for BIF, but the D850 may be better and its sensor has twice the resolution without an AA-filter and so is much better for perched birds.


----------



## Graphic.Artifacts (Feb 26, 2019)

I think Canon dropped him from their Explorer's of Light program a few years back so I expect that explains a lot. I don't care what brand he is currently promoting but I'd listen to his advise on how to make a nice living promoting photography. As far as that goes I'd say he's done very well.


----------



## Talys (Feb 26, 2019)

AlanF said:


> It's now all over his blog. Mind you, he rubbishes the A7RIII for BIF because of the viewfinder blackout between shots and the 100-400mm GM is hopeless with a 2xTC. It convinces me more than ever to stay with a Canon DSLR for bird photography.


Yes, the 100-400 is an awful lens with a teleconverter when compared to a 1DX2, or even a 5D4. Add on top of that, while the 1.4x Sony is only awful , the 2x teleconverter is a bad joke. I have no idea what Art is talking about when he praises 400 with 2xTC compared to obviously superior Nikon or Canon alternatives.

The other BIF issue I have is a practical one with STM lenses, and also specifically with the Sony and 100-400GM. If I'm shooting BIF, without looking at the lens, I like to prefocus my lens manually to about the right distance so that when I look through the viewfinder, I see something, especially with a 100-400, where I might have taken a shot closer to me. If the next shot is at 25 yards or far away, I can prefocus there just by tactile feedback from the focus ring movement.

On most STM lenses, I can't do that -- the 100-400GM doesn't even have a tactile stop at infinity. Plus, on the Sony system, it isn't possible to set it to work like a USM ring, where it's in autofocus but you can turn the manual focus ring at any time. So if you take a bird portrait at 5 yards, and then try to shoot a BIF in blue sky at 45 yards, by the time the camera does its very slow hunt, the bird is long gone.



AlanF said:


> It's not good news for Nikon. They have invested heavily into nature photography with the D500 and new lenses, and the D850 is a very good camera. The A9 is very good for BIF, but the D850 may be better and its sensor has twice the resolution without an AA-filter and so is much better for perched birds.



I really liked the D850. I've had the pleasure of using it a few times, and I'd love a Canon DSLR that had its feature mix.


----------



## Refurb7 (Feb 26, 2019)

When he moved from Canon to Nikon, he posted a photo of a large bird taking off from a rock and claimed it could only be captured with his new Nikon. Because a bird taking off from a rock is impossible to photograph with any Canon! Ridiculous.


----------



## MrFotoFool (Aug 3, 2019)

Yes the sample photo of a pelican taking off parallel to the camera (not flying towards the camera) could have been taken by virtually any camera. That was a bad example. However I recently switched from Canon 5D4 to Nikon D850 and in my limited experience so far the Nikon is far superior for moving subjects. (It is better in other ways too, such as illuminated control buttons and mirror-lockup right on the top dial). Also for wildlife the Nikon 500 PF lens is amazing and was a reason for my move. For general photography, especially stills, Canon is certainly just as good as Nikon. But for wildlife, with this new lens and the IMO better focus tracking, I think Nikon is a definite win. BTW the 500 PF lens typically takes months to get, but my local dealer (Tucson Camera Repair) was able to get me one in three weeks.


----------



## privatebydesign (Aug 3, 2019)

Yes but his love affair with Nikon was very short lived as he jumped to Sony shortly after saying how much better than Nikon the Sony AF was. Obviously a late midlife crisis as he has now virtually dropped Sony...


----------



## Viggo (Aug 3, 2019)

privatebydesign said:


> Yes but his love affair with Nikon was very short lived as he jumped to Sony shortly after saying how much better than Nikon the Sony AF was. Obviously a late midlife crisis as he has now virtually dropped Sony...


And gone back to Canon?


----------



## AlanF (Aug 3, 2019)

He blows hot and cold. At one stage, he was going to ditch Sony because the A9 resolution was too low for him. He now loves the A7RIII because his main interest is in static birds and he doesn't really do BIF. I have occasional GAS for the 500mm f/5.6 but the 100-400mm II is my stock lens for general use which I cannot give up and the 400mm DO II f/4 is going to come into its own with the new 32.5 Mpx crops and 80 MP FF which will need f/4 or wider to get the best out of them


----------



## Sporgon (Aug 3, 2019)

Must be a real distraction to actually bringing home the bacon with top images........


----------



## unfocused (Aug 3, 2019)

Sporgon said:


> Must be a real distraction to actually bringing home the bacon with top images........


Welcome back. I was afraid we had lost you.


----------



## privatebydesign (Aug 3, 2019)

Agreed, where on earth have you been Sporgon? Apparently while you were gone Canon died and Sony basically did everything everybody ever wanted, only better! They'd change the name to SonyRumors but there is one of those already....


----------



## AlanF (Aug 3, 2019)

He can now sell books on settings for Canon, Nikon and Sony. Smart market move.


----------



## privatebydesign (Aug 3, 2019)

AlanF said:


> He can now sell books on settings for Canon, Nikon and Sony. Smart market move.


If he wasnt so disparaging about the last gear when he adopts new gear then yes, it would be a smart move, but he acts like an emotionally wrecked spurned lover....


----------



## YuengLinger (Aug 4, 2019)

privatebydesign said:


> If he wasnt so disparaging about the last gear when he adopts new gear then yes, it would be a smart move, but he acts like an emotionally wrecked spurned lover....


He might be!


----------



## Sporgon (Aug 4, 2019)

unfocused said:


> Welcome back. I was afraid we had lost you.





privatebydesign said:


> Agreed, where on earth have you been Sporgon? Apparently while you were gone Canon died and Sony basically did everything everybody ever wanted, only better! They'd change the name to SonyRumors but there is one of those already....



Many thanks guys, I'm still here. 

It's just that since Canon closed the gap on Sony with DR, CR has become so PC compared with the old days 

No, just joking, I see that there are still pretty of frustrated Sony owners coming here to try and persuade themselves that they did the right thing 

I've had a couple of projects on the go that has kept me crazy busy but should be back to normal soon.


----------



## sebasan (Aug 28, 2019)

He was dropped by the Canon program. That's the explanation on the Canon bashing. And Sony is trying to buy every youtuber they can buy. Everything seems pretty normal in the gear/photography world.


----------

