I have a Z6 and a D780.    I really enjoy both cameras, but for sports, I find the Z6 almost beyond horrible.

When shooting in continuous high (which is actually pretty slow), I find it almost impossible to track the subject I'm shooting.   I shoot Friday night high school football, and to change it up, used the Z6 for a quarter.   I couldn't work my way back to my D780 fast enough, since trying to track the running backs was almost impossible.    :/

I shoot both manual mode, stay around 1/1000 on the shutter, f/3.2, auto ISO, and continuous back button focus or whatever you call it.  

Anybody else struggle with shooting mirrorless for this purpose?

Z7II doesn't have an issue, but focus is not as fast as the D850 was.  I shoot more and more people these days so the eye AF vs. focusing a millisecond faster was a no-brainer for me.   Did you get the firmware update a few months back?   The AF tracking kept up with subjects but the display yellow box was delayed slightly,   new update should have fixed it.

I have the current firmware in it.    It's a great camera.......just not for sports.     lol

I shoot sports and see probably a majority of people shooting mirrorless. I'll stick to my 850 and D5 for now though.

I have, but it’s not ideal.

I’ve been using a Fujifilm X-E2 for the past few years. With it, I tend to use longer primes and manual “trap focus” - I focus where I anticipate the action will be, then wait for it to come to me. With that technique, the AF performance isn’t an issue at all, and the “burst” ability isn’t a huge deal either. It’s much less flexible overall, obviously.

Right now, most sports/action photographers use DSLR.

I have a D850 I bought two years ago. Looked through the mirrorless options available at the time and it wasn’t even a choice.

My primary uses are sports, my daughters ballet performances, and wildlife.

The new Nikon Z9 may or may not change that.

I did a wedding with another photographer and used his Z6 and was not happy with it. Maybe I will adjust when I do go mirrorless. For now, I will just stick with my D500.
" />

great pic

I use my D500 for my daughter's dance comps.. lately when I look at what the pro photogs have at the competitions - Sony or Canon mirrorless show up more and more

Beautiful young lady.

Nice picture.

EBR

I don't shoot sports but I do shoot HS marching band field shows under mostly artificial light, and some times daylight. And I also do some concerts and theater & stage productions. I use an APS-C/DX  Nikon  D7500 & D500, and  a Sony A6600 when camera noise is a consideration.

The Nikons with my "slower than snot" focusing Tamron 18-400 lens outperforms my A6600 in artificial and low-light requirements, I get a significant number of out-of-focus shots with my A6600 even with  Sony factory lenses(18-200 & 70-350mm). I use zoom lenses because sometimes I shoot from the spectator stands, the zooms are not as sharp compared to the primes, but for me it is important because I can not easily move to a different location, but with flick of the wrist I can change the picture.

To upgrade my A6600 to my nearly my Nikon capabilities, I had to buy faster Sony prime lenses, ie F/2 or better.
====
Samal: Great photo of your lovely daughter. I have some people on my FB account that does salsa dancing, and they just a used a phone cam.

thanks... Fast lenses are a must.. I use Tamron G2 24-70 f/2.8 and Tamron G2 70-200 f/2.8...

latest Sony mirrorless have insane fast focus!  I saw a pro photog turn on a face recognition focus on the A7R3, select a face of a full speed samba dancing person and just go to town

Nikon is a distant 4th place in the mirrorless camera market behind Sony and Cannon who run neck and neck and Panasonic who have a solid 3rd place and have built a niche with video shooters and independent film makers.

Nikon is almost not even worth talking about when it comes to mirrorless cameras.

Yeah the Sony full-frame FX mirrorless camera  is a the cat's meow. I know a man who has a Sony FX camera, don't know what model, but he told he totallly believes in Tamron lenses for his Sony. I am getting too old to lug around all of this heavy camera equipment hence the DX cameras, and side benefit, it is also half the price of a FX lens.

The D500 is arguably the best sports/wildlife body out there for its price point.

A friend of mine that shoots sporting events as a profession just bought and started using a Canon R3... he says it handles like his 1D. I guess that's kind of a benchmark.

Yeah, the new Z9 is supposed to be high speed low drag as well.  Mirrorless is certainly catching up to DLSRs for action.

Here is something that popped up on my Youtube that maybe of interest to some people.

BTW if you read the comments, some people are not "too hot to trot" on the A6600. Personally, I have a A6600 and a get more out of focus shots than from Nikon D500, FWIW.

I have the 70-350mm lens and think it is okay.

"Sony's Next Generation of APS-C: the a6600, a6100, 16-55mm f/2.8 and 70-350mm"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QASmO4HjobI