Z6iii review

[Paliswe]

Well, not a type of review that you find on Youtube, there are already too many explaining the same thing. I will try to write about some of the things that I have noticed, that is not mentioned on the tube. Sometimes a little bit quirky, sometimes good. I'm only a photographer, I'm not doing any video, so I will not cover that.

It takes some days to set up the camera, if you are going to fully exploit it. There must be many hundreds possibilities that can be set up and combined. Almost any button can be assigned to something else. Keeping track of what you have assigned to all buttons is challenging, especially for an old man like me. The youtuber Steve Perry has started doing a spreadsheet where it's possible to write down what's assigned to some buttons and functions. The settings can be saved to a file which only the same model of Nikon camera can read. If you have several cameras, why is it not possible to export from one camera and import to another camera, at least when the buttons and the functions are the same? Or some computer program that could read the information and write it out in a plain text file?

If you have several lenses with Fn-buttons, you don't automatically get the same function on all lenses, every lens has to be set up individually, since the camera remembers not only the lens-Fn-button, but also what lens it is. You can also set different settings when in photography mode and in view mode. I use this by setting 'display' in lens-Fn-button i photography mode and 'Zoom' on the same button in View mode. One press on the button I display the whole picture, one more I will zoom in.

One thing I find amazing is the IBIS, much better than in my older Z6 (i). I took a picture that was absolutely sharp, despite the speed was 1,6 sek! (Focal length 84 mm) (File attached). My 24-120mm lens doesn't have VR, but it's not needed anyway with this amazing IBIS. The drawback is that there are some rattling every time you turn the camera on or off.

Anyone else that has some comments on this camera, not mentioned by the 'average' reviewer?

 

[Paliswe]

Just found out that a part of the rattling is not only the IBIS locking up, but also the automatic cleaning that is set to ON default.
It's a little bit confusing however, in the menu it says "Automatic cleaning -> OFF" as default, meaning that you DO clean the sensor when you turn the camera OFF! You have to go one step further to the right in the menu where you select "Cleaning OFF" and THAT means No Autocleaning. Not particular intuitive!

 

[blackstar]

I wonder if my z6ii and z8 have the same amazing IBIS?

 

[Paliswe]

I think I have seen that Z6ii claims 6 stop for IBIS, and 8 stops for Z6iii, but I', not sure.
About Z8 I don't know.
How good IBIS works also depends if the lens has VR. I once tried my old 200mm F-lens on my Z6 and that didn't work out well, probably because I didn't know at the time, that I had to enter what focal length I had on the camera.
[EDIT] I did the F-mount-200mm-test again, with my lens from the 1970's on my Z6iii. First I set the focal length to 58 mm and the picture jumped around everywhere. Then I changed to 200mm and the picture was very stable. A very big difference!

 

[Paliswe]

NX Studio, the free photo editing software for Nikon files, can be used to do an edit, save the edit parameters to a file and then load it into the Z6iii so it can be used as a preediting adjustment when taking the photos. That will save time since adjustments are made when the picture is taken. Everything is explained in the video

Useful if you are taking some thousand pictures at some event... although it requires a little planning in advance.

 

[blackstar]

NX Studio, the free photo editing software for Nikon files, can be used to do an edit, save the edit parameters to a file and then load it into the Z6iii so it can be used as a preediting adjustment when taking the photos. That will save time since adjustments are made when the picture is taken. Everything is explained in the video

Useful if you are taking some thousand pictures at some event... although it requires a little planning in advance.

Is this feature only applied to Z6iii, not other Z's?

 

[Paliswe]

As it appears, it's only advertised to Z6iii, not any other Z's.

 

[Paliswe]

Since I'm a kind of geek, I have to try all new stuff, regardless if I need it or not. But on the other hand, you don't know if you need it if you never try it!
The Z6iii has pixel shift, which was a hype when it came on other cameras but now almost nobody talks about it. It may have its advantages but it also has some drawbacks.
There are different numbers of pictures you can take where there is a shift of the sensor and in that way get better resolution. What I tested was taking 16 pictures.
I started by setting up the camera on a tripod in the open window to photograph a road sign, about 300 m away. The first thing I noticed was that the movement of the air makes the picture "move", so even if you take 16 identical pictures, there will be some shifts already through the air. The second thing I noticed was that the camera is extremely sensitive to the slightest movement during the photographing. Also, if some objects in the picture moves during taking the pictures, the result can show up strange when merged.
On the first attempt I forgot to set a delay on the start, which meant that when I pressed the shutter button the result was very bad, due to the camera shaking.
The next attempt was made with half of the camera outside the window (to avoid the airflow in the window) and setting a start delay of 5 seconds. I took all pictures with electronic shutter, to avoid any movement.
To compile all the pictures, you need to have NX Studio which can be downloaded for free. The 16 images, each about 25 MB, are merged to a 192 MB image and have the extension NEFX. It can then be opened in Lightroom.
The images shows a single 24 MB image and the merged image of 192 MB, heavily cropped. In the 24MB image, it is not possible to read any text, which is possible in the merged image. It's even possible to see a bicycle symbol in the merged picture.
This may be useful for landscapes and possibly if you want to have very high resolution of an object. The alternative is to take several images that overlap each other and make a panorama. One advantage is that noise is reduced when merging the images.
For me, I will probably use it very rarely. Anyone else that has found it useful in some situations?

 

[Paliswe]

With the Z6iii, no battery charger is supplied, according to new EU rules. So I tried to comply with EU and charge my camera via USB. It turns out it only work when the cable is a USBc <-> USBc and that is supplied with the camera. But the cable is only 60 cm so I had to buy a longer cable. Then there's next problem. The camera only charge with a charger that can supply 27W and supports 5V och 9V. Another turn to the shop and buy a 220V -> 5V/9V/27W adapter. Now the camera charges!
I have been traveling the last month and found it rather boring to charge the camera (not be able practically to use it while charging), despite the fact that I have two batteries. So now I have decided to buy a separate charger.
I found one cheap that charges two batteries, Jupio for just 299 SEK (27,50 USD) but I found it rather suspicious when it only talked about EN-EL15 batteries without specifying a, b or c. Nikon is very fuzzy about this. After extensive research I found that it only charges EN-EL15-batteries of Jupio brand! So Jupio was no option anymore.
I searched Nikon's website which gave rather vague information about their chargers for their EN-EL15 batteries. They have a charger called the MH-25a which will charge the EN-EL15a but then it didn't say anything more. They like to talk about what it can do but never what it can't do. Since it doesn't have a "c" at the end, I kept looking.
Finally I found the MH-34 which explicitly said it would charge the EN-EL15b and EN-EL15c! That one uses USBc <-> USBc cable and I have already bought an adapter.
Now I have ordered one from Nikon directly, since my ordinary "photo shop" don't have it on their website.
Nice with regulations from the EU but it's not always the best way to solve problems!

 

[Clovishound]

I went to Nikon's website and looke up the MH25a charger that came with both my Z7ii and Z5. It states that it is compatible for the EN-EL15 and EN-EL15a batteries. It charges my EN-EL15c batteries just fine, and again, it was supplies with the camera for charging the battery. I looked at the specs on the charger and it lists the input as 100-240 volts. It has the standard 110V plug used in the US, don't remember if it came with a 240V plug adapter.

 

[Camera Fun]

Just have to ask but why does the EU regulate having a battery charger???

 

[Clovishound]

They are ostensibly trying to reduce electronic waste by mandating certain types of electronics all use usbc cords for charging and not including a charger with each device. Digital cameras are one of those types of electronics. In theory, every household will have one charger to rule them all. I'm all for compatibility, but usually these heavy handed rules have unintended consequences that are often worse than the initial problem.

 

[Paliswe]

The main problem with USB-c is that the EU has only standardized the physical format, not the electrical.
There are three main groups of USB-c for the electrical versions, which in turn each have some subgroups. Originally, USB was at 5V and 0.5A to 1A. With 3A you can't get more than 15W out. As the need for fast charging increased, more power was required and then the voltage had to be raised so that the current wouldn't be too high in the cable. Now there are both 5V, 9V, 15V and 20V.
To complicate things further, there is electronics inside a USB-c connector. It "talks" to the socket it is connected to so the whole thing resembles a tango with three parties, the power source, the consumer and the cable in between. All three of these must fit together in order to get the full effect. It's all ending up into everybodys need to buy a separate battery charger and cable for each item (almost).
It's good to have a standard, everyone has their own... it's a total mess!
It's worth noting that you can't extend a USB-c cable. If the cables are different (and you cannot tell the difference, nothing is marked), you may end up with one "standard" on one end of the cables and a different "standard" on the other end of the cables. This can result in overloading one of the cables. Buy one long cable, don't combine two shorter.