Z6 for wildlife BIF

spb_stan

Senior Member
My Z7 beats my D800 in almost any sort of focusing. It does not better the D850 however for action and tracking in stills but in video, it beats pretty much everything including the Sony cameras.. the weakest is in very low light but the EVF is so good for MF that simply grabbing the focus ring and manually focus and I get the lowest of light shots in-focus. Usually, when I am in very low light I am also using flash so the infrared assist pattern makes shooting in the dark more reliable than most cameras are in excellent light. It does take some getting used to since the modes and their relative strength and weaknesses are different compared to a DSLR. One thing is sure different in low light, still objects can be shot handheld without raising ISO because the IBIS is SO good. S night street scene is perfectly acceptable with 1-second exposures. The IBIS system Nikon came up with seems to be the best in the industry nowadays.

Some of my favorite lenses are not stabilized like the 24-70 2.8G and that turns into a whole different animal on the Z7. I notice I have less noisy shots with the Z7 because I seldom raise the ISO too much more 1000 and most are shot less than 200 which is feasible with such good stabilization the subject back and forward in the depth of field is the only consideration when choosing a shutter speed. That is the main feature that determines improvement in image noise, all the brands have pretty much settled in the same narrow range of noise performance. A D850, Sony a7III, Canon 1DxII, and Z7 all have about the same DR, at high ISO with only a few inflection points on the plots of ISO versus noise. No big improvement has been made since the D800 set the new standard. None of these cameras beat the 7-year-old D800 in PDR, they all have about the same graph. So the improvement has come from the opposite end of the ISO and speed range...stable images as ridiculously slow shutter speeds. For many years Nikon was the only game in town for wide DR.
So many people jumped on the 1 card slot as reason to reject the Z cameras that it will take a while for a less emotional reaction and realize they really are solid cameras with best in class build quality, matching the best in DR, and more reliable backup than the competition in real sessions or event use. I shoot with both the D800 and Z7 in events and the backup is so solid with the Z7 as is the XQD that one has to question whether any camera can be considered pro for important non-repeatable sessions if all they have is in-camera SD cards. Taking the first shot, and having that 14-bit RAW file of 100mb on a secure network drive(as many copies as desired) and editing machine 1 second later, with no intervention or fiddling, is a very nice builder of confidence. I had those raw files in an event on my laptop across the hall in a locked office and my home computer 30 miles away in almost real time. Having an assistant start a large screen slide show less than a minute after the first of 500 shots were taken is a nice feature to offer even promoters. I have 9k shots on my Z7 and have never taken the card out.
A lot of people will slowly change their mind about the advantages of the new line. It is a pleasure to shoot with. More converts will move once the Z mount advantages have lenses that show it off. As it is, the cheap little Z 35 1.8 is already the best 35mm available. The slow aperture 24-70 f/4 outclasses my 24-70 2.8G by a wide margin when using both at f/4. The lack of field curvature, distortion and its excellent corner to corner sharpness, for a $600 lens walking all over a $2000 lens is something to note. I can't wait for the 85 1.8 pr 1.2 to be released. The Nocte 55 0.95 lens should be out by Feb.

I am heading off to Turkey in 28 hours but one of the flights is such a small plane that the size and weight limits mean I am not taking any of these cameras because of the weight so I am taking my D7000, minus the grip and an 18-105 kit lens, one battery, and an 85 1.8. After that trip that includes some cross country balloon travel, I return here to Russia and then take off to Crimea but will take more camera gear. So it is starting as a photo year...
Merry Christmas!
 
Top