Author Topic: Nikon Z - A Gift To Photographers In More Than One Way  (Read 2269 times)

Chip Chipowski

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Nikon Z - A Gift To Photographers In More Than One Way
« on: August 25, 2018, 00:13:46 »
First of all, nice coverage and discussion of the Nikon Z on this forum.  I am interested in the camera but not in my budget.  In terms of camera equipment that I actually own and use in the near term, this is still great news for me.  I would expect this new mount and the lack of AF-D AF support will free up some old Nikon equipment on the used market.  Cheers to the upgraders!

Airy

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Re: Nikon Z - A Gift To Photographers In More Than One Way
« Reply #1 on: August 25, 2018, 07:56:50 »
Yes. Reminds me of the eighties, when Canon switched mount from FD to EF : I bought all my lenses 2nd hand, happy me. And some were good enough to be used again, 25 years later, on OM-D.
Airy Magnien

Ilkka Nissilä

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Re: Nikon Z - A Gift To Photographers In More Than One Way
« Reply #2 on: August 25, 2018, 12:35:46 »
I doubt that this will be reflected in the used market situation in the short term. Eventually when a more complete set of native Z mount lenses is available, yes, only partly compatible lenses may lose value but this will take many years. Many people already sold their AF and AF-D lenses years ago when AF-S became available. Some are still using them with DSLRs. E.g. for the 200 AF D Micro, it works fine as a manual focus lens for macro (so AF-D makes little difference apart from short throw). Another lens I still have is the 105 DC which I have no intention of ever selling.

If anything, the new Nikon mirrorless and FTZ adapter can help maintain or even increase the market value of compatible lenses, because in the past few years people looked at the adapters available for Sony (Canon adapters to Sony worked better), they looked at Nikon's poor DSLR LV and video AF (Canon have had dual pixel AF providing good video and LV AF) and assumed the worst about future usability of Nikon mount lenses. I believe this is one of the main reasons why Nikon lost market share and Canon and Sony increased. Now that we can see that our existing AF-S/AF-I/AF-P lenses can work fine on Nikon mirrorless cameras, this has the chance of increasing Nikon's status in the market and the attractiveness of their F mount lenses as well. That some features are missing from the first Z6/Z7 cameras isn't really relevant: fully functional autofocus has been confirmed and we can just wait for the right feature set to appear on mirrorless, to use our existing and new lenses on them, and to gain fully functional live view and video AF, silent shutter capability with viewfinder, stabilization using non VR lenses and all the other new features.

So, maybe screwdriver AF lenses lose a bit of value on the used market - or not. Because the new mirrorless can have the chance of putting Nikon back on the map again, the price of even partly compatible Nikon lenses such as AF (D) Nikkors may increase. Even AF(D) lenses gain stabilization and new focusing aids in the viewfinder, so perhaps they will become more attractive than they were a moment ago.

JJChan

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Re: Nikon Z - A Gift To Photographers In More Than One Way
« Reply #3 on: August 26, 2018, 03:50:39 »
I'm looking forward to switching from Sony A7II to Z6. I have only 2 native E mount lenses but mainly use the Sony for adapted lenses.
People complain about Nikon software - that's because they don't use the Sony stuff which makes View and Capture NX-D look slick and fast. The Sony produces lovely pictures but I haven't been able to get used to the UI and the camera is slow.

I will trade the Sony and will wait for Novoflex to bring out some good adapters -even if they are dumb and non electronic. Imagine - any lens with a usable fast camera and software that I can use...

Pentax SMC-Macro-Takumar 100mm f4 M42 straight out of camera @f4 (A$120 on eBay)

Jan Anne

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Re: Nikon Z - A Gift To Photographers In More Than One Way
« Reply #4 on: August 26, 2018, 11:32:22 »
People complain about Nikon software - that's because they don't use the Sony stuff which makes View and Capture NX-D look slick and fast.
Originally the Sony a7 came with a free Sony only version of Capture One which I still use today, though I went through some paid upgrades to stay up to date.

Here's the current CO offerings, a paid Sony only version on the far right:
https://www.phaseone.com/en/Online-Store.aspx

The NEF files have RAW information which can only be used with Nikons own software, the Sony RAW files are open for all the RAW editors so there's no need to stick with the slow and dodgy Sony software, hence they provided Capture One as a workable solution for proper post processing.
Cheers,
Jan Anne

Per Inge Oestmoen

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Re: Nikon Z - A Gift To Photographers In More Than One Way
« Reply #5 on: September 04, 2018, 14:58:37 »

The NEF files have RAW information which can only be used with Nikons own software, the Sony RAW files are open for all the RAW editors so there's no need to stick with the slow and dodgy Sony software, hence they provided Capture One as a workable solution for proper post processing.


Be that as it may, I regularly use RawTherapee and Darktable RAW conversion programs under Linux to convert both D750 and D850 files. No problems, and the results are very fine.

www.rawtherapee.com

www.darktable.org

With Linux and Free Software, there is no Product Activation, there are no subscription-based Software-As-A-Service schemes that prevent us from accessing our own files and data when the day comes when the software service becomes unavailable or support for the specific program version ceases.

I encourage all to try out Linux and Open Source software, for the above reasons.
"Noise reduction is just another word for image destruction"

Per Inge Oestmoen

Airy

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Re: Nikon Z - A Gift To Photographers In More Than One Way
« Reply #6 on: September 04, 2018, 18:32:26 »
I know RawTherapee, but DarkTable seems to go beyond in terms of filing capabilities. Thanks for the hint.
Airy Magnien