New Nikon Z7 Comments by Ming Thein

[Michael Erlewine]

Ming Thein has further review comments, quite detailed, on the Z7. Well worth looking over, IMO. He includes free color and monochrome profiles, which so far are IMO VERY good.

https://blog.mingthein.com/

I had some questions for him, which I will post here in case that some readers here have thoughts or comments on them.

Thanks for this detailed report! And thank you for the profiles. Would you remind us, please, how to install them?

I do have some concerns of my own about the Z7.

I have purchased M42 and M39 adaptors and the Novoflex Adapter set for Visoflex II/III to Leica M. This gives added focus range to lenses like the very interesting Nikkor “O” CRT lens, and others.

I am VERY interested in the announced NOCT S 0.95 lens, although it will be very expensive I fear. Since I do close-up stacked images, I am imagining that this COULD BE a key lens for my work, which involves very sharp wide-open fast lenses and kind of painting focus where I want it (like blocks of focus) and letting the rest of the image go to bokeh. Do you agree with my assessment of this forthcoming lens?

And along with this new NOCT, do you believe that a very thin extension (Z to Z) (whenever they might appear) would allow me to move closer with the NOCT than it natively does without too much quality-image damage. I know. We will have to see, but just wonder what your thoughts are on this.

I have the 50mm S and 24-70mm S lenses. I am pretty pleased with the 50mm and not-so-please with the 24-70mm S, but use it anyway because it is convenient. Anymore thoughts on the 24-70mm S.

How does the Nikon NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S Lens look in your opinion. I pre-ordered it, but fear it will be more like the 24-70mm than the 50mm S. Any thoughts?

As for L-Brackets, I have tried several and have settled on the RSS-L-Bracket for the camera and the Markins L-Bracket for the FTZ adapter. These two adapters allow me to do horizontal and vertical work with both attached. Plus the RSS allows me to adjust the 90-degree vertical side so that I can have HDMI or various other remotes, etc. without interferance.

Once again, thank you for sharing your experience and, as you can, would like to understand better how far we can push this camera for using the various “exotic” lenses I use with Z-Z adaptors or what other adapters you see that will be useful.

Lots of questions, but others may also be interested in some of these.

[chambeshi]

Thanks for posting. I come to value Ming's reviews all the more. His informed and mature assessment of the Z7 makes much sense

[Birna Rørslett]

I found very little new in the blog regarding the Z7. Only confirms that individuals have their own expectation of any hardware item.

[Michael Erlewine]

I found very little new in the blog regarding the Z7. Only confirms that individuals have their own expectation of any hardware item.

I see it differently. Confirmation from someone like Ming Thein and the fact that he is using the Z7 for considerable work tells me something. In the history of my own experience with gear, the most influential and valuable "experts" have been yourself, Lloyd Chambers, Ming Thein, and Thom Hogan. I'm sure there are others too, but these have most helped me.

[Jan Anne]

I'm just curious what you are looking for in other people opinions on gear you already own, is it conformation that you bought the right equipment?

I do value reviews and such while looking for new gear but once I have it in my hands I know very quickly if a camera or lens is suitable for my specific use, after I determined it will work for me I really don't care what other have to say especially nowadays where some "reviewers" live on reporting bad things instead of focussing on the new possibilities that the latest tech can bring to the table.

[Birna Rørslett]

One also needs to remember there are non-mentioned factors at play for the reviewers. For example, if Ming Thein had not lived in Kuala Lumpur but in a cooler climate, his assertion of the 'fabulous' battery capacity of the Z might not hold true at all. To wit, instead of his reported 1500 shots per charge I get 100-150. Chastising Z7 for not working well with wide-angle Leica lenses is pretty irrelevant and any way the Z's do work well with wide Nikkors even those from the RF era. And so on.

[Michael Erlewine]

I'm just curious what you are looking for in other people opinions on gear you already own, is it conformation that you bought the right equipment?

I do value reviews and such while looking for new gear but once I have it in my hands I know very quickly if a camera or lens is suitable for my specific use, after I determined it will work for me I really don't care what other have to say especially nowadays where some "reviewers" live on reporting bad things instead of focussing on the new possibilities that the latest tech can bring to the table.

That's not simple to answer. I value people who are more technical than I am. Of course, I am using the camera to do my own work. I have a list of comments and questions in my comment to Ming Thein, in case he has additional information, pro or con, on points I am still interested in to further clarify my own experience. I do care what certain other photographers have to say both before and after I have the item in my hands. The four photographers I mentioned I do care to hear what they have to say. I also learn a lot form posts by many of us here. My photo needs are very specialized, but I still like to pick up what I can wherever I can and from whomever makes sense to me.

[Michael Erlewine]

One also needs to remember there are non-mentioned factors at play for the reviewers. For example, if Ming Thein had not lived in Kuala Lumpur but in a cooler climate, his assertion of the 'fabulous' battery capacity of the Z might not hold true at all. To wit, instead of his reported 1500 shots per charge I get 100-150. Chastising Z7 for not working well with wide-angle Leica lenses is pretty irrelevant and any way the Z's do work well with wide Nikkors even those from the RF era. And so on.

Well, you are an expert. I would expect you might say things like that. Some of us not so expert. LOL.

[Birna Rørslett]

I do have sent the wish for an Z-Z extension tube through the official Nikon channels ... thus I'm listening as well

At the next opportunity I will discuss with my friendly Nikon repair tech  how such an extension can be made from existing parts. It'll be a make-shift arrangement but personally I don't care about nicety and finish as long as something works.

[Michael Erlewine]

I do have sent the wish for an Z-Z extension tube through the official Nikon channels ... thus I'm listening as well

At the next opportunity I will discuss with my friendly Nikon repair tech  how such an extension can be made from existing parts. It'll be a make-shift arrangement but personally I don't care about nicety and finish as long as something works.

I would be very happy to pay you to make me one as well, if it is a very thin one. You know exactly what I am trying to do, whether it is an insult to the lens or not. I don't care about "pretty" either.

[Nikfuson]

I love reading reviews and understand individual impressions/thoughts are as plentiful as ever before. If a review tells me things I already know I just read it. If however, there are things I find new/interesting for my use I certainly pay attention and bring the learning(s) into my photo-sphere. Granted, there are click-baiters out there that don’t really care about realistic, honest information. Personally I find MT’s style like good surgeon that can tell the bad news in a human way . Lloyd is too obsessed with looking for faults ‘n errors, just like a nerdy scientist.

[Michael Erlewine]

I love reading reviews and understand individual impressions/thoughts are as plentiful as ever before. If a review tells me things I already know I just read it. If however, there are things I find new/interesting for my use I certainly pay attention and bring the learning(s) into my photo-sphere. Granted, there are click-baiters out there that don’t really care about realistic, honest information. Personally I find MT’s style like good surgeon that can tell the bad news in a human way . Lloyd is too obsessed with looking for faults ‘n errors, just like a nerdy scientist.

Ones man's poison is another's joy. I appreciate Lloyd's careful presentations and don't find him negative at all, just thorough. I have tried out many of his lens reviews and he is right. The only area I can't follow him is sacrificing weight for quality, but I don't hike much.

[Michael Erlewine]

Ming Thein has (of today) offered a whole set of Camera Profiles and settings, for those interested.


I had trouble installing them. He used Mac, so here is what worked.

For windows: C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles/Settings

And in Settings, I pasted in the new profiles and they DID NOT appear when I looked at them in Camera Raw. What I had to do was REMOVE all the profiles and THEN install the new ones (and whatever old ones I had) and then it worked. FYI.

Included in this pack are:

Nikon Z7 ACR flat color profile, for use with Workflow III and PS
Nikon Z7 ACR flat monochrome profile, for use with Workflow III and PS
Nikon D850 ACR flat color profile, for use with Workflow III and PS
Nikon Z7 monochrome picture control (SOOC JPEG)
Nikon Z7 high contrast color picture control (SOOC JPEG)
Nikon Z7 low contrast color picture control (SOOC JPEG)
Nikon D850 monochrome picture control (SOOC JPEG)
Nikon D850 high contrast color picture control (SOOC JPEG)
Nikon D850 low contrast color picture control (SOOC JPEG)