So, the ZF ...

[aerobat]

I'll pick up my own Zf on Monday perhaps I like it too??

Happy Monday Birna!

[Birna Rørslett]

More like a bleak and wet-wet Monday



Anyway, the camera does work. I might like it.

[aerobat]

a very interesting perspective - deep blacks - and the reflections on the opposite side... like it

[Birna Rørslett]

I just set the camera to 'B/W' mode. Thus this is more or less straight off the camera. As I had initially set RAW mode to 'high efficiency', my Photo Ninja didn't like the NEFs at all. It will digest the usual compressed NEFs though. Anyway, this first test shot was processed in NX Studio v.1.50, which supports Zf. A clunky program and even on a fast PC with massive RAM and NVMe disks it runs quite slowly. Oh well. Software never was Nikon's forte.

Later that day I managed to connect with Snapbridge on my phone so as to allow GPS data. Not ideal, but better than nothing. I'm waiting for my Foolography Unleashed'22 to support the Zf. Support is promised and those guys tend to respond quite fast.

I'll take the opportunity to sell off my unmodified Z6 as I never really liked that camera and it has been sitting unused for a while.

[Erik Lund]

Congratulations on the new camera B! As always, looking forward to your images and findings 

[Ilkka Nissilä]

I just set the camera to 'B/W' mode. Thus this is more or less straight off the camera. As I had initially set RAW mode to 'high efficiency', my Photo Ninja didn't like the NEFs at all. It will digest the usual compressed NEFs though. Anyway, this first test shot was processed in NX Studio v.1.50, which supports Zf. A clunky program and even on a fast PC with massive RAM and NVMe disks it runs quite slowly. Oh well. Software never was Nikon's forte.

Later that day I managed to connect with Snapbridge on my phone so as to allow GPS data. Not ideal, but better than nothing. I'm waiting for my Foolography Unleashed'22 to support the Zf. Support is promised and those guys tend to respond quite fast.

I'll take the opportunity to sell off my unmodified Z6 as I never really liked that camera and it has been sitting unused for a while.

I've found that while HE* saves space, the files take a lot more time to open on my computer (using Lightroom Classic) when I have a lot of files in the catalog, it starts to be a bottleneck. This is on the Z8. I have not tried HE as it is reported to be more lossy. I decided to go with lossless compressed for most projects, and will only switch to HE* if it looks like I might run out of card space at some point during the day.

On the Zf, I find HE* to open in OK time, and the advantage is that there is almost unlimited buffer even when writing to both cards when using that format. Well it's not technically unlimited but anyway allows a ridiculous number of shots to be taken in a short time.

I guess HE and HE* require more camera-specific algorithmic support from the raw conversion software than the lossless compressed format? Lightroom Classic seems to support what I've presented to it. But when the Z8 was new, if I used HE* it would not open lens profiles correctly automatically. When I switched to lossless compressed on the camera, the lens profiles were automatically applied. However, that has been fixed since then by Adobe, and now both formats have automatic profile support.

I am glad that you got the Zf; I've found this camera so much fun to use.

[Birna Rørslett]

I'm beginning to warm to the camera. It has the 'personality' I missed so much with the Z6/7 models. OK, for the Z7 I dedicated my Z7 bodies to studio macro work and for this purpose they do as they are told, thus no complaints there. I have some Z5 and Z6 modified for 'full spectrum' which opened a pandora's box of issues and I won't go into these here. The Z9 is a tough picture-making machine that can take most of what is thrown at it, and my only issue is its weight since my physical strength has declined after years on hormone treatment. However I'm still amazed of what the Z9 can deliver thus it'll stay. My only non-modified Z6 will go as soon as I can set it up for sale. The Z30 is a cute camera for unpretentious shooting and can mount my X-ray lenses as well. Ruth borrows it from time to time with the kit zoom lens 16-50. My black Z fc is of course as cute as it gets, at least before the Zf arrived, and I like it still very much.

Anyway, I have a suspicion the Zf will be my standard working companion hereafter, of course not for the dreary scientific stuff, but when I wish to enjoy shooting.



Working with my manual Laowa wide-angle lenses is a breeze and focusing couldn't be easier. The image is with the 9mm f/5.6 Laowa of an immense 135 degrees field of view. Just set the camera to silent mode and the lens to 1m and fire away.

[Bent Hjarbo]

Congratulations with the Zf

[dko22]

look forward to more stories on the Zf. I'm certainly going to wait and see what the Z6iii brings to the table but it's true that the Z6 has no particular "soul" and as a lover of the Df, I can't rule out getting the Zf at some point, despite some reservations (and it doesn't have a CF card slot...)

[aerobat]

Our son goes to the tractor test tomorrow so we trained in the dark - with the Zf the 'night owl' @ ISO 64'000 and the Z 35mm is pretty flare resistant

[Birna Rørslett]

If you brighten the shadows will there be details or is everything buried in noise at ISO 64K??

I agree on the flare resistance of the Z 35/1.8, it is pretty good.

[Birna Rørslett]

Like the smaller brother Z fc, the Zf allows using tripod attachments on the 105mm f/2.8 MC Nikkor Z and the lens can be rotated in any direction. This is not possible with the grip-enlarged Z5/6/7 or the Z9, the latter due to its battery pack. Not tried with the Z50, which probably won't allow free rotation, or the Z8 the latter I haven't tested in this regard.

It feels like a return to normalcy for me. Close-ups and 'macro' require tripod support for best results, and hanging the lens out from a camera mounted on a tripod is obviously not optimal. Not at all.  A possible exception is with the Z9 as the lens is not heavy compared to the hefty camera body, so in this case the setup isn't that bad.

However nothing beats using a rotating tripod collar .... in case the shown collar is 'iShoot Duomianshou ZMC 105', which in stock configuration don't allow rotation. However, 5 minutes with a Dremel solves that "problem" easily. I replaced the large plastic lens hood with a no-name metal hood to make less interference near 1:1.

The 105 MC on the Z f, taken with the APO-Lanthar 66/2 and the Z fc.

[Luc]

The Zf has a new feature for subject recognition in manual focus mode. How does this work? And does it work with lenses with and without electronic contacts?

[Birna Rørslett]

The Zf has a new feature for subject recognition in manual focus mode. How does this work? And does it work with lenses with and without electronic contacts?

Haven't explored this -- yet. Will try.

However the feature feels a little backwards for me as I don't need the camera AI to understand what the subject is and whether or not it should be in focus.

[aerobat]

If you brighten the shadows will there be details or is everything buried in noise at ISO 64K??

I agree on the flare resistance of the Z 35/1.8, it is pretty good.

Birna, I pushed the shadows to the max and picture starts to fall apart and shows a circular banding pattern.