So, the ZF ...

[aerobat]

Just looking a bit more at the top dial I'm almost tempted to replace the ISO dial with aperture (no markings possible though - so a free turning dial) and move it more inboard like the speed dial and have an illuminated OLED display (Fstop & ISO) left of it. Get rid of PASM and have a A on shutter and aperture dials. ISO control with a dedicated button like the other Zs.

any takers?

[Ilkka Nissilä]

I run into some glitches. I had tested the Zf with FTZ and manual lens previously and today I mounted the Z 85/1.8 and initially it was in M mode although the lens was set to A. I got autofocus to work by switching the lens to M and back to A. A few moments later the camera claimed that it can't use this memory card. Insert another memory card. I pulled the card out and reinserted it. Works perfectly. I never liked SD cards and this card had been used only a little before. I just don't seem to get along with them.

I will remount the MF lens and go back to the AF lens to see if the problem is systematic. I will get some new memory cards just in case.

I was shooting on the streets of Helsinki this morning, took some shots of maple leaves then photos of architecture, people walking on the street and for this I felt the ability to go in full stop shutter speeds was great. I would set 1/125s for the static subjects, 1/500s for walking people and somehow it just felt more natural to set it on the top panel than going through 1/3 stops with the main command dial. And love it that I can change the settings without having the camera on or to my eye. Alas, for aperture this is not possible.

[Ilkka Nissilä]

I tried to reproduce the glitch. I mounted the Milvus and camera display stated MF. Focus box color changed according to expectations. I put back the 85 Z on the camera and it was immediately in AF-C and focused automatically. So it could be a one-off glitch or maybe something I did. I remember that when I connected the Z8 to my DJI gimbal via USB cable, if I touched the MF ring the camera would stay indefinitely in MF mode until I turned it off and back on. But when the cable was not connected, the camera could be restored to AF-F by pressing AF-ON, which did not work correctly when the cable was connected. Anyway, I guess modern electronic devices are so complicated that these things happen.

I set Fn to My Menu and the top item to Auto ISO ON/OFF, this way it is just two button presses to toggle Auto ISO.

I swapped the roles of the DISP and playback buttons because that way the playback button is closer to the location where it is on the Z8.

I bought a microsd card. It is ridiculously small. Insertion is possible by removing the battery first. I doubt I will ever remove it from the camera, the chances that it would survive (not get lost) and find itself back into the camera is less than 1. I will use it when I need to store files on two cards for redundancy. If I ever need to actually use the images stored on the microsd card, I will probably use the USB to download those files, but I hope it is never needed.

[Ilkka Nissilä]

I'm very impressed with the autofocus of the Zf; it seems the decisive component to make AF work really well in a mirrorless camera is the processor (and code) rather than the much-touted stacked sensor.

A stacked sensor is great for video, fast EVF, and silent photography, but to make a mirrorless camera which has consumer-friendly pricing and can handle most things that photographers are likely throw at it, it doesn't seem necessary. I am very glad about that since for a lot of people paying 4700 € for a single camera body just to get acceptable AF is unrealistic. By contrast the 2499€ or so for a Zf includes a lot of features and flexibility and a plain version without the mixed controls would likely be several hundred euros cheaper. And that puts it into realistic reach of a lot more people.

Bird in flight and such extreme applications may still be a different story, but I'm mostly interested in seeing consistent results in basic situations such as people approaching towards the camera and capturing single shots consistently in focus. That seems to be within easy reach of the Zf user while it was not so in my experience with the Z6 II.

Although the camera isn't ideally shaped to be used with big lenses I will try to get some idea of whether it would handle indoor sports properly or not; the main reason for trying this out is not just curiosity but because I'm a lot happier shooting a lot of pics at 24 MP than 45MP, and when the shooting happens at high ISO the results are likely to be a bit better as well. However, a camera without vertical grip isn't going to work well for me for sports photography, and I'm just doing this to see if it can be done and how the results are. A Z6 III is likely to accept an add-on vertical grip like the Z6 II does.

I'm still shocked with having to use SD and Micro-SD cards in a camera that I really otherwise like very much. I just don't get along with SD at all, yet I run into it in a lot of devices. It's a bit like a paper ship ... it's going to float a while but ...

[Airy]

I've been using my Zf for a couple of days now, mostly with MF lenses : Summicron-R 50/2 and Voigtlaender 180/4, two of my favourites.

I am pleased.

Focussing aids are excellent. The Voigt was not that easy to focus on the Df (dark image) but on the Zf (and Z6ii too by the way), no problem: EVFs are fine for ageing eyeballs. Magnifier was assigned to the front Fn button, the position of which I slowly get accustomed to. Above all, the face detection system and the possibility to zoom instantly to the detected eye works great, even on statues or pictures of humans : very fast detection, and apparently very few "false positives".

IQ seems better than the (to me, good but not overwhelming) Z6ii, and subjectively closer to the Df. Noise behaviour seems better than both. The high-ISO in-camera JPEGs are considerably better (no salt & pepper, quite apparent on the Z6 ; no mush either). The processor, rather than the sensor, seems to be the cause.

Other than Ilkka, I never had bad experiences with SD cards, be it for photo apps or (in the shape of micro SD) as secondary drives - the M$ Surface laptop has a slot for such cards, and I used 64GB or 128GB storage not just for backups, but mainly to host big files (e.g. movies and copies of photos). I'd by Sandisk out of superstition maybe, because they never failed me in the past, so I bet they won't in the future. I definitely had trouble twice with CF cards though, last with the D700. Anecdotal evidence does not replace statistics, but never fails to impress.

You may by now have guessed the colour of my Zf...

[Ilkka Nissilä]

I mostly used Sandisk SD cards too; three out of six Extreme Pros have stopped working (they only suffered a few years of occasional use).  Also I had one Lexar SD card which had data corruption. I have one Progear Digital and one Lexar UHS-II card which are functioning but the Progear gave the error message today in the Zf. Altogether about 50% SD card failure rate for me. CF cards, XQD cards, and CFexpress type B cards have so far never given any errors in my use. So let's see how it goes with the Zf; now it has a new Extreme PRO Micro-SD inside for backup purposes, if I never take the second card out of the camera, it is perhaps less likely to suffer from comtamination or problems with static electricity.  Anyway, it is good to hear that others have had better luck with SD.

[MILLIREHM]

I am also impressed by the Zfs Autofocus and the feel of highbuild quality it gives and how the on/of button and wheels give  a better feeling compared to the DF. Like with the Z9 I still consider motif detection too unreliable to just go with it. Have used it today with the 500 PF (while adapting the small-rig grip) and it handles ok (but misses a vertical grip of course- so it cant replace dedicated cameras but if its your only body with you it works.
what i like is that it holds the EN-EL15 battery instead of the EN-El14 but with this compactness it requires compromises and i consider the SD card a compromise. I had no SD failure so far but A CF card failure with the D800E, the Df had one single SD and nobody cared, whereas there was nearly a storm when Z6/7 came with just one XQD/CF-Express slot (which i would prefer here as well) which lead to a thicker second generation. Here we have got two slots, i never had used Micro SD but bought one dedicated for backup purposes only and it will hopefully never leave the camera.

[MILLIREHM]

https://richardhaw.com/2023/10/14/review-nikon-zf/

 

thanks for your review.
The Zf has its ups an downs - in general and compared to the Df
i agree with a lot of your statements , especially the missing charger (btw. did not know that the EN-EL15 series got a new charger for the never versions)
Personally I like the exposure compensation wheel (yes it could have solved with a button as well)

not sure about the BW mode and whether it can make sense for me - probably works only in JPEG mode

[richardHaw]

there are more bugs. i have just updated the site

the viewport sometimes does not show the correct results

[richardHaw]

thanks for your review.
The Zf has its ups an downs - in general and compared to the Df
i agree with a lot of your statements , especially the missing charger (btw. did not know that the EN-EL15 series got a new charger for the never versions)
Personally I like the exposure compensation wheel (yes it could have solved with a button as well)

not sure about the BW mode and whether it can make sense for me - probably works only in JPEG mode

that missing charger is unacceptable

the new battery type will NOT work with cheap CCP chargers but works with the real MH-25A

[aerobat]

thanks for your review.
The Zf has its ups an downs - in general and compared to the Df
i agree with a lot of your statements , especially the missing charger (btw. did not know that the EN-EL15 series got a new charger for the never versions)
Personally I like the exposure compensation wheel (yes it could have solved with a button as well)

not sure about the BW mode and whether it can make sense for me - probably works only in JPEG mode

B/W mode creates an embedded black and white JPEG which is also displayed on viewfinder and back screen. Otherwise the RAW is colour and can also be processed as such. People doing street photography like to work this way and also see the world in B/W. I see this camera as excellent street and documentary camera and also for weddings.

[Ilkka Nissilä]

that missing charger is unacceptable

the new battery type will NOT work with cheap CCP chargers but works with the real MH-25A

You can stlil purchase the Nikon charger for EN-EL15c.

Personally I don't like USB-C charging of cameras because I don't like to connect the camera with a cable. One can trip on the cable and the camera can come crashing on the floor. For mobile phones and similar devices USB-C is fine. I'm not exactly sure if the EU is literally banning the inclusion of chargers with portable electronic products or they are just requiring that USB-C can be used to charge it with a standard charger, and additional separate battery chargers can still exist even if the manufacturers seem to be opting to not include them now. DJI didn't include a charger with my RS 3 Mini, and the Zf didn't come with one. I hope it doesn't get so bad that USB-C is the only way to charge batteries for future cameras. I read that an USB-C connector can be inserted up to 10000 times. That doesn't really tell me that it can be inserted at least 10000 times which would be my preference. I suspect pulling hard on a cable sidewise would lead to some damage over time. And these events can and do sometimes happen. I am using the USB-C to charge the DJI gimbal (but I don't use it often) and the Z8 with MB-N12 because it can charge two batteries so it's very convenient to use. But normally outside of this double battery grip context, I take all batteries out of the camera and charge using a dedicated charger.

If you have a list of bugs for the Zf which appear to be at least semi-reproducible, please do send them to Nikon as feedback, as this can help solve the issues over time.

The Zf user interface is surprisingly complex, as there are so many options on how things can be set up. I like it that they're not only being traditionalists in designing the Zf but also they are innovating and testing new ways of using a camera in this model.

[Ilkka Nissilä]

B/W mode creates an embedded black and white JPEG which is also displayed on viewfinder and back screen. Otherwise the RAW is colour and can also be processed as such. People doing street photography like to work this way and also see the world in B/W. I see this camera as excellent street and documentary camera and also for weddings.

I really like using the B&W mode switch as it can make composing B&W images easier, when you can see the approximate image in the viewfinder and back LCD. Previously it was behind a menu dive and there were fewer options to how to configure the B&W treatment in the camera. I am testing and using deep tone monochrome now. ;-)  I like things punchy. Being able to go to colour with a flick of a switch makes it so easy. And the NEF file is fully colour as before.

[aerobat]

In the neighborhood these chicken were immediately detected by the AF which surprised me as their shape is certainly not common. In general the AF is a huge improvement over the Z6ii:

[Ilkka Nissilä]

It looks like I'm getting about 4500 shots per battery charge. Some claim that Nikon Z cameras have issues with battery capacity ... pretty funny.