The new Nikon mirrorless system

[Frank Fremerey]

PPS: silent. great. love the silent release. beautiful.

[Peter Connan]

Frank, it almost seems as if you are retrospectively falling in love?

[Eddie Draaisma]

All the Nikons I bought during the last four decades came in yellow-gold boxes, this one arrived in a black box with a yellow bottom. A free Sony 64GB 440/400MB/s XQD card was in the box.

First impression: body is a little smaller than expected, but with a very good grip and the (not too small) AF-ON button at the right location. The 35/1.8S is longer than expected, a little bit weird and beercanish. It has a metal focus ring. Together not too light, and not too heavy.
This time no need to wait for the battery to charge; I already own a pile of EL-EN15 batteries for the other Nikons.

I must have searched in vain for a rather long time to find the auto-magnify function (for Z lenses with focus ring movement detection), but it doesn’t seem to be there. So I assigned the 1:1 zoom function to the red video record button.  The good news is that manual focus override is always possible without touching a button at all (like with an AF-S lens on a DSLR). Of course this makes only sense if AF activation is removed from the release button. Fuji and Sony don’t have this…

The FTZ adapter works well with AF-S G and E lenses in AF mode; it is very very very easy now to pinpoint focus with the 58/1.4 NeoNoct at F/1.4.
For all lenses with a CPU it seems that the Z7 always closes the aperture down up to F/5.6; beyond that it keeps the aperture at F/5.6. As far I can see, and as expected, lenses without CPU (Ai, Ais Nikkors) are always used stopped down.

For non-CPU lenses it seems essential to enter the lens data correctly in order to have the IBIS work properly. Having lenses chipped makes even more sense now.

No strap attached yet, but handholding with the FTZ adapter isn’t that uncomfortable at all, even with bigger and heavier Nikkors.

A lot to try yet, best thing now is to go out shooting.

[Frank Fremerey]

Frank, it almost seems as if you are retrospectively falling in love?

No. The only reason I might be liking it is as a digiback for my sinar p2.

The mirrorbox hinders me from using a focal length shorter than 90mm. With a gain of 30,5mm register distance I imagine I get more movements and can cater to shorter FL.

I will wait and see how things develop and if they develop well, I might be getting a Z-mount-bellows-adapter for maximum movements and shorter FL. Currently I only need the 120mm for Table Tops to do my work, so no need to change... plus: I just dug out some huge prints done with an earlier setup and 12MP. Mind blowing IQ ten years ago. I cannot really imagine a custumer paying one cent more for something technically even more advanced

[Michael Erlewine]

No. The only reason I might be liking it is as a digiback for my sinar p2.

The mirrorbox hinders me from using a focal length shorter than 90mm. With a gain of 30,5mm register distance I imagine I get more movements and can cater to shorter FL.

I will wait and see how things develop and if they develop well, I might be getting a Z-mount-bellows-adapter for maximum movements and shorter FL. Currently I only need the 120mm for Table Tops to do my work, so no need to change... plus: I just dug out some huge prints done with an earlier setup and 12MP. Mind blowing IQ ten years ago. I cannot really imagine a custumer paying one cent more for something technically even more advanced

I am interested, as you are, with using the Nikon Z7 on a view camera (Cambo Actus Mini) and understand that Cambo will have a Z7 mount but have not been able to determine if it is the mount we have to screw in (three screws) or the whole mount that is pre-assembled and just locks in easily.

[peroo]

Just a quick update about my experience using the Z7 in the field today.

I mainly do wildlife photography and I normally uses D5 and D850.
Today I tried out the Z7 in combination with my D5 on the 180-400VR and 70-200VRII photographing fast moving birds in the Norwegian mountains.
For still photos of fast moving birds the autofocus in Z7 are not keeping up. I got great pictures of birds sitting still, but as soon as there was rapid movement it failed (sparrow hawks chasing jays are not an easy target).
Every time I take a photo the EVF freezes for a very short while. This makes the action in the EVF feel a bit like slow motion.

For movies the camera works fine, much better than my other cameras and I got some movie of fast moving birds that looked good.
Battery life was not a problem but you need extra batteries for a day in a hide.

Conclusion for my use is that the camera sadly is no alternative for my D850 but I´m still hoping they can fix the slow autofocus in software. My camera have firmware 1.00
If your main photography are slow moving targets and movies I think the Z7 will be a good alternative. Picture quality is really good, as expected with the D850 sensor with updated electronics.

[MILLIREHM]

Just a quick update about my experience using the Z7 in the field today.

I mainly do wildlife photography and I normally uses D5 and D850.
Today I tried out the Z7 in combination with my D5 on the 180-400VR and 70-200VRII photographing fast moving birds in the Norwegian mountains.
For still photos of fast moving birds the autofocus in Z7 are not keeping up. I got great pictures of birds sitting still, but as soon as there was rapid movement it failed (sparrow hawks chasing jays are not an easy target).
Every time I take a photo the EVF freezes for a very short while. This makes the action in the EVF feel a bit like slow motion.

For movies the camera works fine, much better than my other cameras and I got some movie of fast moving birds that looked good.
Battery life was not a problem but you need extra batteries for a day in a hide.

Conclusion for my use is that the camera sadly is no alternative for my D850 but I´m still hoping they can fix the slow autofocus in software. My camera have firmware 1.00
If your main photography are slow moving targets and movies I think the Z7 will be a good alternative. Picture quality is really good, as expected with the D850 sensor with updated electronics.

Thats what was to be expected and I dont think it will be resolvable by firmware update. And BTW the D850 is not a full alternative to the D5 because the cache is not sufficient

[Frode]

Just a quick update about my experience using the Z7 in the field today.

I mainly do wildlife photography and I normally uses D5 and D850.
Today I tried out the Z7 in combination with my D5 on the 180-400VR and 70-200VRII photographing fast moving birds in the Norwegian mountains.
For still photos of fast moving birds the autofocus in Z7 are not keeping up. I got great pictures of birds sitting still, but as soon as there was rapid movement it failed (sparrow hawks chasing jays are not an easy target).
Every time I take a photo the EVF freezes for a very short while. This makes the action in the EVF feel a bit like slow motion.

For movies the camera works fine, much better than my other cameras and I got some movie of fast moving birds that looked good.
Battery life was not a problem but you need extra batteries for a day in a hide.

Conclusion for my use is that the camera sadly is no alternative for my D850 but I´m still hoping they can fix the slow autofocus in software. My camera have firmware 1.00
If your main photography are slow moving targets and movies I think the Z7 will be a good alternative. Picture quality is really good, as expected with the D850 sensor with updated electronics.

How did the D850 compare to the D5 regarding AF in the situation you described?

[peroo]

I did not use D850 yesterday, but previous experience with D5/D850 autofocus on birds is that D5 is faster than D850 and that D850 is faster than D810. I think D500 is more close to D5 autofocus than D850.

About buffer size on D850 I think that for my use there is enough buffer in D850 for my use. D850 is not an alternative to D5, it is my second camera in those scenarios.

[MILLIREHM]

I did not use D850 yesterday, but previous experience with D5/D850 autofocus on birds is that D5 is faster than D850 and that D850 is faster than D810. I think D500 is more close to D5 autofocus than D850.

About buffer size on D850 I think that for my use there is enough buffer in D850 for my use. D850 is not an alternative to D5, it is my second camera in those scenarios.

I see it pretty much the same. I did not upgrade to D5 so far and can tell the D4S is more than competitive with D500 and D850. I see no limitations with D4S and D500 but sometimes ran into full buffer with the D850. I am choosing them according to the planned shooting.

We have to wait for some years until a Z camera might be on the same level.

[Frank Fremerey]

Wolfgang: Which Memory Cards do you use in the D850? I have not had a single buffer full with the Lexar 2933x XQD, but I had trouble when using SD cards, also UHS 2, which seem to be performing well on paper but are much slower in real life.

Michael: I do not understand your question. Is it about the Cambus or the Z7?

[MILLIREHM]

Wolfgang: Which Memory Cards do you use in the D850? I have not had a single buffer full with the Lexar 2933x XQD, but I had trouble when using SD cards, also UHS 2, which seem to be performing well on paper but are much slower in real life.

Frank: I am using a 128 GB Sony G type XQD card (and a Sandisk Extreme Pro SD card but only as a reserve not as a RAID1- mirror) which should equal the speed of the Lexar 2933 XQD i am using in the other XQD-cameras (well 440 MB/s R, 400 W, the lexar does 440 R but i dont know whether it keeps this speed for writing as well). I bought the Sony because at that time there was no Lexar evailable any more and for the D850 i wanted to have a bigger card than the 64 GB i am using elswhere. Never gave the D850 a try with one of the Lexar cards, should test this in the future to see whether there is a noticeable difference.

[Ilkka Nissilä]

Wolfgang: Which Memory Cards do you use in the D850? I have not had a single buffer full with the Lexar 2933x XQD, but I had trouble when using SD cards, also UHS 2, which seem to be performing well on paper but are much slower in real life.

I also find this. Initially with the D850, I found it easy to run into the buffer from time to time. Now I keep the SD slot empty and use only G series Sony XQDs, after I made this change, I have not felt the D850 buffer limiting for my use. But, I mostly now use the EN-EL15a batteries as the sound of the camera is a bit quieter that way, and the camera feels a bit lighter, and for most of my shooting this is preferred rather than the extra 2fps. For high frame rate, I more typically use the D5. With the EN-EL18a I still feel the D850 performed well in figure skating photography and I was able to shoot quite liberally without problems.

I would recommend only using the XQD slot and switch to 12-bit compressed or 12-bit lossless compressed NEF when shooting at 9fps. If using 14-bit recording and 9fps then I can see how one might run into the limits of the camera, but 14-bit capture probably doesn't deliver better image quality at ISO 400 or above.

[MILLIREHM]

I would recommend only using the XQD slot and switch to 12-bit compressed or 12-bit lossless compressed NEF when shooting at 9fps. If using 14-bit recording and 9fps then I can see how one might run into the limits of the camera, but 14-bit capture probably doesn't deliver better image quality at ISO 400 or above.

I have set the camera to 12 bit NEF lossless compressed and am using it both with EN-El15 and the EN-EL18 together with battery grip. Will need to do further testing, did not have too much shooting time the last months.

As i said i do not use the SD card but so far I havent thought that inserting a card while not using it may be a delaying factor as well??

[Michael Erlewine]

I need an L-Bracket/Plate for the Nikon Z7, but I understand that you would have to take it off everytime you want to use the FTZ adapter, which is not acceptable to me.

Does anyone know of an L-Bracket that works with the FTZ adapter without having to remove it each time?