i haven't been around the forum much lately - life has conspired to keep my shooting to a relatively uninteresting minimum. happy to see most of the same familiar names here
i picked up a z7 today at a local shop - the one i had on order from b+h (ordered no more than a few hours after it went live) shows no signs of arriving soon. no knock on b+h (they're great) but a familiar and tiresome story.
i am no great inherent fan of mirrorless cameras. i've used many, owned a few (various nikon 1, x-e1, x-e2, another couple fujis) and never particularly loved any of them. the hunty focus performance combined with the EVF experience (like watching TV, not seeing the world) kept me away from most of them, including the impressive recent full frame sony and "medium format" fuji options.
but, sometimes, the trusty D850 and a bag of great lenses is just too much, so the z7 piqued my interest. the shop didn't have the 24-70, which is too bad, but did have the 35 f/1.8 and the adaptor. i spent a few hours on and off with it today using mostly the native 35, the 20 f/1.8g, 58 f/1.4g, 85 f/1.8g, and 105 f/1.4e.
the following are my completely random and relatively brief impressions.
it feels like a nikon with some missing controls. there seems like there would have been space for the beloved focus mode dial/button, but it's not there, and it's sad. i'm using the lower of the two custom bottons on the other side of the lens for it, and it's very hard to press those buttons and turn the dials. i'm getting used to it, but don't like it.
beyond that, it feels great. starts up fast, nice heft, the grip works for me (i'm 1.9m tall, and have largish hands and longish fingers), and i don't miss the other missing physical controls all that much. i kind of wonder if a future "more pro" Z will bring back the three kings, but until then, this works.
as ming thein noted in his review, you really do need to customize the "i" menu and the "my" menu. on the "i" menu, i have silent shooting, image quality, delay shooting, drive mode, focus point/area, electronic curtain, metering mode, peaking, in body vr, and focus mode. my menu has some other things like self timer delay, format card, framing grid, etc.
it's definitely the best EVF i've used. i still prefer the aesthetics of a nice OVF, but it's no longer a deal breaker for me.
continuous single point (my most common mode) focus with the native lens is fast and sure for relatively static objects. it's not d850/d5/d500 fast, but it's good. it doesn't seem nearly as capable of following objects moving erratically in three dimensions. usable, but not a replacement for a pro DSLR. i'm a bit disappointed in this, since children fall under the category of erratically moving object. i was not able to get an in-focus shot of our five month old bouncing in her bouncy chair without putting my foot on it to stop it. focus tracking in video is great.
the ftz adaptor feels very solid, with no play, and it will be interesting to see how the native lenses perform compared to good f-mount glass. other than size and weight, there don't seem to be any obvious cognitive dissonances compared to using the native lenses. the af-s lenses i've tried focus quickly as well, and . however.... the results have been pretty inconsistent, in particular with the 58 f/1.4, which yielded a keeper rate of perhaps one in six in challenging light. with good light, the other lenses seemed to be spot on at all times. is this camera doing any CDAF confirmation/fine tuning after the on sensor PDAF pass?
focus peaking in the EVF is fantastic!!
it is exceedingly annoying that the eye detect which turns off the LCD and turns on the EVF can't tell the difference between a finger and an eye/head. i love the screen folded flat, shoot from the waist mode for unobtrusive shooting or for subjects where my standing eye level is too high and there's no time/space/situation to kneel. unfortunately touching the screen to focus in this mode tends to turn the screen off. i'm sure there's a way to turn off the eye detection, which is a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
there's not much to say about the image quality except that it's fantastic, and pretty much the same as a d850. i know there are differences, but practically speaking, for me, they're the same. here are a few images. no great art here, just test shots. some were inadvertently shot in jpg, most lossless compressed raw and processed in the latest ACR.
quick snaps at the supermarket with the 35.
some obligatory shots out the window, with the native 35 and the 105 f/1.4.
it's a bit easier to hold a smaller camera way out the window!
one of the few usable shots i got with the 58 f/1.4:
focus peaking is interesting for shots like this, it completely changes the experience to see that not only are the eyes in focus, but a whole field of fuzzy towel is. for a more serious composition, i'd have turned or tilted to throw the towel out of focus slightly.
waist level, cropped from the left side of the frame using touch to focus-shoot. f/1.8, iso 1100.
camera almost on the ground, touch to focus-shoot. 20 f/1.8, at f2.8, 1/40, iso 450.
