Shooting with Nikon Z6

[Stany Buyle]

Good morning everybody!

(Underneath is a summary of my findings as I posted them on my website after shooting a Nikon Z6 for a day.)

I was shooting with a Nikon Z6 combined with the 50mm F1.8 Z and 24-70 F4 S yesterday, in total approx 700 pictures in the streets of Ghent and at home. As I was testing the Z7 intensively before, there were no things to learn about body and handling.
I was shooting NEF + jpeg fine but I don't have the software yet to open my Z6 nef files ( I hope to get the new Capture NX-D version this week)... So underneath images are as they came from the XQD card + © in PS. NO POST PROCESSING. I could have PP the images to make them look better, but that's cheating against somebody who wants to know how pictures from a Z6 look straight out of the camera.
...No better opportunity for me to try Z6 at very high iso than my newborn grandson

Z6 + 50mm F1.8 @ iso 12800:


Z6 impresses me a lot, more than Z7 did, especially for action, in relation to AF and for low light photography.

A sample picture of indoor (relative lowlight) action photography @ 12 fps:



And Z6 can nail focus in near to dark situations:

This is what I saw in reality:


And this is what Z6 with 50mm F1.8 captures after locking AF very fast. (the green AF assist light helped of course, but anyhow...)
I included the exif in the picture:



About Z6 high iso:

The Z6' IQ in lowlight @ iso 12800 is simply amazing…
I had a D3s, D750, D4 and D5 in the past, based on that experience I dare to say that Z6 is simply amazing in really low light situations and iso 12800...

Thanks for your attention and kindest regards,
Stany

[Stany Buyle]

Here below some pictures taken in Ghent on 5/11/2018, late afternoon.
While Nikon did not release an raw update for Z6 in NX software yet I had to start from jpegs what doesn't give me always the result I would like to get...
I used ACDSee Studio Ultimate 2018 to do some minor corrections to some of the jpegs.














Thanks for your attention and kindest regards,
Stany

[Bent Hjarbo]

Thanks for sharing, interesting.

[Birna Rørslett]

Nic depictions of an old town.

The images do look curiously non-sharp, though. Probably a mismatch somewhere along the reproduction chain?

Got my Z7 kit now + 35/1.8, still awaiting Z6 and the Noct 58/0.95. Product allocations to the Nordic area for once have been meagre.

[Stany Buyle]

Nic depictions of an old town.
The images do look curiously non-sharp, though. Probably a mismatch somewhere along the reproduction chain?

Good morning Birna!
TMHO sharpening images in a camera review is cheating towards people who are interested.
The full size images look sharp even though they come SOOC with sharpening set to "0". I cannot handle the NEFs yet.
Further more all images have been shot handheld and several @ very high iso.

The related picture here below for example has been shot handheld at 1/2.5 second (!!!) and iso 12800...




Related to the pictures of Ghent, here the crop area of picture 17 and the 100% crop next to it:



Not at all " curiously non-sharp" to my opinion, on the contrary...

Kindest regards,
Stany

[Airy]

Yes, but I had the same impression as Birna. I wonder why. Downsampling algortihm issue ?

[Birna Rørslett]

Whatever the underlying reason, the posted images don't look convincingly sharp. I'm not a fan of uncritical sharpening of course as this this practice tends to cause more issues than it solves. However, there should be sufficient processing to allow images to show their quality, or lack thereof.

100% crops are troublesome to watch as the larger picture as it were isn't communicated, might do in a direct A:B comparison though.

Several programs can handle Z6/Z7 NEFs by now. I'm currently using the latest version of Photo  Ninja to process my Z7 NEFs.

[Akira]

The cityscapes of Ghent looks very pleasant, but the images look a bit overcooked to me, as if "clarity" were applied too much.

But this may not be a problem on the user's side.  I've had an impression that the latest version of Capture NX-D (1.5.0) cannot handle the contrasty scene very well, compared to ACR.

[Stany Buyle]

Oops… clicked too early...

[Stany Buyle]

Whatever the underlying reason, the posted images don't look convincingly sharp. I'm not a fan of uncritical sharpening of course as this this practice tends to cause more issues than it solves. However, there should be sufficient processing to allow images to show their quality, or lack thereof.

Hi Birna!
I use exclusive nikon software to work on nef files, as long as Nikon does not release their update for Z6 nefs, I have to work with the jpegs, and PP for WB, shadow lifting and more  doesn't work on jpegs.
As most of the images of Ghent have been taken in the late afternoon, and the DR felexibility (at least while working with jpegs) isn't the same at iso 800 and higher than the flexibility you have at iso 100. With NEFs and NEF software it's a totally different story.

100% crops are troublesome to watch as the larger picture as it were isn't communicated, might do in a direct A:B comparison though.

I communicated this:

Related to the pictures of Ghent, here the crop area of picture 17 and the 100% crop next to it:

Several programs can handle Z6/Z7 NEFs by now. I'm currently using the latest version of Photo  Ninja to process my Z7 NEFs.

Z6' nef and Z7' nef is a different story. The NEF codec for Z7 and related Nikon software has been released back in September, while the NEF codec for Z6 and related Nikon software is not yet released.

And as I have D850 & Z6 next to each other to compare, I have no concerns about the Z6' sharpness...
Kindest regards,
Stany

[Birna Rørslett]

I'm not worried about Z6 quality either as I have used that camera on several occasions .

In fact, I expect my Z6 to be the main work horse combined with the Df once it arrives

On a tangential note, Photo Ninja can do a lot with non-RAW files such as jpgs.

[Kenneth Rich]

Speaking tangentially, (if you can forgive me!?) As I am a totally JPEG  shooter with my Df, what does this software offer that would make it superior  to the Photos software that comes with the Mac laptops, Birna?

[Birna Rørslett]

No experience with Photo Ninja on Mac, except I would anticipate it works in the same manner as on windows.

Photo Ninja basically gives full opportunity to massage the image data including setting a new w/b, adjust colours, fine-tune details, do noise reduction, and so on. You might download a trial and run it (will not save the processed file though, unless you get a license).

Tangential to the tangential, I struggle as to why one would use the Df only with jpgs. However the amount of unsolved mysteries in the Universe is effectively infinite.

Photo Ninja should be able to get a lot out of Z6 NEFs even though the official codec is not yet released. I ran it on Z7 files before the software was updated to include Z7 NEFs, and with pretty good results.

[Frank Fremerey]

Speaking tangentially, (if you can forgive me!?) As I am a totally JPEG  shooter with my Df, what does this software offer that would make it superior  to the Photos software that comes with the Mac laptops, Birna?

JPEG is an easy way. Be aware you rob yourself of opportunities in postprocessing though.

I set my camera such that I am generally happy with the JPEG but I shoot additional RAW files to have more flexibility in post when I need it. Storage is very cheap today.

[Stany Buyle]

Although not yet on the D500,D5 or D850 level, BIF photography with Z6 is working MUCH better than I expected…

The scene:


a crop:


Tracking with a bird relative far away, lightning "contre-jour", with a disturbing background and heavily cropped:



and a 100% crop:


Kindest regards,
Stany