Nikon Z6/7 mirrorless system

[gryphon1911]

Got an email from Nikon at 2:00am this morning.  My Z6 & 24-70/4S kit will be delivered today.  Next time, since I am an NPS member, I think I'll have them send it to my local camera store and pick it up.  My camera store had them in and available for sale on Nov. 16.  Not that I couldn't and have not been patient, but would have been nice to have a weekend with it right from the get-go.

Anyway, enough of my belly aching!!   My Z will soon be in my grubby little hands!  So many lenses to test, so little time!

[Birna Rørslett]

Oh glorious days -- picked up the first set of factory spare mounts for the Z range -- now, lots of experimental and enjoyable tinkering can be expected in the days ahead

I did notice the spare mounts are made in Thailand, not at the usual Sendai plant of Japan.

[Jack Dahlgren]

My first impressions of Z6 with 24-70 kit lens:

This is a great camera for people with older eyes. I used to have perfect vision in my youth, but my close vision is now poor. Viewfinder magnification is incredibly useful. So is brightness in low light (where I usually find myself)

This is the first camera that I feel autofocus is useful on as thyou can select a point anywhere in the field. I still have only a couple of lenses that do autofocus, but I’ll try manual focus lenses today.

Kit lens is solid and balanced well with the camera. I’d recommend is over a larger 24-70 on an adapter as it is more in the spirit of the camera.

Wow to VR. I’m not the steadiest photographer but was easy to get steady shots down to 1/4 second and even longer at 24mm. Not sure how well it will work with F mount lenses, but great with kit lens.

I shoot with my left eye so buttons and screen are in my face. I also prefer the EVF since it has diopter correction so will have to learn the positions of the buttons without having to look at them. Delete is next to playback and I deleted a shot by accident when trying to review, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. Will try using back display today and see what happens. It seems to be articulated enough for most situations I’ve ever shot in (held over head, at floor level, straight up, straight down at arms length, from the waist...)

WiFi and Bluetooth seem to work well with SnapBridge. Have to check effect on batteries, but it captured location from my phone by Bluetooth which is nice. Has some low power settings as well.

I love my Df, but this camera does some special things too.

High ISO images (viewed on the back screen) seem quite usable. 50K is grainy, but 20k is still better than tri-x 400. Will have to try mono today. This could be a great camera for street photography.

Anyway, more to come, but after reading many bad things about Z series cameras on the internet, I found it is exceeding my expectations.

[Jack Dahlgren]

FTZ adapter has square baffles which reduce the throat depth to somewhat less than a centimeter. This reduces ability to adapt M42 lenses which have a much shorter flange distance. Will be interesting to see what Burns cobbles together with spare bayonets. How would I get one of my own to play with?

[Birna Rørslett]

Try order one or a few from the regional Nikon service? The part code is 127EC (as seen on the photo I posted). I didn't get the proper screws right now as they are on back order, but this minor issue won't prevent any of the experiments I'm concocting at present, and eventually the screws will arrive. I paid around $40 per bayonet (incl. screws), which as spare parts go is a steal.

As the 100/1.6 Rodenstock indeed will focus to infinity on the Z cameras, I'm now scouring eBay etc. to find suitable focusing helicoids for it. I might butcher a surplus defective 18-140 if nothing useful turns up, but my guess is that there are viable solutions to be had without sacrificing an entire lens

Among other prime candidates for "Z-modding" are the 55/1.2 Nikkor-O (CRT) and several ultrafast Rodenstock/Oude Delft etc. optics. I also plan for a special adapter for my RF Nikkors, but will need the assistance and skill of Erik (aka 'Dr. Lens') to accomplish that project. I do have the required parts, but they need to be properly assembled.

[CS]

My first impressions of Z6 with 24-70 kit lens:

Anyway, more to come, but after reading many bad things about Z series cameras on the internet, I found it is exceeding my expectations.

I haven't seen "many bad things about Z series cameras" here. Quite the opposite! 

[gryphon1911]

Anyone have any idea why Nikon is listing that the 35mm f/2.8 Nikkor-S Auto is not compatible with the FTZ adapter?   Is it incapable of mounting or is there something I should know different?   My curiosity is to protect myself from damaging the adapter.

Also, one thing to not do....download the UPS Mobile app and then get sucked into watching the delivery truck bop about your neighborhood, get within 2 streets of your house, only to see it in the next minute to go the other direction and be 10 streets away!  LOL  Damn you,technology!   

[Jack Dahlgren]

I haven't seen "many bad things about Z series cameras" here. Quite the opposite! 

This forum is remarkably free of trolls. Those Norwegians know how to keep them under control.

[Birna Rørslett]

This forum is remarkably free of trolls. Those Norwegians know how to keep them under control.

In fact, the NG admins are 1 Norwegian, 1 Dane, 2 Dutch, and 1 American. Thanks to the intentional non-commercial nature of NG and our loyal subscribers, we can run a tight ship without any advertising or other modern side effects of web sites.

[Birna Rørslett]

The preliminary analysis of the need for special adapters leads me to making the following three general kinds: M42-Z, M52-Z, M58-Z. All of which can be made extremely flat and thus only adding a minimum of extension to the optics to be mounted.

I will keep the last 2 units for bespoke solutions for specific lenses.

[Roland Vink]

Anyone have any idea why Nikon is listing that the 35mm f/2.8 Nikkor-S Auto is not compatible with the FTZ adapter?   Is it incapable of mounting or is there something I should know different?   My curiosity is to protect myself from damaging the adapter.

The Nikkor-S 35/2.8 rear lens protector is quite long between about 5 - 7 o'clock, maybe it extends too far and conflicts with the internals of the FTZ adapter. If so, I would expect other pre-AI lenses like the Nikkor-S 5cm/2 and Nikkor-S 5.8cm/1.4 to have similar limitations. Nikon is often over-cautious here, I'd be tempted to try - very gently - to see if it fits, if you encounter any resistance stop before you do any damage. if you do this with the adapter not attached to the camera, you can look through the rear to see what's going on.

[Birna Rørslett]

Yes, once again Nikon follows the usual protocol of being overly cautious. However, no harm trying a combination if you pay attention to signals of stuff not mating correctly.

They do list the K-2 as being incompatible, but not the K-1 -- both (when not having seen much prior use) are extremely close fit and need to be trimmed ever so slightly.

I compiled a short list of optics claimed to be incompatible for the Z6/7, but which in fact will fit, in an earlier post. Sometimes i wonder whether the listings of incompatibilities given in manuals are obtained by copy-paste.

[Birna Rørslett]

A Z camera in one end of the recording chain, at the other end? who knows.

[Jack Dahlgren]

A Z camera in one end of the recording chain, at the other end? who knows.

Very nice.

[paul_k]

Picked up a Z6 + FTZ adapter set (not interested in the Z series lenses) this afternoon at a small 'brick and mortar' shop in 'the provinces' (at the main pro dealers in the Amsterdam/Rotterdam region this set already is on back order only a few days after the release date  )

As I don't plan to use the touch screen for changing the settings, just copied the options I have in the My Menu tab of my DSLR's (and a few extra for which the Z6 lacks the buttons) on the Z6
Must say it, maybe because of that,  feels very familiar already after only a very few hours (much or which I spent setting up the My Menu tab), and really like it

Took some pictures with a modified pre AI 1.8 85mm Auto Nikon H for fun ( and play with the focus peaking) in my study, mostly wide open, of boring things like lens caps on my desk, and books and magazines lying around
Images looked amazingly sharp and clear/crisp despite the lighting consisting of a single 'house hold' bulb
Also the 'bulb' at the bottom of the FTZ adapter makes nice extra support for holding the lens in balance with the 'smaller' mirror less body

Promises a lot of good for the future (re)use with the (more then a dozen) pre AI and Ai lenses I  have had lying around for ages from my film shooting days
Previous never really liked using them on any of my previous (and present) DSLR's, even my DF (although manual focusing and camera/lens balance already were much better with that body compared to my D3 and D800/850's)

Having hard thoughts what to do with the DF though, love the 'form' of it, and the IQ/image rendering of its sensor, but fear it won't see use in the future anymore

Luxury problems