Nikon Z* mirrorless

Testing out my old x1.4TCII on the Z9 and 500mm PF today. Seems to work ok!

1. Heavy crop
i-NcjhxpQ-X2.jpg


2. Medium crop
i-sw7rncW-X2.jpg


3. Had to step back to get minimum focus distance (Very slight crop for comp)
i-sfFj2jB-X2.jpg
 
-Oy- said:
Testing out my old x1.4TCII on the Z9 and 500mm PF today. Seems to work ok!

1. Heavy crop
i-NcjhxpQ-X2.jpg


2. Medium crop
i-sw7rncW-X2.jpg


3. Had to step back to get minimum focus distance (Very slight crop for comp)
i-sfFj2jB-X2.jpg
Click to expand...
2nd one was, wow........... 3rd one is more W O W
 
Well I don't want to be too positive, but upgraded both my Z6 II and Z7 II yesterday to the new firmware V1.4,and did some testing with the dogs outside. Previously I would never ever use auto area AF as it never worked and the failure to focus rate was abysmal, however it really surprised my last night. On both cameras, with Auto Area AF and "Cats and dogs AI" selected, at over 10m away, the camera picked up the eyes on both dogs (and they are both black so very low contrast), and set to drive mode H+ silent, 12 bit raw, when they trotted towards me, I was most surprised to see the AF box tracking the dogs faces and when I checked the images later, nearly 50% of them were tack sharp, with another say 30% slightly soft and just 20% totally OOF. that compares to about 5% before the upgrade.

Whilst that result is totally unscientific I know and it doesn't make either cameras Z9 (or my new Olympus OM-1) AF performance, it is most definitely quite marked how much of an improvement this "minor" upgraded is. The same was true when set to Auto Area AF and human face eye detect, where in the AF point hit and tracked the target much more tenaciously that it ever did before. Overall, quite happy with this "minor" upgrade.
 
Sootchucker said:
Well I don't want to be too positive, but upgraded both my Z6 II and Z7 II yesterday to the new firmware V1.4,and did some testing with the dogs outside. Previously I would never ever use auto area AF as it never worked and the failure to focus rate was abysmal, however it really surprised my last night. On both cameras, with Auto Area AF and "Cats and dogs AI" selected, at over 10m away, the camera picked up the eyes on both dogs (and they are both black so very low contrast), and set to drive mode H+ silent, 12 bit raw, when they trotted towards me, I was most surprised to see the AF box tracking the dogs faces and when I checked the images later, nearly 50% of them were tack sharp, with another say 30% slightly soft and just 20% totally OOF. that compares to about 5% before the upgrade.

Whilst that result is totally unscientific I know and it doesn't make either cameras Z9 (or my new Olympus OM-1) AF performance, it is most definitely quite marked how much of an improvement this "minor" upgraded is. The same was true when set to Auto Area AF and human face eye detect, where in the AF point hit and tracked the target much more tenaciously that it ever did before. Overall, quite happy with this "minor" upgrade.
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Really happy to hear this. Thanks for letting us know.
 
I did my first sunrise to sunset trip with my Z7ii yesterday. I was very disappointed with the battery life. According to the battery monitor, 63 shots to a full charge.

Luckily I had a d800 spare battery with me to help.

What do people do, charge using the camera and USB or buy more batteries or an in car charger?
 
Might not apply to many Z owners but the old talk of using Canon EF lens's on Sony is a reason to go Sony. Not so - you can buy an EF to Z adapter and use Canon EF glass on your Z's

www.newsshooter.com

Fotodiox FUSION Canon EF to Nikon Z Adapter - Newsshooter

The Fotodiox FUSION Canon EF to Nikon Z Adapter allows you to have full autofocus and aperture control when using Canon EF lenses on any Nikon Z mount
www.newsshooter.com www.newsshooter.com
 
SFTPhotography said:
Might not apply to many Z owners but the old talk of using Canon EF lens's on Sony is a reason to go Sony. Not so - you can buy an EF to Z adapter and use Canon EF glass on your Z's

www.newsshooter.com

Fotodiox FUSION Canon EF to Nikon Z Adapter - Newsshooter

The Fotodiox FUSION Canon EF to Nikon Z Adapter allows you to have full autofocus and aperture control when using Canon EF lenses on any Nikon Z mount
www.newsshooter.com www.newsshooter.com
Click to expand...
I'm curious to try this out as I'd love to adapt my 135 f2 and (when I get round to getting one) 85 1.2 to a Nikon body for eye af....
 
toohuge said:
I'm curious to try this out as I'd love to adapt my 135 f2 and (when I get round to getting one) 85 1.2 to a Nikon body for eye af....
Click to expand...

My brief experience with a Canon 100-400 was it was superb, not just the IQ but the robust metal build. Some of these Canon EF lenses are stellar and to have the ability to put them on Z mount, EF mount, RF mount, E mount and GF mount makes them extremely versatile and future proof.
 
SFTPhotography said:
@strax that's insane.

Are you using the rear screen plus EVF - kinda like Live view on your old D800.
Click to expand...
Yes. I was using the rear screen and the evf
wilt said:
@strax That's definitely not my experience. Are you using genuine batteries? What battery condition does the camera show for it?
Click to expand...
It is a genuine battery and the battery condition is new. I have had a lot more shots out of it on shoots but I must have been using live view and the evf quite a lot.
 
SFTPhotography said:
My brief experience with a Canon 100-400 was it was superb, not just the IQ but the robust metal build. Some of these Canon EF lenses are stellar and to have the ability to put them on Z mount, EF mount, RF mount, E mount and GF mount makes them extremely versatile and future proof.
Click to expand...
That's good to hear, thanks for you insight @SFTPhotography . I've seen a number of your posts and know your stellar standards for image quality! I've got the 85 1.8 and 135 f2 that I'd love to adapt....
 
strax said:
Yes. I was using the rear screen and the evf

It is a genuine battery and the battery condition is new. I have had a lot more shots out of it on shoots but I must have been using live view and the evf quite a lot.
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I now expect to get well over 1,000 shots out of my Z6ii with an oldish 70-200 and adaptor. I use viewfinder, rather than rear screen, but I do chimp.
 
strax said:
I did my first sunrise to sunset trip with my Z7ii yesterday. I was very disappointed with the battery life. According to the battery monitor, 63 shots to a full charge.
Click to expand...
I have a 6ii and get really crap battery life.
I have 3 genuine Nikon batteries.
I'm sure the poor battery life is down to my usage though, as I've been mainly using the rear screen lately.
 
Skypilot said:
I have a 6ii and get really crap battery life.
I have 3 genuine Nikon batteries.
I'm sure the poor battery life is down to my usage though, as I've been mainly using the rear screen lately.
Click to expand...
I think it’s because I’ve come from a d800 where you charge it up every 2-3 shoots.

I’ve ordered a couple of compatible batteries with a usb charger, so that’ll give me 4 batteries and the ability to charge in the car.
 
I have been away all week with work so only just install the Z7II 1.4 update, I would say the focus in some situations is definitely improved, holding small birds in the tracking box while moving camera quickly seemed much more responsive and held, also noticed it did focus better on close smaller subjects and not focusing at items behind (this was the main official improvement listed)

Any else updated and noticed improvements?
 
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strax said:
I did my first sunrise to sunset trip with my Z7ii yesterday. I was very disappointed with the battery life. According to the battery monitor, 63 shots to a full charge.

Luckily I had a d800 spare battery with me to help.

What do people do, charge using the camera and USB or buy more batteries or an in car charger?
Click to expand...

Is that with el15c?
 
AdamSi said:
I have been away all week with work so only just install the Z7II 1.4 update, I would say the focus in some situations is definitely improved, holding small birds in the tracking box while moving camera quickly seemed much more responsive and held, also noticed it did focus better on close smaller subjects and not focusing at items behind (this was the main official improvement listed)

Any else updated and noticed improvements?
Click to expand...
The improvement you refer to is only in auto AF
 
dcash29 said:
The improvement you refer to is only in auto AF
Click to expand...
It is but I felt like it was working better in other modes too, I know they have a habit of sneaking other improvements in without listing/highlighting them so was interested if others noticed improvements?
 
AdamSi said:
It is but I felt like it was working better in other modes too, I know they have a habit of sneaking other improvements in without listing/highlighting them so was interested if others noticed improvements?
Click to expand...
OK ...
 
strax said:
I think it’s because I’ve come from a d800 where you charge it up every 2-3 shoots.

I’ve ordered a couple of compatible batteries with a usb charger, so that’ll give me 4 batteries and the ability to charge in the car.
Click to expand...
Do you have airplane mode on? Are you doing long exposures and all in rear screen? I have z7ii and really not had a problem with battery life, it’s not as good as my DSLR bodies but it’s certainly not that bad
 
PeteStewardson said:
That’s very strange. Do you have airplane mode on? I always have that on as that saves a lot of power. My battery life was no where near that bad and it’s obviously my old camera.
Click to expand...

No I don’t. I didn’t realise that saves a lot of power.

AdamSi said:
Do you have airplane mode on? Are you doing long exposures and all in rear screen? I have z7ii and really not had a problem with battery life, it’s not as good as my DSLR bodies but it’s certainly not that bad
Click to expand...
No long exposures and a combination of rear screen and evf. As above I wasn’t using airplane mode.
 
AdamSi said:
It is but I felt like it was working better in other modes too, I know they have a habit of sneaking other improvements in without listing/highlighting them so was interested if others noticed improvements?
Click to expand...
I tried my Z7ii last night and was actually able to photograph some birds in flight successfully
 
Really enjoying bluebell season with the Z6 & 24-70mm lens.

A quick Q, for those who have possibly gone from the Z6 to Z7ii, how much of an increase in performance is there? There's a couple of niggles I have with the Z6 and believe the Z7ii may solve at least one of them - being the extended shutter times, that the Z6 doesn't have for one. Unfortunately the second one which relates to being able to flip the screen out in portrait mode, can't be resolved. :ROFLMAO:


Bluebells7 by Dave Young, on Flickr
 
@wibbly I went from the Z6 to the Z7II. Mostly for the increase in megapixels as I had a D850 before. Performance improvement in what regard? There's a few more features like the second card slot etc but from my experience the second processor has little to no improvement that I see, especially since the original Z series got firmware update quite recently.
 
Thanks @wilt, I was presuming the Z7ii would have a faster processor meaning overall increased snappiness of the camera in general.

For sure, the increase in resolution would be welcome along with the extended shutter times. I was hoping AF might be quicker but for most of what I shoot it’s slow anyway so no need for lightening AF in the real world for me.

Maybe a used Z7 original would suffice for me in terms of really getting a bump in resolution and more or less what I have now in terms of speed/handling!
 
I've had a Nikon EN-EL18D on order from the moment I ordered my Z9. I still have no idea when, or even if, it will appear.

I have some previous iteration EN-EL18 equivalent batteries made by Expro that have worked faultlessly in my Nikon DSLRs, but these won't work in the Z9 (they lack the chip to communicate with the camera).

One battery won't last a full days shooting at an event - as I have found out.

Are there any alternatives to the Nikon EN-EL18D available in the UK?

I like the Wasabi option but with shipping and duties from the USA it becomes 'expensive' but nevertheless IS available - so I haven't completely ruled it out.

TIA.
 
wibbly said:
Thanks @wilt, I was presuming the Z7ii would have a faster processor meaning overall increased snappiness of the camera in general.

For sure, the increase in resolution would be welcome along with the extended shutter times. I was hoping AF might be quicker but for most of what I shoot it’s slow anyway so no need for lightening AF in the real world for me.

Maybe a used Z7 original would suffice for me in terms of really getting a bump in resolution and more or less what I have now in terms of speed/handling!
Click to expand...
I have been more than happy with the Nikon Z7, the increase in resolution over the Z6 is worth the upgrade alone and with the 3.40 firmware installed you have most of what the Z7II has apart from the obvious second card slot and additional processor that has already been mentioned. I have been using this with the 24-200 and I really haven't seen much of a difference between this and the 24-70 f4 combo.
 
todders said:
I have been more than happy with the Nikon Z7, the increase in resolution over the Z6 is worth the upgrade alone and with the 3.40 firmware installed you have most of what the Z7II has apart from the obvious second card slot and additional processor that has already been mentioned. I have been using this with the 24-200 and I really haven't seen much of a difference between this and the 24-70 f4 combo.
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Good to hear first hand experience. I’m definitely interested in upgrading to a Z7 sometime this year.
 
My Z9 is on route, looking forward to finally getting my hands on one, hopefully my D500 will go up for sale soon although that has been the best camera so far I have ever owned for moving wildlife
 
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