Nikon Z* mirrorless

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I been looking into switching Again lol after avoiding it
 
Popped over to Crich on Saturday as they had some old 50's and 60's American Cars as part of the Vintage Weekend. As it happened there weren't that many cars but it was still a nice afternoon, some great music and other bits and bobs going off. I haven't been there since I was at primary school and I don't think it's changed much at all. Nice day out, but it's a bit pricey imo.

Pics in next post for ad avoidance, more on Flickr. All shot with either the 50mm f1.8G or 24-70mm f4 S.

1.

NZ7_1349
by TDG-77, on Flickr

2.

NZ7_1356
by TDG-77, on Flickr

3. (unfortunately he kept blocking her and I couldn't stand any further to the right. As I was walking off I heard her 'telling him off' for obstructing her :LOL:)

NZ7_1368
by TDG-77, on Flickr

4.

NZ7_1386
by TDG-77, on Flickr

5.

NZ7_1408
by TDG-77, on Flickr

6.

NZ7_1414
by TDG-77, on Flickr

7.

NZ7_1425
by TDG-77, on Flickr

8.

NZ7_1447
by TDG-77, on Flickr
 
yes, when the price drops below the psychological £1000 mark then interest starts to be generated. For me, it needs to go quite a bit bit lower still. Interestingly, with all these vintage cars about, I wandered past a little gathering of American ones on Sunday but felt too shy to go up and take pictures of them with the only lens I had with me, the Irix 15mm, which would have meant getting really close and intimate :cautious: as the owners were usually sitting nearby. Incidentally, I live under a mile as the crow flies from the birthplace of it all, the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart which, even for an agnostic like me, is a fascinating place. Gets full of Chinese visitors.

DSC_0213.jpg
 
For those that may care DXO has reviewed the 14-30mm
Yeah I saw that the other day, for some reason the new Nikon zooms aren't pulling up any trees in the test scores. As we've discussed earlier though it's made me realise that DXO scores aren't great, in the real world the 24-70mm f4 is fantastic (imo) so I'm not judging the 14-30mm based on their scores (y)
 
Yeah I saw that the other day, for some reason the new Nikon zooms aren't pulling up any trees in the test scores. As we've discussed earlier though it's made me realise that DXO scores aren't great, in the real world the 24-70mm f4 is fantastic (imo) so I'm not judging the 14-30mm based on their scores (y)

Have you ever seen how low they score M43 lenses? and I swear, some of the ones I tried were every bit as sharp and punchy with no CA etc as some top of the line FF equivalents. But, it's a smaller sensor, so we must p*** on their scores a bit to differentiate, that's how DXO seem to work. Same with some APSC lenses, real world users will tell you there's bugger all in terms of quality output between say the EF-S specific 60mm 2.8 macro and the FF 100mm 2.8 macro when used on an APSC body, but the scores are a good sized chunk apart. Surprised they do seem to be going after Nikon a bit lately - they used to have all their dslr top of the pops

They haven't updated Sony scores in ages and still can't figure out Fuji, though other sites seem to be able to manage.
 
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DXO only suits when it favours your kit it seems lol. When Nikon was on top of all there lists it was where you all compared kit against, now there not the marks are not worth anything .

I don't shoot Nikon, and I have 20-20 vision, I don't need DXO to tell me when something is as sharp, or sharper than what they over-rate. The rest of your post I can't figure out, you're using Sony too long maybe
 
Yeah I saw that the other day, for some reason the new Nikon zooms aren't pulling up any trees in the test scores. As we've discussed earlier though it's made me realise that DXO scores aren't great, in the real world the 24-70mm f4 is fantastic (imo) so I'm not judging the 14-30mm based on their scores (y)
DXO only suits when it favours your kit it seems lol. When Nikon was on top of all there lists it was where you all compared kit against, now there not the marks are not worth anything .
Their marks don't mean much tbh just like dpreview's end score and medal.
But the sharpness field maps I find are useful just like dpreviews actual review material is rather useful.
 
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I would have had the same remark had I stayed with Nikon. As I wouldn’t have moved to the Z series, which is what these DXO marks are regarding. It’s not just here ,I’ve seen it else where that the DXO marks are now disregarded as they are not saying how amazing the new Nikon kit is,but when they were it was all everyone compared to. I’ve never followed it much to be honest because how sharp a lens is isn’t the end all, if it was I would have saved money buying the Nikon 85 1.8g over the 1.4g but character was more important.
 
I prefer real reviews by real photographers, not just benchmark testing of dubious validity (or narcissistic YouTube videos). DxO's refusal to test Fuji dismissed them in my eyes though it may be that they have their merits. Several reputable reviewers like Camerlabs, Thom Hogan or Photographylife have recently put some question marks against the sample variation, distortion and other issues of the 14-30 though all have concluded that it's in general a fine lens, perhaps just not quite what was expected after the superlative initial S releases. I expect the overwhelming majority will be happy and it's far from unlikely that I'll finish up with one eventually.
 
DXO only suits when it favours your kit it seems lol. When Nikon was on top of all there lists it was where you all compared kit against, now there not the marks are not worth anything .
Lol, of course we want our gear to score the best of everything ;)

Joking aside, I've mainly used DXO for sensor scores tbh and only used the lens scores now and again for 'comparison' rather than the actual score themselves. However, that being said I have always said I don't understand how they score the 24-70mm so high over the 24-120mm f4 for example so have always questioned the lens scoring, and then their lens coring has been brought to my attention again recently as people are posting the scores for the new z lenses.

Also as Cagey says, the scores they give some of the m4/3 lenses are laughable. With all this coming to light now it's made me think differently about DXO, and I'm now even wondering how reliable the sensor scores are?
 
Lol, of course we want our gear to score the best of everything ;)

Joking aside, I've mainly used DXO for sensor scores tbh and only used the lens scores now and again for 'comparison' rather than the actual score themselves. However, that being said I have always said I don't understand how they score the 24-70mm so high over the 24-120mm f4 for example so have always questioned the lens scoring, and then their lens coring has been brought to my attention again recently as people are posting the scores for the new z lenses.

Also as Cagey says, the scores they give some of the m4/3 lenses are laughable. With all this coming to light now it's made me think differently about DXO, and I'm now even wondering how reliable the sensor scores are?

for sensors I prefer to use - http://www.photonstophotos.net/
the individual single DXO scores are b******t for sensors and lenses. The graphs for sensors and field maps for lenses are fairly accurate in my experience.
 
Read this on Nikon Rumours:

https://nikonrumors.com/2019/06/27/...for-nikon-z-cameras-registered-in-korea.aspx/

Looks like a fairly innocuous announcement, but it says these registrations are needed for wireless products. So the battery grip could still have controls despite the lack of contacts in the battery compartment?
Could do it by bluetooth. Or use the power contacts. As you know from home network power extensions, it's possible to send data over power.
 
I'd be surprised as they've already announced that it will just be a battery pack only and it would be unusual for Nikon to spring surprises. Maybe this is in relation to the announced D5 version of the Z series?
 
I too don’t rate dxo and would be interested to see Photography Life’s Imatest results on the new 14-30 or even better testing Roger Cicala’s testing.

That said they dont seem to have hit this one out of the ball park.
 
Am I alone in not being interested in graphs and charts? I just want my (real) pictures to look OK.

Nope! I do have a peek out of curiosity, but every time I do I see numbers that don't match up with my experiences. Afaik DXO only use one copy, and run one test, and that's what they base their numbers on. Other sites test multiple copies and run multiple test runs, but in the end none of this matters when you are in LR or other software tailoring your images to your liking. Some people like to tone down sharpness, some pull contrast right down, some don't give a fig about clipping if they're going for a specific look and SOOC colours matter little when we're throwing filters or presets on top anyway. People like to know the lens they paid a lot of money for is a good starting point I guess, but it really does not matter. We've all seen fantastic images shot using kit lenses, and crap images shot with high end G-'master's
 
Am I alone in not being interested in graphs and charts? I just want my (real) pictures to look OK.

My real pictures looked OK for a long time and so has many others'. I don't think its wise to spend another grand for pictures that look OK. Personally I like to get better than OK for such high priced items. If this was a £300-400 lens then it'd be another matter.

I prefer real reviews by real photographers, not just benchmark testing of dubious validity (or narcissistic YouTube videos). DxO's refusal to test Fuji dismissed them in my eyes though it may be that they have their merits. Several reputable reviewers like Camerlabs, Thom Hogan or Photographylife have recently put some question marks against the sample variation, distortion and other issues of the 14-30 though all have concluded that it's in general a fine lens, perhaps just not quite what was expected after the superlative initial S releases. I expect the overwhelming majority will be happy and it's far from unlikely that I'll finish up with one eventually.

Subjective reviews are useful to me for judging the rendering, micro-contrast etc. Also great for understanding the handling, ergonomics, AF etc. But sharpness lens can be objectively measured, in which case relying on subjective (and more often than not biased) review isn't prudent IMO when making lens choices. Of course sharpness from graphs and charts aren't everything and hence the real photographer reviews are still very valuable :)

I too don’t rate dxo and would be interested to see Photography Life’s Imatest results on the new 14-30 or even better testing Roger Cicala’s testing.

That said they dont seem to have hit this one out of the ball park.

I certainly like and trust Roger's words more so than most others for lenses. He has a large backlog I imagine but I hope he gets on to RF and Z lenses soon (think he already reviewed RF50).

End of the day, I'd like to test all the lenses myself before buying them but I simply do not have the time, fund or resources to do this. So I have to rely on online material to make my choices. Where its possible to quantify the matters like sharpness, dynamic range etc I rely on graphs, charts etc because these are less biased. where things are unquantifiable like AF, bokeh, rendering etc I rely on subjective reviews from people I somewhat trust to be less biased.
 
Was at a friend's wedding the past weekend and the couple asked me to take a few photos throughout the day as a guest. They had their own paid photographer, but wanted my take on the wedding as well since we've known each other for years...I took the Z6, 70-200 VR2, Z 50/1.8 and the Z 24-70/4. I did most of my shooting with the first two. I gave them the whole set, but will post 2 photos here...the first is probably my favourite shot of the whole day...something about it just speaks to me and the second is a testament to the gear...shot with the 50 at 51200 ISO, F2 and 1/200 sec.

Z6N_4241 by luftwalk, on Flickr

Z6N_4969 by luftwalk, on Flickr
 
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