After nine months of ownership, I just sent my Z6 in for replacement of a clunky power on/off switch. I briefly toyed with the idea of renting a Sony to try out during the repair, but decided instead to get a loaner Z6 from NPS. I remain tempted by the Sony system, but am not ready to switch, so there's no reason to start using and liking a Sony body too much right now. Here are some of my semi-coherent thoughts on the matter, for your consideration and comment.
- The Z6, and for a short time, the Z7, have been a joy to use. The body feels good in hand. The buttons and dials are exactly where they should be. Everything feels solid, even with the imperfect solution of an FTZ adapter between body and lens. Even after long shoots in the driving rain, the weather sealing inspires confidence.
- The AF is good, and my learning of its use improves with time. It is certainly not as good as the AF on my D500, particularly for action. And based on numerous opinions of others that I can't seem to refrain from reading and watching, it falls short of Canon and Sony mirrorless in some ways.
- The SOOC files from Nikons, both DSLRs and mirrorless, look better to me than the ones I have seen from the Sony. There is something more natural about the colors in the Nikon files. Yes, I know this is easily modified in post, but it is valuable to me to have a baseline image that more closely matches my taste in color rendition. This allows me to proceed directly to the retouching work that is more interesting to me.
- The 24-70 f/4 S lens is the best lens I have ever purchased as part of a kit. Period. Although I have not yet used any other S lenses, the universal consensus makes me confident they'll be excellent if or when I start purchasing them. Not buying any other native mount lenses has been a symptom of my lack of commitment to going all-in with the system. The lack of f/1.4 S series glass is acceptable to me.
- Adapting old manual focus glass to the Z6 is just delightful. Although I used to do all my lens adapting in micro 4/3, I am reaching for the Z6 for pretty much all of my adapted lens work now. When more effective focal length or closer working distance is desired, my old E-M1 stands ready. But, for adapting lenses on a FF mirrorless body, I can think of no advantage that Sony has over Nikon (and Canon has no IBIS, a clear disadvantage).
- Adapting AF-S lenses is not perfect, but much more than acceptable. And I certainly have a lot of F-mount glass that I really like.
- Would I like better AF for sports and better eye-AF for portraits? Of course. Would I like the box to turn green when focus has been achieved in AF-C? Definitely. Can these sorts of things be improved with firmware or will they be addressed in the Mark II? I'm willing to wait and see.
- Do I think Nikon will survive as a camera and lens manufacturer in spite of a significant trend downward in market share? Certainly long enough to have the answers to #7, and even if they should they fail in improving, Nikon would survive beyond that point for at least a few more years.
- As I sifted through the settings of my own Z6 to set up the loaner the way I like, it occurred to me how much time it would take to learn a new menu philosophy after years of getting used to the Nikon way.
- I don't shoot much video, but it is nice knowing that the Z6 is a good tool for it.