I must start by pointing out that my learning and experimenting isn’t nearly as far along as Andrew’s. Second, yesterday’s experiment was educational for me but not in the way I planned. Of our three grandchildren, two were sick and were unable to attend their school Christmas party. Also, the plans for the parties changed and I was stuck with standing along the wall in both the kindergarten and the second grade classroom. But, you go with what you are given. I shot in RAW, aperture priority at f/1.8, auto ISO using the Nikon 28mm f/1.8 G and the FTZ adapter.
Some overall observations:
I decided to try auto area AF with face detection. This, coupled with the need to shoot wide open in the relatively dark, florescent-lit classrooms, proved to be a mistake but an educational one. With so many little (moving) faces to detect and with such a narrow DOF to work with the face detection proved, ahem, easily confused. The remarkable thing to me is that it got it right as often as it did.
One other thing I must note is that, again so far, the auto white balance seems to be “smarter” than my D750. Although the florescent overhead lights had tubes of varying age (and in a couple of fixtures, apparently different color temperatures) the Z6 figured it out. Unlike previous indoor shoots at the school I did not make a single WB adjustment in post.
The next thing I want to try is touch shutter. This is a feature on most current model smart phones (my son uses it a lot on his iPhone 8) and in crowded venues like the classroom shots shown here it would seem to be a good tool to control the focus point (as an alternative to half-press focus and recompose).
I am really enjoying this camera. I think for most of the things I used the D750 for the Z6 is a worthy tool with some intriguing potential advantages. I’ll plan the next experiment better, I promise.
Some overall observations:
- As Andrew has noted, the initial focus in AF-S regardless of focus area is quick and accurate. I find it at least as good as my D750 in all but the darkest, lowest-contrast situations.
- Face detection works well. I have never used the Sony which seems to be the benchmark so I can’t compare but even with my errors in technique at the school yesterday (more on that below) it bailed me out in some cases.
- None of what I have done has really pushed the camera’s limits.
I decided to try auto area AF with face detection. This, coupled with the need to shoot wide open in the relatively dark, florescent-lit classrooms, proved to be a mistake but an educational one. With so many little (moving) faces to detect and with such a narrow DOF to work with the face detection proved, ahem, easily confused. The remarkable thing to me is that it got it right as often as it did.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
One other thing I must note is that, again so far, the auto white balance seems to be “smarter” than my D750. Although the florescent overhead lights had tubes of varying age (and in a couple of fixtures, apparently different color temperatures) the Z6 figured it out. Unlike previous indoor shoots at the school I did not make a single WB adjustment in post.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
The next thing I want to try is touch shutter. This is a feature on most current model smart phones (my son uses it a lot on his iPhone 8) and in crowded venues like the classroom shots shown here it would seem to be a good tool to control the focus point (as an alternative to half-press focus and recompose).
I am really enjoying this camera. I think for most of the things I used the D750 for the Z6 is a worthy tool with some intriguing potential advantages. I’ll plan the next experiment better, I promise.
