Nikon Z6 - Image & Discussion Thread

[ijm5012]

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[Pa]

My granddaughter and her friends all dressed up for the homecoming dance. Z 6 and 24-70 f/4 S.

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These girls are all seniors and are in the middle of college applications now.

 

[Mike Buckley]

If you had told them the various colors of dresses to wear, you couldn't have done much better.

 

[Walter Rowe]

Wonderful picture Jim.

 

[Mitchell]

Lovely photo, Jim. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Pa]

If you had told them the various colors of dresses to wear, you couldn't have done much better.

Yep, it is a colorful bunch.

Wonderful picture Jim.

Lovely photo, Jim. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, Walter and Mitchell. For the record, my granddaughter is the one on the far left in the yellow dress.

 

[Palouse]

Not only are they appropriately colorful but they are also arranged well--the 2 light colors on either end.

 

[BillM]

Not only are they appropriately colorful but they are also arranged well--the 2 light colors on either end.

+1

Very nice and beautiful image Jim!

 

[ijm5012]

Friday Evening Part 1

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[Mike Buckley]

Great subjects! ?

 

[nht800]

Z6 and 24-70/4S

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[gryphon1911]

Zoo birds with the 300/4E PF.

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[gryphon1911]

primates (silverback gorilla and bonobo)
Various "film simulations" from On1 Effects 2019.

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[ijm5012]

Zoo birds with the 300/4E PF.

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That second shot is incredible Andrew. Wow!

 

[jp450r]

First picture is with my Sigma 70-200 2.8 OS with available light. Second is a 14 sec exposure with a Nikon 10-20mm both using the z6.

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[jp450r]

Another thing that blows my mind is the amount of crop you can do and still keep this much detail. I know most dont have a reason to crop this much but i want to see what would happen.

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[Bristolero]

Time for a change?
Hello all, especially @ijm5012, @gryphon1911, @Jonathan F/2 and any other former mu 4/3 shooters,

Like several on this forum, I'm a mu/43 shooter. I started with the E-PL3 and eventually advanced up through several bodies to the current E-M1 ii. My passion is wildlife, particularly BIfs. Early on I adopted the Oly 300 f4 Pro and find it to be darn impressive, especially with the sync-IBIS combining camera and lens. My only struggles with this setup are its non-spectacular C-AF, and the fight with balancing a small sensor in lower light with the need to shoot at a adequate shutter speed for moving subjects. For stationary low light shots, the insane IBIS helps a bunch, but looking at the shots in this thread make me wonder just how much better that I could do with the Z6.
So a few questions for those of you who have switched:
1. How does Z6 IBIS compare with Oly, especially on the longer focal lengths? Any such thing similar to the sync-IBIS of the Oly 12-100 or 300 Pro?
2. Soon after the Z6 originally came out, I considered switching but a conversation with @ijm5012 highlighted the choppy EVF problem and I decided to upgrade to the E-M1 ii (his!) Has the firmware upgrade helped with this problem?
3. How does the C-AF compare with the Mk ii? I've read all the posts in this thread and it sounds like some of the original C-AF problems were due to unfamiliarity. With some time under the hood, how to users feel now? I'm really only interested in the Z6, and while I know the D-500 is the BIF beast, I would like to stay with mirrorless.
4. I'm really impressed with the image quality on this thread. It seems noticeably better on my macbook screen. Any comments?
5. I try to shoot at base ISO with the mk ii, problematic with the need for BIF speed. At 1600 ISO the files are pretty degraded, IMHO, even with DXO Prime NR. At what ISO do Z6 users notice appreciable noise issues?
6. I see one poster is using the Z6 with the 500 f 5.6 PF. This is most likely the lens I would use. Any insights would be appreciated.

Thanks all,
Eric
Bristolero on the mu-43.com forum

 

[ijm5012]

Hello all, so a few questions for those of you who have switched:

Hi Eric. Hope you're enjoying the E-M1 II. I'll offer my views/thoughts below, and hope that others will chime in.

1. How does Z6 IBIS compare with Oly, especially on the longer focal lengths? Any such thing similar to the sync-IBIS of the Oly 12-100 or 300 Pro?

Simply put, the IBIS in the Z6 is not on the same level as Olympus'. Having said that, I've had no issues with effectiveness of the IBIS, and find it to be good for at least 3 stops. All of my telephoto lenses have VR in the lens, so the IBIS of the camera is only used when shooting my prime lenses (35/1.4, 58/1.4, 85/1.4).

2. Soon after the Z6 originally came out, I considered switching but a conversation with ijm5012 highlighted the choppy EVF problem and I decided to upgrade to the E-M1 ii (his!) Has the firmware upgrade helped with this problem?

This issue has not improved because it's not a software issue, but a hardware issue. The lower the burst speed, the worse the blackout will be, which is my biggest gripe with the camera (there aren't many). IMO it's not a deal breaker, but shooting the camera side-by-side with my D500, the D500 is much nicer to shoot from a burst perspective.

3. How does the C-AF compare with the Mk ii? I've read all the posts in this thread and it sounds like some of the original C-AF problems were due to unfamiliarity. With some time under the hood, how to users feel now? I'm really only interested in the Z6, and while I know the D-500 is the BIF beast, I would like to stay with mirrorless.

I've found the Z6's C-AF performance to be pretty damn good. I sold my E-M1 II before FW3.0 came out, but I felt that out of the box the Z6 was as good as the E-M1 II on FW 2.0, and the Z6's AF has been improved since launch. I have no qualms about the camera's C-AF abilities.

I know you said you don't really want to shoot a D500, but it was a game-changer for me. It was the camera that pulled me away from the m43 ecosystem.

4. I'm really impressed with the image quality on this thread. It seems noticeably better on my macbook screen. Any comments?

The image quality from the Z6 is fantastic. Excellend dynamic range at base ISO, and fantastic noise control well in to the 4-digit ISOs

5. I try to shoot at base ISO with the mk ii, problematic with the need for BIF speed. At 1600 ISO the files are pretty degraded, IMHO, even with DXO Prime NR. At what ISO do Z6 users notice appreciable noise issues?

ISO 1600 is not an issue with the Z6. I'll easily shoot ISO 6400 and not be concerned about noise. It definitely is a big step up over m43.

6. I see one poster is using the Z6 with the 500 f 5.6 PF. This is most likely the lens I would use. Any insights would be appreciated.

I can't comment about the 500/5.6 PF, but I shoot with a 300/2.8 on an FTZ adapter, and notice no issues with the combo. Zero. None. The lens works just like a native lens, focuses fast and accurately.

 

[Terri French]

My granddaughter and her friends all dressed up for the homecoming dance. Z 6 and 24-70 f/4 S.

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These girls are all seniors and are in the middle of college applications now.

I love it!!

 

[Bristolero]

Hi Eric. Hope you're enjoying the E-M1 II. I'll offer my views/thoughts below, and hope that others will chime in.


Simply put, the IBIS in the Z6 is not on the same level as Olympus'. Having said that, I've had no issues with effectiveness of the IBIS, and find it to be good for at least 3 stops. All of my telephoto lenses have VR in the lens, so the IBIS of the camera is only used when shooting my prime lenses (35/1.4, 58/1.4, 85/1.4).


This issue has not improved because it's not a software issue, but a hardware issue. The lower the burst speed, the worse the blackout will be, which is my biggest gripe with the camera (there aren't many). IMO it's not a deal breaker, but shooting the camera side-by-side with my D500, the D500 is much nicer to shoot from a burst perspective.


I've found the Z6's C-AF performance to be pretty damn good. I sold my E-M1 II before FW3.0 came out, but I felt that out of the box the Z6 was as good as the E-M1 II on FW 2.0, and the Z6's AF has been improved since launch. I have no qualms about the camera's C-AF abilities.

I know you said you don't really want to shoot a D500, but it was a game-changer for me. It was the camera that pulled me away from the m43 ecosystem.

The image quality from the Z6 is fantastic. Excellend dynamic range at base ISO, and fantastic noise control well in to the 4-digit ISOs


ISO 1600 is not an issue with the Z6. I'll easily shoot ISO 6400 and not be concerned about noise. It definitely is a big step up over m43.


I can't comment about the 500/5.6 PF, but I shoot with a 300/2.8 on an FTZ adapter, and notice no issues with the combo. Zero. None. The lens works just like a native lens, focuses fast and accurately.

Hi Ian,
Thanks for the reply. There are not a lot of photographers in my neighborhood ( me and one other ) so my chances of a hands-on session with the Z6 are pretty slim. I enjoyed all 43 pages of this thread though, and many of the images are pretty impressive, yours included. I'm loath to give up on the mk ii, as its stabilization is awesome and its paid for! But those images, especially the clean low light ones make me wonder if I'm missing a good thing. Ian, on your telephotos, how many stops do you think your VR gives?
It sounds like the C-AF might be similar with both post firmware cameras, although my gist from reading the posts here leaves me feeling that the Z6 might focus better, but the evf blackout hinders the process. I still have a slight blackout issue with the Oly, but I'm used to it, having never shot a DSLR.
I'm still enjoying the Mk ii and it can produce some good images with decent light. I still have a lot of misses with C-AF when shooting BIFs and I'm getting pretty good at following them in flight. Firmware 3.0 has helped though.
Here's a few:

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