Z50, I’m thinking I might pass

[frdjohns]

I remember when I liked the 24-120

I'm still using and loving mine. It makes for a great walking around lens when I am photographing the activities of the students I teach.

 

[Randy]

I have some excellent photos made with my 24-120. But when I compared it side-by-side with the 16-80 I was blown away.

I had a love/hate relationship with the 24-120. I liked the images on a D600/D610 but hated the size and weight. I still have it but it has a small scratch on the front element so it has little resale value.

Resale is bad even for mint

 

[davidzvi]

Resale is bad even for mint

Almost always case with good lenses that get sold in kits. the 24-120 f/4 was hit particularly hard since it's been in 6-7 kits over the years? I got mime as part of a package deal (though not a "kit") when I got one of my D700's.

 

[JLH]

I have to agree with the comments on the 24-120. I got one with my D750 and never warmed up to it. BUT, my 16-80 on my DX cameras has been a wonderful lens, vastly better than the 24-120 on FF, especially on my D500. As for mirrorless...I have a friend with the Z7 and they get wonderfully impressive results. I would more likely go for one of the FF Z's over this Z50. But, we all have different tastes and needs.

 

[Chris101]

Dang - the 24-120 was my workhorse lens when I did commercial photography like brochures, products, and catalog stuff. I liked it because I could just pull out the one lens for most work. Granted most of my work was reproduced small and not on the highest paper. But it has good bokey, adequate sharpness, and all the range I needed (I shot DX back then with a D2x.) When I quit doing that I put it on a N80 film camera where it stayed and the only lens for that camera. Certainly worked well there.

 

[Tinstafl]

I think the z mount will make the dx lens to big. I ou wan one lens and bday look at the Fuji or Oly 4/3s. As the sem o be much smalle. I am king thru he same search right now too.

 

[andreasb]

There must be some serious sample variation with the 24-120 f4! Mine is really sharp, with a slight softening at tele focal lenghts in the corners. I have tried the new 16-80, about the same sharpness

 

[andreasb]

BTW as an overall comment to the thread, we must be desperate getting excited over a mix of a D5xx and a D7xx camera, just because it is mirror less. The fact that the buffer is not stated in any official specs should give me pause.

 

[Jonathan F/2]

I had my D750 bodies AF calibrated at Nikon Repair, afterwards my 24-120mm f/4 VR became super sharp on my camera bodies! Prior to that, I thought my copy wasn't good at 120mm, but it's actually very good!

@120mm:

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Manhattan Beach, California, USA by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

 

[gryphon1911]

BTW as an overall comment to the thread, we must be desperate getting excited over a mix of a D5xx and a D7xx camera, just because it is mirror less. The fact that the buffer is not stated in any official specs should gives me pause.

I did see an online review that showed on a pre-production model that the Z50 can shoot 11fps at RAW+Jpg for 100 frames. Again, unofficial, but I consider that pretty impressive when you couple that with the same AF system as on the Z6/Z7.

 

[ijm5012]

I did see an online review that showed on a pre-production model that the Z50 can shoot 11fps at RAW+Jpg for 100 frames. Again, unofficial, but I consider that pretty impressive when you couple that with the same AF system as on the Z6/Z7.

It's got a single UHS-I SD card slot. UHS-I. In 2019. W_T_F Nikon.

Pair with that the 1/4000 top shutter speed (not 1/8000), the 1MM dot rear LCD (Z6 & Z7 are 2MM+), and the atrocious 2.25x crop 4K video.

This camera is nothing more than a mirrorless D7500, a camera that's 2+ years old. The most enticing thing about this camera is the compact 16-50 lens IMO. Everything else puts it solidly in the "meh" category, especially when compared to Canon's EOS M6 II (32MP vs 20MP, 1/16,000s vs 1/4000s shutter using electronic shutter, no-crop 4K vs 2.25x crop 4K, UHS-II vs UHS-I storage).

The EOS M6 II is a far better camera than the Z50, with the exception of Canon's uninspiring and dead-end EF-M lens mount.

 

[Jonathan F/2]

I did see an online review that showed on a pre-production model that the Z50 can shoot 11fps at RAW+Jpg for 100 frames. Again, unofficial, but I consider that pretty impressive when you couple that with the same AF system as on the Z6/Z7.

https://photographylife.com/nikon-dslr-buffer-capacity-comparison

That's not bad. The D7500 has a 50 shot buffer at 14-bit lossless raw or 100 shots at 12-bit compressed raw, so I'm guessing the Z50 will have something similar. I just wish Nikon would use UHS-II to clear the buffer out quicker.

 

[ijm5012]

https://photographylife.com/nikon-dslr-buffer-capacity-comparison

That's not bad. The D7500 has a 50 shot buffer at 14-bit lossless raw or 100 shots at 12-bit compressed raw, so I'm guessing the Z50 will have something similar. I just wish Nikon would use UHS-II to clear the buffer out quicker.

I'm impressed the 7500 has that large of a buffer. It's got to have a fair amount of onboard storage, because you know that it's not writing data all that quickly to a UHS-I SD card.

 

[andreasb]

That would indeed be very impressive and if that's the case I'll change my mind, on the other hand with a UHS-I card it sounds a little hopeful with that kind of a buffer, would take awhile longer to clear the writing sequence of alarger burst

I did see an online review that showed on a pre-production model that the Z50 can shoot 11fps at RAW+Jpg for 100 frames. Again, unofficial, but I consider that pretty impressive when you couple that with the same AF system as on the Z6/Z7.

 

[andreasb]

I read somewhere that the crop on 4K video was only on the preproduction cameras and would not be there in released version, cant remember where i read it

It's got a single UHS-I SD card slot. UHS-I. In 2019. W_T_F Nikon.

Pair with that the 1/4000 top shutter speed (not 1/8000), the 1MM dot rear LCD (Z6 & Z7 are 2MM+), and the atrocious 2.25x crop 4K video.

This camera is nothing more than a mirrorless D7500, a camera that's 2+ years old. The most enticing thing about this camera is the compact 16-50 lens IMO. Everything else puts it solidly in the "meh" category, especially when compared to Canon's EOS M6 II (32MP vs 20MP, 1/16,000s vs 1/4000s shutter using electronic shutter, no-crop 4K vs 2.25x crop 4K, UHS-II vs UHS-I storage).

The EOS M6 II is a far better camera than the Z50, with the exception of Canon's uninspiring and dead-end EF-M lens mount.

 

[Nikon-mike]

Buffer example at 5.09 97 shots raw + fine jpeg

 

[ijm5012]

I read somewhere that the crop on 4K video was only on the preproduction cameras and would not be there in released version, cant remember where i read it

One could only hope. That crop makes the camera useless for any wide-angle video.

 

[andreasb]

Well I sure am glad I seem to be wrong, that changes this camera dramatically

Buffer example at 5.09 97 shots raw + fine jpeg

 

[Nikon-mike]

Well I sure am glad I seem to be wrong, that changes this camera dramatically

If it only does half of that i will be more than happy, i would have liked a faster shutter speed sometimes but will have to adapt

 

[andreasb]

So I found the non 4k crop quote from Jared Polin on Nikon Rumours

Jared Polin TerrycatMad • 5 days ago
We verified from NIkon that it does not have cropped 4k and is full sensor.

see full comments here: https://nikonrumors.com/2019/10/10/nikon-z50-mirrorless-aps-c-camera-officially-announced.aspx/#respond Click on the image where it says full image 4k.

and this from Thom Hogan http://www.sansmirror.com/cameras/camera-database/nikon-z-mirrorless-cameras/reader-questions-about-the-2.html
"Does the 4K video crop?"
Yes, it's an additional 1.5x crop. Thus, the 16mm focal length of the kit lens is equivalent to 36mm full frame angle of view when used for 4K video. If the Z DX system has a problem, it is that it doesn't have much in the way of good wide angle support, and that becomes a problem when shooting 4K. 1080P video does not crop. According to NikonUSA, some sample cameras initially shown did crop 4K video, but the cameras that will ship in November won't crop. That's the problem with trying to launch products from unfinished firmware and without final marketing materials. It's also the reason why this is a live document you should come back and check from time to time.