Cropped & up-rez

Shot taken handheld with Olympus E-M1 Mk2 mated with the old Panasonic 100-300mm f4.0-5.6 OIS.

 

Portrait orientation crop of the original shot taken in Landscape orientation and then further tighter crop again. The cropped file was up-sized to its original uncropped resolution.

 

Works rather well with lots of fine feather details even after a heavy crop. Useful when we are usually focal length challenged when it comes to shooting small birds.

 

Some cameras have in-cam up-rez functions, Olympus called it “Digital Teleconverter” while Sony’s version is called “Clear Image Zoom” but they produce JPEG only results hence up-rez is best done on the computer with the RAW file because RAW is a canvas unlike JPEG.

 

Meanwhile Nikon just did an Olympus (in E-M1X & E-M1 Mk3) with their 2nd Gen Z6ii and Z7ii by adding a 2nd processor while using the same sensor (on practically identical bodies!). At least the E-M1 Mk3 has some useful new features (Live ND, HHHR) and better IBIS from the E-M1X even though its body is almost identical to the E-M1 Mk2. Also identical to the Olympus playbook, Nikon used the same sensor in 3 successive cameras in D850, Z7 and now Z7ii.

 

There is no new tech in the Nikon Z 2nd Gen that they could not have implemented in their 1st Gen 2 years ago, the biggest benefit of the 2nd Gen (Z7ii +$400 over its predecessor) is probably just the ability to finally use cheaper SD cards, regardless of whether it was 1 or 2 card slots. Compared to Canon 2nd Gen bodies, Nikon does not appear to be trying hard enough or has Nikon been more deeply impacted by the pandemic? Can’t help but think that Nikon is possibly holding back for their next Z camera, already rumors exist for the Z8 or Z9 pro spec mirrorless camera.

 

In stark contrast, smartphones continue to make progress with every new iteration, iPhone 12 now has RAW and multi-shot modes are no longer just limited to the wide angle as was in iPhone 11.

 

Not necessarily a bad thing, especially for those shooting with the Nikon D850, might as well continue to wait a little longer for a true upgrade.

 

The tsunami of ultra defensive comments, warped rationalization coupled with their usual mental gymnastics in various forums from the Z Gen 2 marketeers are quite telling, some even resorted to taking potshots at the Canon EOS R5 but these same folks will overreact and turn porcupine-y over any less than positive comments about “their” brand as if it’s their tribal totem. I use gear from various companies but the Nikon Z-ealots are truly obnoxious by some margin, just plain toxic and bitter! These people lack any genuine ability to see the positives in other brands while being utterly blind to the faults of the brand they worshipped.

 

For Nikon Z, given that Gen 2 (Z7ii & Z6ii) is such a minor iterative upgrade, one might as well wait for Gen 3 and besides with the Covid situation, another couple of years is not that long a wait. Someone made a rather astute observation; 3rd Gen will get most things right, 1st Gen is usually buggy (most of us knew that), 2nd Gen is typically rushed to fix 1st Gen bugs. Many instances support this;

 

1) Nikon

D7000=>D7100=>D7200; D600=>D610=>D750; D800/E=>D810=>D850

 

2) Sony

a7=>a7ii=>a7iii; a7R=a7Rii=a7Riii

Done