Art of Autumn

With FE 85mm f1.4 GM.

 

Loved the way this lens renders the out of focus background.

 

Autumn is when leaves turn into flowers and hence my attempt to shoot fall foliage like how I would shoot flowers.

 

Z9, finally a competent mirrorless release from Nikon and Nikon's 1st "Pro" spec mirrorless camera, an important one as they have been losing market share.

 

A few things to note though, per DpReview the Z9 Dynamic Range (DR) is around a stop (1EV) behind the Z7ii.

 

This corresponds with the A9 vs A7III (both 24mp) back when the 1st stacked sensor made its appearance. The 1st Gen stacked sensor impacts DR especially at lower ISOs, the A9 lags the A7III by a stop at Base ISO and this narrowed to ½ a stop difference by ISO200 and it’s eventually all equal from ISO1,600.

 

However the newer A1 (50mp) only lags the A7RIII (42mp) by ⅓ of a stop and by ISO640, the difference in DR is gone.

 

We'll need to see how far the Z9 really lags Z7ii in DR especially when the Z7ii already lags the A1 by half a stop all the way from ISO503 onwards.

 

The Z9 (1.340g) is also a third heavier than the EOS-R3 which also has an integrated battery grip, in fact the Z9 is merely 110g lighter than the D6! The Nikon D850 (1,005g) is a 9fps camera with battery grip attached and in DpReview’s D850 review, they already harped about how big and heavy the D850 is even without the battery grip.

 

Big plus for the Z9 is $5,500 vs $5,999 for the 24mp EOS R3, thanks to the omission of the costly mechanical shutter mechanism in the Z9 and the Z9’s 45mp sensor is likely derived from the one in the 5 years old D850. The Z9 also has a multi-directional rear LCD instead of the fully articulating one in the R3, synced IS like Canon & m43, Sony is really lagging behind on sync IS now.

 

Still early days, it's always better to let all that fanbois froth die down and wait for field reports from hobbyists especially those who actually shoot multiple systems and hence less biased. If we were to believe the gear forum Z-ealot shills, they are tripping over each other just to get to shoot stills with the 1.34kg Z9 at 20fps.

 

Now that the Z9 is finally out, hopefully we won't have to wait another 2 years for a true mirrorless successor for the D850 (Z8?)! But by then, a potential Z8 is unlikely to be substantially better than the D850 and a lightly used D850 will be a fraction of the cost of a new Z8. Perhaps a Z6III with the 33mp sensor from the new A7IV will suffice for a stills shooter, waiting on Nikon is like watching grass grow these days.

 

Been watching out for the Z 24-120mm f4 S, rather disappointed that Nikon did a Tamron here by omitting VR just to save some weight. Every mirrorless 24-105mm lens on the market has IS/VR, even Nikon’s DSLR versions as well as their APS-C lenses covering this focal range has VR. It’s odd that all of the (pre)reviews thus far avoided any mention of this VR omission.

 

Canon's mirrorless RF 24-105mm F4L IS USM is capable of 5 stops of stabilization alone but with combination of IS + IBIS, Canon claims 8 stops of total stabilization! Perhaps Nikon is trying to milk this by making a Z 24-120mm f4 II with VR later just like the way they released the Z6 & Z7 with just one XQD card slot blaming lack of space only to follow up with Z6ii & Z7ii with identical dimensions but with 2 card slots!

 

IBIS effectiveness is typically pegged at 50-70mm (read the fine print), the longer the focal length, the less effective the IBIS becomes hence going beyond 70mm, lens VR/IS is important to have.

 

As for Nikon's FTZii adapter, it still does not support 5-axis stabilization for Nikon's own DSLR lenses. If Nikon is indeed confident enough that their Z lenses are far superior to their F mount equivalents like Nikon shills proclaim, they would not need to cripple their FTZ adapter.

Done