b top gun

Am thinking about a Z6 with 24-70 f/4 kit lens; feed back on IQ with that lens, please. Anyone do any low light, night time and/or astrophotography with a Z6 and that kit lens? Can that lens be set up for full manual focusing?

I have several Nikkor manual focus lenses from film days, will they work on a Z6 with the FTZ adapter?

Anyone shot images with ND filters on a Z6?

Thanks.

CO

I rented the Z6 with the 24-70mm f/4 and 50mm f/1.8 lenses for two weeks. I did side by side testing with my D500. The image quality was stellar - maybe even a little better than my D500. I was disappointed with the Z6 low light focusing. It would hunt to achieve focus in even slightly dim light and never achieve focus. I activated the low light focusing feature but that didn't help. My D500 would achieve focus immediately in the same light. I know that there have been firmware updates that have improve AF performance.

The manual lenses work with the FTZ adapter but there's no communication with the camera.

Updates to the Z6 and Z7 are supposed to be released in October. The Z6s and Z7s will have improved autofocus, dual memory card slots, dual Expeed processors, and will be compatible with vertical grips. I would wait to look at those.

b top gun

Thanks. My manual focus lenses work on my D7100 and even better on a D850 I got to play with for a while. Dim light/low light focus is a requirement for me.

Grahame Loc: Fiji

I purchased the Z6 with the 27-70 f/4 as an additional camera to my D800 a few weeks ago.

As for that lens IQ I have been impressed but have not spent time undertaking any comparrisons. My first serious trial of it was at a sport (where in the lighting I would normally have been using a Nikon 70-200 f/2.8).

Here's an example of it wide open at 70mm f/4 but what's also significant is that this is the 7th shot (not burst) of the series and each was perfectly focused using AF-C Dynamic. I have read much about poor AF on this camera and although still on firmware v2.0 I can not fault it yet.

In addition I have undertaken low light focus testing and can not fault it yet.

Hopefully this week I'll be trialing both night shots and ND use if the weather improves.

(Download)

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Since you mention astrophotography as one of your intentions. I will suggest that a maximum aperture of f/4 is going to be a handicap for that application. In addition, you will probably end up doing a lot more stitched panoramas than you would with a wider lens. 24mm will not be wide enough for most of what you are likely to want to do. It is not quite wide enough to capture the entire galactic core, especially when the Milky Way is reasonably high in the sky.

I have not yet learned all the reasons, but I see very few mirrorless cameras from any maker in night shooting situations. The few I have seen have been Sonys. Even though everyone tends to use Live View to finalize focus, very few use anything other than the optical viewfinder for composition and framing. Among experienced shooters, the focus is eliminating and avoiding anything that would risk disrupting night vision, including an inadvertent bright burst from an EVF.

Grahame Loc: Fiji

Yes, only test images today, using Lee 10 and 6 stop, but I have interesting observations and questions now.

First Test : 10 stop in midday heavy overcast daylight controlling EXP up to 30 seconds;

Being able to see the histogram in the EVF allowed accurate control of all exposures I wanted up to 30s. I did find the meter bar roughly 1 stop out to what I would have expected from the scene but that's no different than the D800 I'm used to.

I also found the AF pretty good with the 10 stop in place.

Second Test : 10 + 6 stop in midday heavy overcast daylight controlling EXP up to 30 seconds;

Here I found that whatever I did the histogram would not go past approx 1/3rd scale even though the meter bar was registering well overexposed as per the image results. So here again perfect exposure using the meter bar.

Further Testing : Why's the Histogram Movement Limited?

With no ND filters and with the camera in a 'darkish' room I also found that the EVF histogram was limited to just 1/3 scale movement although the meter bar responded correctly for well overexposing consistent with the image results.

There may be a 'glitch' with the EVF histogram with very low ambient light. It could also be that this has been corrected with the formware updates.

Rayban

I had originally the Z6 with the F4 sense. I traded it was good for low light and with the latest firmware updates acceptable when autofocusing.
About 6 months ago after a lot of soul-searching I traded in th f4 for the f2, I wondered if there would be a noticeable difference. There is, both for faster autofocus and low light. If you can run to it I would go for the f2.8.

jeffhacker Loc: Dallas, Texas

I made the switch in June from a D500. The 24/70mm f/4 lens is great; the low light situation was, to me, coming from a DX (crop) lens to a full frame was absolutely stunning. I also got the FTZ adapter and can use my F3.5-5.6 18-300 mm telephoto and my f/1.4 50mm prime as well, but so far haven't tried to. The older manual focus lenses should still work, but you may want to ask a "real" photography/camera store on that, if there's one near you.

I am very happy with my decision!

tcthome Loc: NJ

If you decide to get the Z6 & your main reason is for astro, You should think about getting this lens with it.

https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/mirrorless-lenses/nikkor-z-20mm-f%252f1.8-s.html

aflundi Loc: Albuquerque, NM

Hey CO,

I keep seeing you posting this information, but I've got to say that has not been my experience at all. I've had the Z6 since it first came out and when I first got it, I spent some time comparing the low-light focusing with my dSLRs including my D500. My experience was the opposite of yours. The Z6 much to my surprise not only did better, but *much* better. It focused on things I could just barely, dimly make out with my unaided eyes and that I couldn't possibly have focused on manually with a dSLR. The D500 under those conditions really wasn't able to grab a good focus at all.

I can only guess that your experience may have been due to the fact that the D500 has a preference for focusing on horizontal lines were the Z cameras need vertical lines. Thus a Z might not do as well on something a D would do well on, and visa-versa. So it is possible that a D500 might focus solidly on a target that the Z doesn't. However, in most realistic scenarios, I find the Z6 to be absolutely solid.

Since the camera had just come out at the time I did those initial tests, it was with firmware version 1.0. As you hint though, later firmware updates have substantially improved autofocus, making the Z6's autofocus even better.



I think you meant to say "non-communicating manual lenses". Chipped (communicating) manual lenses work just fine talking with the Z body via the FTZ.

I'll just summarize by saying my Z6 is my favorite camera now over my D810, D800's, D600 and D500. There's no question that there are some niche areas where a D850/D500/D5/D6 would be superior such as extreme sports, but for most areas outside those small niches, I prefer the Z.

mikeroetex Loc: Lafayette, LA

Some thoughts and experiences:
1- if using MF lenses, AF performance doesn’t matter. And they do quite well
2- IBIS helps with non VR lenses
3- firmware updates have brought Z cameras more on par with other DSLRs. I really don’t notice any difference in the field.
4- one of National Parks at Night professionals says Z6 is best camera on market for Astro photography (pre D780).

Lastly, I use Z6 for low light, Z7 for landscape and D500 for sports. But the D500 is staying home more often, using it mostly for wildlife or BIF. There is still a slight digital lag that makes following birds a challenge, but then, challenge sharpens my skills!

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

It is a wonderful camera. Make sure to get the firmware update 3.0 and the4 FTZ update.

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

*And* firmware 3.1! Oh, and I hooked mine to my 70-200 VII f2.8 the other day and found myself shooting surfers. Now, normally I'll use my D5 but I wanted to run the Z through some hoops; I was pleasently surprised with the max fps response...*very* close to my D5. I dunno, the more I use the thing, the more I trust it. <shrug>

baron_silverton Loc: Los Angeles, CA

Or the new 14-24 F/2.8S is supposed to be absolutely amazing for astro photography - not quite as fast as the 20mm 1.8 but can go much wider and it apparently controls coma in the stars very well - I am sure the 20mm will do so as well, but I like having the possibility of a wider field of view and f2.8 is good enough to get good exposures at around 15 seconds at 1600 - 3200 ISO which yields very nice night time results. However, if 20mm is as wide as you ever want to go then by all means get the prime 20mm 1.8S.
-B

craggycrossers Loc: Robin Hood Country, UK

A couple of links that should help clear up your (and others) questions about the Z6, the FTZ adapter and autofocus performance (after firmware updates) .......

http://www.sansmirror.com/lenses/lens-database/lenses-from-camera-makers/nikon-z-mount-lenses/ftz-adapter-compatibility.html

https://www.zsystemuser.com/z-mount-cameras/nikon-z-camera-reviews/nikon-z6-camera-review.html

Thom gives a considerable amount of time and space to the autofocus system in his review - and I agree with "aflundi" who mentions one contributor's continuing negative comments about autofocus performance. Comments which have remained unchanged since he first rented it in December 2018, and now appears unsure (see post to BebuLamar Dec 6 2018) whether he rented it for one week or two ! I would add, in defence of said contributor, that, aside from early af performance, overall he seemed pretty happy with what was a 4-5 month old "mirrorless newcomer" from the manufacturer he knows and uses. All the more strange, in my opinion, that he still seems unwilling to have followed the development of the Z series' af performance (now in firmware 3) over the almost two years since. Again - look closely at what Thom Hogan now says about current af performance of the Z6.

As you Americans love to express it ........ "just sayin'" .........