I haven’t even started to dig in to the fancy focus modes. I’m looking forward to that. In the next day or so.

Thanks, I’ll check that.

Fortunately all my Nikon lenses, even my DX lenses, fit on my Z611. I could never have afforded the switch if I had to replace all my lenses at the same time.

Good comments. Interesting post. Thanks.

Thanks for this. I just got around to this last night and now have two programable buttons standing by to center that focus point.

I'm just starting to play with those.

BBF is all I ever use. Sometimes when I am waiting for the cello player to start or a whale to surface, my fingers will fiddle with the controls or ill push the BBF button and the camera will focus on something I dont want, then when the action starts and I lift the camera to my eye I find the focus point is not where I think it is going to be. Often when watching whales I want to lock the focus location so I know where it is going to be to catch the action. My D7500 and D300s have a toggle switch to lock that point in place. Not so on my new Z6. I guess I have to stop fiddling with the controls. Tough to do. I'm a fiddler.

Some thoughts about going mirrorless, which I did about a month and 3000 pictures ago. (Nikon Z611). The mirrorless viewfinder is both good and bad. While composing the shot, pre-exposure, the screen looks a bit wimpy and “digital”. It is not rich and saturated as a mirrored viewfinder and the contrast range is limited. The brights can look washed out even when the histogram (the little one in the viewfinder which I really like) is telling you the exposure is fine. The jpeg from your RAW file that you see after making the exposure looks great. It’s just that pre-exposure shot that lets me down.

I like seeing the exposure change when I manipulate the controls, particularly in dark situations. The thing I miss the most on this camera, is not having a focus point lock. My last three Nikon digital cameras had a little toggle switch to lock the focus point to where I want it to be, but my Z611 has a mind off its own and I keep finding the focus point has shifted from where I left it. This is one of the biggest complaints about this camera I’ve on various NIKON forums.

The number one most annoying thing for me is the “Sub selector” (joy stick). It’s placed right where your thumb hits it when you pick up the camera, and, for the most part does the exact same thing as the “Multi Selector” which is right below it. It sticks up and wiggles and you end up moving it by accident and that shifts the focus point all over the view finder. There is nothing it does that other controls don’t do, and I would disable it if that was an option. It’s not.

The day I received the camera our Symphony Orchestra called me to shoot part of their live concert that had changed in the one day since we shot the rehearsal. This camera has a silent mode that doesn’t make a sound. This was great to use in a situation where I had to deal with an audience. No one even knew I was taking pictures. This is great.

Also, on the plus side, this camera focuses blisteringly fast with my fast, professional lenses. It is the fastest focusing camera I have ever had. The manual for this camera was obviously written by someone who already knew all about it and thought they could leave out information and no one would be bothered. I’ve wasted lots of time trying to figure out things that were barely or incompletely explained.

Regrets about going mirrorless? No. It was time to go full frame and chuck the mirrors. Is it as great as some say? No. It gobbles batteries, the EVF has room for improvement, there are too many controls on the body and no focus lock. In time I will master it and use its many strengths to make great picture. I’m always up for a challenge.

What do others think?

Answering Part two of your question. I have been using a Nikon DX camera for years. Currently a D7500. Two weeks ago I bought a new Nikon, Z611, full frame mirrorless. My two main, fast lenses are full frame so I am good there, but I have a bunch of DX lenses too. They work on the new camera but at a reduced pixel size. My DX wide angle lenses give me the same view as a full frame wide angle but with about half the pixels. Thats OK for now but I will have to pick up a full frame wide angle some time soon.
As far as the controls being in the same place...sort of. It's actually very different and I have put in many hours trying to figure it all out. Some things are good and some not so good. I shot two performances of the Juneau Symphony Orchestra this weekend, one a rehearsal, but for various reasons I was called back to shoot part of the live show. The silent setting for the shutter was wonderful. It doesn't make any sound at all. The people around me while I was shooting didn't even know I was taking pictures, except for the fact that I was holding a camera with a big lens on a monopod and had to move around a little bit during the show. Fortunately, after close to fifty years of shooting theater in Juneau, most people know me and expect me to be there with a camera. I haven't even gotten into all the various focus modes of the new camera. The cruise ships and whales are just starting to show up so it will be an interesting summer.

A bunch of things ring wrong about this to me. You say you are using a flash in some sort of dome AND you are shooting at 10000 ISO. First, 10000 ISO is really extreme. You get noise but you also get a little mush as apposed to crispness in your shots. (I may get a little pushback on this, it's hard to define) Flash and high ISO don't play well together. You use high ISO so you don't have to use flash. Next you say you are using a shutter speed of 200. That is pretty much going to wipe out any ambient light in a dark situation, making everything rely on the flash, which, in turn makes the high ISO pointless.
Thinking about setting up my camera for a Baptism in a dark church I would weigh two choices. Do I want to use flash and if so do I want to use ISO, f-stop and shutter speed to balance a little ambient light in the shots. (Probably) Or do I want to forget the flash and adjust just for ambient light? (My preference) If the later is my choice I would start with an ISO around 1600 and go up from there a little at a time to get the right exposure. Worse case would never get me close to 10000. I would, of course, use fast glass, 1.4 to 2.8. Shooting in low light, narrow depth of field, slower shutter speeds, you shouldn't expect every shot to be sharp. At slow shutter speeds you will get a lot of garbage. Expect it. Over shoot and only show the good ones. Flash is easy but often garish. Ambient is harder to shoot but much cooler in the end.

I know this is old news by now but I just got a Z611 and one of the first things I tried to set was the focus lock. There isn't one. I have been all over the internet and unlike the Nikon DSLRs they didnt put a focus lock switch on this camera. Super annoying. What were they thinking?

I shoot lots of theater. Constant color and intensity changes. I do the same thing. Auto white balance and adjust color later. Really, what else can you do?

Thanks.

I shoot the interiors of a lot of europian churches. Some of them are really small and tight. (not my example) I carry a Nikon 10.5 mm fisheye. In Lightroom and probably just about any PP program, you can adjust away the fisheye look quickly with a slider. If you want the fisheye look you just don't correct it.

Fisheye with no correction.

(Download)

Fisheye lens with quick adjustment in Lightroom.

(Download)

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