I’ve had a couple of months to play with my Z6 and Z7 II, which have replaced my D750 and D500, respectively, and I wanted to share my views at this point. Recall that the motivation for the move was my decision to rely more on shooting video on adventure trips; the mirrorless cameras are better at that because they allow the viewfinder to be used in video shooting.
I’m using the Z6 with the Sigma 24-105 Art lens, and the standard setup is full-frame shooting at 4k24fps. In this mode, the lens equivalent focal length range is unchanged. By switching to DX format, I get an effective 36-158mm, and since I use/publish my videos on YouTube in HD mode, I have the ability to crop the video frame, giving me an effective doubling of focal length. That means the entire range available is 24-315, which is plenty for typical video shooting. I’ve also added an external microphone to improve audio recording and reduce or eliminate any noise created by the lens focusing.
On the Z7 II, I have the Sigma 50-500, and in video mode with the same use of DX and 4k cropping down to HD, I have the equivalent of 50-1500mm, which is fairly astonishing.
In photo mode, both the Z6 and Z7 II are full-frame, so there is no focal multiplier inherent in either camera. However, both are capable of shooting crop (DX) frame, offering the usual 1.5x multiplier. My experience suggests that if you have the card capacity, it’s better not to use DX mode for photos, because you can crop in post-processing and achieve the same multiplier, and FX frame while taking pictures gives you a much larger field of view. That’s helpful finding a subject in the viewfinder.
The big question for my Z7 II use is autofocus. Because this is the camera I use for bird and much of my wildlife photography (because it’s what I mount the versatile 50-500mm lens on), and because it replaces the D500 which had excellent autofocus, I needed to optimize focus on the Z7 II. I did some preliminary settings work based on visits to a local nature reserve, but the real test was a trip to Bar Harbor and Acadia, and it was a revelation.
First, I’d determined that I needed to set both the Z-cameras to back-button focus because in video mode, it’s important to keep the autofocus from hunting, which blurs the image slightly and also creates a noise that the microphone picks up. With back-button focus, pressing the shutter doesn’t focus the camera, only the AE/AF button does. With that setting, I can shoot videos and control exactly when the camera will refocus, and since videos are shot at a slow shutter speed and small lens opening, depth of field is great and hopefully refocusing won’t happen often. So in Acadia I had that mode set and got comfortable with it.
The Z-cameras go into an idle-power state when they’re not in use, and it takes a couple seconds for them to wake up, unlike DSLRs that are always ready to shoot unless you turn them off. With back-button focus, I found that I could hit the AE/AF button and wake the camera as I was bringing it up to my eye, which reduced the risk of missing a good shot.
The Z-cameras also have three customizable U-settings on the exposure dial, a feature the D500 didn’t have and that I loved on some other Nikons. I had decided to set everything to f9, 1/800 as a baseline, and so the differences between the U-settings would be the autofocus area and mode. I’d set U1 to be wide-area, continuous servo and U2 to be single-point single-servo, but on the first day I realized that the U2 setting was making it hard to get onto a bird quickly. I set U3 to be small-area and continuous servo, and found that made an enormous difference in being able to quickly pick up a bird.
There turned out to be an unexpected benefit to the combination of back-button focus and my U3 setting, too. If I had a problem focusing on a bird because of intervening branches/leaves, I could take my thumb off the AE/AF button and manually focus the lens without having it try to refocus when I hit the shutter button. Based on this, there’s no value to having single-servo focus, so I’m changing my U2 setting to continuous.
As far as performance of autofocus goes, U1 (wide-area) is best for birds in flight, and it seems to track well once it gets lock. U3 is best for birds in trees or on the ground, and it also seems to track; I got a picture of a Scarlet Tanager in flight because he took off as I shot, and the camera tracked him. U2 would be good for working through a lot of clutter, but I have another idea for U2 now.
The Z-cameras also support two models of focus peaking/peeking, both of which work only for manual focus. If you hit the zoom button, the camera will zoom to a closer view of the subject to facilitate focusing. Better yet, if you set up the correct option, it will mark in-focus elements with a rim of red, so you can see what you’ve got in focus. Both these features work well in my early test, so I’ve reprogrammed the U2 setting to manual focus and focus peaking.
How does this compare to the D500? It’s still a little hard to say because I’ve had years of shooting the D500, including multiple trips to Africa, so I have a lot of field experience. I’ve only had the one short trip with the Z-cameras. However, my impression is that if I manage the focus area settings properly, I’d get better results than I was getting with the D500, but many of the features (like back-button focus) were available on the D500 and I wasn’t using them. However, there’s a bit more involved in getting the settings right, work I’ve tried to simplify using the U-settings.
As far as image quality is concerned, the Z7 II is obviously better than either the D500 or D750. The 45 megapixel sensor makes a big difference, and I can crop images significantly (down to perhaps 10 megapixels total) without losing excessive resolution. Noise at high ISOs is acceptable, but ISO doesn’t go as high as with the D500. I’ve noticed that it’s difficult to process very high ISO images from the D500, so that may not matter much.
The jury is still out after Acadia. I’ll need more time under more varied conditions to rate the new Z cameras and compare them to Nikon DSLRs. I’ve got some Africa trips planned, so I should have an opportunity to get better data when they’re completed, and I’ll update my views then.