A nikon Z8 user review on my website.
If someone is interested and has a question, I'll answer it here.
Kindest regards,
Stany
May 5, 2024
16
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- By StanyBuyle on May 5, 2024, 2:16 p.m..
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I gave my wife all my Fuji gear and spent a year concentrating on exploring the world with my Leica Q2M. She bought a XH2 to go with my lenses and recently added the X150-600 and is happy as a clam. Last summer I started to process to replace my Fuji gear. I looked at the Fuji GFX 100S. A wonderful camera. It is awesome for landscape. As I watched reviews and touched and felt different cameras it came down to the Z8 and GFX 100S. When the pros and cons were written down, the Z8 was just a lot more flexible. There is nothing that beats my Q2M for fine arts landscape. So I went with the Z8 and I am really happy I did. I opted for the Tamron 150-500 over the Nikon 180-600 simply because of size. I don't even have a backpack that would even fit the 180-600. I own a couple horses but no pack mules. 🤣
The Z8 is heavy but Nikon does not know how to build a light weight camera. On the other hand the Z8 could be used as a weapon in a pinch. You could knock out an attacker and then turn around and take his picture. 🙀 The Z8 is fast and responsive. I had to turn on the shutter simulation sound as I missed the conformation that I had taken the shot. But I do love the full time electronic shutter. The end of shutter shock. The Z8 can be taken to the race track to photograph horse races in the day and to the street at night to photograph the street scene. Granted my Leica is a bit better on the street, the Z8 with the Z50 f1.8 S is not slouch. I'm also having a ball playing around with photographing Ospreys with the Z8 and I'm not even a bird guy. I think Nikon hit it out of the park with the Z9/Z8. A really nice camera. The AF is truly amazing and very flexible as a button can be programmed for a custom box and when the subject is detect, push the AF/On to institute 3D tracking frame wide on the subject. A hint I picked up in Thom Hogan's Ebook.
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I am very tempted to get this camera, but the price and the fact my Z7 Mk1 does everything I want it to do well, has put me off so far. I do not do fast moving object photography. So I will wait and see if a Z7iii comes along with something interesting.
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Funny. Thanks for your reaction.
Kindest regards,
Stany -
Hi. Thanks for your reaction.
If you're not involved in action photography of any kind, even the original Z7 is a great tool, delivering the same IQ as Z8/Z9.
Kindest regards,
Stany. -
Wildlife action with Z8 and Z 100-400. Electronic shutter 1/16 000 sec
The scene and crop area as you see in Nikon Studio:
Click on the underneath image to open the full-size crop, (which is a screenshot to reduce file size).
Furthermore, this image is straight out of the camera, converted from NEF in NikonStudio, no post-processing has been applied other than adding ©
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I can fit a Z9, a Z6, a 14-24/2.8, a Tamron 35-150/2-2.8 and a 100-400/4.5-5.6 plus a few extra accessories in a reasonable sized backpack. It even leaves space for a Tamron 20-40/2.8, which I'm thinking of getting to fill the gap between 24 and 35.
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I must admit a bit of hyperbole. However, we Yanks are pretty good at that. The 100-400 is an external zoom. Zoomed in it is fairly compact. The 180-600 is an internal zoom. It weights in a close to 5 pounds🙀. Its length is over a foot long and diameter over 4 inches and it never gets any smaller. I would need a mate to hold the end of the barrel on his/her shoulder and I manned the back of this puppy to use it. 🤪 There is no way it would fit into my PD everyday 30L back pack with the other stuff I have relegated to that pack.
My Tamron 150-500 is quite nice. It over a pound lighter then the 180-600 and is an external zoom so at 150 not that big - a little bigger than the Nikkor 100-400 but not by much. BTW how do you like the Tamron 35-150/2-2.8? I've been impressed with the Tamron 150-500 Z mount lens and just picked up the Tamron 28-75 G2 for the Z mount and fell in love.
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It has its plusses and minuses. It's optically a great lens, and the speed comes in useful. Focusses quickly and silently. The downsides which stop it being a do-all lens is the long short end and the size. It looks and feels big even on the Z9. The Z6 disappears behind it.
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Yep the size was what bothered me about it. I am waiting for Tamron to port the new G2 70-180 f2.8 over to Z mount. I have the Z 24-120 f4 S. Nice lens but since I picked up the Tamron 28-70 f2.8 G2 - I find myself opting more and more for it vs. the 24-120. The two Tamron lenses seem to make a nice light weight kit covering 28 to 180 at f2.8.
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Does that lens exist in Z mount?
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I'll use it on a Megadap Pro adapter.
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Everybody is now googling "Megadap Pro adapter"... You should get affiliates commission... 😉
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I've read mixed reviews on both the Megadap and Techart adapters. What is your take?
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The Megadap has been through three iterations. I had the second and it needed modification to fit Tamron lenses. Eventually it stopped working, and I suspect that the modification (which involved removing the pcb and adjusting the lens ring) had damaged it. I bought the Pro, which was the third iteration, and advertised to fit Tamron lenses without modification. It does. I use it on the 35-150, which I bought before they released the Z mount version, and it works very well. AF seems to be as fast and reliable as any of my Nikon lenses on both my cameras - I don't know if the native Z mount version is any better. It seems to work with all the fancy focus modes on the Z9. Mechanically it fits tightly without any slop.The only real loss is that it doesn't enable the custom lens buttons, but I don't use those anyway. I don't know much about the Techart.
The Megadap Pro updates its firmware via the camera, like a native Z lens - I have a suspicion that there might be some covert Nikon support there, because being able to use adapted E-mount lenses is a big plus for the Z system. Of course you can't update lens firmware that way, but it doesn't matter for Tamrons because they have a USB port. Likewise, Sigmas update via the dock. Sonys update via the camera - but I have an old E mount camera that would do the job if needed. -
A very little spider in my garden...
Image straight out of the camera and converted in Nikon studio, taken handheld with my Z8 and the Laowa 90mm while relying on the 20 NEFS-fps option the Z8 provides, combined with focus peaking.The scene and crop area:
and a 100% crop:
Click on the image to open the full size crop.
More of these on my website: www.nikonuser.info/fotoforum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=5686
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If you want to make sure you don't scare away the dragonflies by getting too close with the camera...
... you can try to capture dragonflies with Z 180-600 & 1.4TC at 840mm...About the underneath image: Resized to 1250px longest side, saved in PS in 9/12 quality. +1 EV reset to 0 EV. Conversion from NEF in Nikon NX studio - vivid.
And, it works way better than I expected.
