The Power of Z
I purchased the Nikon Zf with its 24-70mm f4 kit lens. Subsequently, I bought a few more lenses: Nikkor 14-30mm f4 and Tamron 150-500mm f5-6.7 zoom lens. Below are side-by-side comparisons of the Z-mount lenses on the Zf against the D750 and its equivalent F-mount lenses.
Zf and 24-70mm f4 vs D750 and 24-70mm f2.8.
The 24-70mm f4 is much more compact and lighter than its F-mount brethren, and also produces better image quality, and even though it is 1-stop slower, this is easily compensated by Zf's superior high ISO low noise performance as well as built-in sensor stabilisation.
Zf and 14-30mm f4 vs D750 and Samyang 14mm f2.8.
The Samyang prime is a little more compact since it is manual focusing but it has a weird moustache-like distortion. It also has a lens hood that is not removable. The Nikkor ultra-wide zoom lens is certainly more flexible, and f4 is more than sufficient for general use, not to mention it produces far better images especially in conjunction with the Zf's sensor stabilisation that is optimised for the Z-mount.
Zf and 150-500mm f5-6.7 vs D750 and Sigma 150-500mm f5-6.3.
Being a Z-mount superzoom lens, the Tamron's image quality, autofocus and compactness is much better than the Sigma. Although the Tamron is a little lighter than the Sigma, in practice, it feels quite chunky and dense.
You can see a few more pictures here.
Nikon Zf - Back to Retro
My Nikon D750 is almost ten years old, and while it's working fine, I've been itching to make the jump to the mirrorless world. I skipped the Z6 and Z7, and certainly cannot afford to get the Z8 let alone the Z9. Fortunately, Nikon announced the new Zf, which is a full-frame version of their older APS-C ZFc, and it contains most of the technology of the Z8 minus the stacked sensor. In fact, it has similar resolution to the D750 at 24.5MP but endowed with IBIS (sensor stablizer), EVF (electronic viewfinder), and the Expeed 7 processor, not to mention the retro look of the old film camera like Nikon FM2. The other motivation to get the Zf was that the Fuji X-Pro4 I was considering has not appeared with no rumoured leaks either, and I'm quite happy with just having the Fuji X100V as a compact take-along-everywhere digicam.
So, after ordering it from Futuromic Photo AV Sdn. Bhd., the local distributor of Nikon, I received my Zf with 24-70 f4 kit set on 14 December 2023. I also purchased the Nikon FTZ II adapter, for a total cost of RM12,540.00. I had a special discount considering that the year-end sales already offered the ZF plus zoom kit only at RM12,838.
You can view some initial test shots I took with the Zf with the FTZ II adapter and some of my older F-mount prime lenses. Below are just a few selected images, all are SOOC JPEG and taken handheld: -
That last picture was taken at a whopping ISO 64,000 and there's hardly any noise!
A few things I really like about the Nikon Zf are: -
- Really fast subject-detection autofocus with sticky 3D tracking.
- Very natural looking and smoothly responsive EVF.
- Pretty good sensor VR that works on my older, even manual focusing, lenses.
- Noticeably better image quality than my D750 or X100V, especially improved dynamic range and nicer colours.
- Incredibly low noise at high ISO, compared to my D750 or X100V.
- Solid build and retro design.
- Acceptably quiet and lovely sounding shutter.
- Very good video recording with quick AF and support up to 4K/60p in N-Log too.
What I'm still getting used to:-
- Since the D750 is OVF-based, for me to determine correct exposure required educated guesswork followed by some chimping and further adjustments. The Zf has a very nice EVF and LCD, so it's a WYSWIG experience and I can get correct exposure on the first try. Nevertheless, in difficult lighting situations, I tended to overcompensate the exposure when trying to brighten or darken the image, as I'm still getting used to the characteristics of the display.
- I've been using the X100V more often than the D750 and with its APS-C sensor, it's DOF is deeper than the Zf or D750, so now I tend to underestimate how shallow the DOF of full-frame is. Even though the 24-70 is only an f4 (which is similar to f2.8 on the X100V I think), it can be quite shallow, especially at closer distances.
- The X100V has a leaf shutter and that makes it surprisingly forgiving to handshake at slow shutter speeds. Although the Zf sensor VR is excellent, I noticed that I can't be lazy in my handholding technique, as I can easily tell if the Zf had taken a clean, sharp shot or the slight blur is due to my own unsteady hands.
I also purchased the Sennheiser MKE 440 external stereo microphone to give a boost to the quality of audio recording. This set me back RM 1,590 but it greatly improved the sound compared to the built-in mic and is certainly better than my existing Nikon ME-1 mic. Below is a picture of the MKE 440 fitted on the Zf attached to the FTZ II with Nikon 20mm f1.8G.
Lastly, I wanted a new yet compact camera bag to store the Zf in. I decided to buy the Bellroy Venture Sling 10L in midnight blue for RM950 (that includes shipping costs, and I also received with it, a free Bellroy Cooler Caddy bag worth RM299, in light copper colour). Although the Venture Sling is a small bag, it could easily fit the Zf with three small lenses, like the 24-70 f4 mounted, and for example, the Nikon 20mm f1.8G and 85mm f1.8G together with the FTZ II adapter. I like this bag because it has a flexible compartment with loosely attached dividers and the bag itself shapes to the contour of your body when you wear it. The Venture Sling is certainly smaller, lighter and less expensive than my existing Ona Leather Prince Street bag, yet I think is more effective as a camera bag.
I still have a few more stuff to buy, like Z-mount lenses and other accessories. I'll update on these purchases from time to time....
Aerial Videography
I've always wanted to try out drone or aerial videography ever since the DJI Mavic Pro was released back in 2016. However, I never bought into it, until recently, when the DJI Mavic 3 Pro was launched in April 2023. It caught my attention because it had the newly developed triple-camera system, and all the latest bells and whistle technologies. One of the camera is a Hasselblad with a 24mm f/2.8 equivalent lens, the other two are 70mm f/2.8 and 166mm f/3.4 equivalent. So, I pre-ordered the Fly More Combo package online on 1 May 2023 at a whopping RM12,399. Now, I own both a drone and a Hasselblad camera :-D
It arrived safely ten days later, and I then realised I forgot to buy a microSD card. Thankfully, it has a built-in 8GB of storage, so after charging up the batteries, I took it for its maiden flight from my backyard.
Check out more photos of it here.
The microSD card is on its way.....
Asus Router Booster
With the Rokoko mocap suit that I recently purchased, I also bought on 6 Mar 2023 a new Asus RT-AX56U router for RM450 at a special discounted sales. This is much faster than the TM Unifi supplied TP-Link C1200 router, not to mention being much more featured in terms of security, administrative control and ease-of-use.
Below is an Internet speed test I did (my TM Unifi is a 800 Mbps package) : -
Not bad eh?
Rokoko Mocap Suit
One of my favourite hobbies is 3D animation storytelling, and in the pursuit of producing better character animation in an easy yet effective manner, I had purchased the Rokoko Smartsuit Pro II + Smartgloves motion capture package, and it arrived by courier on 2 Mar 2023. At around RM17K, this is quite an investment, but being state-of-the-art for inertia-based mocap systems, with the ability to integrate with Reallusion iClone animation system, it has proven by many to be a worthy product.
I am still playing around with this, and will be working to produce a simple short animated clip as part of testing and learning to do motion capture animation, together with iClone 8. So far, it has been easy to setup and does output incredibly smooth and life-like motions with virtually no cleanup needed.