rconey

Hiking at the River

Well, I have no champagne picture to share, but a very happy New Year to you all. I have been at Photo.net for many years and hope to see many more. God bless you all! (Oh, I'm the old guy)

Well, ok. I got one a few years ago. I had the zeiss 35 f2 lens in F mount for my D850, and for a full frame, 42 mp camera that weighs one pound and fits in a coat pocket.... So, I do use it- just took our Christmas card picture with it. The files are a little noisier than my Z7 but quite good, almost equivalent. For walk around shooting it is great. For wider angle I can do a pano and for more tele I can crop a bit. Is it worth it? Probably not but as I get older the weight aspect is very nice. Comes with? The pop up viewfinder is small but good. It has the usual level function, and has zoom capability for critical manual focus. Generally functions like my other cameras but is quite small. The batteries don't last long but are tiny, so carrying extras is no big deal. Autofucus is good. I don't shoot sports and such so don't think about rapid acquisition.

Just went out in the cold with the 135 f2Ai nikkor on my Z7. I really like that lens on the Z7. Some chromatic abberation wide open but goes away by f4-5.6. It does NOT feel too heavy to carry around, although I guess I would not back pack with it.

The new 105 f2.8 Z is very nice, better than the zeiss 100 f2.0 I used to have in F mount. Now for FUN, the 105 f1.8 Ais is great for walk around. Wide open it has chromatic aberration, but a nice look.

Intriguing. Maybe next life I'll have time.........

I owned it until about 18 months ago. Great lens, sharp. Unfortunately, it weighed so much I never wanted to carry it with me.

I can do 90+ percent of my landscape work with the Z7 and the 24-70 f2.8 lens. If I need wider, I can take 3 vertical frames and paste together with pano software. With a Z7 I can crop if I want a telephoto look. It costs more but is a superb lens. Used might be a good option for the lens.

Nice camera. It's better than my photo taking skills......

It might be reasonable to get the original Z7. I did that when the Z7ii came out to save a little money. If you push the shadows 5-6 stops you can find some banding (I read its a software issue), but otherwise the sensors are the same. In my landscape photography I have never seen banding; I just pushed a file or two to see if I could produce it. One card, not 2. I have had it a year or so, a couple of backpacking trips and I have not regretted it. The same can probably be said of the Z6 vs Z6ii.

Wow. I would think the lens getting wet would end that shoot.

Thru my D850 the weight was certainly higher in the digital cameras, compared to my F3 from years ago. It was a mechanical beauty. Now the Z cameras are back to similar weight, although the lenses are bigger and heavier. I must admit when I got the 105 f2.8 macro lens my first thought was how ugly it was. Then a few shots showed me how brilliant the optics were. I'll take that trade. I haul my gear backpacking and have never had a failure- it is tough enough.

I have had very good experiences on ebay buying manual focus lenses. I buy better condition, and have not yet had a problem. Buying from Japan works fine. I also use KEH, both buying and then reselling the ones I don't keep.

oh, on the nikon page we discussed the auto-bracket setting. Nice way to make a mess.

When sending files it sometimes is useful after my post processing on the raw file (ACR), to save a tiff file with additional polishing on added layers (usually just a levels operation, then a sharpening operation). I then have the adjusted raw file and the tiff file. THEN I convert to .jpg to send out-flatten, drop to 8 bit, convert to rgb color space, and resize down.

Hello. I just did (probably) the most common digital way to miss a shot I wanted- not put a storage card in the camera before walking away from the house. Sigh, I have about 10 days to get a picture of some flowers that bloom near my house this time of years. After several years I just don't have it quite right. -I suppose having the battery go dead is an easy one. Never done that yet. -Wrong lens for the situation is an easy one. Any other ways you have ruined a photo shoot? Come on, fess up!

I second the "do it yourself" sentiment. I print about 40 Christmas cards of the family every year on my Canon i9900 photo printer. Usually 5x7 but you can buy whatever size you want. I use photoshop/ACR so can do pretty much whatever I want. Last year was a collage since one son was out of the country. Easy breezy. A small photo printer would cost maybe 40 bucks or so?

Many of my photographs are not about the photograph..... I have been enjoying old, manual focus lenses as toys- they aren't that expensive and I can sell them for half what I paid for them, or so. Commonly I throw an old lens on and just go out and take photos of anything, to see how the lens feels and looks. I delete most of them, but some are keepers, especially my pets, or spring flowers. I currently am waiting for a perennials crop in a neighbors yard that I have tried for 3 years to adequately capture. Early July..... A few lenses are really nice. Later when I go on a photo trip I know my lenses better, and which ones to take.

I hate that initial feeling of "What is going on???"

I confess. I have made the autobracket error and gotten home to find multiple shots ruined as bright/dark. Fortunately, even with digital I tend to take multiple shots, so can usually salvage one of them.