ShunCheung

Got an e-mail from Nikon this morning. In April 2024, they have produced 120 million Nikkor lenses, starting from 90 years ago. https://www.nikonusa.com/press-room/120-million-nikkor I suppose all of us here have contributed a few to that total. 😁

David, your hummingbird image is great, but it seems to be super noisy. I assume you were forced into really high ISO and/or the image was underexposed. Have you tried denoise, e.g. Topaz or LightRoom?

Ok, that is not a nature image. The red color looks unreal.

I am afraid that both the Z6 and Z7, including their respective ii versions, don't have the best AF for tracking moving subjects. You can try the Z7 with a static subject and see how that looks like. Otherwise, the D500 and D850 have almost the latest DSLR AF, only second to the D6 and D5. (D6 is supposed to be somewhat better.)

Note: Consider keeping uploads no larger than 1600 pixels on the long side when it matters, and sticking with 1000 pixels when the image feels no pain at that resolution. On data size/compression, try to keep things under 1mb, shooting for 600kb when you can stop there. Note that this includes photos hosted off-site (at Flickr, Photobucket, your own site, etc.). New to this thread? The general guidelines for these Wednesday threads are right here: https://www.photo.net/forums/topic/398109-guidelines-for-nikon-forum-wednesday-image-threads. For now, we're sticking with 1, 2, or 3 images per week as you see fit. Two images from a recent concert, both Z9 with 24-70mm/f2.8 lens

Technically, I am sure they can put some AF motor inside the FTZ. Sony already has that for their mount. How fast and accurate the AF is would be another topic. I doubt that Nikon can make one that performs well in today's standards, as AF has improved drastically since the days of screwdriver AF from 25, 30 years ago.

Exactly which F-mount 85mm/f1.8 lens do you have? I have the AF-S version, and that should AF with any Z body via an FTZ/FTZii adapter. If that is not AF-S, there is no AF motor inside the lens, inside the FTZ adapter, or inside any Z body, hence you have no AF because there is no AF motor anywhere in the set up. All Nikon Nikkor Z lenses have the AF motor inside the lens, except for the 58mm/f0.95 Noct, which is manual focus only.

Land iguana

Back on the April 15 Monday in Nature thread, I posted another image of this Galapagos Hawk on a tree, and the legs were obscured. Later on the hawk found this dead fish on the beach, and I noticed that the legs were heavily banded.

This was what I saw in New Zealand. In the US, we mostly use trucks or SUV. This image was captured with the Nikon D800E with the F-mount 24-120mm/f4 AF-S VR, such that it also meets Nikon Wednesday requirements.

This is the original image, without denoise.

I have never purchased third-party batteries for Nikon, but Wasabi seems to be a better-known brand. It looks like Amazon has Wasabi EN-EL4. I haven't touched my D2X in years; ISO 800 from that era looks horrible. The D3 seems to be a much better camera.

It looks like B&H still has a number of third-party EN-EL4 batteries, or you can find used one for genuine EN-EL4(a), but batteries that old might not work well any more. The last camera that used the EN-EL4a was the D3s from 2009. From the 2012 D4 and on, it has been the EN-EL18, all the way to the D6 and Z9. I still have a couple of old batteries I bought in 2005 with my D2x. I wonder whether they still work or not.

Is that in the UK? I have been to the Abel Tasman National Park on the South Island in New Zealand. They use tractors to pull boats into the water. At least I haven't seen that practice in the US.

Note: Consider keeping uploads no larger than 1600 pixels on the long side when it matters, and sticking with 1000 pixels when the image feels no pain at that resolution. On data size/compression, try to keep things under 1mb, shooting for 600kb when you can stop there. Note that this includes photos hosted off-site (at Flickr, Photobucket, your own site, etc.). New to this thread? The general guidelines for these Wednesday threads are right here: https://www.photo.net/forums/topic/398109-guidelines-for-nikon-forum-wednesday-image-threads. For now, we're sticking with 1, 2, or 3 images per week as you see fit. Cinnamon Flycatcher (Pyrrhomyias cinnamomeus) in Ecuador 800mm PF lens @ f6.3, ISO 10000 with LightRoom denoise

Brown pelican picking up tiny fishes at Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos

Guess the current sale will end on Sunday, June 2, 2024, but again, Nikon USA can always renew the sale, but they may optionally adjust what is on sale. I don't see any sign that they may run out of Z8 yet. B&H still has them in stock, but they could have just a few. We are merely in mid May, we'll see whether Arlington Camera gets new Z8 stock. I was at my local Mike's Camera to get a 26mm/f2.8, as it became on sale for the very first time in the US. It is a great, convenient little lens. I am well aware that it is far from the best optically. You need to have a much longer, tele-centric wide angle design to be great on digital sensors. I already have several zooms that cover 24-70mm.

After I posted above, I went to my local Mike's Camera in Menlo Park and talked to the manager. He said the Nikon sale actually ends on June 2, which is also a Sunday, but Mike's updates their web site weekly and uses an earlier end date, just in case occasionally Nikon adjusts the sale items, similar to what I mentioned earlier.

One of my favorite landscape images during my February 2019 trip to Antarctica is an evening image of the Lemaire Channel, with the setting sunlight on the peaks and reflections on the calm water. Obviously I was on a cruise ship and there are ripples in the ship's wake. Strictly speaking, those ripples are human made. That may disqualify this image based on the stricter definition for nature photography.

Just came across Mike's Camera's web page. It specifies that the current Nikon Z8 sale ends on 19 May, 2024. That is exactly a week from today and is also a Sunday. A lot of Nikon USA sales begin and end on Sundays, but the current sale started on May 1, which was not a Sunday. (Mike's is a chain with 5 stores in Colorado and 4 in Northern California.) Again, if some stores run out of stock, you'll be out of luck. And (part of) the current sale could be extended, but Nikon USA may potentially shuffle the items that are on sale and the amount of discount. That more likely happens during the year-end, holiday sale, as some different items can become on sale after a certain date.

I am not sure, but my impression is that this current sale is for the entire month of May, 2024, but I could be wrong. Nikon USA will specify a sale end date to the dealers so that they can adjust the prices, but the sale could be renewed, based on sales, inventory, and exchange rate conditions. The reference to Mother's Day is just for convenience. After that, it is usually the Grads and Dads sale. Also, the sale is only good as long as stock is available. If you want something, it is best to order it while it is available. I kind of doubt that Nikon USA will run out of the D850 and Z7ii now, but those products will likely be discontinued in the near future. And they could run out of certain lenses for a short while. This is purely my personal speculation, I think the Z8 has already replaced the Z7ii so that there may not be any follow up in the Z7 series. And most likely all F-mount products will be discontinued. The D850 was introduced back in 2017 and is almost 7 years old, and the very last F-mount products were announced in early 2020: D780, 120-300mm/f2.8 and D6.

Within this forum, there is slightly more participation for Monday in Nature than the Friday, Unlimited thread. I can understand that it is frustrating that you go through the trouble to start threads every week, but there is not much participation. I always wish that there were a mechanism to automatically start these weekly threads, and you don't have to attach an image to the first post. Since I took over Nikon Wednesday this year, and I was on vacation most of April, I had scheduled three threads before I left. It turned out that I had decent wifi access from our little cruise ship on that trip so that I was able to start threads on the road. I had been on that same ship back in 2011 and 2015, and there was no wifi access before.

The actual reference guide is an on-line PDF with 948 pages. I suppose just learn enough to get started. For CFexpress, perhaps get a 128G/165G ProGrade or Delkin to get started. For still capture, 128G is sufficient, but once you record high-quality video, we are talking about 1TB cards or above. There is a lot of discussion on suitable cards.

Of course pretty much all of us are aware that photo.net's viewership has dropped in the last decade or so. Dieter is wondering whether it is still worthwhile to continue the Friday, Nature Unlimited threads, as participation is pretty limited. But then, this week's thread has 9 follow-up posts. If there is sufficient interest, I am sure we are glad to continue, but I encourage everybody to post. Also, we haven't discussed this for a few years. Last time I polled, most people favored the one-image-per-member-per-week restriction. But optionally, we can open it to maybe 2 or 3 images per person. I just wouldn't like to have one person dominating the thread with 10, 20 images. Thoughts?

Sting Rays