New Camera - Nikon Z6 II

As the title suggests I have a new camera! After many weeks/months of thinking about it, going back and forth and rationalizing the cost I bit the bullet and purchased a new Nikon Z6 II (a great sale was on - $1999 CAD ($700 off), probably because the Z6III was recently released). Below you can see a couple snaps of the camera, taken with my D7100 and 85mm f/1.8D lens, from around the house - just to show it off with some shallow depth of field and bokeh. The photo above actually got on Flickr Explore the day I posted it and has already garnered over 10,000 views - so I was quite happy about that (it might be over a decade old, but that D7100 has done some great work!)

Before deciding on the mirrorless-route, I tested out 3 awesome full-frame Nikon DSLRs (Flickr link to photo) thanks to photographer friend who had already gone mirrorless and was looking to sell her used gear (shout out Melanie Courage Photography). I got to try out the Nikon D750, D800 and D810 as well as the 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII lens. I really liked the increased size and hand feel of the larger, full-frame bodies (my D7100 is great but it's a DX camera and not quite as robust) and it was nice to have the benefit of a telephoto f/2.8 lens with VR (none of my primes or existing lenses have that). I did notice tho, that with the full frame sensor, the focus points really only covered a small area in the centre of the frame (compared to the D7100 that had more covered, due to the smaller sensor size) and I still had to manually move the points around as none of these cameras had any sort of eye-autofocus. Here's where things really kind of turned in the new camera's favour.

If you aren't already aware, a lot has changed with regards to camera technology in the decade-plus since I purchased my D7100. Mirrorless cameras have become the norm and with them has come a whole host of other improvements and features: upgraded focus technology (with people and pet/animal eye autofocus), in-body-image-stabilization (IBIS), wireless/bluetooth and many more. The eye autofocus and IBIS really are what sold it for me tho. Being a portrait photographer (mostly) I really love the ability to get the eye/face sharp and to be able to focus on the process of taking photos and interacting with the model vs. messing with focus points is amazing. Also, the focus points cover like 95% of the frame and you can track moving subjects with ease - it's really an amazing upgrade. Similarly, the IBIS gives any lens I put on it, prime or zoom, sharper less blurry images in most all situations. Apparently, 5-axis IBIS is only supported on the Z-mount lenses and not the adapted versions (F-mount) but you do still get 3-axis. Here's a post with more on that if you're interested. The only downfall, as mentioned, is that all my existing lenses need to be used with an adapter (FTZ II) to work. And doubly unfortunate most of my lenses are either DX lenses (smaller image size so it crops the full-frame sensor) or AF-D lenses which have a screw-type motor and can't autofocus on the adapter (manual focus only). Nikon kept the same lens mount for like 50 years so we can't be too mad at them, but it would have been nice if they included a motor for all these great lenses in the FTZ adapter. Now I gotta go buy a bunch of new primes... such is life.

Anyways, after all that nerdy stuff I did actually get out for a couple shoots in the past month. Since I only have one autofocus lens at the moment, the Nikon 50mm f/1.4G, all the following images are taken with that. Honestly, I didn't love that lens on my D7100 but it's been a dream to shoot with on the Z6II so that's been great. I'm now torn on getting more (and cheaper) f-mount G lenses or just saving up and shelling out for the Z-mount primes (85mm f/1.8 S is high on the list) - time and budgets will tell. 

If you've made it this far, thanks so much for reading about my camera nerd rant. Please enjoy some portraits of the stunning Janaya and Alicia (both of whom appear in a couple other pages on this site so please check them out!). Cheers!