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 p.29 #4 · Official Z Series Camera and Lens Discussion | |
Lance B wrote:
I think the trouble is, the Nikon reps are misinformed either by the Nikon head honchos (lack of training), or by the hype the reps have read in the media, or by their own misinterpretation of what Nikon advertising has been saying. I think that it could be a combination of all three of the above. I have found that it is never the best policy to ask a Nikon rep, or any manufacturers rep for that matter, about their products due to the fact that these days with the internet you can get more info than the reps. Every time I have purchased a Nikon product, I know more than their rep does. I have been into the Nikon head office here in Sydney a number of times recently and I know more than the people there about most of their products and when they are going to be released! I have found this with many products that I have researched. Anyway, nowhere in the Nikon literature does it state that it is a direct mirrorless equivalent to the D850 other than in Mp, handling and general build quality. It even states that there is one card slot and in the specs it states buffer and fps so, I wonder how anyone, let alone a rep, could make the jump in conclusion that it is a D850 equivalent.
When I researched the Z7 and read up all about it, I *never* for once thought it would be a replacement for my D850, but rather an adjunct to it, due to the fact that I never thought the AF would be equal. I knew that it would not match the D850 for AF tracking or AF in general, but what I was *not* prepared for was that it was a hell of a lot better at AFing than I had ever imagined. In fact i would go as far to say it is 100% better than I had envisaged for adapted F mount lenses which I thought would be severely hamstrung by the use of the OSPDAF system. The AF of the Z7 is as good as I need it for most of what I do and that includes everything other than for the tracking modes used for fast moving subjects. To be quite honest, even in my birding, I rarely use tracking modes on my D850.
As for where the Z7 stands and why it is as it is. I know a very highly qualified marketing guy a good friend of mine, he has done marketing for a number of top shelf companies. Pretty much everything a company does is about marketing rather than the technology that is actually available, up to a point of course. Just look at how the big 3 have entered the mirrorless market. Sony had to go "balls and all" as they have the lowest market share as far as FF cameras are concerned and had to go mirrorless as they couldn't break into the DSLR market held by the big 2. So, they gave up on that idea. So, mirrorless was pushed and they made sure it worked and worked well - witness the A7 (no FF mirrorless competition at the time of release) through to the now A7 III and A7R III the possible equal to the D850 and also the A9 and equal to the D5. They now own the (smaller) FF mirrorless market as it was a market waiting to be tapped and pushed because Sony *had* to go the mirrorless route. However, Nikon are 2nd in FF DSLR's and only need mirrorless to stem the at-the-moment-small flow of people to mirrorless FF. They do not need to offer as much as Sony but more than Canon for a FF mirrorless as Nikon have a dedicated F mount user base that should see many transfer across to mirrorless. So, Nikon can introduce an excellent build quality, better ergonomics, high Mp, excellent EVF camera with IBIS and have a decent first time in mirrorless camera, one that is better in some ways than the Sony A7 RIII (in the areas I pointed out) and will entice a decent sales volume. But Canon don't need their camera to be the best at anything as they have an even larger dedicated user base and arguably the EOS R is the lowest credentialed out of all of them, they didn't even go with IBIS - how strange! Anyway, getting back to my marketing friend, he believes that Nikon did not put their best AF abilities into the Z6/7 as it would eat into the current DSLR sales of the D850 etc. Sony didn't have this problem as they basically had no DSLR sales anyway. Nikon have to carefully manage the possible exit of DSLRs and associated F mount lenses - there is much at stake here. I tend to agree with why they did that, but I wish they hadn't done it that way as there would be a lot less angst and teeth gnashing not to mention bad press. He believes (and I think he's right) that Nikon are managing the mirrorless entry very carefully. He also believes that we may see a top shelf mirrorless entry before the Tokyo Olympics as this will be a showpiece for Nikon. It will probably be a Z version of a D5. If there is also a D6 (replacement for the D5) announced then that signals that Nikon are still firmly in DSLRs for the short to medium term. If we see both announced we see a commitment to both - short to medium term for DSLR - long term for mirrorless. If we see only a mirrorless D5, then we see the writing on the wall for DSLRs. If we do not see a mirrorless D5, then it means that Nikon are still not up to speed on an *equivalent* mirrorless D5.
As for the rep saying that Nikon's entry into mirrorless will pay his wages for the next 20+ years, I think this is just an obvious conclusion to come to in the grand scheme of things. DSLRs are probably on the way out and if Nikon don't manage their entry into mirrorless well in terms of marketing and technology they will wear the brunt. However, I think they have done a very good job with their first camera and it is only the ill informed reviewers that may have got it a little wrong - or is that they don't care whether they got it wrong and are just after the internet traffic.
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Again very well said. I didn't expect the Z7 to replace my D850 either. Marketing will always push superlatives and the actual performance will likely fall a little short, regardless of whether it's a camera or a car, or a dishwasher. What product in existence has ever been marketed as "pretty good but could be better"?
The reality is that all mirrorless cameras, regardless of the how mature they are, fall short of the D850 in certain areas. The D850 can focus in very dark situations with a relatively tiny cross type AF point more accurately and quickly than a comparably sized mirrorless AF point. In dark conditions, you can increase the size of the mirrorless af point but then you start to give up accuracy because you're letting the camera's AF processor decide for you where you want the AF point. This isn't a theory - I've experienced it myself (with the A7r3, A7r2, A7ii, A7, fuji xt2, fuji xe3, etc) and it's been shown in tests like this one: where the D850 beats supposedly "best in class" af performance on the A7r3 in the most challenging AF-C tests where subjects are moving rapidly towards/away from the camera.
Even then, ultimately a camera has to be meet the needs/preferences of each photographer. Professional photographers will have different needs from hobbyists, still-life/product shooters will want different things than a portrait shooter, or a landscape photographer, or a wedding shooter, or a sports shooter, etc. I wouldn't hesitate using the Z7 to shoot a wedding, commercial gig, headshots, family portraits, etc in particular because I love the ergonomics and controls, I can use any of my dozen E and G nikon FX lenses with it as well as my ENEL15 batteries, it works perfectly with my godox and profoto strobes in both manual and TTL mode, and the skintones and overall color rendition are gorgeous. The crap ergonomics and skintones of the sonys were a non-starter for me.
Edited on Nov 12, 2018 at 04:51 PM · View previous versions
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