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Archive 2022 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

CKrueger
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p.3 #1 · p.3 #1 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

I won’t say I feel “old age” in that way, but I am certainly less willing to suffer the aches that come with a heavy camera kit than I was ten years ago.

As for Heatons’s initial like of the Nikon kit, I agree that I didn’t think he’d be so enthusiastic, but he hasn’t carried it around all day yet, so we’ll see what he thinks later.

I’m surprised that the 100-400 seemed to outperform the 100-200 in his quick initial test. I’m interest to see what he thinks after shooting for a few days.

Jul 29, 2022 at 01:38 PM

sjms
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p.3 #2 · p.3 #2 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

MRomine wrote:
And some are eternal skeptics on every topic, subject and person. Present company included, I have to constantly check myself that I am not becoming too negative. I think it comes with age.

oh, I'm not an eternal skeptic. most of my life has been analysis of design, operation and unfortunately people. that's why i split my professions into doing some things that i can reasonably control and for some part retire from the p;eople. no, i do not make some people happy. sorry but. so be it. when i do make errors, and nobody's perfect all of the time, i then apologize and hopefully learn.

Edited on Jul 30, 2022 at 02:38 PM · View previous versions

Jul 29, 2022 at 03:10 PM

woodstork
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p.3 #3 · p.3 #3 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

I enjoy Heaton’s vids. His gear path is very similar to my own, so I’m inclined to feel it a natural thing for him rather than clickbait. I went from a long time Canon DSLR user, to GFX, then to Nikon Z.

Ironically one of Nikons most cumbersome lenses led me to the Z system, although I ended up preferring Z over GFX for matters of lens design and system convenience.

The gateway glass was the 19mm PCE. I was adapting it to my GFX 100 with very good results. But you need a Nikon body to set the aperture. So, I had acquired a used Z7 and started comparing images made with the PCE on both systems. The Z files held their own better than expected. I could make enlargements bigger than I ever had with my old Canon gear with both mirrorless systems. So, I acquired a couple more Nikon lenses and continued to be impressed.

The GFX started to be used less and less. IQ was slightly better and haptics were worse. The big kickers for me were minimum focus distance and lens lineup though. I never felt like a could get close enough to the scene with GF lenses (other than the 120 50% macro).

Fuji does a lot of things really well. Their focus stacking algorithm is way better than Nikons, as one example. The ibis on that bigger sensor is an engineering marvel. Shadow detail is great and the file exposures are very malleable with great DR. I think Nikon have better lens designers though. And you marry your glass. By better, I do mean in terms of render but even more so in terms of facilitating shot discipline, and just being a joy to use in the wild.

Jul 29, 2022 at 07:30 PM

PIOK
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p.3 #4 · p.3 #4 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

As for Landscape...
... Max Rive still rocks his D810, maybe D850

https://portfolio.maxrivephotography.com

And Daniel Kordan delivers great photos every single day with his boring Nikon Z7 II so who really need more than this cameras

https://www.instagram.com/danielkordan/?hl=en

Heaton is YouTuber... cool to watch sometimes but nothing extraordinary about his landscape work

Jul 29, 2022 at 09:23 PM

RoamingScott
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p.3 #5 · p.3 #5 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

Those two portfolios are indistinguishable, gotta love people chasing the IG aesthetic.

PIOK wrote:
As for Landscape...
... Max Rive still rocks his D810, maybe D850

https://portfolio.maxrivephotography.com

And Daniel Kordan delivers great photos every single day with his boring Nikon Z7 II so who really need more than this cameras

https://www.instagram.com/danielkordan/?hl=en

Heaton is YouTuber... cool to watch sometimes but nothing extraordinary about his landscape work

Jul 29, 2022 at 09:58 PM

OwlsEyes
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p.3 #6 · p.3 #6 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

PIOK wrote:
As for Landscape...
... Max Rive still rocks his D810, maybe D850

https://portfolio.maxrivephotography.com

And Daniel Kordan delivers great photos every single day with his boring Nikon Z7 II so who really need more than this cameras

https://www.instagram.com/danielkordan/?hl=en

Heaton is YouTuber... cool to watch sometimes but nothing extraordinary about his landscape work

You got to love this work,... in my mind, it continues to prove one thing, destination matters more than camera gear.
Give a photographer who understands light, composition, and exposure any decent camera and set of lenses, and put them in a compelling location for an extended period of time and they will produces compelling images.

Many hobbyists who pine for the newest and best cameras/lenses are doing so as a placebo for what they can not do.. travel and explore.
I can honestly say that I am guilty of the latter. I was slated to go to South Africa this summer and a trip to the San Juan Islands in May. I was content to travel with my D500 and pair of Z6 bodies. Shortly after the down payments were made in late 2020/2021 my wife was diagnosed with a terminal neurodegenerative disorder. She has been my loving partner in travel, photography, and fun for 32 years. This was to be our 3rd trip to Africa with the goal of expanding our portfolio for an upcoming (now canceled) show.
Anyway... with her condition that includes both cognitive and mobility deficits, I canceled all of these plans. I spent months wishing to travel big and then decided to stop whining. I bought a Z9... (retail therapy as a piss-poor type of consolation), and have become a caretaker.
While my case is an extreme one, I do know many who buy the best to simply shoot local. It makes them feel good about their tools, but they recognize that they would much rather spend 3 weeks traveling to exotic and beautiful locations.

regards,
bruce

Edited on Jul 30, 2022 at 12:05 PM · View previous versions

Jul 30, 2022 at 06:55 AM

1bwana1
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p.3 #7 · p.3 #7 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

Bruce,

I am so sorry to hear of your Wife's condition. Whatever the eventual outcome, my wish for you is peace with it. Please remember that the caretaker in such situations must be taken care of as well. If buying a Z9 or other things brings you any level of joy and strength to deal with it, then by all means do it.

Also please feel free to post when things get tough. The FM community is here to give you all the support that we can.

Steve

Jul 30, 2022 at 09:40 AM

OwlsEyes
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p.3 #8 · p.3 #8 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

1bwana1 wrote:
Bruce,

I am so sorry to hear of your Wife's condition. Whatever the eventual outcome, my wish for you is peace with it. Please remember that the caretaker in such situations must be taken care of as well. If buying a Z9 or other things brings you any level of joy and strength to deal with it, then by all means do it.

Also please feel free to post when things get tough. The FM community is here to give you all the support that we can.

Steve

Thanks for your kindness...

Jul 30, 2022 at 10:40 AM

MRomine
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p.3 #9 · p.3 #9 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

Sauseschritt wrote:
After actually watching the video I absolutely dont understand Heatons decision.

He trades having 158mm at the upper end for 400mm at the upper end. For a loss of image quality.

And ... thats it.

With zero weight reduction. Which, at the start of the video, he mentions as the actual motivation. That he completely fails to archieve.

This really just makes me scratch my head in confusion.

He explained himself very nicely. He said for for his needs he did not need all that resolution because he is mainly posting to social media which is being viewed on mobile devices. He publishes a few books which only require 10-12 mp files and he makes a few large prints which the Z7II has more than enough resolution that he needs. He also explained that when making large prints from the Fuji and comparing those with the Z7II the image quality improvement is only going to be noticed by pixel peepers and not his clients. So with all that in mind the Z7II system is lighter, (49oz to 21oz for the Z7II) offers more lens options (for him personally he can cover everything that he needs for landscapes with two lenses, the 24-120 f4 and the 100-400) this makes it easier to cart around (he does extensive hiking and camping to get especially since is also carries gear for vLogging. So many people obsess over resolution, lens sharpness, lens bokeh and other gear details that in reality matter little to making great images. It's not the gear, it's the photographer. All the gear that is made by the major manufactures over the last 10-15 years or so is more than adequate.

Jul 30, 2022 at 11:38 AM

RoamingScott
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p.3 #10 · p.3 #10 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

OwlsEyes wrote:
You got to love this work,... in my mind, it continues to prove one thing, destination matters more than camera gear.
Give a photographer who understands light, composition, and exposure any decent camera and set of lenses, and put them in a compelling location for an extended period of time and they will produces compelling images.

Many hobbyists who pine for the newest and best cameras/lenses are doing so as a placebo for what they can not do.. travel and explore.
I can honestly say that I am guilty of the latter. I was slated to go to South Africa this...Show more →

Bruce, I suspect your case is not as extreme as you might think...many people have to set aside their personal ambitions for any number of reasons to provide care and support for others, and there really is no more noble task to be done. I'm sorry to hear about your wife's condition, but she's lucky to have you by her side through it.

Jul 30, 2022 at 02:49 PM

AmbientMike
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p.3 #11 · p.3 #11 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

33x44 isn't much bigger than FF. Sure it's a little better, I'm not saying I'm not interested, but I sat down and did the math. The difference between FF and 33x44 is about the same as m4/3 and aps. Not 0, but not huge. Looked at one online comparison file, again not much. And the original GFX are heavy. Very limited native lens selection. A lot of trouble for minimal gain. Although I am interested in one.

I don't see how poster sized is a problem from 45mp FF. Or ~24mp aps, for that matter.

I'm probably not going to carry 100-400 for landscape. Too big and heavy, I think the late ones are over 3 lbs. I use 55-250 (canon) but I'm not sure if I'd use 100-400 on FF or what I'd do. There are lighter out there. Even 80's 70-210, 75-150 or 80-200 might be good at f/8 or so if you are using a tripod anyway. Much lighter.

Jul 30, 2022 at 04:03 PM

RoamingScott
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p.3 #12 · p.3 #12 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

AmbientMike wrote:
33x44 isn't much bigger than FF. Sure it's a little better, I'm not saying I'm not interested, but I sat down and did the math. The difference between FF and 33x44 is about the same as m4/3 and aps. Not 0, but not huge. Looked at one online comparison file, again not much. And the original GFX are heavy. Very limited native lens selection. A lot of trouble for minimal gain. Although I am interested in one.

I don't see how poster sized is a problem from 45mp FF. Or ~24mp aps, for that matter.

I'm probably not going to carry...Show more →

Depends on what type of photographer you are, age and weight tolerance, etc. The 100-400 doesn't bother me at all either in my Osprey pack or on my Peak Capture, and is the swiss army knife lens for landscape. I almost never use it on a tripod either. It's nice to have the speed of the lens in less than ideal and unpredictable lighting vs the cheaper and slower superzooms.

Jul 30, 2022 at 08:36 PM

SSISteve
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p.3 #13 · p.3 #13 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

Heaton is right in that most images are just shared on social media or just sit in our computer. I would guess the majority of us are the same. We are our biggest critics and the viewing public can’t tell whether we shot an image with a 5 megapixel camera or 100. What matters most is if the image has that wow factor. You can have a 100 megapixel image but if it doesn’t capture your heart it doesn’t matter. For me when traveling I am more interested in my backpack being light and compact. For that the smaller Fuji X Series works for me

Edited on Jul 31, 2022 at 08:51 AM · View previous versions

Jul 30, 2022 at 10:46 PM

sjms
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p.3 #14 · p.3 #14 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

what he has done is peaked all your interest. turned "all eyes" towards him for X amount of time. a so called "controversy" always does. smart boy.

Jul 31, 2022 at 03:50 AM

fjablo
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p.3 #15 · p.3 #15 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

sjms wrote:
what he has done is peaked all your interest. turned "all eyes" towards him for X amount of time. a so called "controversy" always does. smart boy.

Instead of reading this thread and posting yet another negative comment without any knowledge what / who you’re actually commenting about, why don’t you watch 1-2 of his videos? Better use of your time, less annoying for the rest of us ✌️Here’s a good playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4FOvDADCkBmccxUnoVFA5mioaDjhIxH2

Jul 31, 2022 at 04:15 AM

sjms
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p.3 #16 · p.3 #16 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

its not a negative comment. it is the way things are done. i do know what I'm commenting about. you just don't like it.

you got any good pics yourself? if you don't do not bother to try to admonish me.

Jul 31, 2022 at 04:42 AM

fjablo
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p.3 #17 · p.3 #17 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

sjms wrote:
its not a negative comment. it is the way things are done. i do know what I'm commenting about. you just don't like it.

you got any good pics yourself?

How many of his videos have you actually watched? I guess not many if any at all. This is what I mean with you not knowing what you're talking about. And that's actually the only part of your comments that I don't like.

What has any of that to do with my pics? I post pictures here regularly, look into my post history if you're interested

Jul 31, 2022 at 04:47 AM

sjms
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p.3 #18 · p.3 #18 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

What has any of that to do with my pics? I post pictures here regularly, look into my post history if you're interested

you and i have a considerably different "view" of/on photography. i have looked at both your references though one was more difficult to find.

if you wish to continue this line of thought PM from here on and we can discuss our views and philosophy a bit more granularly.

just remember we are all Bozo's on this bus. there will always be a difference in "opinions".

Jul 31, 2022 at 04:58 AM

CritterRacing
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p.3 #19 · p.3 #19 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

He makes me want to go camping 👌

Jul 31, 2022 at 07:31 AM

sjms
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p.3 #20 · p.3 #20 · Thom Heaton swaps GFX to Z7ii

i think i will. but I'll bring my RX100v

Jul 31, 2022 at 07:34 AM

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