Home · Register · Join Upload & Sell

Moderated by: Fred Miranda

New fredmiranda.com Mobile Site

New Feature: SMS Notification alert

New Feature: Buy & Sell Watchlist

FM Forums | Nikon Forum | Join Upload & Sell

2 3 … 41 42 end

Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

highdesertmesa
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

{Cross-posted to Nikon and Leica/Alt forums}

TTArtisan M to Z adapter arrived today. Works well, and I like the cone shape of the adapter, which helps the wide Z mount not look so ridiculous with the smaller M mount lenses.

Face/eye detect with dumb-adapted lenses works perfectly and moves the focus point to a face or eye if detected. Otherwise it works as a single point that can be moved around the screen normally. There is no joystick, but activating the rear screen touch AF while using the EVF works well. I highly recommend changing the speed the AF point moves to "fast" as that makes moving the focus point feel fluid, unlike the default speed, which feels choppy.

For manual focusing, it's helpful to assign zooming to 200% to a function button. I prefer using the AE/AF-L button for this since it allows for having the index finger on the shutter and thumb on the AE/AF-L at the same time.

EVF resolution when zoomed is of higher clarity than older cameras with ~3.69 million dot EVFs I've used. I do not have to strain my eyes at all to focus at wide apertures.

When a manual lens profile is set up with the matching focal length, IBIS works perfectly. I don't know if the new Zf function to link IBIS performance to the focus point continues to work in MF mode with a non-electronically-connected lens, but I don't see why it wouldn't – perhaps someone else can confirm. The Zf's 7 stops of IBIS (8 stops is only "with selected lenses") is an upgrade from the SL2-S I used to own, which was 5.5 stops.

Overall I find the Zf body feels much better to use with M lenses than the SL cameras I've owned: better matching retro design, lighter, and for the subject detection with MF lenses. I wish the Zf had the SL2-S's EVF, but the one in the Zf is good enough that I'm not left wanting when I use it.

From here, I think I will fill as many focal lengths as I can with Voigtlander Z-mount lenses, then only buy M-mount lenses for the gaps.

I'm on the fence about keeping the Nikon 40 f/2 SE (I bought the Zf and 40 separately, not as a kit). Returning it would pay for half a CV-Z lens.

Oct 18, 2023 at 11:45 AM

RustyRus
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

How is the IQ though?

I hate having a 5K lens on a camera and get smeared edges and just a meh overall look. Would you have time to do a shot or two with the M body and the Nikon body using the 35 lux?

Thanks dude

Oct 18, 2023 at 11:48 AM

highdesertmesa
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

RustyRus wrote:
How is the IQ though?

I hate having a 5K lens on a camera and get smeared edges and just a meh overall look. Would you have time to do a shot or two with the M body and the Nikon body using the 35 lux?

Thanks dude

The look at f/1.4 for close distance and central subjects is good. I'm not so optimistic about the corners and/or midframe at infinity, but I will test it out and report back. I definitely bought the 35 FLE II to use on the M11M, though. The Voigtlander Z lenses will be what I plan to use most of the time on the Zf.

Oct 18, 2023 at 11:51 AM

JustShootMe
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

If you use the CV Z-mount lenses, or lenses with AIS chip via FTZ you don't even have to bother with the zoom for critical focus because the focus box will turn green when focus is achieved. So far this works great , and is my preferred method of manual focus because it's quick.

Oct 18, 2023 at 11:54 AM

RoamingScott
Offline
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

Oct 18, 2023 at 12:01 PM

JustShootMe
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

RoamingScott wrote:
This feature makes it a little painful to mount a non-chipped lens once you get used to it

Yup , it pretty much makes manual focus for fast moving objects very easy. Hard to not use it .

Oct 18, 2023 at 12:03 PM

highdesertmesa
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

JustShootMe wrote:
If you use the CV Z-mount lenses, or lenses with AIS chip via FTZ you don't even have to bother with the zoom for critical focus because the focus box will turn green when focus is achieved. So far this works great , and is my preferred method of manual focus because it's quick.

I had a feeling that would be the case. When I was messing around with the 40 f/2 in MF mode, I noticed the focus was as accurate when zoomed out and the green light came on as it was when zoomed in and focused to sight. And focusing to sight always registered exactly with the green box.

The only case where zooming may help is at very close distances and focusing on the eye. I noticed that the AF with the 40 f/2 tended to focus on the outer edge of the eye instead of the iris when in animal eye-AF mode with a cat. I'm assuming human eye-AF may be better. A cat's iris is quite a ways behind the outer bubble of the eye's edge, but the Canon R5 always still nailed the iris on pets. Could have been the lower contrast of the 40 f/2 at close distance that was giving it trouble, too.

Oct 18, 2023 at 12:05 PM

highdesertmesa
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

RoamingScott wrote:
This feature makes it a little painful to mount a non-chipped lens once you get used to it

With this in mind, for focal lengths that are not available in Voigtlander Z, I may look to other brands that have connected manual focus lenses before buying an M lens. Already considering the Laowa 28 1.2 for a 28mm character lens. Lots to research since I'm new to Z.

Oct 18, 2023 at 12:09 PM

RexGig0
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

highdesertmesa wrote:
There is no joystick, but activating the rear screen touch AF while using the EVF works well.

The disk, that I see on the rear of a Zf, surrounding the “OK” button, cannot pivot (like what I would call a D-pad) to move the focus point? If not, well, wow, thanks for this warning!

Being relegated to using a touch screen, to move the focus point, would be a tremendous disappointment. I want a D-pad or joystick to move the focus point, but more importantly, because I am left-eye-dominant, my nose tends to make contact with touch screens, which, if active/switched-on, has predictable results.

Edited on Oct 18, 2023 at 12:30 PM · View previous versions

Oct 18, 2023 at 12:16 PM

JustShootMe
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

RexGig0 wrote:
The disk, that I see on the rear of a Zf, surrounding the “OK” button, cannot pivot to move the focus point? If not, well, wow, thanks for this warning!

Being relegated to using a touch screen, to move the focus point, would be a tremendous disappointment. I want a D-pad/joystick to move the focus point, but more importantly, because I am left-eye-dominant, my nose tends to make contact with touch screens, which, if active/switched-on, has predictable results.

It does move the focus point , when zoomed in you can only use that multi selector and not the touch screen. Zoomed out you can use either. I have the touch screen disabled, not my style.

Oct 18, 2023 at 12:27 PM

Desmolicious
Offline
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

highdesertmesa wrote:
{Cross-posted to Nikon and Leica/Alt forums}

TTArtisan M to Z adapter arrived today. Works well, and I like the cone shape of the adapter, which helps the wide Z mount not look so ridiculous with the smaller M mount lenses.

Face/eye detect with dumb-adapted lenses works perfectly and moves the focus point to a face or eye if detected. Otherwise it works as a single point that can be moved around the screen normally. There is no joystick, but activating the rear screen touch AF while using the EVF works well. I highly recommend changing the speed the AF point moves to...Show more →

Even though the Zf looks like an SLR, the fact that it is a mirrorless the form factor of adapted m-mount lenses looks so much better balanced than using the huge FTZ adapter and F mount lenses.
We know that many M-mount lenses are not great optically on a Z camera, but the Voigtlander Zs should fill that gap.

An aside - do you have a filter on that Speed Panchro lens? So it now has two UVs? Or did you remove the original one?

Edited on Oct 18, 2023 at 12:33 PM · View previous versions

Oct 18, 2023 at 12:30 PM

RexGig0
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

JustShootMe wrote:
It does move the focus point , when zoomed in you can only use that multi selector and not the touch screen. Zoomed out you can use either. I have the touch screen disabled, not my style.

Thanks!

Oct 18, 2023 at 12:30 PM

AdaptedLenses
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

I don’t think Nikon is solely using a Telecentric lens design, so performance of M glass is gonna be the same as other Z cameras. Nikon couldn’t reduce the stack thickness without negatively impacting their own lenses, which they would not do.

RustyRus wrote:
How is the IQ though?

I hate having a 5K lens on a camera and get smeared edges and just a meh overall look. Would you have time to do a shot or two with the M body and the Nikon body using the 35 lux?

Thanks dude

Oct 18, 2023 at 12:31 PM

Fred Miranda
Offline
Admin
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

The MF focus assistance is intriguing, but the green focus confirmation is perfect. The latter only functions due to electronics, so regrettably, it won't function with adapted M-lenses.

We also need to consider image degradation in the form of amplified field curvature when using M-lenses on the Nikon sensor stack.

It seems that you can only get both the green focus confirmation and optimal image quality when using the Nikon adapter with Nikon lenses or Voigtlander Z-mount lenses.

Oct 18, 2023 at 01:10 PM

highdesertmesa
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

RexGig0 wrote:
The disk, that I see on the rear of a Zf, surrounding the “OK” button, cannot pivot (like what I would call a D-pad) to move the focus point? If not, well, wow, thanks for this warning!

Being relegated to using a touch screen, to move the focus point, would be a tremendous disappointment. I want a D-pad or joystick to move the focus point, but more importantly, because I am left-eye-dominant, my nose tends to make contact with touch screens, which, if active/switched-on, has predictable results.

Not only does it work as a D-pad to move the focusing point, it sort of pivots like it's in a bowl. Hard to describe, but it's not completely separate-feeling clicks like the Leica and Fujifilm D-pads. You can put your thumb on it, and it feels like it swivels around. Not exactly as good as a joystick, but better than I expected.

---------------------------------------------

Desmolicious wrote:
Even though the Zf looks like an SLR, the fact that it is a mirrorless the form factor of adapted m-mount lenses looks so much better balanced than using the huge FTZ adapter and F mount lenses.
We know that many M-mount lenses are not great optically on a Z camera, but the Voigtlander Zs should fill that gap.

An aside - do you have a filter on that Speed Panchro lens? So it now has two UVs? Or did you remove the original one?

I removed the built-in UV filter with a lens spanner wrench. It's never going back on.

Oct 18, 2023 at 01:15 PM

Desmolicious
Offline
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

highdesertmesa wrote:
Not only does it work as a D-pad to move the focusing point, it sort of pivots like it's in a bowl. Hard to describe, but it's not completely separate-feeling clicks like the Leica and Fujifilm D-pads. You can put your thumb on it, and it feels like it swivels around. Not exactly as good as a joystick, but better than I expected.

---------------------------------------------

I removed the built-in UV filter with a lens spanner wrench. It's never going back on.

This will be my last digression - did u find the lens performed better w/o that filter?

On topic - the Zf looks great and looking forward to your Voigtlander Z lens experiences.

Oct 18, 2023 at 01:25 PM

highdesertmesa
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

Test results with the Leica 35 Summilux FLE II on the Zf via TTArtisan adapter. The TTA adapter has a nearly perfect hard stop infinity alignment at f/1.4. Infinity is just a literal horse hair's width from the hard stop. This should help improve results with this lens since it has a floating element design. Also keep in mind that although I've yet seen it tested, in some screenshots posted on Leica Forum a while back, Leica's marketing for the FLE II had a bullet point saying it was optimized for current digital cameras. I think this might be the same as was done for the new close focus 50 Summilux, which has been shown in testing to be improved in the corners over the previous version.

In any case, I went outside and took two quick handheld images at infinity not expecting much, one at f/8, one at f/5.6. I looked at the f/8 DNG in C1, and was like, ok, that looks dang good. Let's see f/5.6. Hmm. Just as good. I will need to go back out and test at wider apertures. I'm guessing that the corners start to show some weakness at f/4, but maybe I will be surprised yet again.

The image below was not processed in any way except to remove some vignetting so that the corners would be closer in brightness to the center. This lens also vignettes some when stopped down on the M11M.

I'm left with a lot of questions. Does the FLE II have improvements that impacted the results? Does the Zf focus IBIS's bias toward the focal point help when the focus point is set to the center as was done for this photo (that is, do other IBIS systems stabilize without regard for center/mid/corner or do they always bias to center)? Have there been any changes made to the Z6 II sensor used in the Zf such as cover glass thickness and/or microlens design – I would assume not, but not sure if there's even a way to find out. I think I'll get these answers after others start testing M lenses on the Zf.

Bottom line: Zf is giving me the same or better results with this M lens as what I am used to seeing on the SL2 and SL2-S, perhaps even a little better. Maybe that's not due to the Zf but but to the FLE II, I don't know.

Note: I did shoot a series at both f/8 and f/5.6 with the horizon at the top of the frame just to make sure there was no decentering/tilt involved in improving sharpness in the bottom half of the frame. The lens had already tested as perfectly centered on the M11M, so this was more to test for planarity of the adapter.

Entire image for reference for crops below

NIKON Z f 0 mm f/-- lens 35mm f/1.4 1/1000s 100 ISO 0.0 EV

Crops from above – 1:1 screenshots from C1

200% – resolves well enough to provoke moire on the fence of brown house

Oct 18, 2023 at 01:30 PM

highdesertmesa
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

Desmolicious wrote:
This will be my last digression - did u find the lens performed better w/o that filter?

On topic - the Zf looks great and looking forward to your Voigtlander Z lens experiences.

I don't think the filter induced any sharpness issues. I didn't test it for flare with/without, but given Matt Osborne's results in his recent video on the 35 8 Element collapsable, I would have to think it helps to remove it. He showed a huge difference in flare between the collapsable and the rigid versions (collapsable version has a built-in filter like the 50 SPII). Impossible to know if some of that could have been internal construction differences, but I kinda doubt it.

Oct 18, 2023 at 01:43 PM

Fred Miranda
Offline
Admin
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

highdesertmesa wrote:
Test results with the Leica 35 Summilux FLE II on the Zf via TTArtisan adapter. The TTA adapter has a nearly perfect hard stop infinity alignment at f/1.4. Infinity is just a literal horse hair's width from the hard stop. This should help improve results with this lens since it has a floating element design. Also keep in mind that although I've yet seen it tested, in some screenshots posted on Leica Forum a while back, Leica's marketing for the FLE II had a bullet point saying it was optimized for current digital cameras. I think this might be the...Show more →

That's expected though. At smaller apertures, the thicker sensor stack issue is mitigated because the broader depth of field masks the issue. It's more noticeable when shooting at larger apertures. Having said that, it depends on where you focus. If you focus at the corners, the results will be okay even when shooting wide open since the main culprit is amplified field curvature due to using a lens designed for a thin sensor on a thicker stack.

Oct 18, 2023 at 01:58 PM

highdesertmesa
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Nikon Zf as a platform for adapted/native manual focus lenses

Fred Miranda wrote:
That's expected though. At smaller apertures, the thicker sensor stack issue is mitigated because the broader depth of field masks the issue. It's more noticeable when shooting at larger apertures. Having said that, it depends on where you focus. If you focus at the corners, the results will be okay even when shooting wide open since the main culprit is amplified field curvature due to using a lens designed for a thin sensor on a thicker stack.

Most M lenses on my SL2/SL2-S required f/8-f/11 for the same corner sharpness as f/5.6 gave me on the M11/M11M. Is f/5.6 with the 35 Lux on the Z really expected to to be sharp across the frame at f/5.6? If so, that's great news.

Edit: I see what you're saying now after testing the LLL 50 SPII – lenses that are sharp across the frame wide open or nearly wide open on the M won't be on the Z.

Edited on Oct 18, 2023 at 02:42 PM · View previous versions

Oct 18, 2023 at 02:23 PM

1 2 3 … 41 42 end
FM Forums \| Nikon Forum \| Join Upload & Sell 1 2 3 … 41 42 end

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.