p.2 #1 · New Nikon Z8 Firmware 3.0 - Enhanced Pixel Shift and More
Jman13 wrote:
Oh man I hope they bring that to the other current cameras.
I'm pretty sure we'll see it on the Z6 III, Z5 II, and Z50 II. The big question is whether we'll see it on the Z9. The gulf in features between the Z8 and Z9 has grown to absurd levels. Hopefully Nikon wont wait until the Z9 II to address it.
p.2 #2 · New Nikon Z8 Firmware 3.0 - Enhanced Pixel Shift and More
People have been asking for the wide-open focusing thing literally since the first Z6 & Z7 came out, at this point I thought there was some technical reason that it was never going to happen.
I hope they give it the "assign a button to change aperture [metadata] with non-CPU lenses" thing the Zf got. That's been my most asked for feature since I bought my first Leica Rs in the D700 era.
p.2 #3 · New Nikon Z8 Firmware 3.0 - Enhanced Pixel Shift and More
If it were a race the Z8 will a few lengths ahead of the Z9 with this new firmware, some might even say the Z8 is the better choice between the two.
snapsy wrote:
I'm pretty sure we'll see it on the Z6 III, Z5 II, and Z50 II. The big question is whether we'll see it on the Z9. The gulf in features between the Z8 and Z9 has grown to absurd levels. Hopefully Nikon wont wait until the Z9 II to address it.
p.2 #4 · New Nikon Z8 Firmware 3.0 - Enhanced Pixel Shift and More
JBPhotog wrote:
some might even say the Z8 is the better choice between the two.
That is highly situational depending on a few variables. It does seem obvious now though that the Z9ii is what will catch up and surpass the Z8 feature set now. They need a new IBIS unit for one. There are some physical limitations the Z9 unfortunately has here...but it's a 4 year old camera and still ultra competitive. They did a great job with it for what the guts allowed.
p.2 #5 · New Nikon Z8 Firmware 3.0 - Enhanced Pixel Shift and More
RoamingScott wrote:
That is highly situational depending on a few variables. It does seem obvious now though that the Z9ii is what will catch up and surpass the Z8 feature set now. They need a new IBIS unit for one. There are some physical limitations the Z9 unfortunately has here...but it's a 4 year old camera and still ultra competitive. They did a great job with it for what the guts allowed.
Agreed. It’ll have features not found in Z8, perhaps like pre-RAW capture and what not. Not to mention the improved IBIS and EVF like we saw on Z6 III.
p.2 #6 · New Nikon Z8 Firmware 3.0 - Enhanced Pixel Shift and More
Buckeye2604 wrote:
I believe ‘Maximum Aperture Live View’ is essentially how Canon handles aperture during live view/AF. If you have a fast aperture lens and are stopped down, the aperture will remain open during autofocus and will only stop down when a photo is taken. This should greatly assist Z8 af in lower light situations. Previously the camera would close the aperture down to as much as f/5.6. Should be a great benefit for strobe shooters. Focus shift is my only concern with some lenses.
This should fix an issue that plagued me with the Z6 series cameras. I shoot mostly with the 35mm and if the subject was about 10 feet away it would nail autofocus every time if I was shooting wide open. If I stopped down to 5.6 or 8, it would ALWAYS grab focus on the background, leaving the subject slightly out of focus.
I'm glad that they added subject detection in Manual Focus lenses.
p.2 #8 · New Nikon Z8 Firmware 3.0 - Enhanced Pixel Shift and More
RoamingScott wrote:
That is highly situational depending on a few variables.
Absolutely. And sort of ironically they're so similar in a lot of ways that it actually amplifies the degree to which certain variables can make a huge difference. For example there are absolutely use cases where it's the Z9 for battery life alone.
p.2 #11 · New Nikon Z8 Firmware 3.0 - Enhanced Pixel Shift and More
sputnik wrote:
Finally subject detection with (chipped) manual focus lenses. But curiously no support for Imaging Cloud that I can see.
Do chipped MF lenses currently only provide green box focus confirmation, but subject detection can't be used to automatically place the box? And unchipped lenses currently provide neither?
p.2 #12 · New Nikon Z8 Firmware 3.0 - Enhanced Pixel Shift and More
Wezre wrote:
Do chipped MF lenses currently only provide green box focus confirmation, but subject detection can't be used to automatically place the box? And unchipped lenses currently provide neither?
Yes, that is exactly how the Z8 works with the current firmware.
p.2 #15 · New Nikon Z8 Firmware 3.0 - Enhanced Pixel Shift and More
Wezre wrote:
And unchipped lenses currently provide neither?
And I still don't understand why we went backward on that compared to the DSLRs (they didn't have *focus box* confirmation [for any lens, chipped or not], of course, but they did have confirmation).
p.2 #16 · New Nikon Z8 Firmware 3.0 - Enhanced Pixel Shift and More
Lee Saxon wrote:
And I still don't understand why we went backward on that compared to the DSLRs (they didn't have *focus box* confirmation [for any lens, chipped or not], of course, but they did have confirmation).
The technologies used are different so different focus aids are supported.
I think the reason the CPU is required for subject-identification is that the algorithm which recognizes subjects is probably given focal length and aperture as inputs and it would probably be unsatisfactory to the user and a lot of work to make a separate subject-identification feature without these input parameter.
As for simpler in-focus identification that does not require fancy AI algorithms, the DSLR focus confirmation dot is likely based on thresholding the phase difference somehow and designating acceptable focus with some tolerance. The mirrorless phase-detection sensor may not give quite the kind of confirmation that is desired for manual focus confirmation (because of contrast-to-noise ratio and range), and so instead the focus assist features on mirrorless cameras are: (1) zoomed-in live view giving exactly what the detail looks like to the user, with the drawback that it can be difficult to use hand-held, and overall composition is not seen, (2) focus peaking which gives colored overlay outlining the areas which are "acceptably sharp" probably based on some kind of circle-of-confusion estimation of the sharpness across the image, and thresholding that, (3) subject-identification based focus confirmation with CPU-equipped lenses.
If the DSLR-style focus confirmation based on PDAF data worked on mirrorless cameras well enough, manufacturers would be happy to provide it. Instead, they test what works given the technology available on each platform and provide what they think works well.
p.2 #17 · New Nikon Z8 Firmware 3.0 - Enhanced Pixel Shift and More
Lee Saxon wrote:
And I still don't understand why we went backward on that compared to the DSLRs (they didn't have *focus box* confirmation [for any lens, chipped or not], of course, but they did have confirmation).
The green-box focus confirmation uses the same phase evaluation logic as the AF system. The sensor-based PDAF pixels have much shallower geometries than the discrete PDAF sensors in DSLRs, and evaluating the phase differentials of those pixels requires knowledge of the exit pupil distanced of the lens, which is why the focus confirmation requires chipped lenses.
