Received my Z6 a couple of days early today. So far only been able to take a quick tour through the menus, check out the handling, take a couple of test shots inside, etc...here are my instant impressions without really using the camera in any capacity. It should be noted that I've only ever used a MILC once, a Fuji something that a co-worker handed to me for a weekend last year. I'm purely a hobbyist photographer with no professional experience or education. Since I began this hobby, my cameras have been a D50, D7200, and D500. This is my first MILC as well as my first full-frame.
The body had more weight than I was suspecting when I lifted it out of the box. It feels substantial but not heavy. The materials are classic mid-to-high range Nikon, it doesn't feel cheap in any way. The Z6 just looks really nice, almost sexy. Obviously subjective but for my tastes, I feel really proud to own this thing. I just like the way it looks.
I'm a bigger guy, 6'4", with hands to match. My pinky obviously doesn't fit on the grip unless I choke up really high, which then makes all the other buttons hard to hit. This was expected and not a concern for me.
The touch screen is responsive when using the menus, more so than I thought it would be. Menus are classic Nikon so I'm instantly comfortable.
At first I was worried about losing a couple of buttons that I had gotten used to on the D500 but the quick "I" menu on the screen makes me feel much better. It seems really accessible and I think I read somewhere that this menu can be customized as needed, so that's great. I'll dig into that later.
I like how the two front F buttons pull in towards the grip instead of just being a push-down button. Makes them easier to engage.
I tested connecting it to SnapBridge on my iPhone and had no problems. This is in stark contrast to my experiences with the D500, where I literally was not once able to see and download pictures from the camera to my phone in the 2 years I owned it. With the Z6, it connected fine and immediately showed me my pictures I had taken.
I only have two lenses that are good for FX. I threw on my 85/1.8 using the FTZ adapter and it works perfectly fine, no issues. AF-S single point seems fine and in my dark kitchen, illuminated only by the light in the adjoining dining room, I had no problem with locking on (with the green assist light on) at various points down the length of my kitchen. Still lots of testing to be done here but AF-S single is where I live most of the time, so I'm not concerned about AF performance for my needs.
I took a couple of photos to get a feel for it, one at 2.8 ISO 3200 and WOW. Granted, I did not download to the PC and only viewed on the back screen, but noise performance looks amazing. High ISO performance was one area I was always slightly disappointed in with the D500. It did well but just not as well as I always thought it should based on other's opinions. I am cautiously excited for what I've seen here already.
Really looking forward to going through the menu in detail and configuring this thing to my liking. As said before, out of the 8 lenses I own, only 2 are FX usable. Kind of scary but I'll be selling those off as well as the D500 to hopefully fund a couple of great zooms. Until that happens, I'll have a 85/1.8 and a 105/1.8 to play around with, which is right in my wheelhouse. Really happy with what I've seen so far.
Nov 27, 2018 at 10:19 PM
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