johnld wrote:
To those who shoot landscapes or birds against the sky or sunset will often underexpose 3-5 stops to salvage the highlights. Having the ability to bring up the shadows to a useable photo is not asking too much from our modern sensors. IMO, the DSLR's are preferred in this regard.
I'm not disagreeing with your point here but I think some context would be useful. Saying 3-5 stops only confuses the issue in my view. There is a difference between 3 to 4 stops and 5 to 6 stops. Most reviews indicate some banding starts to appear at 5 stops so to imply that you can't push the Z7 3 or 4 stops is misleading. The other point I'd like to make is that you have to weigh the percentage of situations where you'd actually be limited by not being able to push an image 5 or 6 stops with other reasons you might prefer a system like the Z7. I've tried to find landscape images that I would push 5 stops and still consider usable and it's hard - 3 stops seems to be my extreme but it may be that my post processing skills aren't up to par. In any case it just isn't something I think I'd do often enough to give up my Z7 and especially upcoming lenses like the 14-30 for the D850. You might be working about limitations of an older F mount lens design while I'm working around limitations of banding at 5+ stops. For me I'll benefit from a better lens more than I would from being able to push an image 5 to 6 stops.
So I think you have to not only believe that the banding will have an impact on your images but that it will have an impact often enough to deter you from other reasons you'd buy the Z7. If the impact is that significant then you're probably wise to buy the D850 but I know that isn't the case for me. I'm easily swayed though so if you post a few amazing landscape images pushed 5+ stops I'll probably change my mind .
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