NIKON...MIRROR LESS NOW WITH FIRMWARE UPDATE

Pistnbroke

I think you can go too far with this theft stuff ,,if you got insurance, a GPS tracker ,and a steel box chained down in the car what more can you do ….|Lost it in the wifes handbag ..I think not

mhedges

Curious on something - does anyone know if long exposures drain the battery on mirrorless cameras like they do on DSLRs? I’m thinking it may be different since there is no mirror to hold up and the shutter on mirrorless is almost always open anyway?

WestEndFoto

mhedges said:

Curious on something - does anyone know if long exposures drain the battery on mirrorless cameras like they do on DSLRs? I’m thinking it may be different since there is no mirror to hold up and the shutter on mirrorless is almost always open anyway?

There will not be any difference. No power is needed to hold the mirror up.

PB_PM

If the mirrorless camera were to keep live view active during the exposure then battery drain would be much higher. Cannot recall if any of them actually do for long exposure or not, but I doubt it.

Pistnbroke

Just read that the larger mount diameter is reducing the depth of field ...where do people get this rubbish.

WestEndFoto

Pistnbroke said:

Just read that the larger mount diameter is reducing the depth of field ...where do people get this rubbish.

Yes, that is not correct.

HankB

Pistnbroke said:

Just read that the larger mount diameter is reducing the depth of field ...where do people get this rubbish.

iPhone’s new “Depth Control” to post process a sort of depth of field adjustment is user controlled with a slider calibrated in "f-stops". Brace yourself for an exponential explosion of similar “rubbish”.

When 1 billion of those iPhones are out there, and 10% use that feature, and 50% of them don’t know how it works, and 10% of them share their theories on line, that will be another 5 million of newly extruded pieces of “rubbish”.

DenverShooter

WestEndFoto said:

Me too Pistnbroke. Well said. Today is a different standard. I will say, however, that XQD cards are very reliable. Just not reliable enough for something that I would consider critical, like a vacation for me - or a wedding for others.

My experience has been that XQD is significantly more reliable than SD or CF. I have run 170K images on XQD and Never. Had. An. Issue.. Not One.

I don't know where this is coming from, its certainly not reality.

Denver Shooter

HankB

Here is one opinion. Interesting video on various aspects of memory cards, brands, and formats. There is a chart comparing different card formats at 4:12.

mhedges

HankB said:

Here is one opinion. Interesting video on various aspects of memory cards, brands, and formats. There is a chart comparing different card formats at 4:12.

Oh boy well since you brought it up... That is total BS data. It’s no better than any of the nonsense political polls that are all over Twitter. Honestly I’ve been trying to give Tony the benefit of the doubt when it comes to his reaction to the Zs vs the Rs but after seeing this and having him say it’s based on science in the title I don’t know that I can anymore. He’s a reasonably sharp guy and he knows you can’t make any general predictions based on a self selected poll like this but he’s still out there saying 36% of folks with under 10k shots have had card failures because that’s what his “poll” returned. I say if the actual failure rate was anywhere near that high the camera business wouldn’t be viable. Especially since the vast majority of exposures are taken without a backup card in actual use.

Honestly I initially stopped watching this after about three minutes because I just couldn’t stomach it but I did go ahead and watch some more. This is the first I have ever seen anyone reporting failures on XQD cards. It’s hard for me to take it seriously.

PB_PM

I'd also question the results, and I stopped taking anything Tony, or many of the big name Youtube "star" photographers for that matter, seriously a long time ago. Yes there are defective cards, but what type of cards? Meaning were they cheap cards, not just whether it was SD or CF/XQD. What brands? How many of them were actually knockoffs from questionable resellers on Amazon and eBay? Not even close to enough data provided here.

Never had a card failure 15 years of using digital cameras. I've had files get corrupted (in camera), once. I've had some cards not work in specific devices, but those cards worked in others, so it didn't actually fail (disk tests proved it). That's between using everything from cheap slow as snails no-name 128MB/256MB SD cards (in 2004), many microSD, to $100+ Pro SanDisk and Lexar SD and CF cards, with many thousands of shots and in some cases thousands of hours of video recording (loop recording situations in security devices). Now I cannot hope to compare my sample to the people who knock off 100+k frame a year or something like that, but I suspect I'd be close to the average real use in terms of frames per year (at least when I had more time to shoot).

Cannot speak to how reliable XQD is, but I doubt it's any better or worse than the other types of flash memory out there. What they likely do have is better firmware than cheap SD/Memory stick/CF cards, that's a given, considering they are targeted at the high end market. Frankly I wish the manufactures would just get together and pick one or two formats (based on device size) and be down with it, it's so wasteful having 8-10 different formats. Just have different tires with different price tags and speed, it would make life easier. I also hate when companies (Nikon I'm looking at you) that puts two different card types in one camera (D810/D500/D850).

snakebunk

I have taken more than 300k shots since I started photography in 2010. I have always used CF cards. I still use the same cards. And I have never had a card failure of any kind.

I may have been lucky but I think it is safe to say that CF card failures are rare. If XQD cards are even better, it is great, but I wonder if we have enough experience to know about it (like Tony says).

WestEndFoto

I experienced a card failure. My wedding was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II. It only had one slot and he dropped the card on the ground. He had to reshoot the wedding.

Otherwise I have not had any card failures and given that I shoot double slot including one XQD, I am not that worried about a card failure.

However, losing a card is another matter.

So I expect that I will buy cameras with double card slots as long as they are available.

Pistnbroke

In my two 810s I use a CF to SD adaptor and run a 128 GB fast card in the adaptor but I never take that card out which I think is critical for reliability

spraynpray

Given your usage, that sounds like an excellent solution.

HankB

Along with telling us whether or not you have had card failures, would some of you also tell us whether you do or don't erase shots in camera.

Handling the cards, especially SD cards as being fragile, and always formatting cards in camera are both no-brainers. But whether or not erasing individual files from cards is dangerous is a real question.

Msmoto

Just for those who have been following the weather in North Carolina.... thanks for your thoughts. I actually live in Greensboro, North Carolina, and we have had lots of rain, but the problems are primarily around us. While there is some flooding locally, no real problem exists. On the other hand... severe issues east, west, and south of me....

Now, about the Z6.... this may not see my hands until at the earliest, December. But I can wait...

While there may be some issues folks have with the single card, the critical one for me is if I can focus manually with the EVF, much like using the ground glass on the DSLR. Especially when photographing people, it just is easier to be able to focus and compose with out moving the camera around between. Maybe face recognition will accomplish this... all to be seen.

The other point to be seen is whether I can use the new 500/5.6 with a TC-14EII with the Z6 and have it focus adequately with objects approaching at speeds above 200 kph. One issue with the D4 is that when vehicles are accelerating rapidly, the predictive focus tracking sometimes does not keep up.

We will see how the new Z series of Nikon works out...

mhedges

PB_PM said:

I'd also question the results, and I stopped taking anything Tony, or many of the big name Youtube "star" photographers for that matter, seriously a long time ago. Yes there are defective cards, but what type of cards? Meaning were they cheap cards, not just whether it was SD or CF/XQD. What brands? How many of them were actually knockoffs from questionable resellers on Amazon and eBay? Not even close to enough data provided here.

The problem for me is that the camera companies have basically outsourced the "last mile" of their marketing departments to these folks. So you kind of have to pay some attention if you want to get any idea of what's going on with new products.

Agree about there not being enough data. To his credit he does mention the problems with counterfeits, and how XQD cards are much more likely to be authentic (I'm not sure there are any counterfeit XQD cards out there yet). Still he said that overall failure rate on XQD was as much as 50% that of SD, where everything I have read indicate that XQD is far better than that. Surveys like this are easy to manipulate by someone with an agenda.

Msmoto said:

Just for those who have been following the weather in North Carolina.... thanks for your thoughts. I actually live in Greensboro, North Carolina, and we have had lots of rain, but the problems are primarily around us. While there is some flooding locally, no real problem exists. On the other hand... severe issues east, west, and south of me....

Hey cool I live in High Point and work in Greensboro. Maybe we can meet up sometime.

Vipmediastar_JZ

I have family in Greensboro and visit once a year. We should do a meetup at HOPS or Scrambled, drink some red oak beer and take photos of our food before eating it, bonus if one of has a Z. It will be a great memory.

rmp

I also live in GSO. Msmoto and Vipmediastar_JZ should schedule a meetup. Mhedges and I could join. I have preordered a Z6 and Z7. Assuming one of them comes in for us to play with, we could schedule a meetup at HOPs, then if we could not get in, (they are always crammed,) Msmoto knows the best places to eat. Any other Nikon nuts near GSO?

mhedges

Sounds good to me. And yes Hops is always packed. Honestly I think it's fine but not anything super special that's worth waiting forever for.

rmp

I just read https://www.pdnonline.com/gear/cameras/mirrorless/nikon-z7-camera-review/

It made me think abut the ISO-versus-dynamic range capabilities of the Z7. It seems that making the 3-image HDR images will not be necessary if the ISO is 64, but needed at ISOs of 1600 or higher.

Does that sound OK to you?

BVS

Just pre-ordered a Z7 w. 24-70 and FTZ to replace my aging D7100. I had originally planned on getting a Z6, but after thinking about it I didn't like the idea of having to constantly choose between the Z6 and D7100 depending on how much reach I'd think I'd need on a particular day, so I went with the Z7 instead to have more flexibility and be able to fully replace the D7100. Now let's see how long the wait is...

manhattanboy

I've had a transcend SD fail and have an old SanDisk Extreme Pro 32 that has become unreliable and occasionally will throw errors. I've never had a CF or XQD fail yet.

@BVS I'm sure it will be great. I will probably pick up a Z7 next year when there are used ones or grey market ones available for cheaper prices (the current lenses for me are too big for discreet street shooting and the AF isn't great for action so for me it would be more just for curiosity). Coming from the 7100 you will LOVE the IQ that you will get. It will make it hard for you to go back to shooting anything other than a D850. I still think the Z6 is the better value, but Nikon knows who their audience is, and they know that all of them would be willing to pay a premium for Nikon's amazing IQ, hence the prices for the Z7.

BVS

I didn't realize that the 24-70 f/4S has a fairly respectable 0.3X max reproduction ratio. Could be useful.