Transition from F to Z (TFFTZ)

BVS · January 2020

donaldejose said:
mhedges: I am not so committed to a crop sensor body. I have a Z6. I was Just thinking about a lightweight Z50 kit I can put in a belt pouch for ease of carry and still be able to shoot a portrait with bokeh. Wondering what lenses I would need to accomplish that since the kit lens is wonderfully compact but only goes to 50mm (75 in FF terms) and is only f6.3 at that setting. So what other mirror-less normal zoom do I need which will get me to 60mm (FX equivalent 90mm) and f2 or f2.8 at least. Such a lens doesn't currently exist. Will Nikon make one? It is not on the roadmap now and I don't think they ever will actually make one although Nikon may put out a better kit zoom lens to go with the Z70 body when that arrives. The 24-70 S FF f2.8 lens works but you lose the advantage of size and weight for a DX only lens. It just may be that there will be no way to have a Nikon DX mirror-less zoom lens which can give you f2 or f2.8 at around 100mm for a portrait with bokeh. Maybe Sigma will make one someday.
pistnbroke: The next Z body (Z8?) and then next D850 update may be around 60MP FX and therefor be good for birding when used in DX mode.

I think the lens you want is the Sigma 50-100 f/1.8. Unfortunately, it weighs as much as a 70-200 f/2.8.

To get 105mm equivalent on APSC you'd need 70mm, and usually the only 70mm f/2.8 or faster lenses are holy trinity lenses.

If 85mm is too long I would wait and see what the 60mm Z micro brings.

PB_PM · January 2020

Pistnbroke said:
An FX camera of less than 46MP is no good for birds POI

Somehow we survived for 18 years (after the first modern DSLR came out) with less than 46MP for bird photography. Most of my best bird photos are taken with, 12MP or less equipped cameras. OMG, how is it possible? Easy, I took the pictures. What utter nonsense.

mhedges · January 2020

Ah got it donaldejose.

Yeah I'm not sure they will make a lens like that either. My guess is they will do a wide zoom, one or two superzooms, and maybe a better kit lens similar to the 16-80. I'm not expecting any DX primes myself.

donaldejose · January 2020

Nikon should at least make a mirrorless DX prime to replace the DX 35mm f1.8 but it is not on the roadmap. I suspect the 40mm prime on the roadmap is its replacement. So the small and light mirrorless DX kit I am looking for will likely be the 16-50mm zoom with the 40mm and 60 mm primes in one small bag. For a larger bag the 50-250 zoom can be added. This kit allows for wide angle to moderate tele zoom at higher f-stops, "normal" prime 40mm with about f1.8, "portrait" and macro 60mm prime with about an f2.8, and finally long (but slow) telephoto for birds or wild animals. It should be a good kit for travel memories which are not going to be printed large. A better kit would be to substitute the Z50 body with a higher grade Z body and maybe add or substitute a specialty lens like the 50mm f1.2.

mhedges · January 2020

Right - I think the "compact primes" are designed to fill that gap. Especially if they have VR.

BVS · January 2020

The compact primes are a pretty clever move by Nikon. They give users some uncommon focal lengths, make the street and travel people happy, and can double as DX lenses. The 60 macro looks like it's pretty compact as well - smaller than the 35 and 50 - which could make it the portrait lens you're looking for if it's fast enough.

I hope these are the next lenses to be released after they finish off the 20/1.8, 50/1.2, and 14-24/2.8.

KnockKnock · January 2020

mhedges said:
Right - I think the "compact primes" are designed to fill that gap. Especially if they have VR.

I have a sad feeling these will not have VR. But hopefully a Z70 would have IBIS, making these useful.

PB_PM · January 2020

Because apparently it is impossible to take a photo without image stabilization?

donaldejose · January 2020

These are examples of what I was talking about above. These were shot at ISO 1000, f2.8, shutter speed 1/160th or 1/200th, constant LED lighting, Z50 and S 24-70 f2.8 lens shot from 35mm to 70mm (which is 50 to 105 mm in FF). It would be nice to have a smaller and lighter "portrait" specific zoom lens (50 to 70mm f2 or f2.8) in DX size to accomplish this type of task. The current standard kit zoom isn't long enough or have a sufficient wide open f-stop. If the Z50 had IBIS I could have shot at slower shutter speeds for my 72 year old shaky hands. I would also like such a "portrait" specific zoom in 50 to 105mm for an FX body. I don't think we will ever see Nikon produce what I have called a "portrait" specific zoom lens. Of course we have the two "pro" f2.8 zooms for mirrorless FF bodies but we still have to switch lenses to move from 50mm to 105mm.