Nikon Z50

donaldejose

"I am looking forward to a full frame version with the compact primes." me too! Looking now for a "bag" that clips on a belt for ease of carry of such a small camera.

Ton14

@donaldejose I always have my camera on my belt with the "Peak Design" clip and the thin shoulder strap for safety. The D810 with battery pack and the 70-200 f/2.8 on it, I had attached to a separate belt. The weight is on my belt, never on my shoulder. I also immediately have the "Arka Swiss" link available.

4 months ago I bought the smallest "Peak Design" bag, which now contains all the small things. Furthermore, the 50 mm f/1.8S or the 24-70 mm f/4S, which on is not on the camera. If necessary, I can also put the 70-200 mm f/4G with the FTZ coupling on it in the bag and everything is very easy to carry as a "sling" bag on your back.

A small "bag" for my Nikon Z6 with the 40mm or/and 28mm pancake, that's where we waiting for, I'am on the same page as you..

I think I rent the Nikon Z50 for a week.

rmp

Post something when the "small bag" appears.

CaMeRaQuEsT

Just got my fire-sale Canon M5 and boy is it an ergonomic mess. Rear command dial is positioned too far to the left to easily rotate with my thumb, which falls naturally on the compensation dial that I never use. Can't set D-pad wheel to change ISO directly, acts as a rear command dial clone by default, what a waste of a perfectly good control point (had my previous A7 setup so, but that wheel was too freewheeling, unlike this Canon's perfectly clicking one). Maybe my muscle memory is set to Nikon's UI, but Nikon's lack of dirt cheap APS-C lenses is keeping me away. Lastly, the M5 feels so pasticky, and is known to be quite fragile. So it just occurred to me that, well, the Z mount is basically a universal mount because of its shortest flange dept in the market. Hope somebody comes up with a full AF/AE/IS translating EF-M to Z adapter soon so that I could use EF-M glass on a Z50. There's already an EF to Z adapter, so an EF-M to Z adapter shouldn't be that hard to come up with, signal-wise. Also, there is already an E to Z adapter, and the EF-M mount is basically an E mount clone, size-wise, so the physicals are already covered, too. Yes, right now the market out there is not that big for such an adapter, but soon enough there will be more Z50s out there than Z6s and Z7s, and every single one of them could use a Canon 22mm or an 11-22mm lens. Yes, Fuji has a bigger APS-C lens catalog, but Fuji sells them at FF prices.

DaveyJ

I just bought a Z 50 with the two kit lens. With even protection plans and UV filters and one thin polarizing filter for the 50-250 lens since the longer lens I think I’d use more for fish in water. I looked VERY close at every Sony, Canon, Fuji. Based on price and quality and how I use cameras....the Z 50 easily won out. Even with smart plan protection for the camera and lens I stayed right around $1350 with capture card and camera bag from B&H. Another factor in this purchase is eventually underwater housings will be available that are very reasonably priced as well.

Since I usually shoot for WIDE depth of field I use narrower apertures whenever possible the two kit lenses are going to be adequate. And in time there will be additional DX lens introduced by Nikon and after market manufacturers. In time I will add the FTZ and try my 10-20, 12-24s ,etc., But in the near future I’ll just use the two kit lens and see where they take me. The competitor mirrorless APS-C Cameras That I briefly tested did not seem like a good investment. Now I have a very compact travel camera that I can carry mid stream in small speed bags and draw and shoot quickly and I know the video is actually quite good! Time will tell!

KnockKnock

That's a tempting package, good value. Let us know how it compares to your D7xxx as you get experience with it.

donaldejose

One idea for a small bag that holds the Z50 and its two DX kit lenses. I have to admit that is a lot of zoom range fitting into such a small bag.
But if you are limiting yourself to one of the "pancake" primes and the Z50 body there should be a smaller bag that fits on your belt like those old cell phone cases back when cell phones were large but a bit bigger.

Ton14

Yes, that's the one I have, all the small stuff, one lens, the 50mm f/1.8S or the 24-70mm f/4S and sometimes I put the 70-200mm f/4 with the FTZ in it, it fits on top. The camera hangs on my belt on the PD clip, with the small strap on it for safety, but the weight from the camera is on my belt.

There is also a bigger one.

DaveyJ

Walking down thru Key West Florida tomorrow for the 1st of the year, with a small velocity 6x case which I have used in Yellowstone National Park with a D7500 and one lens. This time .i am carrying in that case the Z50 and the TWO kit lens. Plenty of room for rain protection and a few other small items.

DaveyJ

Initial reaction to the Z50 Nikon and two kit lens. I have a long history of DX DSLR use. The EVF I find artificial in almost every sense! It is not a clear, sharp, weird color, etc. I tried a number Sony mirrorless Cameras, And did not like them. I did not however get to handle Nikon Z7, Z6, or Z50 before buying the Z50. My strong reaction basically is this Z50 is no D500 or D7500 or the earlier D7000 series. Mirrorless Cameras are regarded as the wave of the future by most. That may well be the case but my own initial use of the mirrorless Cameras is less positive. And I have owned a number of medium and large format cameras, I conclude that mirrorless cameras for me have huge trade offs. The f Mount was retained by Nikon and that finally got me converted to Nikon from Minolta.

When I use mirrorless with mostly using EVF I am faced with a view that is far more artificial looking. All of the “advantages” of no black out during actual shutter release are lost to the totally phony look of the scene via EVF. Based on this reaction, I find it hard to believe that cellphone cameras will be less used. They are perhaps far more natural in user reaction (impressions). The DSLR cameras to me appear closet to the ideal view, subject and composition, and final image capture. I put my first day of images on a 13 inch Mac Book Pro, hardly a big screen to evaluate what I took on this first day use. Not one image taken seemed in anyway superior to my usual daily D7500 and either 16-80 or 70-300.

The Z50 comes with no lens hoods, a cheap white rear lens element cap, and in my hand feels midget, and more like a D3200 That I find too small. And far be it to think it is more low key less threatening to others. So any perceived less threatening advantages are to me, Non existent. Also to me it is immediately obvious that any manufacturer making such a camera is cutting more than a few corners in production costs. For those demanding a smaller camera, the Z50 is quite an ideal choice. I fully subscribe to the notion, Small, light, and packed with power. But the EVF and inability initially to select critical focus points on subjects like flowers, landscapes, and fish and birds, is at this point very troubling! Maybe mirrorless is the wave of the future, but I’ve owned rangefinder cameras that were easier for me to use!

This Z50 is an amazing camera and I am sure the Z6 would be very impressive to own, but the EVF and the rear LCD are not how I want to operate a camera. Had I purchased yet another D7500 I would at this point be happier! Now I am looking at the either D7500 body or a D7500 with the two lens kit 18-55 and 70-300. But I already own a number of these lens. Every buyer needs to actually use and experience a camera before deciding it is what meets their specific needs. Having spent a huge amount of money in the past on medium and large format, and with huge farm taxes being a fact of my life, I am uncertain what my next move is.

But what will decide this Z50 purchase for me is video! The video rating on the Z50 is excellent. Therefore I keep the camera fir now, and see what the video does. If it beats the D7500 video I live with the EVF problems that I see.

PB_PM

Not sure why you cannot select a focus point? Did you not read the manual? There are modes other than full auto select. Still, I agree otherwise. The Z6/Z7 feel great in the hand, z50 feels cheap for the price point.

DaveyJ

I did read the manual from cover to cover. After a beginning video test I have decided the camera is very worth keeping. The video capability of the camera is quite extraordinary. I have now got the camera set up the way I want it to be used for my purposes. Nikon’s offer to allow a 30 day trial (not something I opted for) is a pretty risky business venture. But it did help sell me on it. Yes I would have gone to the Z6 and one reason not to go that way was the kit lens available for the Z50 were to me better than a 24-70S f4. That lens is GREAT. But I needed a 70-350 too! I can only imagine what that lens would have added to the pricetag!

The Z50 travel compactness and price sold me. And the two kit lens! Despite my total acceptance of DX compared to FX, shared by more than some of you can believe, I would have gone to the Z6 if a two kit lens combo like this existed for the Z6 in the same equivalent range and not such a difference in the price. If my farm taxes were not so high I’d own them BOTH! So that is my final decision on the Z50. A great little travel camera. And yes, several moves could have been done by Nikon to make it look more deserving of the price point. Real back lens caps to start with!

donaldejose

Mirrorless is not for everyone or for every situation. Soon we will have DSLR D6 and DSLR D780 and hopefully a few more DSLRs to come from Nikon. That said, DSLR's are not for everyone either! As to deficiencies of the Z50, remember it is the first of many DX Z bodies to come. Improvements will be made and functions will be added as iterations and additional bodies surface. I suspect we will see three levels of DX Z bodies and this one is the middle like a D5600. A DX Z body like the D7500 is yet to arrive.

DaveyJ

It is very likely I’ll buy the D780 if it has the features that are predicted here! Yet I will look very closely at where the Z6 and the 24-70S f4 are at that point. The Z50 has made me a believer in mirrorless for me. I do think Nikon will introduce some practical items geared to enthusiasts. A 0.58 Noct Z Lens is not going to be my type of purchase.

donaldejose

"A 0.58 Noct Z Lens is not going to be my type of purchase." Me either, they won't sell many of them but it is a "halo" product for the Nikon Z line like the 200mm f2 and the superzooms were halo products for the DSLR line. I know a guy who had a 200mm f2 and after using it a while he sold it in favor of the 105 f1.4 because its use was too limited. It was great in certain situations but those situations were too limited. He found he preferred working with a 105 for portraits (even full body portraits so he didn't have to be too far away from the subject). The Noct may be best for nightime star photography if is is sharp wide open with no coma because it can reduce the time the shutter is open.

donaldejose

From the main blog. "At least one new mirrorless camera expected in 2020 - not sure if full-frame or APS-C. A new high-megapixel 60MP Z camera and/or another fast Z camera are rumored for 2020-2021 (Nikon Z8?). Two new APS-C cameras are also rumored - one above (Z70?) and one below (Z30?) the current Z50 model."

Read more: https://nikonrumors.com/2020/01/03/what-to-expect-from-nikon-in-2020.aspx/#ixzz69zkGIkLx

DaveyJ

The Nikon camera I personally see a huge amount of interest in is the D500. If it came with an on board flash , I’d own one. I have shot with D750 and close friend’s own it. Wildlife photographers and racing photo pros need to be able to photograph from a distance due to safety, or not to scare the subject away! The Z70 would be extremely interesting to me. But a Z6H would also be interesting. I assume it would add a second card? But that seems pretty difficult based on Z6 and Z7 body. Myself one card is quite OK. I do know the Z50 battery has a longer use in action than the D500 or D7500. The Z6 sure could use a second kit lens like the Z50 has. Also there is a great difference to me between a 2020 release and a 2021 release! For me 2021 is a looong way off!

But a better video on a D500 and later ExSpeed would far outweigh the D750 revamp to D780. ONLY reason I know NOT to revamp the D500 is it is already the single best in class! Canon, Sony, Fuji, etc. just do NOT have a comparable camera. I know more Canon users who switched to Nikon because of the D500 than any other camera. But like everything out there, it may be just the race or wildlife exposure I have. I shoot no stadium events at all!

donaldejose

Here is an idea. Add a 1 terabyte internal memory chip for $200 more standard or as an option like you could add additional buffer to a D3 for $500. It seems the ubiquity of cell phones is creating an economy of scale for microSD cards such that you can get a 1 tb one for about $250. https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-microSDXC-Memory-Adapter/dp/B07P9W5HJV/ref=sr_1_1?crid=Q0SJ3LCQLGLZ&keywords=1tb+micro+sd+card&qid=1578145224&sprefix=1+tb+micro+S,aps,152&sr=8-1 The size of the memory on such a micro SD card is minimal and Nikon should be able to find space for the chip inside it in all new releases without having to make any changes to the body size. Just buy a lot of the chips inside a micro SD card and hard wire them to the motherboard. So how to get the images off the internal memory and into your computer? Should be easy to create an option to use the USB port with a wired connection to your computer and just as easy to program a wifi photo transfer function. All memory doesn't have to be removable media. Why cannot our Nikon bodies transfer photos to computers or our phones or the cloud as easily as our cell phones do? Let's get some cell phone functionality into the new Nikon bodies. 256 gb should cost less than $50 and 512 gb should cost less than $100. A slower 400 gb chip should cost less than $50 to add. https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-400GB-microSDXC-Memory-Adapter/dp/B074RNRM2B/ref=sr_1_5?crid=Q0SJ3LCQLGLZ&keywords=1tb+micro+sd+card&qid=1578146069&sprefix=1+tb+micro+S,aps,152&sr=8-5 I would buy one with this option if it cost $50 or $200 more.

retread

The trouble I see with relying on internal storage is if it fails it is a trip back to Nikon for repair. I would rather stick with dual cards and add wireless transfer to a SSD in my pocket.

donaldejose

I am not saying rely upon internal storage as your only storage. I am saying large internal storage could be added to the Z6, Z7 and Z50 body shape without making that body larger and then you would have on board backup storage of your images without changing the body to add a second card slot. Is SSD storage that unreliable? Many people are using it as their only "hard drive" in laptops today. After all, it is the buffer in the D3 which is still working after millions of read rights, isn't it? My preference for the next Z body remains a larger one with two CFExpress card slots and a real, or built in, vertical hand grip. I think Nikon will do that but I am suggesting they could also add a backup storage option to future iterations of the Z6, Z7 and Z50 without enlarging the body to make room for a second card slot. Simple fix to me for all the people complaining about not wanting to rely upon only one card.

Ton14

Fun, D70, D80, D90, D100, D200, D300, D700, D1 all one card slot, never saw a complain in that days.

I agree with you @donaldejose, fast build-in memory should be possible, but very fast memory is on the way, CFexpress is very fast, 4x SSD speed and I want the possibility to change (upgrade) it. My very expensive16gb SDcard I had in the D300 is worthless now.

A "Wifi" connection needs speed and we don't have that at the moment. The second bigger problem is heat, transfer 200 full RAW photo's with WiFi and your device becomes very hot, I did that once with my mobile phone.

When the high frequency 5G network become available, then we are in business, but next year we only get the low frequencies and these are not thát much faster as 4G at the moment, if you can make the connection, still a long road to go, maybe 2021 it is usable for us.

WiFi is not the way to go for photo transfer imho, too slow and the net is too crowded. Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) should be faster, but you need new hardware for that, which we don't have at the moment. The normal Wi-Fi 6 still uses the 2,4hz and 5hz, the Wi-Fi Alliance just announced the Wi-Fi 6E standard, which should make the 6hz connection possible, it should now become clear which devices support it, when these connections become possible, but government has to release this spectrum. Speed in theory 11Gbit/s but that will be a lot lower in practice.

For now we can use Snapbridge with the bluetooth connection for a resolution of 1620 x 1080px, well it's a start. you get a much much better photo on your mobile, you can share them, it is fast and fun.

donaldejose

Ton14. What about transfer data from camera internal memory to computer through USB cord? I am thinking the internal memory does no need to be used so much. It can be just backup. Use and transfer images with the XQD card as normally done and just have a backup stored in the camera in case of a card failure. Once you have the images on your computer you can make another backup from your computer and simply reformat the internal memory. You only need to take data off internal memory if you have a removable media card failure. In that case transfer speed will not be very important because it will seldom be used.

Ton14

Donaldejose Oh yes, that is one of the better solutions and a 128gb M.2 SSD for photography will do perfect I think. The SSD should be as fast as possible (fps).

Tethering via USB cable is used a lot. In Capture one create a session and you are done, LR works too but not as good as C1.

You can do it for video with a Smallrig case and a universal holder for external SSD 256gb or 500gb Sandisk.

donaldejose

So what does a 128gb M.2 SSD cost to put into a camera and what is the size?

PB_PM

A 256GB NVMe SSD is under $100, so it would also be cheap. Even an entry level NVMe drive will easily write 1000mb/s, while high end drives go well over 3500mb/s. I don't even know if manufactures even make 128GB drives these days, too small. The SSD offers a far better price to performance value than a XQD card, which costs more than twice the price. Of course XQD and other mobile device flash drives tend to be far more power efficient, so that is a trade off.

Like traditional flash based cards the reliability of an SSD depends entirely on the type of memory used, be it TLC/MLC/SLC. A 256GB TLC memory card should be able to withstand at least 150TBW (TBW = Terabytes written), no better or worse than 256GB TLC based XQD card.

Bluetooth is way to slow for image transfer, which is why the Nikon cameras use WIFI for snapbridge. Bluetooth based NFC is only used for the initial connection. A USB-C 3.2 Gen2+2 connection would be ideal, since it is capable of up to 40GB/s (its thunderbolt renamed and using copper rather than a fiber).