Sad Times for NR

WestEndFoto

It has been a while since I have posted here and based on an invitation from a current member I came back and took a look. Let me just say that this exit was anything but graceful.

Hopefully people still carry on.

donaldejose

Good to have you back. Hope Spraynpray comes back also even if he no longer wants to moderate. I can remember that at times I was also upset at some members comments about comments I had made. Sometimes some member of NR lacks tact and come on too strong (even me). We have to always remember the freedom to comment also carries with it the freedom to be wrong or even to be very wrong and even sometimes to be insulting in the comment made. If we post enough eventually all of us may well be subject to some comments which should not have been made. I am a trial attorney. I have to live in the realm of conflict. Trials do not occur between people who are in agreement.

WestEndFoto

The whole relationship should be considered, not simply the moment.

donaldejose

Agreed.

Symphotic

I'm only here to see what WestEndPhoto has to say.

donaldejose

That's a good reason to be here.

IanG

Today is July 2024 - generally - and I'm just wondering, no-one seems to be posting anywhere on the forum anymore - the comments all seem to be in response to blog posts...am I imagining this or have I been blacked-out again??

Pistnbroke

I just read the NR Blog these days.
Expected a load of posts on the 6lll but nothing WTF?
PS looks like the picture quality is no better than the 6 looking at the tests. Just has added bells and whistles.

donaldejose

Pistnbroke: I just received a Z6III and have very limited time to use it. The only "hit" against it I can see so far on youtube is a slightly lower dynamic range than the Z6 and Z6II, like maybe 1/4th of a stop. Nothing to worry about. If you are needing to recover 4 stops of shadows you are doing something wrong in the first place. If you want the best dynamic range go with a body which has a base ISO of 64 or wait for the Z7III. The work arounds for more dynamic range are HDR, pixel shift, post processing, etc. But there is no good reason to fuss over 1/4 or 1/2 or 3/4th of a stop of dynamic range less. You lose more than that once you start increasing your ISO above base. Complaints or "hits" are just something youtubers like to emphasize to get views so they make more money. It is insignificant to photography 98% of the time. The Z6III doesn't just all meaningless "bells and whistles." The numerous added abilities are very helpful. For example, the sensor read out it 3.5 times faster because of the partially stacked sensor. This enables 120 fps. Something you could not get before for only $2,500.00. The autofocus is Z9 level for $2,000.00 less. The "flippy screen" is a boon for doing self portraits or self videos. Pixel shift can give you a 96mp file of a non-moving subject. The sensor stabilization stabilizes on the point of focus not on the middle of the image, you can choose between regular shutter and electronic shutter, etc It is well worth the upgrade. It is a "best buy." I think we will see that its greatest attributes are for videographers, of which I am not one so I will not be testing that aspect. Here is a cropped Z6III photo I took yesterday, July 4th. Processed in NX Studio. Because my shutter speed was too high for the still subject I used high noise reduction when post processing which took out too much feather detail. The reason I was using such a high shutter speed was because I was trying to capture birds in flight as it took off but it didn't take off and when flying I was not able to track them. You can click through to flcker to see the data on it. The photo is ok viewed small but not a good example of what the camera and lens can do when the shutter is set right for a still bird. Those bluebirds fly faster than I could follow at 600mm. I think I will need lower magnification and higher resolution to keep them in the frame and then crop out the image. A Z9 or Z8 is a better tool for BIF. If you lived in the US I would loan you my Z6III to try but I am not going to deal with mailing it overseas Keep checking out NR Forum. We need you participating here.

donaldejose

On a slightly different subject, the new 180 to 600 zoom, look at the bokeh in the image I posted July 3rd on Photo A Day.

donaldejose

Pistenbroke:

Ton14

On 25 June, I received my Nikon Z6 III. It is my upgrade from my Nikon Z6, I skipped the Z6 II.

Hardly a learning curve, besides new features !!!

The IBIS is unusually good, 1 second shutter speed out of hand is no problem, opens up a lot of possibilities.

Autofocus is very fast and works as advertised. BIF could be slightly better, but that will be introduced with firmware.

Unlimited buffer RAW uncompressed with the right CFexpress card and 20 frames per second, unprecedented.

EVF is grandiose.

N-log video super.

Camera on is now instant.

Unprecedented possibilities to fully adjust camera settings to your liking.

In short, everything I could think of for a camera is in there and much more.

The camera market has completely collapsed, at its peak in 2014, from 12 million bodies to 900,000 worldwide by 2023. Nikon was number 1 then, now far behind Canon and Sony, however in the last 2 years always far ahead in new developments, but the other cameras are great too, so no one feels the need to switch to Nikon out of their eco system. There are only a few of us left, which is the simple reason for the demise of the Nikon forum. Nothing lives forever.

I am already very happy that Nikon remains in the camera business with high-quality optical products.

PS. Lets face it, if we cannot take a high-quality photo with the current equipment, whichever it is, ............... fill it in yourself.

donaldejose

donaldejose

My personal opinion after a short time looking at Z6III files. If you have a Z6II and are looking for increased image quality, increased dynamic range, or cleaner high ISO look elsewhere such as a Z8 or wait for the Z7III. If you are looking for the other features a Z9 and Z8 have then this is your camera. Think of the Z6III as essentially a Z8 in function with a Z6 sensor Image Quality. That is not a bad thing. That is not a disappointment. The highest IQ has always be in the sensor with a base ISO of 64.

IanG

Pretty much as I had suspected - I don't think I'll bother hanging around here - sorry Peter, you do an outstanding job, but the atmosphere is not like before.

Bye

NSXTypeR

Ton14 said:

Camera on is now instant.

Unprecedented possibilities to fully adjust camera settings to your liking.

In short, everything I could think of for a camera is in there and much more.

The camera market has completely collapsed, at its peak in 2014, from 12 million bodies to 900,000 worldwide by 2023. Nikon was number 1 then, now far behind Canon and Sony, however in the last 2 years always far ahead in new developments, but the other cameras are great too, so no one feels the need to switch to Nikon out of their eco system. There are only a few of us left, which is the simple reason for the demise of the Nikon forum. Nothing lives forever.

I am already very happy that Nikon remains in the camera business with high-quality optical products.

PS. Lets face it, if we cannot take a high-quality photo with the current equipment, whichever it is, ............... fill it in yourself.

I mean I went from a D7000 to a D7500 and thought that was a mighty big jump. If it wasn't for slightly lackluster ISO performance and the demise of DSLRs hastened by the pandemic, I wouldn't have even changed up. The plus side is that all my lenses work without using an adapter.

For the most part the camera on my phone will do 90% of what I need it to do, there really isn't a need for me to carry all that gear out. That being said, I still enjoy carrying a DSLR for travel photography. This fall I'll be going to Hong Kong so I'm looking forward to that trip. I would honestly post more but with no easy way to attach photos and with Flickr being a mostly dead platform, I don't post at all.

donaldejose

Yes, most of us NR "old timers" feel the same. For snapshots a cell phone is good enough and easier to share. BUT we still like our "real" cameras for two things: 1. Just the enjoyment of the craft using "real" equipment (even manual focus lenses), and 2. for the (false?) belief (or delusion?) that someday our photos will be meaningful (or art?) and appreciated that way long after the cell phone pics have been lost to time and many generations of phone replacements. For example, I took, printed and framed this classic photo for the great great great grandchildren so they cold look at her and see back hundreds of years in time to genetics they have inside themselves.

donaldejose

Some examples of the equipment I have been using in 2024 to see what can be done with it.





And this is an example of what I did with a cellphone.

niemeyjt

Maybe we could remove the tagging on Photo a Day - which has not run for a year - so more recent posts are at the top of the lists?

donaldejose

Some other unusual combinations I have been using.

mhedges

niemeyjt said:

Maybe we could remove the tagging on Photo a Day - which has not run for a year - so more recent posts are at the top of the lists?

There is still one active thread. You can "dismiss" the other ones - hover over the thread then click on the gear shaped icon next to the star on the right and select Dismiss and it will go away.

donaldejose

Thanks! that cleaned it up a lot!

heartyfisher

The lack of features and the disable and broken feature and functionality is not fun to use here. I am on X(twitter) these days.

donaldejose

But does X have a Nikon specific forum where people talk about Nikon equipment and photography so you can go to one place and find interesting discussions?

KnockKnock

I faded out of this forum a decade ago or so. Interesting to come back and see its current state. Good to see some long ago familiar names, but also conflicted to read about forum issues. I might suggest either participating in the existing Reddit for Nikon: https://www.reddit.com/r/Nikon/

It's quite global, seems to have regular participation and Reddit feels like the next evolution of what was once... Usenet groups... AOL groups ... online communities... site forums ... social media... etc.

It would be interesting to see if any of you would participate in those conversations. It's so big that I think posts disappear off the scrolling list within a day, so maybe that's not so great. A dedicated person could create a reddit for NikonRumors (Peter?) and mirror all the posts over there. That misses out on the ongoing topical conversations that the forum is good at here, but it could garner wider exposure (hah).

NikonRumors site is still relevant - many news accounts on other sites reference posts done on the main blog page here. Might be big enough to gather a following on Reddit. not sure, just thinking out loud.