Nikon Z* mirrorless

the black fox said:
Hmmmm sending my Z6ii back due to A/F problems and thinking of getting a z6iii has anyone done the same move and is it better or just marginal , could stretch to a Z8 but think it might be to heavy
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I went Z6I->Z7II->Z8. It wasn't until I got the Z8 that it actually felt like it was worth moving from DSLR.
The Z8 is completely electronic shutter, so no EVF blackout whatsoever sensor readout is the same as the Z9, which is one of the fastest.
I bought the Z8 over the Z9, due to weight, but now mostly use it with a grip as it feels very nice in the hand with larger lenses. I'd seriously consider the Z9II when it's released.
I haven't used the Z6III, but it does get good reviews.
 
Thanks still undecided , might go down the z8 path yet will decide later this week.. the Z6ii was a superb camera when it got it right ,but I have been have far to many instances where it refused to focus at all . Not missed focus just simply wouldn’t grab focus .
The good shots are really good will post later but it was so frustrating I nearly launched it yesterday
 
the black fox said:
Hmmmm sending my Z6ii back due to A/F problems and thinking of getting a z6iii has anyone done the same move and is it better or just marginal , could stretch to a Z8 but think it might be to heavy
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If you don’t mind grey. Under £1300 from Cotswold Cameras
 
Already got that marked Trevor , I do have a couple of deals under consideration should know one way or the other by mid week
 
a few shots of a purple sandpiper from yesterday , although these are sharp and nice shots what followed during the course of the day made me decide to return the camera
a touch of purple by jeff cohen, on Flickr
purple reign by jeff cohen, on Flickr
 
Z6 III is light years ahead of the Z6 II in almost every way. I’ve had all the Z6 models from MK1 to MK3, and whilst the MK II (or the Z7’s)certainly are no where near as bad as a lot of people made them out to be, the Z6III is in many ways like a baby Z8. For the price it’s pretty incredible, more so if you ever get into video where it’s on another planet compared to the early models.
 
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the black fox said:
Hmmmm sending my Z6ii back due to A/F problems and thinking of getting a z6iii has anyone done the same move and is it better or just marginal , could stretch to a Z8 but think it might be to heavy
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Jeff, The Z6iii is a great camera if you're looking for a light compact camera. It had all the detection modes i.e. birds humans and the AF is way ahead of the Z6ii. I have the Z6iii as my second body. In my opinion highly recommended.
 
Icee said:
Jeff, The Z6iii is a great camera if you're looking for a light compact camera. It had all the detection modes i.e. birds humans and the AF is way ahead of the Z6ii. I have the Z6iii as my second body. In my opinion highly recommended.
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At the moment Iain it looks like I may well go down the Z8 path . Really put off the 6 series after this one playing up
 
the black fox said:
At the moment Iain it looks like I may well go down the Z8 path . Really put off the 6 series after this one playing up
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You’ll love the Z8, it’s phenomenal.

My favourite mirrorless camera so far and I’ve used the pro bodies from Sony and Canon.
 
Just be aware Jeff that coming from Micro Four thirds for so many years, as you know the Z6 series bodies were a little bigger and a little heavier, but nothing major, but as good as the Z8 is (and it's phenomenal), it's considerably larger and much heavier (910g body only) than any of it's peers - and that has put a lot of people off who have handled it. It's almost like the mirrorless version of the much loved Nikon D850 DSLR. In fact due to it's size and weight, I find I very rarely take it with me if travelling, preferring instead to take either my Z6 III (which as I say is absolutely nothing like the MK 1 or II versions), or my Sony bodies as they are considerably smaller and lighter. My Z8 (and Z9) is only used for proper wildlife photography trips and nothing else.
 
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Apparently Nikon is taking Viltrox to court:
www.mirrorlessrumors.com

Nikon and Viltrox Head to Court - mirrorlessrumors

Nikon has filed a lawsuit against Viltrox in China. The exact details of the dispute have not been disclosed, but court proceedings are scheduled to begin in March. UPDATE: According to information from multiple sources, the Nikon litigation regarding the patent issue primarily targets the...
www.mirrorlessrumors.com www.mirrorlessrumors.com

I really hope Nikon isn't doing a canon :(
 
o.k big reveal .. just done the deal with my son who being time limited has sold me his 3 months old Z8 + FTZii +180-600+1.4tc .. I obviously know about the weight but as I don't do that much walking these days its not a problem , got C/F tripod and monopod anyway if needed .. CFE card included so will shortly be moving on my xqd cards and reader and a mint 200-500vr .. if anyones interested watch the small ads ..
and btw I still have my olympus OM1 and lenses if I do decide to go walkabout
 
It will be a revelation Jeff, especially to someone like you that knows how to shoot birds. Both the AF, Tracking, speed and megapixels will ruin you to go anything lesser in the future :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:

Welcome to the club (y)
 
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Sootchucker said:
Z6 III is light years ahead of the Z6 II in almost every way. I’ve had all the Z6 models from MK1 to MK3, and whilst the MK II (or the Z7’s)certainly are no where near as bad as a lot of people made them out to be, the Z6III is in many ways like a baby Z8. For the price it’s pretty incredible, more so if you ever get into video where it’s on another planet compared to the early models.
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The Z6ii was under £1300 at the 'Societies' convention in London last weekend (Parks was the retailer) - the Z6iii was just under £2300, while the Z8 was ~£2800. Lenses were better than the Black Friday prices too at the Camera Centre stand (but I would rather do my business with the likes of Park, Grays and Cambrian).

Noticed that CF Express TypeB card prices have taken a bit of an upturn recently, seems that newer cards are coming in at a much higher price point and the older, cheaper, cards disappearing.
 
Sod’s Law just about to pop out for a test and the sea fret ( fog) has rolled up the estuary. Hopefully clear soon
 
welshwizard645 said:
The Z6ii was under £1300 at the 'Societies' convention in London last weekend (Parks was the retailer) - the Z6iii was just under £2300, while the Z8 was ~£2800. Lenses were better than the Black Friday prices too at the Camera Centre stand (but I would rather do my business with the likes of Park, Grays and Cambrian).

Noticed that CF Express TypeB card prices have taken a bit of an upturn recently, seems that newer cards are coming in at a much higher price point and the older, cheaper, cards disappearing.
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Slightly unrelated, but I wonder if all memory prices have increase substantially in recent months and weeks. I went onto my Amazon account yesterday to look into purchasing another 8tb NVME stick that I last purchased in June of last year for £545, today it's £873 !!!. We also had a memo from work from our IT department concerning the availability of our Dell equipment citing long lead-times for a number of the notebooks we use, so not sure if there is a global shortage or semiconductors like we had after Covid ?
 
Sootchucker said:
Slightly unrelated, but I wonder if all memory prices have increase substantially in recent months and weeks. I went onto my Amazon account yesterday to look into purchasing another 8tb NVME stick that I last purchased in June of last year for £545, today it's £873 !!!. We also had a memo from work from our IT department concerning the availability of our Dell equipment citing long lead-times for a number of the notebooks we use, so not sure if there is a global shortage or semiconductors like we had after Covid ?
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It's the demand by Ai. All memory has sky rocketed. I quite recently purchased 64gb ddr5 ram for £171, last time I looked it was £500.
I seen the Delkin Black gen4 512gb for £150, that's a pipe dream now.
 
Sootchucker said:
Slightly unrelated, but I wonder if all memory prices have increase substantially in recent months and weeks. I went onto my Amazon account yesterday to look into purchasing another 8tb NVME stick that I last purchased in June of last year for £545, today it's £873 !!!. We also had a memo from work from our IT department concerning the availability of our Dell equipment citing long lead-times for a number of the notebooks we use, so not sure if there is a global shortage or semiconductors like we had after Covid ?
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It's due to the implementation and expansion of AI, it's caused a chip shortage with prices almost doubling and expected to increase further.

I've got some SD cards for sale in the classifieds, i'm tempted to keep them in case I get a second body that uses SD as replacing them will cost a fortune at today's prices.
 
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For what you tend to be offered for SD cards on the second hand market, that's probably a very astute shout !
 
Sootchucker said:
Slightly unrelated, but I wonder if all memory prices have increase substantially in recent months and weeks. I went onto my Amazon account yesterday to look into purchasing another 8tb NVME stick that I last purchased in June of last year for £545, today it's £873 !!!. We also had a memo from work from our IT department concerning the availability of our Dell equipment citing long lead-times for a number of the notebooks we use, so not sure if there is a global shortage or semiconductors like we had after Covid ?
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As mentioned above, companies are diverting their resources to manufacture memory suitable for AI data centres (HBM - High Bandwidth Memory) where they can make much more money rather than cheaper consumer memory. It's badly hit DDR5 ram prices with huge increases and the same is happening with SSDs but it's going to spread to most consumer electronics so PCs are likely next, then mobile phones/tablets then pretty much anything that uses flash memory. It's frustrating because it's questionable whether supercharging these genAI/LLMs is even going to produce much benefits and it's even more questionable where all the money is going to come from to pay for all these data centres.
 
JohnMcL7 said:
As mentioned above, companies are diverting their resources to manufacture memory suitable for AI data centres (HBM - High Bandwidth Memory) where they can make much more money rather than cheaper consumer memory. It's badly hit DDR5 ram prices with huge increases and the same is happening with SSDs but it's going to spread to most consumer electronics so PCs are likely next, then mobile phones/tablets then pretty much anything that uses flash memory. It's frustrating because it's questionable whether supercharging these genAI/LLMs is even going to produce much benefits and it's even more questionable where all the money is going to come from to pay for all these data centres.
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As an ex-IT consultant, whilst I think AI will decimate jobs that can be targeted by lower end cheap automation and robotics, but as you get past the easy pickings the fruits get progressively more difficult to pick.
Yes electronics are cheap compared to people costs but the tooling up and purchasing the equipment will be a high cost initially with no guarantees that next generation product will not be several times better, faster, cheaper.
 
as is usual when you go out to test new gear , nothing even comes close so here's a couple of shots both massive crops .. at the moment im using the settings my lad put in but I will refine that over the coming weeks
the great escape by jeff cohen, on Flickr
taking the long view by jeff cohen, on Flickr
 
first chance to put the Z8 through its paces today with some fast action close ups . well pleased so far ( more to follow ) jackdaw lift off with the marsh giving a vibrant bokeh
jumping jack flash by jeff cohen, on Flickr
 
Well Jeff if that Z8 does not suit you then there is an option to use the Olympus.
I find the Z8 is all I want and need from a camera except that it does not have built in GPS like the Z9.
 
They look great Jeff, the Z8 and 180-600mm is a good combo.
 
jknights said:
So is the Z8 experience better than the Z6ii?
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Oh yes 1000% better jk , took around 600 shots yesterday morning any failures. ( very few) were down to me not the camera , I’m not used to BBF hardly ever used it before ,but I think necessary with this speed demon
 
Sootchucker said:
Z6 III is light years ahead of the Z6 II in almost every way. I’ve had all the Z6 models from MK1 to MK3, and whilst the MK II (or the Z7’s)certainly are no where near as bad as a lot of people made them out to be, the Z6III is in many ways like a baby Z8. For the price it’s pretty incredible, more so if you ever get into video where it’s on another planet compared to the early models.
Click to expand...

Icee said:
Jeff, The Z6iii is a great camera if you're looking for a light compact camera. It had all the detection modes i.e. birds humans and the AF is way ahead of the Z6ii. I have the Z6iii as my second body. In my opinion highly recommended.
Click to expand...

I used a Z6III as a second body to mu Z8 in Scotland last year, the autofocus was as good as the Z8 its only the MP's that hold it back if you are a pixel peeper, the video is better on Z6III than the Z8 too if you want to do slowmo as think its 240fps, I would happily use the Z6III again.
 
Adam I very rarely do video at the moment so no problem there , as it’s yet again another rain day I’ve been going through the various focus options that are available must admit to being impressed.
Will need to check them all out in actual use soon .. the one thing I have changed is going back to shutter button half press and shoot , thanks to a artificial tendon in my right thumb I find it painful to use BBF I can do it but not for long periods .. so we will see if shutter button works as well as BBF .. bar that just waiting on a break in the weather
If at some point in the future I feel the need for a second body ? I would probably look at a Z50ii based on size and price
 
I did not realise you had picked up a Z8, I thought you still have the Z6II, you will be blown away by the Z8, its a great camera, I still have mine and love it, its my primary body.
 
So, it's a bit old hat compared to what you lot are rocking, but I picked up a very clean z6 for £450 and threw a Nikon 40/2 on it. Seems a nice combo. Only problem is, coming from a Fuji X-T2 and Sony a7s, everything seems to rotate the other way
 
AdamSi said:
I did not realise you had picked up a Z8, I thought you still have the Z6II, you will be blown away by the Z8, its a great camera, I still have mine and love it, its my primary body.
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Yeah after last Saturdays horrendous day the Z6ii was returned, my son then asked me if I wanted to buy his set up. ( 2 months old ) used 3 times as work restricts his using it . ,yep done deal…. a nearly solid week of rain has meant I’ve only used it twice but loving it ..
 
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