On Monday in the late morning, I received the Nikon Z9 camera I had ordered for a week’s rental. I will be evaluating it as a potential future replacement for my existing Nikon D610 camera. I spent the rest of the day familiarizing myself with the camera and using videos on YouTube to help me set it up for the type of photography I had planned to do this week.
Remembering my difficulties with a rented Nikon Z6, I anticipated some unpleasantries as I grabbed the camera and headed for a local park early Tuesday morning, hoping to get there by sunrise. Fortunately, fellow photographer Karl was also at the park. (I had spelled his name as Carl before I learn the correct spelling Tuesday.) He has had his Nikon Z9 for quite a while and is familiar with how it works.
At some point, I must’ve pressed the wrong button and lost access to the rear screen. Karl showed me how to get it back. He also offered me some setup advice that proved useful.
Here are my thoughts about the camera so far:
——
Pros:
The rear screen permits you to look at the photo you’ve taken and zoom into it to see if the focus is sharp on the subject. On my old Nikon D610, zooming in very far isn’t too helpful. The resolution of the rear screen is so low that a zoomed-in photo turns soft very quickly. With a much higher resolution, the Z9 does not have that issue.
Quite often the subject is very far away. The Z9 has a crop mode which affectively makes the subject appear much closer. And when you put it into crop mode, what you see fills the viewfinder. That is a great feature. My old camera has a crop mode but it does not work that way.
The Z9 has an almost bottomless buffer, letting me press the shutter button and hold it down for as long as I want, as I try to capture the best shot. My old camera’s buffer fills up after eight or nine shots, requiring me to wait a few seconds before I can take more photos. In a situation where the subject is moving, a deep buffer can be the difference between getting the photo and not getting the photo.
The Z9 focuses much faster than my old camera, very useful when timing is critical.
The Z9 can fire off 20 shots in a second, compared to the six shots per second with my old camera. That can make a big difference with a moving subject, allowing you to pick the best frame out of a large group of photos.
The Z9 is much quieter, with silence as one option. The D610 sounds like a machine gun, in comparison. When the subject is close by, it pays to have a quiet camera.
The Z9 and the 100-400 mm Z lens go well together. The balance is great. Holding that setup and firing off some shots feels quite natural, unlike some of the bulky lenses I’ve tried in the past. By the way, I already own the lens. I just haven’t decided which camera to pair it with.
Cons:
Although not the camera’s fault, it comes with an absolutely frustrating, even infuriating, and much too short, camera strap. I did not take the time to think that through before going out Tuesday morning. I have since removed that strap and replaced it with one that works for me. Much of my frustration on Tuesday came from dealing with that strap.
With this particular combination, there’s a bit more weight to deal with. This week should tell me if I can handle it. I cut my Tuesday trip to the park short, so I did not learn much about that issue.
A lot of photographs were out of focus. Some had highlights blown out. A great number of them had too much noise. Although not likely the cameras fault, these are hurdles I’ve got to get over before I could consider buying one. I have rethought some of my settings and hope that Wednesday’s result will be better.
This is the most complex camera I have ever seen. And in order to justify the purchase, I’ve got to understand at least enough of the camera to capture the photos I want. At this point, just trying to remember what button does what is a tall order for this old brain. Hopefully, things will go better over the next several days.
——
Tuesday was quite cold. My hands need lots of pocket breaks from the cold. It was not a good day for light. What light there was seemed harsh to me, and that harshness is reflected in the few keeper photos.
There was one exception to the harshness issue, and all the other issues I just mentioned. A very shy bittern appeared for a while. Based on its behavior, I do not believe this was Barry the Bittern. I believe it might have been Barry’s wayward cousin, Biff. In a few weeks I will show Biff’s photo, which turned out great, but caught Biff in an embarrassing, and possibly illegal, situation.
Stay tuned for that.
Although the Z9 is new technology, with a sensor twice the size of my old camera’s sensor, the Z9 will have some noise at high ISO settings. That’s disappointing, but understandable. My D610 showed too much digital noise if I set the ISO over 1250. The Z9 will do far better than that, I’m certain. But 12,800, the setting I used on Tuesday, is too high. I have set the maximum ISO to 8000 for Wednesday’s trip. Hopefully, that will provide me better results.
The cold, the complexities of dealing with a new camera, and the frustration of getting tangled up in that too-short camera strap, took a toll on me. After a couple hours on the West Bay observation deck, I was worn out and feeling a little dizzy. So I said my goodbyes and headed home.
When I left, there were eight photographers on the observation deck. The conversation had been friendly and occasionally jovial. An observer might have thought it comical to watch from afar, seeing eight folks talking about their favorite subject, then suddenly stopping when someone noticed an interesting bird nearby, with all eight folks swinging their cameras in the bird’s direction.
I will have the Nikon Z9 camera for six more days. If there’s time, and if anything interesting happens, I will write about it to let you know.