A Nikon Z 7? Hmmm. What Gives? Part I

Unfortunately, almost all of the early spring flowers are done blooming and I found many losing their petals.  Not
great for photography, but you have to work with what is available.
All images made with a Nikon Z 7 and the Nikon 24-70mm f/4 S lens (click to enlarge)

Since Nikon introduced their first two mirrorless cameras, the Z 6 and Z 7, all of the hubbub around the internet about these cameras has had me intrigued.  Are they good "picture taking" machines or are they photographic "dogs?"  The comments seem to be mostly on one side or the other.  Owning Nikon cameras since 1974 or so, I knew I would never know for sure unless I had one to use so I made arrangements to use one to find out for myself.  So...completely out of curiosity, I temporarily obtained one to try.  By the way, didn't "curiosity kill the cat", as the old saying goes.  Hopefully, I will survive this.  Lol.

This post, and the next, will not be an extensive review of the camera and lens but be a brief summary along with some images describing my initial thoughts about the Nikon Z 7 with the 24-70mm f/4 "kit" lens.  I would have to use the camera regularly for a month or two to feel comfortable to write a full review.

A few days before the camera was to arrive, I downloaded the user's manual from Nikon's site and started reading it.  I thought, with limited time to use the camera, I would get a jumpstart on better understanding it.  As with most user's manuals today, it is almost 300 pages long.  

I saw this woman with two grocery bags crossing the tracks.  I thought it would look better in black and white
than in color, so I converted it.  This is an 11mp crop of the origianal 45mp file.  (click to enlarge)

First Impressions 

My first impressions of the Z 7 are that it has a solid, substantial in feel.  When you pick it up, you know you have a well-built, professional feeling piece of gear in your hands.  This camera is not a lightweight plastic body but built to stand up to a lot of use.  It is a bit heavier than my Fujifilm or Olympus cameras but not too different in size.  I suspect Nikon must use more metal in its manufacture.

The Z 7 feels pretty good in my hand.  The layout of the controls is familiar.  I had previously owned several Nikon DSLRs and not much in layout and controls has changed, the menu system is pretty much the same as in past Nikons and the front grip fits my hand well.  As I've written in the past several times, I think just about all digital cameras today will give you technically excellent results and the difference for you when choosing a new camera will come down to what lenses you already own, how a camera feels in your hands, the layout of the controls and its menus.  If you have been a Nikon DSLR user in the past, this camera will feel and work in a very familiar manner.  

All images made with a Nikon Z7 and the Nikon 24-70mm f/4 S lens (click to enlarge)

The lens seems solid as well.  As mentioned on the internet everywhere, it locks closed and you have to rotate the zoom ring a bit to "unlock it" so it can be used to photograph.  In fact, the LCD screen will display a box telling you "Before taking photos, rotate the zoom ring to extend the lens."   In other words, there is an electronic interlock that won't let you use the camera with this particular lens unless you extend the barrel slightly.  I'm not a fan of this, but in my use, I quickly adapted to it and its not a big deal for me.

One thing of note, this camera takes an XQD card.  One came with the camera but I did not have any way to transfer its contents to my computer so I had to quickly acquire an XQD reader.  Just a word of caution to any of you who may want to try one out.  At the time, I didn't think about the ability to transfer images directly from the camera, via USB connection, to my computer.  I didn't quite think things through when arranging using this camera.

I liked these contrasting azalea blooms behind the interesting bark texture on this
Crepe Myrtle tree. This was along the side of the road in a local park. (click to enlarge)

Controls 

The Z 7's controls remind me somewhat of my Olympus E-M1 Mark II's controls in that things are found with buttons, dials and a lot of menu options.  Nothing like my Fujifilm cameras.  The camera is very configurable. It has an i-Menu that can be displayed on the LCD with a push of the "i" button.  The i-Menu is configurable, similar to that of the Fujifilm Q-Menu but unlike the Super Control Panel on the Olympus which is not configurable.  It also has a "My Menu" function which can easily be configured with the settings you most commonly would want to make that are not made on buttons, dials or the i-Menu.  I found changing settings very easy with these two features.  The Fujifilm cameras place the control for adding/removing/moving My Menu items in another part of the menu system where the Nikon places that control within the My Menu itself.  That is logical and easier to work with the Fujifilm's.

All of the buttons and controls feel substantial, with a good feeling press or turn and don't feel cheap.  They stick up above the body surface far enough that you can easily feel them when locating them with your eye to the viewfinder.  No issues here.

The joystick (6-way), AF-On button, the D-pad and all other operational controls are on the right side of the camera for easy one handed use.  The only controls on the left side are the playback button and the garbage can button.  On top, the "push down the lock button and turn" main mode dial is set and forget and not something I use very often.  Having all of the other buttons under my right hand is nice.

Camera Configuration 

I configured the camera in about the same way as I have my Fujifilm and Olympus cameras configured.  After all, my photographic style wouldn't be any different for this camera so I set it up in a very similar fashion.  I found the extensive touchscreen feature of the LCD really nice.  I can do much more with this touchscreen than I can with any of my other cameras.  I was able to go through the entire menu, select features, change settings, configure function buttons, configure the My Menu and i-Menu features all with using my fingertip.  Also, if desired, you can touch to focus and touch to focus and expose, which is also settable on the LCD.  I'm hoping Fujifilm will enhance the LCD touch capabilities with their next generation of cameras.  To me, it makes a difference.  To others, they may not care about touchscreens at all.

I set up focus peaking (3 levels from which to choose) and set the D-pad center button to magnify the image either in the EVF or on the LCD to 100% for easy focus checking before or after you make an exposure.  I changed the movie start/stop button to be the auto-bracketing button because I don't do movies.  I won't go into all of the configuration I did, but I was able to put things where I wanted so I didn't have to go into menu items to make my most common changes.

This was one of my initial test shots to check on lens sharpness and resolution.  Just a local lake on a sunny day.
(click to enlarge)

Initial Tests 

When I first received the camera I wanted to test auto white balance, focus accuracy and accurate focus repeatability, the IBIS and lens sharpness.  I do this for all new cameras so I can immediately get a better feel for them as compared to my other cameras.  I did this the first morning I had the camera.  There are three auto white balance settings, which is a first for me.  "Keep White," "Keep Overall Atmosphere" and "Keep Warm Lighting Colors."  I found the second choice closest to what I would want but I also found it a bit too blue and a bit too magenta.  When I color corrected the test images in Lightroom Classic using the neutral gray patch (which I included in the test images), yellow and magenta were added to correct the color.  Also, as typical with my experience with Nikon, the blue skies have too much magenta in them.  I saw this in past Nikon cameras as well.  I guess one would have to create an import preset to automatically adjust the colors to one's own liking, if this were deemed significant.  Funny, my Olympus cameras, to me, have too much cyan in the skies and the Nikons have too much magenta.  The Fujifilm's?  Just right!  Goldilocks and the Three Bears anyone?  Lol.

White Balance 

I also tested the camera for overall white balance in using the Daylight setting and the Kelvin settings on a sunny day.  I shot full sunlight images with an X-Rite Colorchecker Passport in the frame using the Daylight setting and from 5000K-6000K to better understand how Nikon set up their color science.  Lightroom is set up for daylight white balance to be 5500K and +10 green/magenta.  I found that for this Z 7, 5200K and -16 green/magenta was the correct setting for this particular camera.  The Nikon color does not compare favorably with the colors I get from my Fujifilm cameras, but as with most everything in today's world of digital photography, it is easily changeable.  That is what I now do with my Olympus cameras; change the colors to more reflect what I get from my Fujifilm cameras.

This is a 26mp crop of the original file.  I watched him for a while and he was having no luck. (click to enlarge)

Focus 

I found the focus to be very accurate and consistent.  There are many options for focus points and settings.  Too many for me to describe to you in this short post.  I will say that the camera uses a combination of Phase Detect Auto Focus (PDAF) and Contrast Detect Auto Focus (CDAF), which covers just about the entire frame from edge to edge.  There are, in fact, 493 focus points.  That is most I've ever had available.  

PDAF is what is used in DSLRs and CDAF is what was originally used in mirrorless cameras.  Now, almost all mirrorless cameras (Panasonic excluded) use a combination because it is advantageous to have both.  PDAF is faster.  CDAF is more accurate.  The Z 7 uses a combination with the exception of the tiniest focus point, called "Pinpoint" autofocus, which uses only CDAF.  I suspect that if you are using a tiny, very precise focusing point, you don't need the speed but absolute accuracy is more important, such as in macro, copy, maybe portrait (eye) work and other exacting work.  I didn't use most of the focusing options as I just didn't have time to get into them and test them.  I only used the single focus point option and it was dead on every time.  Nothing I focused on was out of focus.

By the way, I did not have an opportunity to use C-AF so I can't comment on that feature which is supposed to be sub-par, according to some.  Others have said it is fine.  I don't know.

IBIS 

The IBIS system works well.  Subjectively, I don't think it is quite as good as Olympus', but Olympus is in their, what, third generation?  I easily hand held shots down to about 1/10th of a second and made consistently sharp images.  That is good enough for me, in fact, at those speeds and my age, I will get out a tripod every time anyway.  There are three IBIS settings: Off, On and Sport.  I configured the camera for the IBIS control to be in the i-Menu so when the camera was tripod mounted, it could be easily turned off.

Lens

I tested the lens as I would test any lens when first taking delivery.  I found this "kit" lens remarkably good.  I found that it is very sharp in the center and edges wide open (F4) and I think, subjectively, that it becomes excellent at f/5.6 all the way to f/16.  At f/22 I can see some diffraction softening but still usable if you needed that depth of field.  I would not hesitate to use this lens wide open at every focal length.  Even the corners look good.  This new, shorter flange and larger diameter lens mount Nikon developed may actually have some advantages for lens design.  By the way, I know you've read or heard that this lens is cheap feeling, plasticy, etc., but I find it fine.  I think it is solidly built with the most modern materials and, like any other lens if you take care of it, should last as long as you need it to last.  As I said, I'm not a fan of the lock/unlock feature, but Nikon is not the first to adopt that.  It is not a deal breaker.  All in all an excellent lens.

If you notice to the right, there is the woman carrying the grocery bags.  The train was approaching at 79 mph (127 kph).
 (click to enlarge)

I'll stop here as this post is getting too long.  I'll post Part II on Friday with my thoughts on initial use of the camera, how I think some of the features work, image quality, etc. and what I would like to see add/changed in a subsequent model.

So far, my experience with this camera has been very pleasurable.

Join me over at Instagram @dennisamook or my website, www.dennismook.com. 

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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