The Great American Road Trip III; A Summary Of My Photography Gear And How Well What I Took Worked For Me

Soulsby's Garage, Mt. Olive, Illinois. (click to enlarge)

I wanted to share my thoughts about how the Nikon gear worked out on my recent coast-to-coast 26 day road trip, especially from the point of view of me exclusively using Fujifilm APS-C gear for the past 12 months.

First, this road trip was not primarily a photography trip.  It was three lifelong friends getting together to create memories and to share the experience.  Photography was by happenstance.  My photography was a by-product of opportunity.  We didn’t do anything or specifically go anywhere just to make photographs.  There was no ‘chasing the light’ or going somewhere specifically to make photographs.  In fact, I was the only one with a traditional camera.  The other two guys only had their phones.

On the road trip I made 1538 exposures using both my Nikon Z7II + the 24-200mm f/4-6.3 lens and augmented by my iPhone 8+.  About 32% of the images we’re made with my iPhone, mainly out of convenience or, on occasion, a prohibition of traditional cameras being allowed in a particular venue.  I’m not a ‘camera phone’ fan but I will admit the iPhone served its purpose adequately.  Not great, but adequately.  That’s about as far as I will go with my particular model, which is now 5 generations old.  I plan on upgrading to the newest generation iPhone this fall and I am curious to see what improvements in image quality the new camera phone will bring.

When photographing with my phone I used the camera within the Lightroom Mobile app as it allows RAW image recording, has full exposure controls, an HDR mode among other features and best of all, it automatically sends the image files to the cloud so when I open up Lightroom Classic on my laptop, the images have automatically downloaded and are imported into the LR Classic catalog.  No manual transfer needed.  Once in LR Classic I merely keyworded the images and moved them to their proper folders.

From inside Soulsby's Garage. (click to enlarge)

I photographed in 50 different locations and from the hot and humid Midwest to the hot and extremely dry desert Southwest (104° F) to the high altitude of the Rocky Mountains (9000 ft.) to the marine layer of fog and salty wind along the Pacific coast.  I photographed landscapes, nature, people, inside a dark museum, urban settings, after sunset, rural and country scenes, historic buildings, old rusty cars and trucks, unique businesses and about everything else.  Quite a variety of situations.  The Nikon handled every one of them perfectly.  The phone did okay, for the most part.

The most common focal lengths used for my images with both the Nikon (222 images made at 24mm or about 20%) and the iPhone (over 400 at 28mm, but that is almost a given considering the limitations of the phone’s camera) were made with very wide angle focal lengths.  Overall, most of my images were made at wide angle to normal focal lengths. There were a few images at 200mm and cropping will also be necessary as I could not get as close as I would have liked to have gotten.  But with 45.7mp, I can crop in significantly to make my desired composition.  As far as ISOs are concerned, they ranged from ISO 64 (ISO 20 on the iPhone) to ISO 6400.

There were two features of the Nikon that I used often.  First, I programmed the U1, U2 and U3 dial positions so I could instantaneously change an entire group of settings if the situation dictated.  For example, there was a peregrine falcon being chased by another bird at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  I had U2 pre-programmed for shutter priority, 1/1600th second shutter speed, the entire screen of focusing points enabled, AF-C and high speed advance.  A twist of the dial and I went from my normal aperture priority landscape photography to birds-in-flight photography.  I had the U3 setting programmed for electronic shutter, the ability to see changes in exposure in the EVF change (from light to dark) turned off, f/8, low speed advance and automatic exposure bracketing (+- 3 stops; 3 exposures) enabled.  When I thought I might want to bracket a scene for insurance (it turned out none was really needed with the dynamic range of this sensor), I just twisted the dial to U3, held the shutter button down for the three exposures in sequence, then rotated the button back so the “A” position, which is normally where I keep it.  The very useful feature of programmable banks of settings is something I miss when using my X-T4 but I understand it is available in other models of Fujifilm cameras including the new X-H2S.  My Olympus cameras had this feature as well.

The other Nikon Z7II feature I used extensively was the “My Menu” feature.  What I didn’t have programmed to a button or dial or on the “I-Menu” (Nikon’s equivalent to Fujifilm’s Q-Menu) of the Z7II, I placed in My Menu.  I never once had to dive into the menu system to look for a setting to change.  Very convenient.

Televisions from the 1940s and 1950s. (click to enlarge)

What did I find was the biggest difference between using my Fuji gear and Nikon gear?  Primarily two things.  First, every one of the approximately 1100 Nikon images I made is in sharp focus.  Every one!  That is unlike the AF inconsistency problem many of us are having with our Fujifilm cameras.  That is reassuring to me that the Fujifilm AF issue is not due to my technique but due to a hardware/firmware issue.

Second, I miss the haptics, dials and buttons of my X-T4.  The X-T4 is more satisfying to use, in my opinion.  That said, I had no problems adapting to the Nikon controls.  I’ve used Nikon digital cameras since the introduction of the D70.  The menus are largely the same.  In other words, the actual user experience, for me, is better with the X-T4.  The size and weight of the Nikon gear, in actuality, is not much different than equivalent Fujifilm gear so that was not an issue at all.  Now, if I could get the Nikon’s image quality in an X-T4 successor……

Speaking of image quality, of course the Z7II has an edge when it comes to cropping in, resolution, slightly more dynamic range and when photographing under less than optimum lighting conditions.  That said, for the most part, under the vast majority of circumstances in which I photograph I saw no differences in the overall quality of images from either camera.  When Fujifilm introduces their new 40mp sensor in September, that will make for one less difference between the two.

I am happy with the Nikon colors and I’m happy with the Fujifilm film simulations and colors also.  With modern editing software, color differences can pretty much be matched today.  I do like the Fujifilm JPEGs better, however.

One feature the Nikon lacks is three main dials.  The X-T4 has three dials one of which is the exposure compensation dial, a feature I use for almost every shot.  The Nikon does not have three dials so Nikon has included a button, which you push to change the function of the rear dial (normally set for shutter speeds) to then enable exposure compensation.  I really don’t like that and find it inconvenient.  I can never seem to find the button without taking my eye away from the viewfinder.  So how did I deal with that?  Nikon allows you to program the ring on the lens for several functions, one of which is for exposure compensation.  Perfect!  I already have my left hand supporting the lens and the ring is at my fingertips.  It is merely a matter or rotating that ring to change exposure compensation.  I like this better than having to remove my right hand from gripping my X-T4 to move the exposure compensation dial (mine is a bit too stiff just to rotate it with my thumb), then re-gripping the camera.  As I said, a perfect solution for my way of working.

I don’t think there was a single situation—high contrast, indoors in low light, panorama, etc. that couldn’t have been handled equally as well with the X-T4 as it was with the Z7II.  If my X-T4 didn’t have the AF issue and Fujifilm made an equivalent lens (including sharpness) to Nikon’s 24-200mm lens, I would have gladly taken the Fujifilm gear.  In fact, I may have preferred it.  I guess I’m to the point in my photographic life (51 years photographing seriously) and experience that I really don’t see much of a need for cameras with full frame sensors.  In fact, I’ll go one step farther.  I believe a latest generation micro4/3 cameras could have handled everything satisfactorily as well.  Too bad the industry, understandably for profit motive in a declining market, is pushing everyone toward full frame.  That is seemingly where the research, development and improvements are largely being made.  In other words, for this trip, sensor size made little difference, in my opinion.

Gasoline was 33 cents per gallon!  Those were the
days.  I can personally remember 29 cents per gallon.
(click to enlarge)

There was nothing I wished I had brought but didn’t.   I used the polarizing filter quite often in the clear air of the western United States.  I didn’t need any other lenses, filters, tripod, etc.  My minimal kit (which you can see in this post) served me perfectly.

One comment.  I was never a fan of Nikon’s rendition of blue skies, even using the Z7 I owned a just a couple of years ago.  Nikon’s rendition of skies always contained too much magenta and I worked to remove it so the skies would look naturally blue.  I don’t know whether or not Nikon has changed their color science, but the blue skies now aren’t overly influenced by a magenta cast and the overall color of the image files has become really, really pleasing.  I will now rank the Nikon Z7II colors right there with the colors in my Fujifilm image files.  But, again, I like my Fujifilm JPEGs just a bit better.

In conclusion, I picked the perfect kit to take with me on a month long coast-to-coast road trip that was not primarily a photographic trip.  If it was a photographic trip, I would have selected additional lenses, tripod, filters, etc. to bring along.  The Z7II with the 24-200mm lens performed up to and exceeded my expectations.  I would not hesitate to take only this combination in the future.

Oh!  One last thing to do.  Charge my camera battery, reformat my memory cards (only after I have saved at least two other copies of my images), reset my camera settings to what I consider ‘default’ and, most importantly, clean my camera and lens—always—before putting it away.  My camera is always at the ready for the next adventure!

If you have any questions or comments about anything I’ve written in this post or otherwise about my road trip or gear, please leave a comment below.  Safe travels.

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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