Nikon Z6- my first impressions

[Peeb]

For the op, since you were buying new glass, what made you go for the Z6 over the A7 III?

Great question! 2 things:

1. Ergonomics- I am a nikon shooter already, so the look and feel of the Z is very comfortable to me.
2. The FTZ adapter. I can use the new camera with my existing 200-500 and my 11-16 and my 100 macro.

Those are the logical reasons. On a personal level, I wouldn't leave the Nikon camp unless I had an absolutely compelling reason to do so- I'm just a bit stubborn that way. I won't argue that Nikon is the best or that Sony or Canon or Fuji are trash. I just like having a Nikon. Maybe it's the old Paul Simon song... dunno.

 

[Derrel]

The ergonomics of the Sony A7 series cameras are quite roundly criticized by most experienced photographers, whether they came from Nikon or Canon or another brand. Some Japanese camera makers lavish a lot of design attention on how a camera feels and works in the hand, but Sony A7 cameras are in my opinion a disaster as far as hand feel and menu organization. I have no idea how in the heck the folks at Sony came up with their atrocious menu structure and menu naming.

 

[DarkShadow]

I tried a small pocket Sony camera at least a fews years ago not the RX series but can't recall which model but the menu was an abortion and if not for wrist strap, I would have dropped it crashing to the ground the same day I took it out of the box. I returned it in less than two weeks. I hated it, I could not even hold on to it with out it slipping from my hand.

 

[Peeb]

The ergonomics of the Sony A7 series cameras are quite roundly criticized by most experienced photographers, whether they came from Nikon or Canon or another brand. Some Japanese camera makers lavish a lot of design attention on how a camera feels and works in the hand, but Sony A7 cameras are in my opinion a disaster as far as hand feel and menu organization. I have no idea how in the heck the folks at Sony came up with their atrocious menu structure and menu naming.

If photography were a purely technical exercise of capturing images, I would probably shoot Fuji. I actually bought and used an x-t20 about a year ago, but I just couldn't bond with the interface. Simply put, I missed the 'nikon experience' of shooting. From all I've read, I would miss nikon even more if I tried to shoot sony.

Bottom line is that, for me, shooting is a really enjoyable and fulfilling process when I'm doing it right. Nikon is what makes me happy when I shoot, so there you go. If somebody else is happy with some other brand- great!

 

[Derrel]

Back in the 2006-2007 era I bought a Canon 20D and then a Canon 5D. I had a Sigma 18 to 125 mm for the 20D and a 50 mm / 1.8. I also had the Canon 580ex II Flash. With the 5D I bought it with the 24 to 105 f/4 L IS-USM, and then added the 50 mm / 1.4, the 85 mm F 1.8, the 100 m m f / 2.8 macro, and a 70-200 f / 2.8 L IS- USM. In other words I had about a $10,000 system which I shot for about five years alongside my much larger and more extensive Nikon system. At the time I was shooting the Nikon d2x, which was in some ways a remarkable camera, and in other ways was not that great. The 5D's image quality was extremely good, but it was based upon a roughly 25 year old EOS 7D film body. It was in other words a $389 camera with nice new digital innards, but it was in most ways not that great a machine. The D2x on the other hand was a $5,000 camera in the spring of 2005, and it was roughly the 4th or 5th Pro Nikon made since 1995 . In 2012 I got a great deal on a used Nikon D3x and that pretty much spelled the end of the use of the 5D. The D3x had almost twice the megapixel count and was a vastly better machine than the 5D in every single way, and I mean in every single way-- battery life, focusing, viewfinder clarity and brightness, customizability, voice annotation, file quality, buffer depth, frames per second, build quality, exposure accuracy, quality of viewfinder display, and so on. I gave Canon a good chance, but I never really did like it as much as Nikon. At the time the D3x was the best sensor with the widest dynamic range and the greatest amount of exposure recovery possible in 2012. It was a great camera and it had a fantastic sensor, and it worked as I wanted it to work with both autofocus and with manual focus lenses. It had a spectacular flash accuracy with the sb28, and so I was happy to leave Canon behind for good.

Around 2015 I decided to sell off almost all of my Canon gear...i kept the 20D body and the 5D body, and kept just the sigma 18 to 125 for the 20D. I sold off all my Canon lenses . Canon EF cameras work quite well with adapted lenses from seven legacy 35mm systems, and I have about 10 Nikon to Canon EF adapters, and I have a couple for Pentax thread mount, and one adapter for the single Olympus OM lens that I have. I really never did like the way the Canon cameras' controls were configured. A number of very important things are backwards from Nikon. Lenses mount in the reverse direction, focusing is in the reverse direction, the f/stops change in the reverse direction, the Canon control dials change function based upon which exposure mode the cameras is in! After about 20 years in the Nikon system I never felt completely at home with any Canon. The last time I took my Canon 5D out to shoot was do a steampunk Disney shoot, and after three frames, the mirror fell off of the mirror frame, which was a well-known flaw in the 5D design and manufacture. Around 2010 or so Canon offered a free fix of this problem on a recall, but I did not send the camera in, which was unfortunate . There were no clips that held the reflex mirror on to the frame, just glue! As I said the original 5D was an inexpensive body and it was not built to be as tough as let's say the Nikon D2x or the Nikon D3x.

I can understand how a certain camera brand can feel right to a certain person and two other people might each have their own favorite.