GAS GAS: Please Share your Latest Acquisitions Big and Small

the Z6 isn't at all fun to use with adapted lenses (and, not to put too fine a point on it, adapted adapters).
Do you mind expanding on that Matt? At some point I'm going to have to get a mirrorless body to house all my legacy lenses, so the Z cameras were on my consideration list (after the release of the future Z8/Z9/Z10 cameras). At the moment I'm just watching as the the A7RII used price continues to drop.
 
Do you mind expanding on that Matt? At some point I'm going to have to get a mirrorless body to house all my legacy lenses, so the Z cameras were on my consideration list (after the release of the future Z8/Z9/Z10 cameras). At the moment I'm just watching as the the A7RII used price continues to drop.
At the moment, I'm not at all happy with the implementation of magnification and even less so with the handling of I.B.I.S. with non-electronically coupled lenses (or rather, everything other than old Nikon glass used on the FTZ), plus there's a problem with one specific adapter that's most probably caused by same (i.e. not the camera), but makes things even worse.

Let me explain: As I always do, I assigned magnification to a button (and since I fully intended to go all-in, I chose the OK button in the center of the D-pad - I'll now remap this). The A7 II is set up the same way. On the Sony, after focusing, I just tab the shutter button, and I'm ready to frame. On the Z6, nothing happens if I do this; I have to press the OK button again - slow, wobbly, off-putting, and certainly non-intuitive (as if anyone wanted to stay in magnification mode indefinitely) ... That's made even worse by the fact that the Z6's EVF would be heavenly for manual focusing - it's super-nice, bright and crisp.

Implementation of I.B.I.S. is even more infuriating: With dumb lenses, it's switched off, period. What can I say?

And with the intriguing, but ATM seriously flawd TechartPro TZE-01, I can't fire the shutter with non-E-mount lenses - i.e. when using another (E mount to anything) adapter *on* the TZE-01. This makes the TZE-01 an expensive paperweight for my needs - but I'll keep it, TechartPro may get their act together at some time in the future. They have done so in earlier cases ...

All in all, this is quite irritating IMO. In its current state, the Z6 is *not* an option for shooting legacy glass on (Nikon's own glass and other F mount lenses on the FTZ excepted). I own a Novoflex Z-to-M mount adapter, and on that, M mount lenses are borderline usable, but without I.B.I.S., and hampered by super-slow handling of magnification. The old Sony A7 II makes things straightforward, simple and workable (and so does the A6000 - even if its implementation is a tad more fiddly, and of course, no I.B.I.S. ...).

That's the long and the short of it ... Want to adapt? Choose Sony for FF.

M.
 
At the moment, I'm not at all happy with the implementation of magnification and even less so with the handling of I.B.I.S. with non-electronically coupled lenses (or rather, everything other than old Nikon glass used on the FTZ), plus there's a problem with one specific adapter that's most probably caused by same (i.e. not the camera), but makes things even worse.

Let me explain: As I always do, I assigned magnification to a button (and since I fully intended to go all-in, I chose the OK button in the center of the D-pad - I'll now remap this). The A7 II is set up the same way. On the Sony, after focusing, I just tab the shutter button, and I'm ready to frame. On the Z6, nothing happens if I do this; I have to press the OK button again - slow, wobbly, off-putting, and certainly non-intuitive (as if anyone wanted to stay in magnification mode indefinitely) ... That's made even worse by the fact that the Z6's EVF would be heavenly for manual focusing - it's super-nice, bright and crisp.

Implementation of I.B.I.S. is even more infuriating: With dumb lenses, it's switched off, period. What can I say?

And with the intriguing, but ATM seriously flawd TechartPro TZE-01, I can't fire the shutter with non-E-mount lenses - i.e. when using another (E mount to anything) adapter *on* the TZE-01. This makes the TZE-01 an expensive paperweight for my needs - but I'll keep it, TechartPro may get their act together at some time in the future. They have done so in earlier cases ...

All in all, this is quite irritating IMO. In its current state, the Z6 is *not* an option for shooting legacy glass on (Nikon's own glass and other F mount lenses on the FTZ excepted). I own a Novoflex Z-to-M mount adapter, and on that, M mount lenses are borderline usable, but without I.B.I.S., and hampered by super-slow handling of magnification. The old Sony A7 II makes things straightforward, simple and workable (and so does the A6000 - even if its implementation is a tad more fiddly, and of course, no I.B.I.S. ...).

That's the long and the short of it ... Want to adapt? Choose Sony for FF.

M.
Thanks Matt. Fuji on the other hand was brilliant in its simplicity and very effective plus the much criticised sensor made images coming out of of the camera really good with a legacy lens. I just assumed the process was the same across the board, obviously not.
 
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Thanks Matt. Fuji on the other hand was brilliant in its simplicity and very effective plus the much criticised sensor made images coming out of of the camera really good. I just assumed the process was the same across the board, obviously not.
... which is really annoying because otherwise, the Z6 is a highly enjoyable camera to shoot. Once more, Goldilocks evaded by oversight, if not malice ("We're not interested in our users doing this, so let's not make it easy and/or enjoyable."). It's not enough to make me drop Nikon just yet, but all this mess would be avoidable through openness (firmware/adapter problems) and open-mindedness (functionality that's doable is provided, in sensible ways). This "do it our way, or don't do it at all" attitude displayed by Nikon (and Canon) really puts me off big time, though. Sony and Fuji have a much better track record of developing along their user's desires and demands. Which is counter-intuitive - since the big boys have way more experience and started out with a way bigger user base. Hubris, maybe?

M.
 
I want Z6/Z7 to succeed. I want to want the Z6 or Z7. It's already very good but my usecases for a PASM camera are limited. My biggest hope would be for Fuji to release a full-frame body with an M mount or something solely designed for adapted lenses. Fuji knows the usability and firmware stuff very well.
 
No, I didn't see the value in the grip...and it was priced appropriately. If I decide to keep it, I assume I can always find a used grip cheap....if I decide I need one. Right now, there's lots of ifs....like if I can find time to use it...and if I can find a reason to use it.
 
Just get a theme. Doors, windows, fences, broken stuff. Try being a hunter not an artist. That helps during my dry spells. The XH1 is fun to use and the jpegs are great. I like the feather shutter button, especially with that tank body.
 
Everyone needs at least one semi-fast 50mm lens for their camera, no?
Well, my answer was yes. The camera in question being my relatively new Pentax KP. The lens - which I bought in beautiful condition, lightly used, from a fellow Pentaxian in Moldova, is one of the last (and I think best) of the film era Pentax FA lenses - the SMC FA-50mm f/1.7. It's not quite as fast as as the f/1.4 Takumars I used to shoot with but in almost every other respect, I think it may be better. I remember ctein raving about the Pentax f/1.7 some years back --- and back when they were still making the FA lenses, this was a little gem.

Here it is mounted on the KP -

SMC_Pentax_FA_50mm_1.7.jpg
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Since I picked it up at the local Post Office, I couldn't resist taking one shot immediately before I left the Post Office parking lot -

Pentax_in_Rear_View.jpg
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And this last was taken at a local drugstore where I had to run an errand.

Dino+Princess.jpg
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I think it may be a keeper.
 
At the moment, I'm not at all happy with the implementation of magnification and even less so with the handling of I.B.I.S. with non-electronically coupled lenses (or rather, everything other than old Nikon glass used on the FTZ), plus there's a problem with one specific adapter that's most probably caused by same (i.e. not the camera), but makes things even worse.

Let me explain: As I always do, I assigned magnification to a button (and since I fully intended to go all-in, I chose the OK button in the center of the D-pad - I'll now remap this). The A7 II is set up the same way. On the Sony, after focusing, I just tab the shutter button, and I'm ready to frame. On the Z6, nothing happens if I do this; I have to press the OK button again - slow, wobbly, off-putting, and certainly non-intuitive (as if anyone wanted to stay in magnification mode indefinitely) ... That's made even worse by the fact that the Z6's EVF would be heavenly for manual focusing - it's super-nice, bright and crisp.

Implementation of I.B.I.S. is even more infuriating: With dumb lenses, it's switched off, period. What can I say?

And with the intriguing, but ATM seriously flawd TechartPro TZE-01, I can't fire the shutter with non-E-mount lenses - i.e. when using another (E mount to anything) adapter *on* the TZE-01. This makes the TZE-01 an expensive paperweight for my needs - but I'll keep it, TechartPro may get their act together at some time in the future. They have done so in earlier cases ...

All in all, this is quite irritating IMO. In its current state, the Z6 is *not* an option for shooting legacy glass on (Nikon's own glass and other F mount lenses on the FTZ excepted). I own a Novoflex Z-to-M mount adapter, and on that, M mount lenses are borderline usable, but without I.B.I.S., and hampered by super-slow handling of magnification. The old Sony A7 II makes things straightforward, simple and workable (and so does the A6000 - even if its implementation is a tad more fiddly, and of course, no I.B.I.S. ...).

That's the long and the short of it ... Want to adapt? Choose Sony for FF.

M.

I believe if you dial in the focal length and aperture in the Non-CPU Date menu option, it should allow IBIS for your manual lens as seen on this Youtube video:

 
I believe if you dial in the focal length and aperture in the Non-CPU Date menu option, it should allow IBIS for your manual lens as seen on this Youtube video:

I've try that, and yes, I.B.I.S. did work. Thanks for that - but frankly, it's not I.B.I.S. that's the key problem as long as the shutter keeps refusing to fire with certain adapters, which is still the case. So, using I.B.I.S. will probably work with the Novoflex adapter - that's nice. But neither will the magnification implementation be any more useful, nor is the problem solved in a simple, intuitive way. On the contrary, as far as the last notion is concerned.

Also, notice that the lens is on the FTZ - that's how Nikon wants things to work, so it probably will, probably at its best. That's not what I was talking about. Nikon prevents me from just using what I want (and what's on the market, no less) by implementing things incompletely and - even for the parts that work - in a very clumsy way. Menu diving to change the focal length for I.B.I.S.? Why not just have I.B.I.S. work in the frist place, with a default setting that's directly adjustable by the user, like on *every* other system that offers it (Olympus, Panasonic - thus, :mu43:, and of course Sony)? Those brands and cameras have been around for a long time now, it's not as if there hadn't been anything to look at for Nikon. "Our way has to be different to be our way" is a very narrowminded way of thinking - and it doesn't work, most of the time.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Z6, it's the best modern mirrorless camera I've ever owned and shot with. But it's hampered and unnecessarily held back by Nikon's own decisions. Even *if* I can get it to work, it'll be by coaxing perfectly straightforward functionality out of a menu that doesn't guide me as to what to do, and makes changing settings a decidedly fiddly affair. *Not* good.

But it definitely seems that at least part of the blame lies with TechartPro - I'll let them know that. "Smart" adapters should know when to play dumb.

M.
 
I've try that, and yes, I.B.I.S. did work. Thanks for that - but frankly, it's not I.B.I.S. that's the key problem as long as the shutter keeps refusing to fire with certain adapters, which is still the case. So, using I.B.I.S. will probably work with the Novoflex adapter - that's nice. But neither will the magnification implementation be any more useful, nor is the problem solved in a simple, intuitive way. On the contrary, as far as the last notion is concerned.

Also, notice that the lens is on the FTZ - that's how Nikon wants things to work, so it probably will, probably at its best. That's not what I was talking about. Nikon prevents me from just using what I want (and what's on the market, no less) by implementing things incompletely and - even for the parts that work - in a very clumsy way. Menu diving to change the focal length for I.B.I.S.? Why not just have I.B.I.S. work in the frist place, with a default setting that's directly adjustable by the user, like on *every* other system that offers it (Olympus, Panasonic - thus, :mu43:, Sony)? Those brands and cameras have been around for a long time now, it's not as if there hadn't been anything to look at for Nikon. "Our way has to be different to be our way" is a very narrowminded way of thinking - and it doesn't work, most of the time.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Z6, it's the best modern mirrorless camera I've ever owned and shot with. But it's hampered and unnecessarily held back by Nikon's own decisions. Even *if* I can get it to work, it'll be by coaxing perfectly straightforward functionality out of a menu that doesn't guide me as to what to do. *Not* good.

But it definitely seems that at least part of the blame lies with TechartPro - I'll let them know that. "Smart" adapters should know when to play dumb.

M.

Yeah, Nikon didn't make implementing IBIS on manual lenses very straight forwards, but you can place that menu option in your 'My Menu' for quicker access. I'm surprised you're having issues with some adapters? When I had a Z6, I used a Leica M to Nikon Z adapter so I could adapt both M mount and F mount lenses (using an L-M to N-F adapter) and I had no problem using the lenses. Saying that, I didn't keep the Z6, because of certain quirks especially the magnify view, which I found choppy in comparison to Sony's implementation that maintains a high frame rate while zoomed in.

The Z6 + CV 40m 1.4 Nokton:
46505611865_64ea1d02c0_z.jpg
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190318_NIKON_Z6_SAMPLES_FRIOLO_009 by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

The Z6 + Nikon 50mm 1.2 AI-S:
33544985578_03ab1c0e62_z.jpg
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190318_NIKON_Z6_SAMPLES_FRIOLO_011 by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr
 
I use a dumb LM>Z adapter. I've assigned the IBIS to My Menu, and the non-CPU lens menu item is assigned to the Fn1 button. Works pretty quick for me now that I have gotten used to it. It could be implemented a bit better.

I am not a fan of the view magnification on the Z6, it does need improvement.
 
Yeah, Nikon didn't make implementing IBIS on manual lenses very straight forwards, but you can place that menu option in your 'My Menu' for quicker access. I'm surprised you're having issues with some adapters? When I had a Z6, I used a Leica M to Nikon Z adapter so I could adapt both M mount and F mount lenses (using an L-M to N-F adapter) and I had no problem using the lenses. Saying that, I didn't keep the Z6, because of certain quirks especially the magnify view, which I found choppy in comparison to Sony's implementation that maintains a high frame rate while zoomed in.

The Z6 + CV 40m 1.4 Nokton:
View attachment 206896
190318_NIKON_Z6_SAMPLES_FRIOLO_009 by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

The Z6 + Nikon 50mm 1.2 AI-S:
View attachment 206897
190318_NIKON_Z6_SAMPLES_FRIOLO_011 by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr
As I said, it's probably the TechartPro TZE-01 that's really causing the problem, and I know I'm using it in a way that certainly wasn't intended - but be it the camera or the adapter, it's just extremely complicated and very annoying that I'm having these issues in the first place. Adapter in some kind of "error mode"? Treat it like a dumb lens/adapter, period. As it is, I've already contacted TechartPro directly, but given their track record in this field, I'll probably not hear from them. I'll just have to hope for things to work out over time; the adapter works, after a fashion (i.e. with certainy Sony lenses, erratically), so I'll keep it. Also, I can't really sell it on with any kind of good conscience.

I'm glad to hear that stacking dumb adapters works - so I'll sort of keep hoping for a dumb Z to E adapter, but that's not very likely to appear at all (given that Sony E is purely electronic system that doesn't even MF without electronic contacts). In a nutshell, if TechartPro doesn't sort it out, I'm out of luck because Nikon tries to force people to stay in their ecosystem exclusively - a bad move in today's market.

The other solution would be to stock up on adapters - which I won't do, considering I have *everything* I'd ever want for E mount already. It's way easier and more satisfying to just keep the Sony A7 II around - it does work, and in a sufficiently simple and nice fashion, after all. It's borderline hilarious to say this about Sony, really!

If Nikon doesn't want to cater to that niche in the market, it's their choice, and not one I have to accept. Those who have used other systems to adapt lenses to will see it my way, I'm pretty sure.

I'll say it again, Nikon have thoroughly dropped the ball on this one by not thinking outside of their little box. And that's pretty stupid, really, given that the Z mount is *the best* suited mount for adapting lenses to (diameter, flange distance). So, make it easy, make it quick, suck the market dry - but no, they'll do it sophisticated, fiddly and self-centered. They seem to not want to bother the competition by doing it well. All the better for the other brands.

You know what I'd have done? Offer a complete line-up of branded adapters myself - talk to Novoflex (or Cosina, they do have the expertise needed, right there in Japan) and make it work. Make it easy to access in terms of handling (maybe not quite as directly as Panasonic that asks you the focal length of your adapted lens on startup, but use the i-Menu or something). Beat the rest by working the market actively, not re-actively. But that's not Nikon's way, unfortunately.

M.
 
Everyone needs at least one semi-fast 50mm lens for their camera, no?
Well, my answer was yes. The camera in question being my relatively new Pentax KP. The lens - which I bought in beautiful condition, lightly used, from a fellow Pentaxian in Moldova, is one of the last (and I think best) of the film era Pentax FA lenses - the SMC FA-50mm f/1.7. It's not quite as fast as as the f/1.4 Takumars I used to shoot with but in almost every other respect, I think it may be better. I remember ctein raving about the Pentax f/1.7 some years back --- and back when they were still making the FA lenses, this was a little gem.

Here it is mounted on the KP -

View attachment 206893

Since I picked it up at the local Post Office, I couldn't resist taking one shot immediately before I left the Post Office parking lot -

View attachment 206894

And this last was taken at a local drugstore where I had to run an errand.

View attachment 206895

I think it may be a keeper.
I used to really love shooting with the Pentax 50s.
 
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