$6000 sunset 👻

[TimMc]

nikon Z 7 & 14-30 f4

So why is it worth $6000. Looked at a Z9 last week and I was tempted . Since then I have been getting sunsets like this nearly daily With the Z7. Turns out 30 minutes after sunset is nearly magical right now. And the Z7 is making a case against any further GAS.

 

[AlanLichty]

Nice looking sunset to be sure. The Z9 would need to be doing something quite amazing to make the additional outlay worthwhile.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Very nice, but eventually we always move up.

 

[John Holbrook]

View attachment 51812

nikon Z 7 & 14-30 f4

So why is it worth $6000. Looked at a Z9 last week and I was tempted . Since then I have been getting sunsets like this nearly daily With the Z7. Turns out 30 minutes after sunset is nearly magical right now. And the Z7 is making a case against any further GAS.

Very nice, but eventually we always move up.

The wait time for Z9 delivery has been lengthy…so you would be using your Z7 all that time anyway! (No, I don’t have a Z9 either—Z7II purchased late 2020).

 

[BlackRockArt]

View attachment 51812

nikon Z 7 & 14-30 f4

So why is it worth $6000. Looked at a Z9 last week and I was tempted . Since then I have been getting sunsets like this nearly daily With the Z7. Turns out 30 minutes after sunset is nearly magical right now. And the Z7 is making a case against any further GAS.

Tim, you pushed Z7, the result speaks for itself, this is a beautiful shot. I doubt if any new camera makes much difference.

Oliver

ps: Z9 is a bargain compared to Sony A1.

 

[JimFox]

Love your title Tim.

The Z9 is definitely about as good as it gets. For me, I love to upgrade my cameras as much as the next person, but I have always had reasons why a new camera model had improved over the previous version and that improvement would be something tangible that I could benefit from.

You know me, I am still completely happy with my D850. My secondary camera that gets almost as much use as the D850 is the D810. There is nothing about the Z7xx that tempts me to upgrade, and I would have yo say with all of the Z9 nifty new features, I am not even slightly tempted. I would contend that for my photography, which is primarily Landscape, my D850 is just as good as the Z9.

So tempted you may have been, don't get tempted beyond the benefit you would receive.

What's been tempting you with the Z9?

 

[TimMc]

Love your title Tim.
....

What's been tempting you with the Z9?

I use my D850 for any auto focus demanding situations or really extreme exposure latitude needs. The Z7 has been used for most everything else . Switching back and forth causes reflex issues because of the different interfaces. My initial hope was to solve the interface issue and the focus speed with the Z9.
In the end the body size is non starter. The end product is not likely to be any different than what I get now using the Z7/D850. And lesson learned from switching up from the D810; I don't get any benefit from the high resolution sensor for the size I print.

 

[JimFox]

I can't speak to the focusing speed of the autofocus. Are you photographing birds in flight?

The sensor in the Z7 is the same as the D850. All of the tests I have seen rank them both the same in terms of IQ, they both have the same exposure latitude.

To me the Z9 excels in shooting speed, so for wildlife that's a great benefit. But for landscape it doesn't matter. They have made great improvements in the video end. I would be curious if the live view is improved on thr Z9 compared to the Z7 and D850.

Which made me think, how does the live view display on the Z7 compare to the D850? I don't use live view, except for when doing Astro.

I am sure the Z9 has a lot more improvements, but nothing else is coming to mind right now.

 

[Ken Rennie]

Tim when I look at this image I don't think "if only you had used a Z9 then it would have been better". Compared to the Z7/ Z72 it doesn't have any parameter that would improve this image. It does have better build quality capable of use in very harsh conditions, better and faster autofocus and much faster shooting rates but for landscapes no improvement. Why stop at $6,000 a Fuji GFX 100 or better still a Phase One would be able to give you more noise free shadows and capture the highlights more faithfully. Ken

 

[TimMc]

Handheld macro (bugs in particular ) and birds in flight fail on the Z7 for me and succeed on the D850. Astro photography also needed the D850 but that may have been more the lens I own than the bodies.
I don't find any great difference in live views.
The sensors maybe identical but the Z7 raw files exhibit more highlight banding when printed the 850. Printed is the problem here. I can't pin down whether it's camera, software and/or printer that creates the banding.

 

[TimMc]

Ken I really like your ideas. I have never shot medium format digital. Maybe I should rent a small kit to get a handle on it.

 

[JimFox]

Handheld macro (bugs in particular ) and birds in flight fail on the Z7 for me and succeed on the D850. Astro photography also needed the D850 but that may have been more the lens I own than the bodies.
I don't find any great difference in live views.
The sensors maybe identical but the Z7 raw files exhibit more highlight banding when printed the 850. Printed is the problem here. I can't pin down whether it's camera, software and/or printer that creates the banding.

That's interesting Tim. You have specific areas's where the Z7 falls short of the D850. And if those are important, (sounds like they are) then maybe you do need the Z9.

I hadn't heard of any banding issues with the Z7 images compared to the D850, but then I don't have the Z7 and so that's very likely an issue I just wouldn't have heard of. Have others had this same issue? Is the banding something isolated to your process, or are others having the same issue? That could be very helpful to know.

 

[JimFox]

Ken I really like your ideas. I have never shot medium format digital. Maybe I should rent a small kit to get a handle on it.

Keep in mind from what I know, that medium format won't help you with Birds in Flight. It would be worse I would think compared to the D850.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

$$$s and bodies aside, it is a neat shot.