Life expectancy of mirrorless cameras (Z8 , Z9)

[John Navitsky]

What were you shooting John to hit 20k?
You must have been on your computer for days!

Dogs In Flight

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

edit: oh, how i hate 1200px (that looks horrible!)

 

[O]

I can see in certain situations of critical movement to capture that split second or to make that capture unique 20-30-120 fps is a bonus for now, unfortunately some people just shoot everything at 20 fps LOL I now see more people spray and shoot relentlessly.

In the club they all have said they get to many images to cull etc LOL.

I leave my FPS at 5 fps and dial in the higher fps as and when warranted.

For me I see sitting is the new smoking and being in front of a computer for hours and hours especially when the surfs up makes it a miserable job going through thousands of images, that said it has its place.

10-15 fps is more than enough for most things, for me at least, after that video is the way to go LOL, I mean stills will be coming only from video eventually, I mean video is just still frames taken at a fast rate Yes/No ?

Manufacturers /industry are slowly creeping that way by design to move with the internet and future change, getting the focus and tracking perfect will see stills simply coming from video and the way we used to take pictures will be a thing of the past, phones are doing it, cameras are doing it but still heave a little way to go.

A couple of documentary photographers are now doing 30 mb still files from the Z9 video as stills and with slight editing killing it, add into the mix the AI cocane spreading its presence fast we are in for some change sooner than we think.

One thing for certain, is we will always have change.

Only an opinion

 

[John Navitsky]

i'm happy for you

 

[markymark]

I can see in certain situations of critical movement to capture that split second or to make that capture unique 20-30-120 fps is a bonus for now, unfortunately some people just shoot everything at 20 fps LOL I now see more people spray and shoot relentlessly.

In the club they all have said they get to many images to cull etc LOL.

I leave my FPS at 5 fps and dial in the higher fps as and when warranted.

For me I see sitting is the new smoking and being in front of a computer for hours and hours especially when the surfs up makes it a miserable job going through thousands of images, that said it has its place.

10-15 fps is more than enough for most things, for me at least, after that video is the way to go LOL, I mean stills will be coming only from video eventually, I mean video is just still frames taken at a fast rate Yes/No ?

Manufacturers /industry are slowly creeping that way by design to move with the internet and future change, getting the focus and tracking perfect will see stills simply coming from video and the way we used to take pictures will be a thing of the past, phones are doing it, cameras are doing it but still heave a little way to go.

A couple of documentary photographers are now doing 30 mb still files from the Z9 video as stills and with slight editing killing it, add into the mix the AI cocane spreading its presence fast we are in for some change sooner than we think.

One thing for certain, is we will always have change.

Only an opinion

Nice shot John.
I just wouldn’t be able to keep up if I shot that amount of images on a regular basis as you & your friend seem to do quite regularly.
Saying that I‘m not that quick in the culling process which you seem to have under control, plus you obviously enjoy that whole process, so I say good for you.
Can I ask what size memory cards you use when you do have a heavy session & hit that many images in one sitting & how many do you use?

 

[John Navitsky]

to be fair i don’t NORMALLY shoot that much. in general i’d say i average about 1k per hour so for a six hour event that would be about 6k. and to be fair culling is still painful to me

i use 650GB cfe-b cards. normally one will do all day, that day is the only day i had to swap cards. personally i prefer not to have to swap cards if at all possible.

i do download every night so i can reuse the cards the next day

i am interested in some larger cards but am waiting till the next generation comes out

 

[fcotterill]

Pursuing the overlaps between Computers and Digital Cameras. IME, it is indeed the analog parts that die first. Keyboard and mouse, and also USB ports. These Ports are integral to the motherboard, so not simple to replace. So I use a USB hub as the active interface via a cable permanently plugged into the motherboard.

Hard drive storage has transitioned from analog platters (in all their fickleness) to solid state SSD, which are longer lived, apparently. So this evolution in PCs is analogous to electronic-only shutters in the new MILCs.

It follows for a MILC, its cable plugs, Fn buttons can be expected to fail first. This is particularly in a Z9 or Z8, besides the finite lives of the shutter release and lens-lock mechanism and IBIS mechanism. Spare parts will determine the ultimate life of these cameras in the wild. Nikon will decide this.

Modern lenses are similar: the viability of the first AFS Nikkors hangs today on the availability of their respective AF motors.

 

[PKW]

I did mine in two stages, one quick pass through and then a second one to get more picky. I'm sure I'll hit 20k images or more to go through at some point (vacation time, probably), but it's gonna be rough.

So, I’m curious—of those 20,000 images, how many did you actually end up keeping?
oops, just realized this question was for John…

 

[EricBowles]

I just finished a golf event with the Z8. I had a few situations where I tested the higher frame rates with JPEG only. My typical shot was a half second burst at 30 or 60 fps. At that speed, I had the shot I wanted and just needed to pick it out of the group. All the rest were immediate discards. In my case, I was looking for the ball leaving the golf club and the specific shot had the ball 2-3 feet from the where the club struck the ball. The ball was moving at speeds above 170 mph. I quit testing after just a few iterations - it was easy to capture and pretty boring. Instead of looking at a good shot as being the right timing in a single sequence, I had that shot every time so something else needed to distinguish the great shot from the routine. I have not found that special timing and subject yet.

I did find use for high frame rates with facial expressions. When Victor Hovland won, there were a couple of expressions that showed real happiness out of the entire series.

 

[Cameron T]

So, I’m curious—of those 20,000 images, how many did you actually end up keeping?
oops, just realized this question was for John…

Well, of my 10k, I had a lot of perfectly in sharp images. But it's about getting the exact right frame you want, with the right angle/etc, and the same is probably true for John.

 

[John Navitsky]

So, I’m curious—of those 20,000 images, how many did you actually end up keeping?
oops, just realized this question was for John…

in this specific case, i considered 138 ones that i would process/publish. i considered a bit over 3k "usable" but i'm not interested in "usable", which goes to your intended use and "brand image".

again, note this is not a typical shooting schedule for me. i shot more heavy because this particular set of games was unfamiliar to me, so there was a bit of a learning curve figuring out what was going to make good pictures and what was not. in those cases you want to make sure you get _something_, so you're going to tend to overshoot until you figure things out.

also, remember this is a sporting event. if you miss the shot you missed the shot and that moment is gone. while i absolutely try to not pull the trigger unless something interesting is happening, it is also the case that if you didn't get the shot, you didn't get the shot. it's also the case that you don't want to go empty handed for a team and you don't know for sure what you have until you look at it on the computer.

also, back to positioning, even though in other events i may have taken fewer images, and published more images, i'll never be a person that will give you 30 images of your dog. i'm going to give you 3-5 BEST images of your dog because 1) that's what i want to do, 2) imo those other 25 images DILUTE the goodness of that 3-5 images. if someone posts 30 images of their dog, you're not necessarily going to notice those three outstanding images. i'd rather just stick with those three in the first place.

 

[John Navitsky]

My typical shot was a half second burst at 30 or 60 fps. At that speed, I had the shot I wanted and just needed to pick it out of the group. All the rest were immediate discards. In my case, I was looking for the ball leaving the golf club and the specific shot had the ball 2-3 feet from the where the club struck the ball.

right. i'll often just look at a sequence and take the single best frame from that sequence (if that). it'll be based on the subject, how the subject is in the frame, but also little things like one frame may be slightly sharper than another, how the light falls on the face, or which frame(s) have light in the eye, etc.

 

[Alistair]

I had the same thing happen to me, I sent it in and also had them do a general AF check/recalibration. Cost me $450 since mine was out of the one year warranty (bought Jan 2022). You're at least the 5th person claiming the same issue with the rear command dial of not being responsive for each click

Another one here. Rear dial replaced under warranty. On/off button, joystick and multi controller too. Less than 500k exposures. Maybe too much sand and salt exposure and ham fisted user. But all fixed under warranty and like new again. I think it is best to avoid using rear dial for reviewing images.

 

[EricKlees]

Another one here. Rear dial replaced under warranty. On/off button, joystick and multi controller too. Less than 500k exposures. Maybe too much sand and salt exposure and ham fisted user. But all fixed under warranty and like new again. I think it is best to avoid using rear dial for reviewing images.

Yes I have switch to using the circular D-Pad (you can hold it down and let it advance the images) or the back LCD bottom of screen swipe left and right.

 

[markymark]

One thing worries me with my Z9 once out of warranty and say it dies, bricks or has a major hissy fit again, it will likely be a real lot of pain in the hip pocket.

Only an opinion

Don’t understand, why would it die?

 

[markymark]

One thing worries me with my Z9 once out of warranty and say it dies, bricks or has a major hissy fit again, it will likely be a real lot of pain in the hip pocket.

Only an opinion

Don’t understand, why would it die?

 

[John Navitsky]

and why would it be anything else that dies out of warranty. or needs repair down the road when parts might not be available.

 

[Replytoken]

Don’t understand, why would it die?

I suspect cost may be the issue.

--Ken

 

[Alistair]

Yes I have switch to using the circular D-Pad (you can hold it down and let it advance the images) or the back LCD bottom of screen swipe left and right.

Agree. I use the LCD to swipe. It is very nice too if you shoot long bursts and then swipe the bottom of the LCD to get a timeline effect.

 

[EricKlees]

Agree. I use the LCD to swipe. It is very nice too if you shoot long bursts and then swipe the bottom of the LCD to get a timeline effect.

It is nice. There is also a setting in camera so that if you do a burst, when you hit the playback button it starts you at the start of the burst instead of having to go back and find the 1st image then advance from there. It's pretty nifty and can't live without the simple but nice feature.