Z vs F Mount Foolishness

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EricBowles said:
One place where Z mount is significantly better is with medium and wider lenses. Virtually every lens at 50mm and wider is sharper in the midframe to corners than the F-mount predecessor. That applies to photos which require midframe to corner detail - off-center portraits, landscapes, astro, environmental close ups, and even events with medium to larger groups of people. That's where the new wider mount really pays off. My initial Z lens was the 24-70 f/4. The center of the frame was about the same as the F-mount 24-70 f/2.8 lenses, but midframe to corners was noticeably sharper with the Z lens. As a result, I largely stopped using the F-mount lens and D850 for those images and moved much more quickly into Z gear.

There are lots of situations where you don't need midframe to corner sharpness - such as portraits, wildlife in flight, and general wildlife. There are also artistic images where sharpness is not a critical factor. With an F-mount camera that was okay because you had limited ability to focus as you moved to midframe and frame edges. But with Z cameras you can focus to the frame edge, so lenses that are sharp to midframe and frame edges is more important. Of course, because Z cameras can focus at frame edges, even F-mount lenses can be sharper on Z cameras than they were on F-mount cameras.
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Thanks again Eric, I appreciate your posts because I always find that they are carefully considered and I learn something. The extra sharpness in the edges and corners are important to landscape, astro and macro photographers, I think, and I'm working on developing more skills for these, even if astro is aspirational at this point. I love that edge to edge sharpness you describe.

I know that I eventually will switch. In the meantime I may pick up a used d850 or d810 for landscape primarily. I expect the main driver to get into the z8 or z9 will be wildlife. But you have raised some considerations I hadn't thought of. I expect however that my skills wouldn't notice the difference for a while. Cheaper f used mount gear might get me in the game sooner.

I wish the z8 or z9 were available before I retired when I had maybe double my income....!

The important thing is to get out there and enjoy shooting. I spent all day in light rain yesterday and got some okay shots, still learning! Biggest issue was a fogged up viewfinder so I had to shoot with live view on my d500, with mixed results.
 
Larry S. said:
Doug, Lucky you! Horses have stalls you throw money into with a pitchfork. Have you considered the latest offering from Hasselblad? 🤩
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You put money in one end of the horse and out the other end comes ... OTOH I'm quite happy with what comes out of the camera.

BTW I'm good with GMasters & APO Lanthars, no desire for a Hasselblad.
 
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DougC said:
I know 99% of the folks who participate on this site are well aware of it but it’s such a ridiculous argument for the huge percentage of us who actually get out in the field and use our equipment. Original and crop at 72 dpi. The fact that people are dumping their F mount lenses at ridiculously low prices still amazes me.
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Doug,

Really love the shot


Between my wife and I we currently have 11 F mount lenses, with no plans of changing. With the FTZ adapter they work and produce images as good if not better than they did on our DSLR’s.
 
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VinnyH said:
Love the coyote shot. 👍🏻 I plan on getting the 500 PF to have a lighter setup for walking around. I may get a Z8 one of these days but have done fine with my 100-400 S lens and Z7ii setup. Really like having a function button to switch to DX mode. The 500 should be nice for my walks.
Happy Holidays to All,
VinnyH
PS: Croton Point Park, NY getting my walking in and saw this gray catbird.
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This is a Northern Mockingbird ... The first ID give away is the eye color, second the white wing bars ... you can see side by side comparisons here https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Gray_Catbird/species-compare/63743751
 
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@DougC great yote images.

John Navitsky pretty well summed up where I am at.

I use 2 Z9's and 90% of my photography is run and gun bird ID stuff for E Bird etc..

One of the major reasons that I sold off all of my f mount glass was first I sold off all of my DSLRs and second when I got the Z800pf 5-1-22 and shot it and my 600 f/4E for a few days in the field it was immediately evident that the Z800pf fit my photography needs the best.

I was very lucky on timing of selling off my f mount glass. May 2022 when I checked what MPB would pay me for the 600 f4e it was a great price for my refurb copy I had bought from Nikon sizable discount. They also gave me a very good or fair price on a bunch of other dslr gear so I jumped on it since I expected the price offered for used dslrs and f mount glass would start going down.

The price I got for my DSLR's and f mount glass paid for my move to the Z system. Unfortunately it did not pay for my wife's later final move to Z at least her GAS is less than mine :)

Since May of 2022 what you can get for dslr's and f mount glass has dropped a lot.

So if you have good f mount glass that plays well with your Z body it would make one stop and think.
 
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DougC said:
I know 99% of the folks who participate on this site are well aware of it but it’s such a ridiculous argument for the huge percentage of us who actually get out in the field and use our equipment. Original and crop at 72 dpi. The fact that people are dumping their F mount lenses at ridiculously low prices still amazes me.
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They can keep their F4-F5.6 z lenses. I'm finding wonderful prices on "like new" F 1.8 and 2.4 glass. I'm looking at The industry transition to mirrorless as an great opportunity.
 
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MotoPixel said:
Long, long ago I chose Nikon because they did not abandon their legacy mounts. The Z is the first since I began photography in the 70s and I understand the technical reasons.

I am eternally thankful that Nikon made the decision to not orphan "all" the prior F-mount glass when they developed the Z-System...as I went through when Canon orphaned the FD mount...I was majorly burned by that and switched to Nikon. Canon lost me permanently as an ILC camera buyer with that move! Yes, I know, what about the older Nikkor screw-drive lenses...if were so enamored of any of those, I'd keep an F-mount body around to use them on.

Cheers!
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I consider both the available lenses and the available cameras in deciding on a "system" for my use. I went from the D850 and D5 to the Z9 cameras. I went from the 80-400mm and the 500mm PF and 600mm f/4 lenses to the 100-400mm, 400mm + 1.4x TC, and the 800mm PF lenses.

When the 800mm PF first arrived I used it to follow and photograph small and fast moving Nutalls woodpeckers in the trees around my house. With the hand held 800mm PF and the Z9 camera's subject recognition and ability to auto lock focus on the eyes I got images that would not have been possible with my f-mount cameras and f-mount lenses.

The only drawback with the Z cameras was the loss of the use of the Nikon 200mm f/4 macro and the 28-300mm f/5.6 zoom.

Nikon stopped development of new f-mount lenses in 2018 and on new f-mount cameras in 2019. For the past 4 years, R&D by Nikon have been 100% focused on the Z cameras and their lenses.
 
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Lovely shot of the Coyote, Doug.

There is no doubt that the 500 PF is a damned fine optic, I still use mine on my Z cameras with and without the 1.4x TCIII. There is a lot to be said for many F mount lenses being used with great results on the Z system, especially the F mount exotic tele lenses and maybe a few others. However, there are many other lenses that have been very much improved upon in the Z mount over their F mount counterparts, especially at the wider end of the focal length range. Some of this translates into smaller and lighter and when you need to travel or hike etc, that can mean a much more pleasant experience or being able to take an extra lens - your choice. It all comes down to what your priorities are and I am not one who is going to tell people to spend their money on or for what reason - it's their money. I'm all for choice and we have wonderful choice at the moment both in Z mount and F mount.
 
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Lance B said:
Lovely shot of the Coyote, Doug.

There is no doubt that the 500 PF is a damned fine optic, I still use mine on my Z cameras with and without the 1.4x TCIII. There is a lot to be said for many F mount lenses being used with great results on the Z system, especially the F mount exotic tele lenses and maybe a few others. However, there are many other lenses that have been very much improved upon in the Z mount over their F mount counterparts, especially at the wider end of the focal length range. Some of this translates into smaller and lighter and when you need to travel or hike etc, that can mean a much more pleasant experience or being able to take an extra lens - your choice. It all comes down to what your priorities are and I am not one who is going to tell people to spend their money on or for what reason - it's their money. I'm all for choice and we have wonderful choice at the moment both in Z mount and F mount.
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Thanks!
 
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DRwyoming said:
Nice shots Doug and I agree.

The newest gear is great but some of the online discussions would have you believe you simply can't capture decent images with older gear. I still have several F mount lenses that I'm very happy with and sure if money was no object I'd probably trade a few in for native Z glass but in the meantime I'm very happy with the images I'm capturing on the glass I own.
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It's the same when a new series of golf clubs are released - previous year's model can't hit a ball straight!
 
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I visited northern Greece to photograph the Dalmation Pelicans. Over 6 days I took 12k photos with my Z9, 95% using a 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED VR or 24-70mm G lens with ftz adaptor. They are insanely sharp!
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