Z9 800pf first outing questions

[Patrick M]

Good morning. Its okay you’re not harsh. I already bought that book and all Z9 as well, watched Steve’s videos. The book has one big issue, I have a hard time reading it. Just sitting and reading on my iPhone a PDF needing to remember which page I was at plus having a number of books. I need audiobooks… or videos. I’m not complaining, I’m explaining where I’m stuck.

when reading a PDF Tie Steve's books) using the Books app, tap the top of the screen to open the menus and top right corner is a book mark. use this to save your position, or any pagers that you'd like to review. the three lines icon on the tope left allows you to choose whaich page or which bookmark to ge to.

 

[Warren D]

If I use VR it's on sport.

 

[John Woodworth]

I think you should try photographing in more favorable lighting conditions. New lens won't fix the light you're shooting in.

800mm focal length will be more prone to heat shimmer (especially when photographing over body of water).

As for getting down to eye level - doesn't seem like the grass field is flat so you got the out of focus foreground more pronounced.

Lastly specular highlights is something to be aware of with PF lenses (same case as 500 PF).

I'm on my phone so may be mistaken, but these "bokeh balls" look like blown-out specular highlights. So I would be hesitant to attribute much to the lens here.

 

[lukemeup]

I'm on my phone so may be mistaken, but these "bokeh balls" look like blown-out specular highlights. So I would be hesitant to attribute much to the lens here.

That's what I said. PF lenses are imo slightly more prone to showing those & there's nothing wrong with this lens itself.

 

[John Woodworth]

That's what I said. PF lenses are imo slightly more prone to showing those & there's nothing wrong with this lens itself.

I should have lukedyouup!

 

[GlenW]

Joel,
You may want to look at this thread from a few months ago: PF Lens artifacts https://bcgforums.com/index.php?threads/pf-lens-artifacts.14960/#post-165570

Nikon calls the specular highlights "PF Flare" and defines it as "a visible artifact (such as a ring-shaped or round flare) that may appear when using a Phase Fresnel (PF) lens to capture an image that includes a strong light source." There's a picture of mine in the above thread that shows an extreme (!) example of PF Flare, plus a link to other images of mine that were affected by PF Flare. I just tried again to reprocess the image included in the cited thread using the "PF Flare Control" feature in NX Studio and Nikon's own software can't remove or reduce the highlights.

As said above, there's nothing wrong with the lens. PF Flare is just as much a characteristic of the PF lens design as are the out-of-focus donuts that can be seen in a mirror-lens image (and I've had a Tamron mirror lens for 40+ years).

Glen

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[Hobbzz]

The most important thing that bothers me is the OOF balls behind the Canadian geese when I was up close to it.

These are from the sun reflecting off of the dew on the grass. Personally I look for and try to incorporate that kind of bokeh whenever I can.

 

[Roy]

Hi,
I took the Z9-800pf to the local lake to test it, and familiarize myself with it.
I got very disappointed about a couple of factors. I shot at that lake last winter with the 500pf, so I know what to expect. (I don't have 500pf shots handy)
I got soft images, heat shimmer?
Bad Bokeh, why?
I have samples with VR-OFF, VR-ON, and VR-Sport. I wasn't sure which one to choose with this lens. (On the 500pf is on sport all the time)

The results bothered me to a point that paid for an imgbb account to post here.
What was I doing wrong?

Here we go... ALL IMAGES ARE EXPORTED USING NX STUDIO WITH ZERO ADJUSTMENTS

First, let's discuss VR
VR OFF and Bokeh is okay See the screenshot from NX blow

VR ON Normal Below

VR ON SPORT Below

Then I decided to set it back to VR ON Normal because I was kneeing low and wanted full VR.
See my issues

Below, The focus was on the eye but the Image is soft, and the bokeh is not so so.

Below, Any idea why the AF did not catch the eye? The bird maybe soft because of the shutter speed, but the Bokeh isn't smooth at all.

My next question is below. Steve always says to get down to eye level. I did. The bottom half OOF is way too pronounced. What was I doing wrong?

Below the Bokeh is horrible... Balls...

Thank you in advanced for taking the time to help me solve it.

Joel

I dont expect great Bokeh from a PF lens.
Maybe your tripod is a little unsteady...

 

[JoelKlein]

Got it!

Beautiful!

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