Z9 First Date Jitters

[Johan Schmidt]

First off, thank you all so much for your input and moral support.... but my confidence is dwindling.

Update: I received my early Christmas present, a Nikon Z 70-200 2.8. I'm in deep now. So I went out and took a few shots to see how it goes. I looked at the pics when I got home on my PC monitors, and I was/am HORRIFIED! They are hideous! At 100% zoom look like some cheap-a$$ Instagram cartoon filter. I'm beside myself right now. Literally a sick feeling in my stomach. I thought maybe there was something I fouled up with my settings, so I reset to factory defaults, and shot a few more. Same thing.

I realize there are so many variables with settings, lenses, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, lenses and settings etc. But these are just so far off from each other, I have a hard time believing that it's something with my settings or lens/body setting combos. And should I have to fight this hard to get a good crisp clean image from a multi-thousand $ rig? Oy vey.

I'm attaching 2 photos, at 100% zoom on each, and then I did a screen capture of each as such. One from the Z9 and the other from my TRUSTY D5.
A few notes: I tried the F mount 70-200 2.8 with adapter on the Z, then again with the new native Z 70-200 2.8 and same hideous results.
Then, the other [helmet] pic from my D5 was shot with the F mount 70-200 2.8 that I tested on the Z with the adapter.
(I do realize the helmet pic is at a wide aperture, and the dog, at a smaller aperture. The helmet pic has buttery bokeh as intended, but the dog, well, full zoom it and tell me what you think please)

Arghhh.

Maybe put it up for sale on this website - it'll sell really quickly

 

[nhzen]

it looks like he has the vrii (the previous version)

Hi John, we had some responses crossing while Mike was updating his message, hence the confusion. The vrii lens does not seem to have an update so that’s not it. Hopefully the issue will be run to ground.

 

[EricBowles]

OK, so you nailed it with the vertical grip and touch screen - this humble pie is filling. Time for coffee.
I have taken your suggestions along with everyone else's. I have a really good idea now of what happened and what will happen. I kinda wished I had never made this post but sh!t happens. I'm never afraid to admit my mistakes - once I learn what they were. lol.

I'm going to need counseling after this is all said and done But I am not giving up!

Issues and problems are where you learn the most. It's also a good way for other members to learn about potential problems - and potential solutions that did not help in this case.

As cameras increase in functionality, there is more complexity. There are functions that only work in specific modes, only generate JPEG's when you were shooting raw, cause the flash not to fire, cause the camera not to focus, battery life, etc. One of the best sources of solutions is forums like these where you have a number of experienced photographers who have experienced these issues or read about the issue and solution. Right now - we're probably better than AI.

Enjoy your camera. And be sure to share your next puzzle or challenge.

 

[nhzen]

OK, so you nailed it with the vertical grip and touch screen - this humble pie is filling. Time for coffee.
I have taken your suggestions along with everyone else's. I have a really good idea now of what happened and what will happen. I kinda wished I had never made this post but sh!t happens. I'm never afraid to admit my mistakes - once I learn what they were. lol.

I'm going to need counseling after this is all said and done But I am not giving up!

Perish the thought (of wishing you hadn't posted)! Everyone learns from all these posts Mike, even lurkers like me who don't shoot enough but live vicariously through the rest, until we can retire and actually start posting pictures . This is a good place for all questions.

True / funny story, I once had a similar problem with an 810A. The viewfinder was fuzzy, manual focus pictures were all wrong (and for astro one would pretty much use MF), but AF was fine. I was utterly confused until someone suggested checking the diopter adjustment, which I would never have thought of if I hadn't asked the question. Needless to say, that was it.

 

[Morado]

First, it's great another member is helping in person. Cheers to him/her! No need to be embarrassed about mistakes (though I'm the kind of person that will share mine when it's inevitable).

We are all bound to mike mistakes. I recently began, at long last, to learn macro photography. More like have began to dabble in an unsystematic and not so orderly manner. A few days ago I took pictures of an insect I had been wanting to. A couple of days after shooting I uploaded the files on my computer. To my surprise, most were over exposed because exposure compensation was set to +3. I could not figure why my camera was set that way. A couple of days later I was out again, but this time I was checking some of the photos as I took them, which led me to the culprit: me! I had forgotten to turn off the control ring on the lens, which is set to exposure compensation.

Getting back to your subject. The Z9 is a great camera, best I have ever owned and used. The features it has in common with DSLRs like the D5/D6, D850 and D500 are perhaps marginally better. But once you add all the stuff the other cameras do not have, the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. Give it time. If the kinks cannot be ironed out when working side by side with a fellow forum member, return it and ask for exchange.

 

[Morado]

I'm going to need counseling after this is all said and done But I am not giving up!

Just wait firmware 6.0 or the Z9ii, counseling might be a surprise feature. Maybe it will help everyone with their angst about AI.

One benefit for me was the move from optical to electronic viewfinder. Prior to going to mirrorless I posted a question on a couple forums (never got any response) about the two types of viewfinders relating to eye stress and brain fatigue. Man said I had a stroke which specifically affected my vision area. My eyes were getting overly saturated and fatigued with the D750 and to the point in less than a hour I couldn't shoot through the viewfinder anymore. This has not happened with the Z9 mirrorless!

Covid gifted me neuro-ophalmological problems. Mirrorless has made it easier to keep trying to take photos.

@tahoemike00: Not sure if this was mentioned by others. But occasionally resets can be moody. A friend was having a lot of issues with Z7ii he bought used from a reputable store. At some point he discovered the AF tuning settings had not been removed or turned off.

 

[tahoemike00]

A quick update - I visited the person that offered the help. He had an actual studio.
He went through my camera settings to verify some things, and then set up a specific configuration of iso, ss, aperture and focal length. Then did the same on his Z9. We both had our Z 70-200 2.8 lenses mounted. Both set ups with the same firmware versions.
He had a test chart mounted and a strobe. Long story short, my test chart image shot just fine. Sharp, crisp edge to edge, top to bottom. Even zoomed to 150%, sill looks good.
The camera behaved "as it should" when we worked with it going though various settings and configs.

He also spent a lot of time with me just sitting at the bench, going through various menu setup ups and functions, and answered every question I had, and we even tested several 'what if' shooting scenarios with varied settings. I was happy that I am actually starting to feel comfortable and able to follow the work flow in setting up features and combinations and even menu banks. I did reach my saturation point, but I have more than enough confidence and newfound knowledge to start using the camera.

Still amazed at the willingness of others to share and help here on this forum. So different from some of the dog eat dog Facebook photo groups I've read.

Note: Test pattern had to be resized to post, but still looks good

Cheers for now.
Happy Holidays!

 

[beano]

A quick update - I visited the person that offered the help. He had an actual studio.
He went through my camera settings to verify some things, and then set up a specific configuration of iso, ss, aperture and focal length. Then did the same on his Z9. We both had our Z 70-200 2.8 lenses mounted. Both set ups with the same firmware versions.
He had a test chart mounted and a strobe. Long story short, my test chart image shot just fine. Sharp, crisp edge to edge, top to bottom. Even zoomed to 150%, sill looks good.
The camera behaved "as it should" when we worked with it going though various settings and configs.

He also spent a lot of time with me just sitting at the bench, going through various menu setup ups and functions, and answered every question I had, and we even tested several 'what if' shooting scenarios with varied settings. I was happy that I am actually starting to feel comfortable and able to follow the work flow in setting up features and combinations and even menu banks. I did reach my saturation point, but I have more than enough confidence and newfound knowledge to start using the camera.

Still amazed at the willingness of others to share and help here on this forum. So different from some of the dog eat dog Facebook photo groups I've read.

Note: Test pattern had to be resized to post, but still looks good

Cheers for now.
Happy Holidays!

Great news, happy for you the camera is fine at the end. Enjoy it

 

[Nimi]

A quick update - I visited the person that offered the help. He had an actual studio.
He went through my camera settings to verify some things, and then set up a specific configuration of iso, ss, aperture and focal length. Then did the same on his Z9. We both had our Z 70-200 2.8 lenses mounted. Both set ups with the same firmware versions.
He had a test chart mounted and a strobe. Long story short, my test chart image shot just fine. Sharp, crisp edge to edge, top to bottom. Even zoomed to 150%, sill looks good.
The camera behaved "as it should" when we worked with it going though various settings and configs.

He also spent a lot of time with me just sitting at the bench, going through various menu setup ups and functions, and answered every question I had, and we even tested several 'what if' shooting scenarios with varied settings. I was happy that I am actually starting to feel comfortable and able to follow the work flow in setting up features and combinations and even menu banks. I did reach my saturation point, but I have more than enough confidence and newfound knowledge to start using the camera.

Still amazed at the willingness of others to share and help here on this forum. So different from some of the dog eat dog Facebook photo groups I've read.

Note: Test pattern had to be resized to post, but still looks good

Cheers for now.
Happy Holidays!

How cool. You'll love the system and glad (we all are) it worked out. Looking forward to seeing your photos.