Nikon Z6 – First Light

Finally, Nikon made a decent mirrorless camera After reading a million reviews online and all sorts of complaints, I thought the camera would fall apart in my hands as soon as I took it out of the box! But hey, lo and behold, it’s brilliant, it works perfectly, the focus is fast, quiet and sharp (because it focuses directly on the chip), has in-body image stabilization and is absolutely better than a clunky DSLR in every way! I also got the new 50mm lens, and lo and behold, it’s brilliant, much better than the old version. Admittedly, anyone who figures it out in reduced size photos for the web can really be declared a supernatural being, but fast and quiet focusing is definitely a plus, as is the possibility that the lens ring has some other function besides focusing (I set it to exposure compensation), and it’s fun to pixel peep on astronomical photos because it’s sharp all the way to the edge even at f/4.

In the past few days, I’ve been carrying it around town, taking photos towards the Sun, and taking a few nighttime photos without having to think about how to breathe so that the photo doesn’t accidentally end up out of focus… here’s a comparison of the photo as the jpeg came out of the camera and my processing of it (jpeg, yes):

This photo will certainly not win any awards, but the camera metering was excelent, retaining details in the shadows and bright sky. It’s great that the histogram can be shown in the viewfinder.

In general, I don’t feel like going into details right now because I’m literally sick of reading all the nitpicking complaints about these new mirrorless cameras. Go and buy the one you like, they’re all great. 15 years ago we were arguing about whether film or digital was better, now we’re arguing about who has eye AF on how many hundred points and whether someone’s focus is a few milliseconds faster or slower. For me, mirrorless is great and Nikon did a good job. I like how they made good use of the new mount for even better lens quality, everything else is a bonus.

So here are my first few photos with the Nikon Z6, on my regular walking route (Zagreb, Croatia):

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