the last word

Photography meets digital computer technology. Photography wins -- most of the time.

  • site home
  • blog home
  • galleries
  • contact
  • underwater
  • the bleeding edge
You are here: Home / Z9 / Nikon Z9 testing started

Nikon Z9 testing started

January 26, 2022 JimK Leave a Comment

This is the first in a series of posts on the Nikon Z9. You should be able to find all the posts about that camera in the Category List on the right sidebar, below the Articles widget. There’s a drop-down menu there that you can use to get to all the posts in this series; just look for “Z9”.

After what seemed like a long wait, I received my Z9 today. The last camera I looked forward to so eagerly was the Fuji GFX 100. The Z9 doesn’t break new ground like the GFX 100 did, since the Sony a1 was there first, but I didn’t order an a1, preferring to stick with my a9II. I’ve used Sony cameras for more than ten years, and I confess that I never have made friends with the interfaces. Its interfaces, plural, because Sony keeps making large changes to their UIs. It’s usually an improvement but the constant changing is frustrating, especially if, as I do, you have several generations of cameras.

I unpacked the Z9 and it seemed like an old friend. There are some new additions to the menu system, but they are where you’d expect them, and everything else is familiar if you’ve used a Z7 and a D5. The body has the chunky feel of my not-long-for-my-camera-collection D5, but is smaller and doesn’t feel so massive in my hands. The Z9 takes the D5 batteries, as well as its own ones, but the battery door has changed from the D5, so if you want to swap batteries fast you’ll need to order a spare door or two.

I’m not a fan of the new door to the flash card chamber. It’s a different design from the D5, which is a different design from the Z7. I like the Z7 design the best, but the D5 design is good if you’re worried about opening the door by accident. Opening the new door requires moving a lever in one direction while moving the door in a direction at a right angle to that. I may learn, but I can’t do it with one hand, which I don’t like at all.

The new battery charger is USB-C powered, which is good. It is only a one-battery charger, which is bad.

The FTZ fits without interfering with the Z7 front porch, but the camera complains that the FTZ needs a firmware update. I performed one, and it’s happy now.

Z9

← Are you completely satisfied with your gear? NIkon Z9 EDR →

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

February 2023
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728  
« Jan    

Articles

  • About
    • Patents and papers about color
    • Who am I?
  • Good 35-70 MF lens
  • How to…
    • Backing up photographic images
    • How to change email providers
  • Lens screening testing
    • Equipment and Software
    • Examples
      • Bad and OK 200-600 at 600
      • Excellent 180-400 zoom
      • Fair 14-30mm zoom
      • Good 100-200 mm MF zoom
      • Good 100-400 zoom
      • Good 100mm lens on P1 P45+
      • Good 120mm MF lens
      • Good 18mm FF lens
      • Good 24-105 mm FF lens
      • Good 24-70 FF zoom
      • Good 35 mm FF lens
      • Good 60 mm lens on IQ3-100
      • Good 63 mm MF lens
      • Good 65 mm FF lens
      • Good 85 mm FF lens
      • Good and bad 25mm FF lenses
      • Good zoom at 24 mm
      • Marginal 18mm lens
      • Marginal 35mm FF lens
      • Mildly problematic 55 mm FF lens
      • OK 16-35mm zoom
      • OK 60mm lens on P1 P45+
      • OK Sony 600mm f/4
      • Pretty good 16-35 FF zoom
      • Pretty good 90mm FF lens
      • Problematic 400 mm FF lens
      • Tilted 20 mm f/1.8 FF lens
      • Tilted 30 mm MF lens
      • Tilted 50 mm FF lens
      • Two 15mm FF lenses
    • Found a problem – now what?
    • Goals for this test
    • Minimum target distances
      • MFT
      • APS-C
      • Full frame
      • Small medium format
    • Printable Siemens Star targets
    • Target size on sensor
      • MFT
      • APS-C
      • Full frame
      • Small medium format
    • Test instructions — postproduction
    • Test instructions — reading the images
    • Test instructions – capture
    • Theory of the test
    • What’s wrong with conventional lens screening?
  • Previsualization heresy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Recommended photographic web sites
  • Using in-camera histograms for ETTR
    • Acknowledgments
    • Why ETTR?
    • Normal in-camera histograms
    • Image processing for in-camera histograms
    • Making the in-camera histogram closely represent the raw histogram
    • Shortcuts to UniWB
    • Preparing for monitor-based UniWB
    • A one-step UniWB procedure
    • The math behind the one-step method
    • Iteration using Newton’s Method

Category List

Recent Comments

  • Brian Olson on Fuji GFX 100S exposure strategy, M and A modes
  • JimK on Picking a macro lens
  • JimK on Picking a macro lens
  • Glenn Whorrall on Picking a macro lens
  • JimK on What pitch do you need to scan 6×6 TMax 100?
  • Hatzipavlis Peter on What pitch do you need to scan 6×6 TMax 100?
  • JeyB on Internal focusing 100ish macro lenses
  • JimK on How focus-bracketing systems work
  • Garry George on How focus-bracketing systems work
  • Rhonald on Format size and image quality

Archives

Copyright © 2023 · Daily Dish Pro On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Unless otherwise noted, all images copyright Jim Kasson.