December 2021 – Page 2 – frederikboving

Nikon Z6ii: Ergonomics review

In this post I take you through some of the observations I have made during my first weeks of shooting with the Z6ii. I come from a long line of DSLRs including the Nikon D700, D750 and the D4 – all of which are still with me, so of course many of the things I observe are relative to these cameras. I only use the Z6 for photography, so I do not go into video shooting in this post.

Build quality

There is a lot of plastic in use when it comes to the Z6ii and you can get worried by that fact alone. Also, the camera is built in Thailand, and not good old solid Japan that we were used to, at least with some of the DSLRs back in the days. But I am happy to say that it to me feels and looks like a very solid built camera.

I don’t miss any metal anywhere. Command wheel and joystick works as it should, the same applies to the buttons on the rear of the camera. The rear LCD flips out without feeling wobbly and the rubber on the grip also leaves a good impression.

The only buttons that I don’t really like are the ones on the front right (FN1 and FN2) – I will return to these. You have to push them quite deep to activate them and they are a bit wobbly – like the manual gear shifter in a French car. But overall a very convincing first impression.

Deep hand grip

One of the first things I notice when I grab a camera is the camera body grip. I have fairly big hands, and if the grip is not deep, then this alone can be a reason to ditch the camera! Yes, I walk the talk: I sold the Fuji X-T3 because the ergonomics simply did not work for me. We are deep into personal preference territory here, but ergonomics is vital for me and I find that I simply leave a camera at home if the overall ergonomics do not work for me.

Nikon Z6ii ergonomics review — Buttons and dials concentrated on the right hand size of the Nikon Z6ii.

As I am a Nikonian, I am happy to report that the grip is plenty deep and gives me lots of real estate to hold the camera comfortably for extended periods of time. Phew – glad Nikon passed that showstopper with flying colors!

The button layout around the shutter release button is classic with both ISO, exposure compensation and a video record button. I am glad that ISO got its own button, so you can control the exposure triangle with buttons sitting on the top of the camera – that allows me to keep my eye in the viewfinder while adjusting the exposure settings at the same time. Brilliant.

Top LCD

When I first unboxed the camera, the top LCD was one of the first things that struck me as a surprise: It is much smaller than what I had expected.

I think it is because I put the size of the LCD relative to the size of the Z6ii, but forgot that the Z6ii is a more compact camera than what I am used to – it takes up significantly less space than say my trusty Nikon D750.

I have never considered the D750 to be a big camera, rather it is small when compared to say the D4. Yet, next to the Z6ii, it appears much bigger, both because of the built in flash and the room needed for the mirror just behind the lens mount. So the Z6ii truly is a more compact camera, and knowing this, I am even more happy to say that despite all this compactness, Nikon has managed to give us a good grip.

It feels different than a DSLR. The best way to describe it is if you have ever played guitar and moved from an acoustic guitar to an electric guitar . The Z6ii takes up less space, has less real estate and everything feels more compact (i.e. there is less room for your fingers).

So how is the top LCD? Excellent! It really is easy to read, also when shooting at night. But I really do miss my back lit buttons from the D4, so although the top LCD is easy to read, it is not always easy to find the buttons in the dark!

Buttons front right

The buttons front right don’t work for me. They are big and as such OK, but the position of the top one is so that I on a regular basis push this button without wanting to do so (brings up the white balance menu!). There is simply too little space between the hand grip and the top button for my fat fingers.

My second issue with these buttons is the feel. As you can see they are rather square and not round like in the good old days. I checked, and the equivalent buttons on my D4, D750 and D700 are round. The buttons on the Z6ii feels like I slightly cut my fingers on the buttons – or at least that they are simply not made for human beings. Do I dare say that it is the same feeling I get when operating the buttons on my Sony A7Rii? As you have probably guessed, I am not a big fan of these buttons.

Battery grip

One of the big changes from the Z6 to the Z6ii is the addition of contacts for the battery grip. The Z6 could take a battery grip, but there were no controls on the MB-N10 battery grip. That has now changed with the Z6ii and the updated grip MB-N11.

If you shoot a lot in portrait mode, then this is really good news and a vital update to the ergonomics. Many reviewers expressed very clearly their discontent with the lack of a battery grip with controls on the first version of the Z6, and the Z6ii clearly shows that Nikon has taken the feedback seriously and updated the camera accordingly.

USB-C charging

I am a big fan of industry standards, and hence I am a big fan of USB-C. I have so many chargers and battery types that it simply drives me nuts. Therefore I was so glad to see that Nikon with the Z6 added in camera charging. But it only works with the camera off, which will annoy some video shooters. Not me though, I am a happy camper: I can charge the camera on the go with my power bank. Wonderful!

Rear LCD and viewfinder

The rear LCD only flips up and down. I think most photographers are happy with this solution and won’t miss a fully articulating LCD. Only if you are a videographer I think you may sometimes miss this feature.

The screen is a pleasure to use. It is touch sensitive, and coming from an iPhone 12 I don’t miss any speed when I pinch, zoom, swipe and scroll through menu systems. It seems very responsive to me. I have not yet tested the LCD in bright sunlight – it is wintertime and here in Denmark we don’t see to much bright sunlight this time of year. But like most other LCD’s, I expect it to struggle in bright sunlight.

Relative to the mirrorless systems I have tried from Fuji and Sony, I’d say that the viewfinder is the best I have tried. Especially shooting at night, I find the viewfinder gives a very realistic image to work with. And the wonderful thing about the electronic viewfinder is that all the good stuff you are used to when shooting in Live View on a DSLR is available in the viewfinder now, e.g.:

Preview of the image exposure when shooting in manual mode (turns dark when under exposed)
Focus peaking highlights when focusing manually
A real time updated histogram
Ability to zoom in when focusing manually

Focus mode button gone!

On all my Nikon cameras, you will front left find a focus selector button. The design varies, but the basic function of that button is to switch between auto focus and manual focus, but moving the little pin driven by the AF motor in and out of the camera body. The secondary function is to select the focus mode and the focus area. This button is gone now – take a look below:

I think it makes sense not to have that button in the sense that there is no AF motor built into the Nikon Z6ii, nor the FTZ adapter, and hence the need to switch the motor in the body on and off is gone. However, the ability to change focus area and mode while keeping your eye in the viewfinder was a very pleasant side effect of that little button.

One way of changing focus mode is to hit the (i) button on the rear of the camera, and move the cursor to the rightmost options that gives access to the focus area and focus mode. In the image above the yellow cursor is over “MF” for manual focus, and just above that sits the focus area menu item. This is the cumbersome way. Alternatively you can hit the FN2 button, that works as the focus mode button did in the old days: you change the focus mode and focus area by turning the front and rear command dials.

When I shoot, my left hand holds the camera in the area of the now removed focus button used to be. Therefore it is super natural and easy for me to push that button with my left hand, and operate the front and rear command dials with my right hand. What I now have to do is to push FN2 with my right hand and then at the same time with my right hand operate the front and rear command dials. This feels awkward to me. It is as if Nikon has designed the camera to be right-hand operated only.

The button layout on the rear of the camera seems to confirm my suspicion – the most buttons are located to the right.

Another button that is gone, front right on the camera, is the depth of field preview button. I never use it to be quite honest, but you may, and then you will miss it. You should see the correct out of focus areas for wider apertures, but as soon as you stop down to and above f/5.6, then you won’t. Again, strange that Nikon removed this button if you ask me.

A third button that is no more is the bracketing button. It is on the left side of my D750 and on the top of my D4. Again, it seems that Nikon has really cleaned up most buttons to the left hand side.

Format shortcut gone!

I was really surprised that I could not find 2 red “format” signs on the Z6ii. That normally signals that if you push these two buttons for a few seconds and then re-confirm when the LCD flashes “format”, then the memory card is formatted. Super convenient. I use it very often.

Ok, it is not the end of the world – I have set-up the “my menu” so that the first item is formatting the memory card. But it is not as fast as the button based shortcut on my DSLRs unfortunately.

Zooming is wonderful, but…

One of the great features of a mirrorless is when you shoot with manual focus, you can zoom in, both in the electronic viewfinder and the rear LCD. The latter you have probably tried in Live View on a DSLR, but the new thing is to be able to zoom in with your eye in the viewfinder. Great!

So how do you zoom in? Well, you use the zoom buttons located next to the rear LCD, at the very bottom of the rear of the camera:

Zooming in and out is done using the + and – button on the rear of the camera. You have to move your thumb quite a distance to use these buttons.

Now, I don’t know how you work your camera, but my thumb always sits and either pushes the AF-ON button (back button focus) or operates the joystick just below it. In other words, my thumb is at the top of the camera. The zoom in and out buttons are at the very bottom.

Maybe practice will make me better, but I find it very hard to find the + and – buttons when I at the same time look in the viewfinder. I could of course re-program say the joystick so that hitting it in the center would be the same as zooming in, the only problem is that I cannot find zoom as an option. So I am stuck with these little buttons at the bottom of the camera.

Now, the world does not end because if this. But it is super annoying when you for the 30th time that day hit the menu button in attempt to find the + button while zooming to get the manual focus just right. The camera design clearly works against me, and not with me.

Summary

Thank you for making it this far, either reading or scrolling through my nerdy observations above. Bottom line here is that all the vitals are approved: the build quality, the deep hand grip, the electronic viewfinder, the rear LCD and the overall look and feel of the camera. Add to that, that the camera charges via USB-C and that a battery grip with controls is available, and the ergonomics of this camera looks like a winner.

However, there are a few things that annoys me. I am not a big fan of the “right hand operation” philosophy that is behind the button layout, nor the removal of buttons and shortcut combinations. The effect of these changes it that I cannot work as fast on the Z6ii as I can on my DSLRs. And what strikes me as even more odd is that all the buttons and shortcuts I have talked about above, as far as I can tell, are still there on the Z9. I hope future versions of the Z6ii will bring back some of the buttons and shortcuts. Please Nikon, please.

Shopping link

Affiliate link: Nikon Z6ii.

Video link

What is a prime lens? And why use it?

Fixed focal length

A prime lens is simply a lens with a fixed focal length. You cannot zoom in or out – you only got one length to work with. It can seem strange to limit yourself to one focal length when zoom lenses that offer an interval of focal ranges have been around for a long time. But there are benefits of a prime that still today makes primes a preferred tool amongst photographers.

The Nikon 50mm prime lens 1.8G – a general purpose focal length.

First and foremost, a prime lens is a much simpler construction than a zoom. In a zoom lens there is glass moving as you zoom in and out. None of that in a prime, and that brings us to the first benefit of a prime: it is typically much lighter and more compact than a zoom. If you want to travel light, then a few well chosen primes can be a much more backpack friendly solution than a prime.

Secondly, as the zoom lens has more moving parts that need to align perfectly and move at the same time, some say that primes are sharper than zooms. I think this argument was right in the early days of the zoom lenses, but this day and age they are very close, and if you notice the lenses photo journalists uses, you will see that zooms are the preferred lens type. That would not be the case if zooms had sharpness issues. So for vintage lenses this argument is probably true, for modern lenses less so.

Two primes at 180mm – old version to the left, newer AF version to the right.

Thirds, as the primes have a more simple construction they are also cheaper to produce, and hence the price is lower. Of course, if you need to buy several primes to have the same access to focal ranges as a zoom offers, then the price difference of course diminishes as you dig into more and more primes. However, a portrait photographer may actually only need a 85mm prime and that’s it and then buying a 70-200mm zoom may not be relevant at all.

A classic portrait focal length is the 85mm, although the 105mm and 135mm is also popular for this line of work

Fourth, and maybe the most overlooked argument of them all, is that primes can let in a lot more light. Most fast zooms can “only” go to f/2.8 in the wide end, whereas a prime often can go to f/1.8 without breaking the bank, and if you are willing to break the bank, then f/1.4 is often seen. The fastest lens I got is my portfolio is the Nikkor 50mm f/1.2, but there are primes that will go even faster, actually below f/1.0!!

If you need the lens to take in a lot of light, for example because you shoot in low light or fast moving subjects, then a prime will enable you to capture much more ambient light than a zoom. And every time you go one stop faster, you double the amount of light, so in some situations with very little light and no options for adding light (flash etc), primes may be the only workable option.

One of my favorite lenses: The 135mm DC from Nikkor. Also comes in a 105mm version,

Finally, some say that if you shoot with primes, you volunteeringly limit yourself. In this way, you stress your own way of working and step a bit out of your comfort zone. This is probably more related to developing as a photographer than a heads to head compare of primes versus zooms, but you really force yourself to think differently or position yourself differently relative to the subject, in order to get the result you are after. I assure you, it can be super frustrating when you are used to the comfort of a zoom lens, but give it a try and see what happens. You may find you like your new way of shooting.

What is angle of view in photography?

Angle of view

One of the best ways to see how different lenses gives different angles of view is to head over to Nikons homepage and spend 2 minutes with their lens simulator. You can find the link right here (credit: Nikon).

Lenses comes with a focal length expressed in millimeters. A very wide lens that takes in a lot of the scene (e.g. 150 degrees) is typically very short, say 12mm. A long lens that takes in a very small part of the scene is much longer, say 500mm. The benefits of a long lens is that you can get your subject really close in the frame despite it being far away in the real world, so naturally bird and wildlife photographers love long lenses as they can observe and photograph wildlife from afar. But the down side is a bit like a horse with blinders: you can’t really see all that much to the left and right – only straight ahead!

There is a direct correlation between the lens focal length and the angle of view: longer lenses yields more narrow angle of view. Actually, the angle of view with a long lens can be just a few degrees, and you will notice this when you try to hold a camera with a long lens in your hands: you really have to hold the lens still in order not to make you feel seasick! The slightest movement of the lens will make what you see in the viewfinder jump a lot! So wildlife photographers often have their long lenses on a tripod, not only because the lens is heavy, but also because there is a strong incentive to hold the lens still!

Now, instead of being bugged down by all this, I suggest you head over to Nikons lens simulator. You can find the link right here (credit: Nikon).

Here you can select a lens and a camera body, and see how it works on a given scene. In the example below, I have chosen a zoom lens that ranges from 24-70 mm and gone all the way to 24mm by pulling the slider all the way to the left. In the middle of the slider, the yellow part of the half circle shows that the angle of view here is approximately 84 degrees.

When I pull the slider all the way to the right, the simulator shows what happens at 70mm: the angle of view is now reduced to 34 degrees (notice how much more narrow the yellow part of the half circle is). And the lighthouse has now moved much closer.

If you look carefully, you will see that the bright part of the beach just to the right of the dark stones, is gone when zoomed in. This is a consequence of using a longer focal length: the angle of view is narrowed and parts of what used to be visible in the edges of the frame is now cut away when zooming in.

Some say that it would be much more useful if we instead of talking about lenses in terms of their focal lengths, rather talked about their angle of view. But it has become a standard now, so I guess we have to live accept it. And as if this was not sufficient confusion, hear this: the size of the sensor changes the focal length of the lens! A lens that on a full frame camera is 50mm is on a cropped sensor (APS-C) the equivalent of a 75mm lens. You can also test this in the lens simulator from Nikon.

Can you zoom with your feet in photography?

Zooming by walking

If you have brought a prime lens that is not long enough, you often hear the argument that you should zoom with your feet instead, i.e. walk closer to the subject to get the effect that you want. But does it actually work zooming with your feet? Both yes and no.

When you walk closer to your subject, you can make the subject take up more space in the frame as if you had zoomed in. So in that regard, you can zoom with your feet.

However, when you zoom in, two things happen: One is that the subject takes up relatively more space in your frame, but at the same time the angle of view is reduced as you zoom in. As you zoom in, you more and more become a like a horse with blinders: you can see less and less to the sides. This effect you cannot recreate when you zoom with your feet. A prime lens has a fixed angle of view.

Let me illustrate.

The first image below is shot at 70mm:

In the next image here, I have zoomed in at 200mm, but not moved an inch. All the change you see between the image above and the image below is due to zooming from 70mm to 200mm. I promise you, I did not move an inch, nor a centimeter. Notice how the field of view is significantly reduced, i.e. you cannot see as wide in the image below as you can above.

So, finally, I zoomed back out to 70mm and walked closer to the subject. I was here exercising the advice to zoom with my feet. I am not to praise myself, but if you compare the green leaves above and below, I did a fair job of getting the subject to (roughly) take up the same size in the frame. So I zoomed with my feet.

But notice how much of the woods you can see to the left and the right here in the third image, and compare that with the image in the middle above. When you walk close to the subject maintaining the focal length, you also maintain the angle of view, and even though the subject takes up more space in the frame, you get a lot of the background as well.

So zooming with a zoom lens is smart if you really want to focus on your subject and not have too many distracting elements, whereas zooming with your feet works best if you also want to include the surroundings or the scene the subject is located in.

What is balance in photography?

Visual balance

Balance in photography is about how you as a photographer choose to position elements in your frame, to either create harmony (balance) or the opposite (tension). If you want images that are pleasing to look at, obviously you should strive for visual balance in your images.

Symmetry is the classic way of achieving visual balance. It can be a reflection in water or a building that is symmetrical. You will find that many governmental buildings are symmetrical, as it signals power and being in control.

In the example below I have positioned the moon very much in the center to create an image that is symmetrical if you split it vertically. Not perfect of course, as the treed have different shapes going left to right, but close enough to create a good balance.

In the image below from Louisiana north of Copenhagen in Denmark, the shapes are not in visual balance. The dark shape to the right dominates and is not balanced out entirely by the bright parts to the right, but it is not too bad either, as the visual weight of the shape to the left is reduced as we tend to be drawn towards subjects that are bright, sharp, colorful and recognizable. Instead, you probably see the dark shape as framing the rest of the image. And what is left is the red shape, the green grass, blue ocean and white clouds. These elements are well balanced in terms of colors, which is another dimension in which you can seek balance.

The size of the objects in the frame, other than color, sharpness and brightness, is hence an important aspect of creating balance. The three flying birds below are very small relative to the frame and the clouds. So there is obviously no visual balance here, and the imbalance tells a story of being small in a big universe, and how you cling on to travel companions. In terms of tonal values, the image is however well balanced as you have everything from pitch black (the birds) to bright areas (the area just in front of the birds) and most values in between.

The three Giacometti ladies below take up much more space in the frame than the birds above. The lady in the middle holds most visual weight as she is in focus and sharp, whereas the other two are less so. I was careful to position them so they got each a window frame, but clearly broke the rule that people should not look out of the frame but into the frame. But, as some say, you are remembered for the rules you break, not the ones you comply to.

The tree tops in the image below are sharp and in stark contrast to the bright background, and hence your eyes are lead in that direction. But there is a bit of visual tension in the dark and dominating clouds above, that take 2/3rds of the frame and almost seems like a threatening pillow of darkness working its way to the trees. So the image is an odd blend of symmetry (left to right) and lack of symmetry top to bottom. I could have cropped the image so the dark clouds were much less dominating – that would have yielded a very different balance and probably a more positively biased mood.

A final example to illustrate visual balance is the light from the lighthouse below. I shot this image long after sunset and hence in almost pure darkness. The only light is from the lighthouse to the right, hidden behind the silhouette of the building. The silhouette of the tree to the left is balanced against the eery green light from the lighthouse in terms of brightness, and the dark triangle in the bottom of the frame is balanced against the heavy top of the tree. So despite the gloomy nature of the image below, I find that the visual balance is established.

I hope the above examples illustrated the idea of visual balance in photography. The point is that if you become aware of the visual balance in your images and start using them as part of your work with composition, then you will produce better images. There is no right or wrong here; it is all a matter of what works and what does not work, relative to what pictures you want to create.

What is manual focus in photography?

Manual focus

Most modern cameras, including smartphones, have auto focus systems, whereby the camera in various ways automatically selects the focus of the image. It can be a face or a point in the frame selected by the photographer. Manual focus is when you as a photographer bypass the options for automation of the focus and manually choose to focus the lens yourself. The benefits is more control and more freedom to decide the outcome, but it also introduces potential for errors in the shape of out of focus images that were not intended to be out of focus.

In the image above (the Nikon 70-200) there is a switch on the lens that allows you to choose between manual focus (the rightmost option M) and two different flavors of auto focus. When in manual focus, you as a photographer have to turn the focus ring (the rubberized ring top left in the image) to obtain focus.

The Nikon D700 has a switch on the camera body to engage and disengage the auto focus motor sitting on the camera body.

In other cases, typically for older lenses without a focus motor built into the lens and hence dependent on a motor in the camera body, the switch to engage or disengage the auto focus sits on the camera body. I the image above you can switch between continuous auto focus (C), single auto focus (S) and manual focus (M).

When you focus manually, you move the focal plane closer to and further from the camera by turning the focus ring on the lens. You can think of this as a big vertical plate that you push back and forth as you turn the focus ring. All the things the plate “touches” will be in focus. Things just before and just after the focal plane will appear to be in focus as well, subject to the depth of field.

When you focus manually, the camera will typically give you some help to determine if you have the focus that you want. The classic way of doing this is with a small indicator that has to arrows and a focus confirmation dot:

With mirrorless systems you also have so called focus peaking highlights, that based on contrast shows you which parts of the frame that are in focus. It does so with a color you can select; in the example below the color is red (notice: there is nothing naturally red in the frame as such – all red is added to the image by the camera as part of helping you obtain focus):

The focus point is the red box in the top of the frame a little to the right of the middle. You can move this point around, typically using either a command wheel or a joystick on the camera. The image above is from the rear LCD of the camera, but the focus point is also visible in the viewfinder, both for DSLRs and mirrorless cameras.

If you look very carefully, bottom left in the LCS, just to the right of the battery indicator, there is an arrow pointing to the right. This tells you that the focal plane needs to be pushed a bit further away to obtain focus in the selected focus point.

In the image above, the focal plane has been pushed a bit further away, and you now see that the focus indicator to the right of the battery indicator shows the round dot that is the signal for focus + the focus point top right in the frame has turned green – another way of showing that this point is in focus.

All of the above may sound a bit overwhelming, but I assure you that it is much simpler when you try it out in real life and see how the moving parts work together.

The benefits of manual focus is control. You’re the boss. Often automated systems do not do exactly as you want them to, although it constantly gets better and better with face recognition and other forms of intelligence in the cameras. However, there still are situations where manual focus for some is the preferred way to go, and I recommend that you try it out to see what it can do for you, to decide if it should be part of your photography “arsenal” or you instead want to go for relying on the cameras automatic systems.

Month: December 2021

Nikon Z6ii: Ergonomics review

Build quality

Deep hand grip

Top LCD

Buttons front right

USB-C charging

Rear LCD and viewfinder

Focus mode button gone!

Format shortcut gone!

Zooming is wonderful, but…

Summary

Shopping link

Video link

Related reading

What is a prime lens? And why use it?

Fixed focal length

Related reading

What is angle of view in photography?

Angle of view

Related reading

Can you zoom with your feet in photography?

Zooming by walking

Related reading

What is balance in photography?

Visual balance

Related reading

What is manual focus in photography?

Manual focus

Further reading