Ravens by Fukase is consistently proclaimed as one of the most important photo books in the history of the medium. That is pretty big words, but I must say that after reading the book, I tend to agree.
Ravens by Fukase comes in a grey cover to protect the black hardcover book.
Fukase’s life was certainly not an easy one and his studies of the ravens is all about solitude and feeling alone. So do not expect this book to be an easy read – it is as brutal and dark as it gets, and yet there is also a stunning beautiful side to these images. It is probably this stark contrast that makes this book so extraordinary. And of course the life of Fukase, which is the backdrop for the images presented in Ravens.
Ravens by Fukase – black hard cover.
Not everyone agrees that this is one of the most important photography books ever. Maybe it is because the book is more appreciated if you know a little about the life of Fukase? That Japanese mythology sees Ravens as omens of impending doom? That Fukase for many years photographed nothing but his wife? That his last 20 years was spent in a coma after an almost fatal accident? The saying that the photographs say more about the photographer than the subject is perhaps more true when it comes to Fukase than anyone else. Fukase said that he had become a raven himself.
Sample image from the book. The flash light illuminates the eyes of the ravens.
All this is as dark as it gets. But there is also great beauty to be found in this book if you look for it, and hence this book comes with my highest recommendations.
I must admit that I keep getting confused about specular light vs diffused light relative to soft light vs hard light. It is especially diffused light and soft light that I mix up, but let me give it a try.
If you see tarmac on a sunny day, the tarmac does not reflect very much light (it tends to absorb the light and get warm for that reason), but as soon as you have rain hitting the tarmac, the water on the surface will start reflecting the light and will do so in a way where the incoming light is reflected pretty close to how it arrived. So all of a sudden the reflections of the light in the water is very bright – I am sure you have tried this driving home late at night; the headlights from the oncoming cars is suddenly a nuisance because the rain set in.
So for me specular light is very much about the “dynamic range” of how the light is reflected on a surface. If the brights are very bright and the darks are very dark, then the light is specular. Remember here that the nature of the light is assessed looking at how it is reflected by the subject.
Diffused light however will have much less contrast between light and dark. It tend to be more “shades of grey” than black and white, to put it simply. The subject appears more evenly lit.
One of the tests that I often do when reviewing a lens is to shoot a piece of tinfoil curled up into a ball. Such a subject will yield specular light where the brights are very bright and the darks are very dark; excellent for revealing issues with chromatic aberrations, which you will often see where the contrast between bright and dark meet.
Shooting tethered is great if you want to see the result of your work in large format right after you have hit the shutter! Or if you want to present the client with the result instantly – the feedback can be valuable and you can change the scene or the setting on the fly rather than the client being disappointed seeing the result some days later. No much how much editing you do, it is difficult to change a headshot if the client suddenly sees that the shirt he is wearing is not fit for purpose, or the like.
What you need
You obviously need your beloved Nikon D4 with a charged battery and a lens mounted, but in addition you will – as the name indicates – need a cable. They come in many shapes and forms and different lengths, but you can start looking for what you’ve got on stock to see if you can get going without buying a cable. It is a regular cable, a USB one, with a USB-A connector in one end and a mini-B in the other.
The cable needed for shooting tethered with the Nikon D4 is a SUB one with USB-A in one and mini-B in the other. I got my camera used and the cable came with the camera.
The second thing you will need is a piece of software to communicate with the Nikon D4. I am not sure of NX tether will work with the D4 or D4S as the spec sheet only promises it will work for the D6 and more modern cameras.
I use Lightroom and it works ok, although on my Mac it has a tendency to crash often – usually in the beginning of a session and then it stabilises. I don’t have that issue on my Windows laptop.
I know that many portrait photographers prefer to use Capture One and that is an alternative to Lightroom. I am not aware of any freeware that will support tethered capture.
The final thing you will need is a computer with a screen. If I am out and about I use my laptop and the screen it has – it is clearly not as big as my office monitor, but so much bigger than the rear LCD of the Nikon D4. If I am in the office I use my mac mini with a 32″ monitor attached.
How
If you hook up the Nikon D4 to the laptop / PC / mac with the USB cable and make sure the camera is turned on, the only thing to do is to activate tethered capture in (in my case) Lightroom. I do that by simply selecting: File > Tethered capture > start tethered capture, and confirm using the window that appears. You will start session where the images are transferred to a dedicated folder in Lightroom and they will emerge as you shoot – one by one. The transfer time is rather fast – I would estimate it to be 1 second or thereabout.
Backup
Be mindful that the images are NOT stored on the memory cards on the Nikon D4 when you are shooting in tethered mode. They are transferred directly to the laptop / PC / mac and only stored there. I recommend that you asap and preferably in real time take a backup of the images.
When you shoot with the Nikon D4 without tethering and with 2 card slots, you automatically have a backup as the images are written to both cards. This is not the case when shooting tethered, so make sure you have a process for making backups asap.
Other than that, there is not much to it! I wish you all the best with tethered shooting.
Front page of Josef Koudelka’s book Exiles. The front page image is probably the most famous of all Koudelka’s work.
Koudelka is right up there with some of the biggest photographers of all time like Henri Cartier-Bresson, so if you are interested in photography and you have not enjoyed the work of Koudelka, you have something to look forward to! In the book by David Gibson with 100 iconic images, of course there is one by Koudelka, actually exactly the same as covers the front page of this book: Exiles.
Be aware that the book has developed since the 1988 classic was published, and more images have been added, so if you want the full monty, make sure to get the latest version of the book (shopping link right here).
Simple and yet very powerful. That is my best way of describing many of Koudelka’s images. “Simple” is not a good word as it may give the wrong associations, but is the best I can come up with.
Cornell Capa is quoted on the cover sleeve to say that “Koudelka’s unsentimental, stark, brooding, intensely human imagery reflects his own spirit, the very essence of an exile who is at home wherever his wandering body finds haven in the night.” So you can really put some serious words and analysis to Koudelka’s work, and curators and others absolutely love to add some of the most complicated words available to praise Koudelka’s work. I have no ambition to compete with all that.
I’ll let the image speak for itself.
Rather, I would quote Leonardo da Vinci for saying something close to this: “Simplification is the ultimate sophistication”. I know wise men debate if it was actually Leonardo saying this and if these were the exact words, but the gist of it is what I want to get to, because it describes how I see Koudelka’s work. His images are so powerful and clear in their communication, and there is not a single distraction or any object in the images that do not aid the storytelling. The motto of photographer Joel Sartore is that if something in your frame is not working with you, it is actually working against you. It seems to me that Koudelka, who probably knows nothing of Joel’s motto, is the embodiment of working according to this rule.
You can analyse this image from a composition point of view until you drop dead. Or you can just enjoy the image of a master.
So Koudelka is a big inspiration for my aspirations as a photographer. And for that reason and of course I can recommend this book about Koudelka. There are a few interesting introduction pages, but otherwise the book simply present 75 of Koudelka’s images (+ index). And what images! In this blog I have shared 3 examples beyond the front page, and I hope they will inspire you to seek out more of Koudelka’s outstanding work.
DPI is dots per inch, and is often used to describe the (max) resolution a printer can offer, but it is also applicable for scanners. Contrary to PPI, the DPI for a printer or a scanner is not fixed but can vary subject to the print mode. So you can print and scan at different DPI levels, subject to your needs. The higher the resolution required, the longer the scan or print will take, so when you don’t nee the high resolution, it is nice to be able to prioritise speed over resolution.
When printing, the DPI needs to be significantly higher than the PPI for a screen, and this is because the printer builds a colour combining different base colours, and hence more base colour dots in combination are needed to make up for a similar dot on the screen. So when you read the spec sheet for a good colour printer, the DPI is often much higher than the PPI for a screen.
At the last routine check my dentist was rather insisting: “You got to clean especially your gums and the room between your teeth much better than what you do today!” She was unusually upset!
There is a thing with me an dentists: I never get any praise, rather the opposite! But this time around the dentist was a bit more insisting that usually! I thought I was about to get a little bit of praise having replaced my trusty old classic toothbrush with an electric toothbrush, but no, she apparently wanted more!
“You got to go and buy a Oral-B, the IO series, and it has to be at least number 8!” – “Ok”, I thought, that was pretty direct instructions, and after having checked she herself did not sell it (and hence her advice might have been a bit biased) I headed towards to local hardware store to get as prescribed.
Unfortunately the local shop only had series 4 and 5, and the instruction was to get IO 8, so I had to order online to get my copy for around 220 EUR! Not cheap, but what do you not do to make your dentist happy!
The Oral-B IO 8 has two buttons only: One to switch on/off and another to change between different programs for brushing your teeth.
I do not have a full overview of the Braun Oral-B series of products, but my best guess is that they get more and more expensive and advanced as you move up the number series. The IO 10 is the top of the pop, but apparently I could do with a version 8.
In the box
In the box: A little pouch (top), a plastic box to hold 2 brush heads, the brush head and a magnetic charger (right). Of course also the brush itself, which is not shown here.
In the box you will find the brush itself, a charger, a brush head, a container for 2 brush heads and a little pouch for the brush and accessories.
The manual looks overwhelming, but it is only because many languages are supported. After reading 2 pages approx, you are good to go. The graphics are simple and easy to understand.
The manual is actually only a few pages in many different languages, so it is quickly read, and it is supplemented by some graphics that are easy to understand. You’ll be up and running in no time. One of the most important features is the backlit ring at the bottom of the brush head – this ring will tell you if you apply to much, to little or just the right amount of pressure to the brush when holding it against your teeth and gums. I was surprised to learn that apparently I apply way too little pressure! Another thing is that you have to brush your teeth in front of a mirror, so you can continuously monitor that you apply the right amount of pressure.
App and bluetooth
App and brush. The app will guide you though the brush process and give you real time feedback on your performance. And of course keep stats on all your tooth brush sessions!
Of course this toothbrush has an app that will give you guidance and tell you how well you are doing in terms of brushing all your teeth and brushing them well! The most complicated in terms of getting to know the brush was to download the app, but I found it in the App store almost immediately. The brush and the app hook up via bluetooth when within close range. You just shake the toothbrush, and it will activate the bluetooth connection.
With the app on the phone, you can follow your progress as you brush your teeth. The blue graphics changes from blue to white as you progress.
During the process, the app will colour from blue to white according to your progress with brushing your teeth clean. I find it a little bit difficult to both keep an eye on the colour on the toothbrush itself (right amount of pressure) and an eye on the app (brushing completeness).
The light ring at the base of the brush tells you if you apply sufficiently pressure: Green = ok. Red = too much. Blue = too little.
Daily routine
Charging is as easy as it can be: simply leave the brush on top of the charger and it takes care of the process. The battery is a Li-On battery and that usually means the battery will last for a long time without charging – I have not stress tested this specifically but it easily does my tooth brushing for several days with no need for recharging.
Relative to my more traditional Oral-B electric toothbrush, this one does not have a large hole at the bottom. That means it is much easier to keep the charger and the bottom of the brush clean.
In your bathroom cabinet you will find that the toothbrush takes up very little space. It is tall, but otherwise takes up less space than say a tube of toothpaste.
The Oral-B IO 8 does not take up much space when viewed from this angle!
Using the brush is not complicated, but it did take me some time to learn to brush my teeth in front of a mirror in order to read the pressure colour ring.
Conclusion
I do not know yet if I have passed the exam, as I have to visit my dentist yet one more time to understand if she is happy with my work with the new brush. I will say though that it does feel like my teeth are more clean than ever, and the app and the brush has provided much guidance and feedback that I would not have got with a more basic electric toothbrush.
The price is steep, but if you look at it as insurance money intended to protect you from some nasty dentist bills coming your way, then you might find that in the long run the Oral-B IO 8 is worth every EUR, and then some.
The Nikon D4 is a professional level camera announced by Nikon back in 2012, and measured in terms of technical development, this is really a long time ago! A lot has happened to the cameras in terms of video capability, computing power and the notorious move to mirrorless cameras.
Within the professional series of Nikon cameras, the D4 is now several generations old. So it is a bit up-hill for this trusty old DSLR. And to make it worse, the D4 was replaced by the D4S with even better specs, but of course the D4S comes with a somewhat higher price tag. You can find my reasons for choosing the D4 over the D4S right here (yes, I am cheap!).
Convincing build quality
When you hold the Nikon D4 for the first time, you will notice the size of the camera! It is huge and heavy! My Nikon D700 plus a battery grip is also big and heavy, but the D4 is just a little bit more bulky. When I add my 70-200mm f/2.8 G lens, the combo becomes crazy heavy. If you are an event shooter that needs to hand-hold the camera throughout the day, make sure you try the camera with your lens of preference before you invest.
You have a feeling that the D4 can roll down a mountainside and the only thing that will happen is that the mountain will be hurt! Jokes aside, it is a very convincing camera in terms of its build quality. But if you don’t like a heavy camera, stay clear of the Nikon D4. It is the biggest camera I have ever owned! The D4 body is 1.2 kilos!
The feeling of top level quality continues when you hit the shutter: it is a heavy sound that shutter makes! If you put the camera in continuous mode, the sound is like a machine gun! I am not a camera engineer, but just from using it, I am left with the impression that this camera will last for years and years. Specs say the shutter will last 400.000 actuations, but IRL the shutter will probably last much longer.
The D4 was built for speed with especially sports and wildlife photographers in mind. For it’s time, it can move a lot of data from the sensor to the buffer and stay at 10 FPS. The buffer can hold up to 100 RAW images. You may think that I am crazy getting the Nikon D4 when I have no need for the speed really, but I simply had to try one of the professional level cameras, and the D4 was the most affordable without being antique.
Ergonomics
I’ve got big hands, and the D4 is a wonderful camera to hold, despite it’s significant weight! Across the D700, D750, D7500, D5600 and Z6ii that I have tried, the D4 has the best ergonomics of them all.
The joystick of the Nikon D4 sits just above the command wheel.
The button layout of the D4 reminds me of what you’ll find on a Nikon D700, but there are some twists. It seems that Nikon constantly try to improve the shooting experience, and hence makes little tweaks from one camera generation to the next. One of the things many love to hate is the joysticks to move the focus point around – they find them too small, to flimsy and report that they simply fall of the camera after a while. I am happy to report that mine are still around, and serve me well, but if you have small hands, you may find it a bit difficult to get your thumb to reach the joystick as you have to get passed the command wheel!
The rear LCD works really well, but forget about a a tilting or an articulating screen – this one sits in the camera body and stays there! Also, if you have gotten used to zooming in and out by pinching and zooming on the screen, you will need to re-learn to use the + and – buttons in the left side of the camera. The screen will ignore you otherwise! So here the cameras age starts to show. But then on the other hand you get a pro level camera where the buttons are backlit (!) which when shooting at night / low light is an absolute blessing that I wish Nikon would bring to their enthusiast level cameras.
The expected battery life of 2600 shots seems absolutely mind-blowing! This I got from the spec sheet, but in real life the battery life is impressive, actually so impressive that I often forget to charge the battery on a regular basis! There is no need! Be aware though that if you shoot in Live View a lot, then the rear LCD will drain the battery a lot faster.
Two cards slots of course in the Nikon D4.
The D4 of course comes with 2 card slots, but be aware that one is an XQD slot, the other is a CF (Compact Flash) slot. The XQD card type never really caught on and for that reason only few vendors produce the card today, which drives the prices upwards, unfortunately. Add the price of a good XQD card to the price of the camera before making the purchase decision, in case the XQD card is not included.
Video
The Nikon D4 does decent video (1080p), but if you look at what a modern hybrid mirrorless camera can do in terms of resolution and FPS, then the D4 cannot keep up.
The video capabilities of the D4 do not impress anymore.
The D4 is well connected with ports for HDMI, network, USB, microphone and headset. WiFi or bluetooth or other similar wireless options are not built into the camera, and again the age starts to show.
The Nikon D4 has lots of connectors and each is behind it’s own separate door.
I must admit that I have not used the D4 for video as my Nikon Z6ii is so much more capable with more resolution, more FPS, IBIS, etc, and I think most hybrid shooters today will find that the D4 is a tad too old to serve as their camera.
Image quality
The image quality of the D4 in one word? Outstanding!
I know that many will wrinkle their nose when they in the spec sheet read that the sensor has “only” 16mp resolution and wonder if that will ever suffice. Many entry level cameras today have 24mp and the number seems to go up and up. But be mindful that the camera producers are very aware that this is one of the parameters buyers can relate to and are looking for – so it is a competitive parameter more than it has to do with image quality. Just like an amplifier for your stereo equipment does not get better the more watts it can output, the same way your camera body’s quality is not directly correlated to the resolution of the sensor.
The images that the D4 produces are stellar, and I am particularly fond of the colour rendition. Many praise the D700 for being a special camera with a special sensor, but when it comes to colour rendition, the D4 IMHO is the best camera I have ever seen across all the different Nikon cameras I have tried. This can of course be related to my copy of the D4, what I shoot or what I look for, but I am still convinced that the D4 is some of the best I have ever seen.
Example of the colours the Nikon D4 provides.
If you want to see with your own eyes, go to flicker or the like and find images shot with the Nikon D4. I can provide a few examples via this link.
I think you will be positively surprised by the performance by this 10+ year old camera, despite it’s relatively low pixel count and the sensor having no IBIS or BSI or whatever is the latest fashion.
Auto focus system
Being frustrated with the focus system on the mirrorless cameras (like the Nikon Z6ii), I am happy to say that the focus system on the D4 works like a charm. It is professional grade stuff and for my “catch a bird in flight” once in a while shooting, I have never met the limits of the AF system. It appears to me that the AF system of the D4 is blazing fast and rock solid.
Nikon D4 focuses really well with my beloved Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 AF-S
Be mindful that the performance of an AF system is always a co-operation between the lens and the camera. Slow lens and fast camera does not really cut it. I have primarily been shooting with my beloved 70-200mm f/2.8 G series lens, and it co-operates with the D4 beautifully.
Summary
When the D4 was new, the price was around 6.000 USD. We are now approaching 1.000 USD used. You get a very good used professional level camera if you go for the Nikon D4.
My main concerns on your behalf is the weight. It is a heavy camera. Also, the ergonomics are probably betters suited people with big hands. So try the camera before you buy.
You will have to live with a few dated features: the video capabilities is not up to par with a modern camera, there is not articulating screen, the camera is noisy, etc. So for me it is a photography only camera. But if you put some good glass in front of it, you will have a reliable workhorse at your disposal many years to come. Be aware though that servicing of the D4 has probably come to an end, so when the camera stops working, it is probably the end of it – unfortunately – unless some non-Nikon workshop can fix it.
BSI is Back Side Illumination in a digital camera sensor.
It gets very technical very quickly, but the gist of it is that BSI is a new way of organising the layers in the digital sensor of camera. The new layering allows more light to travel to the pixels that read the light.
The big benefit of BSI is more precise reading of the light. Some say that the signal to noise ratio is improved, others that the dynamic rang is increased. If you compare the spec sheet of a traditional sensor with a back side illuminated sensor, the difference should appear as better specs for the BSI sensor.
In my experience, the improvements are shallow. I have both the Nikon D750 and the Nikon Z6ii, i.e. one camera with a traditional sensor and another with BSI. For my style of shooting (outdoor photography), I can hardly tell the difference, and I think it is because we are comparing some very good sensors to some very, very good ones!
The Nikon D750 was my first full frame camera and I love it! It has served as my workhorse and spare time camera from 2018 when I bought it and up till today. Along with my Tokina 100mm Macro lens, I have used it to shoot a lot of the images that you’ll find on this blog.
The D750 may not be as super solid as you will find if you get hold of say a Nikon D4 or D4S. Far from. Many that have tried a camera from Nikons professional (one digit) series will say that the D750 is a bit too light and that the built quality is not up to par with the pro series. And it is true.
But if you are not a photojournalists putting your camera through hell and high water on a daily basis, you probably don’t need that level of build quality. The D750 has been with me on outdoor photography many times in brutal weather, and it has stood the test of time as far as I am concerned. Everything still works on the camera – no failures when it comes to buttons / dials or internal mechanics / electronics.
And then what I find the best part: the D750 is so easy to use. If you speak Nikon, you will find at home with the D750 right away. It is a camera that does exactly what you ask it to, and it does not talk back. You can read more about why I chose the D750 back in 2018 right here.
Into the mirrorless era
Much has been written and said about the transition from DSLRs to mirrorless cameras. And I think this debate will go on for a long time. I have no intention to add to this debate, but will try to give you some observations that I have made working with both the Nikon D750 and the Nikon Z6ii. You can find my general observations about the difference between DSLRs and mirrorless cameras right here.
My two trusty workhorses: Nikon D750 to the left, Nikon Z6ii to the right.
Glass and mount
When Nikon entered the mirrorless scene, they took a big decision and abandoned the good old trusty F-mount! The F-mount has been with us since the earth cooled down, and it was probably not an easy decision for Nikon to make. But I guess the reckoned that going mirrorless was also a “once in a millennium” chance of improving the mount. They did develop an FTZ adapter, but be aware that for all the F-mount glass with mechanical focus, i.e. where it depends on a focus motor in the body, is now suddenly manual focus!
Nikon argues that the new Z-mount with reduced flange distance improves the image quality, especially for wide lenses. I don’t know if this is true, but what I do know is that Nikon also took a deep breath and redesigned their lenses for the new mount. And this has been the central criticism of Nikons mirrorless cameras: the lack of lenses. But that was an issue in the beginning more than it is now – other vendors like Sigma are joining the party and deliver lenses for the Z-mount.
If you read reviews of Nikon lenses for the Z-mount, you will find that the lenses for the Z-mount is a new level in quality. Is this because of new lens design, new mount or smaller flange distance? I really don’t know. But I can see that something has happened for the better.
The question however is: Do you need the higher lens quality? My answer is: probably not, unless you shoot astro photography or some other line of business where resolution and micro contrast is of the essence. You can get say an 85mm AF-S lens for the F-mount and it will produce images in professional quality and your clients will be happy as can be, provided that you as photographer know your line of business.
Prepare to pay for the glass. Z-mount glass is good, but it is also reflected in the price level.
Add to this the price for the Z-mount glass: it is expensive. We have gotten used to the vast amount of used glass for the F-mount, and the fact that you often on a flea market can find dirt cheap glass of good quality that you can put on your DSLR and it works like a charm. New good glass has always been expensive, so it is perhaps not fair to compare to the used market for F-mount, but it is very real when you compare the F-mount and the Z-mount. So of you plan to go mirrorless, prepare to pay for the glass.
Your AF-S lenses with built in focus motor will work directly on the FTZ adapter, and that is probably the good compromise in terms of price point. If you use older glass like AF and AF-D, be prepared to focus manually!
Video
Video capabilities is where cameras have developed the most the last 10 years. This is also where my trusty D750 starts to feel old: it has no 4K option. If you are not a hybrid shooter, then this may be less important to you. For me, shooting a lot of video on the Z6ii also, this is important, as 4K is important to me. We are in personal preference territory and some will be happy shooting video at 1080p, and in that case the D750 can get the job done. But I never use the D750 for video anymore.
In terms of rear LCD there is not much new under the sun: both are not fully articulating and can only flip up and down. Especially for the Z6ii with it’s improved video capabilities, this is a disappointment to me.
Unfortunately neither the D750 nor the Z6ii has a fully articulating screen, which is important if you need to frame precisely, e.g. overhead shoots or walk and talk videos. I miss the fully articulating screen and had hoped to see this as an improvement on the Z6ii, but no. Strange actually, as my Nikon D5600 from way back when had a fully articulating screen!
Speaking of video, the viewfinder on the Z6ii is a small TV screen! What the sensor picks up is live transmitted to a small screen that sits where the optical viewfinder used to be. So you are in permanent live view mode! Some absolutely hate this and want to stay with the optical viewfinders – I am not one, and I think the electronic viewfinder in the Z6ii works very well, also in low light conditions. And then the ability to zoom in, in the viewfinder, especially for manual focus, is a thing I find hard to miss when I go back to the D750 after shooting with the Z6ii.
Shooting experience
In the beginning I was not happy shooting with the Z6ii. Nikon has clearly re-designed the user interface and much more is now put into quick menu items at the expense of physical buttons. You can see this when you look at the front left of the Z6ii – the buttons have all gone and there are only buttons for the right hand to use.
The shortcut for formatting the memory card has also gone, along with the physical selection of drive mode. It is all selected via menus now.
I like the design, with dedicated buttons for things you select often, better. I really miss the ability to select focus mode via a button or format the memory card via a shortcut, but again, this is very much personal preference territory. I do notice however, that Nikon on some of the more expensive ML cameras seem to lean more towards their older designs.
Call me crazy, but I once in a while use the built in flash (with a modifier in front of it). No built in flash in the Z6ii.
Otherwise I find ergonomics great with both cameras. I have big hands and need a deep grip which both the D750 and the Z6ii features. And the buttons and dials are easy to use on both cameras, not much to notice there. The only thing that I miss when going from the D750 to the Z6ii is a flash! Call me crazy, but in a pinch I sometimes use the built in flash, and I find none on the Z6ii. Not a biggie, but a difference I notice.
Top LCD’s: The design if the D750 to the left has been used by Nikon since back in the film days (the F100 for example has a LCD that is very similar in design). With the Z-series Nikon upgraded to the whit on black that you see to the right (can also be flipped via camera settings). The new design is easier to read if you ask me.
The top LCD has changed so that it now features a white on black (or black on white) text instead of the good old green light we’ve known for decades. I do find the Z6ii a bit easier to read, but it is an improvement that is not very vital if you ask me.
What I do love about the mirrorless Z6ii is the ability to zoom in both in the viewfinder and the rear LCD, in combination with focus peaking highlights. When you shoot with a manual focus lens, these tools are a great help if you ask me, but also when you shoot with AF! You can let the camera focus automatically for starters and then you can grab the manual focus ring to override auto focus and get help from peaking highlights. For me, this is one of the areas the Z6ii really changes the shooting experience and I miss these features every time I return to the D750.
Another thing I miss is the ability to zoom and pinch on the touch sensitive screen – when you come from an iPhone you expect this to be the standard. Not on the D750; the + and – buttons on the camera needs to be engaged to zoom in and out.
Focus
When it comes to the focus system, the DSLRs have matured this technology over many years and many iterations. My Nikon D750 can see in the dark! When I do low light photography with a fast lens, it is amazing how the camera is able to focus both fast and precisely.
I am not impressed by the focus system in the Z6ii. My favourite example of a focus system that does not work is when I put the 105mm macro z-lens on the Z6ii and try to shoot in less than optimal light conditions. This is where I get the sad whale song! The lens hunts and hunts and passes where it should obtain focus several times! Until I get fed up and override with manual focus. That NEVER happens with my D750 and the 100mm Tokina lens – it just locks on focus every time. I have noticed that updates to the software has made the Z6ii perform better and better for each update, and maybe it is a question of time before new firmware updates will make optimal use of the computing power in the dual Expeed processors. But for now, I am not impressed by the Z6ii focus system.
When that is said, the ability to move the focus point to ANY point on the screen is a blessing with mirrorless cameras, and every time I return to the D750 I feel limited by the “centre only” focus points. Yes, I can focus, lock and recompose, but when you get used to both framing and focusing in one go, you really don’t want to go back. I miss this freedom every time I shoot with the D750 (or the D700 or the D4 for that matter!).
I use eye detection and animal detection very little, but the few times I have used it, it has worked really well. If these things are important to you, this could be a strong argument for the Z6ii. I would imagine that if you shoot portraits from 9-5 and need to come home with tac sharp keepers every time, the eye detection capabilities of the Z6ii is a blessing.
Sensor and image quality
I guess that you would expect miracles in terms of the image quality jumping to a 6 years younger camera, right? Not so much. If I put my 16-35mm AF-S lens on the D750 and compare it to a shot with the same lens on my Nikon Z6ii with the FTZ adapter, I cannot really tell the difference! But maybe not a surprise, as the sensors have roughly the same resolution.
The Z6ii has a back side illuminated sensor (BSI) and technically that should give better images, as less light is blocked by wiring and hence the signal should be stronger. In terms of dynamic range and the like from the spec sheet, the Z6ii is superior to the D750. However, in my kind of shooting (mainly outdoor photography) I have never noticed the difference. I am sure that engineers in controlled environments can measure a difference, but the difference has not been big enough for me to notice. I think it is because we are comparing very good to very, very good.
The Z6ii comes with a IBIS sensor. I do notice the effect of the stabilisation and I have shot at 100mm handheld down to 1/20th of a second with decent results. But I must admit that I seldom use it and don’t really miss it in the D750. And I always forget to switch the IBIS off when doing ICM photography!
So in summary, when I use the same lenses on the two cameras, I can hardly see a difference. Only when I mount a Z lens on the Z6ii, I notice a difference. Please do not put more into this than needed – it is just one photographers opinion!
Summary
Before I conclude, let me underline that this is just one photographers opinion, and that your shooting requirements and personal preferences probably differs from mine. So see this as a small voice in the debate, and make sure to listen to many voices before you choose between the cameras.
If you plan to shoot with f-mount glass only, then you will not see much difference in terms of image quality between the D750 and the Z6ii. You will get some nice features in the Z6ii that I absolutely love, like:
focus peaking highlights
viewfinder zoom
focus points all over the place
touch sensitive rear LCD
And a few things I do not use that much:
14 fps (vs 6.5)
IBIS
Eye and animal tracking
1/8000th max shutter (vs 1/4000th)
Focus shift shooting
I doubt that these things are enough to warrant the move from D750 to Z6ii, but I let you be the boss here – only you know if these features are important to you.
The D750 is still a very capable camera. And it comes with a built in flash the Z6ii does not have, and if you use the flash lightly, the batteries of the D750 will last way longer than those of the Z6ii. If you are used to the classic Nikon DSLR design with many dedicated buttons for operating the camera, then the D750 will be right up your alley, whereas the Z6ii will feel more like a computer you operate via menu systems. And when shooting in low light, the focus system of the D750 will make mincemeat of the Z6ii.
I will say that if you are a hybrid shooter and need 4K, then the D750 is not able to deliver. In that case, I think there are good reasons to move to the Z6ii. And if you plan to buy some of the expensive Z-mount glass, then you will lift your technical image quality. If that is your ambition, then this could be another reason to select the Z6ii over the D750.
It is a stabilisation system in the camera body, opposed to stabilisation that you will find in a lens. Some camera systems allow both the in body and the in lens stabilisation systems to work together to maximise the effect.
The point with stabilisation is to mitigate camera shake. If you shoot with a slow shutter opening time, it is possible to move the camera a good deal while the shutter is open. This will be visible in the image; it may look blurred or not sharp.
The classic way to mitigate this is via the use of a tripod to stabilise the camera. An alternative is to follow the reciprocal rule, that says that the shutter speed should be equal to or faster than the reciprocal focal length. So if you are shooting at 100mm, you should not shoot slower than 1/100th of a second.
IBIS in the camera body allows you to shoot handheld at slower shutter speeds than what the reciprocal rule suggests.
The rear LCD works really well, but forget about a a tilting or an articulating screen – this one sits in the camera body and stays there! Also, if you have gotten used to zooming in and out by pinching and zooming on the screen, you will need to re-learn to use the + and – buttons in the left side of the camera. The screen will ignore you otherwise! So here the cameras age starts to show. But then on the other hand you get a pro level camera where the buttons are backlit (!) which when shooting at night / low light is an absolute blessing that I wish Nikon would bring to their enthusiast level cameras.
