Benjamin Marks
Mentor
Well, I took the plunge. I posted here in my "research phase" about using adapted lenses from other brands on a Nikon Z body. I got some good advice, but very few images. So I figured I would post some early examples as I was sorting out the camera. The ostensible reason for purchasing the rig was to photograph a friend's wedding in June. But who among you is really buying that? 
So: here's the 10th shot ever taken with the camera. Could be an addition to Rich Silvfer's old thread "Camera and Coffee." JPG right out of the camera with a Leica DR Summicron focused in its close range:
So: here's the 10th shot ever taken with the camera. Could be an addition to Rich Silvfer's old thread "Camera and Coffee." JPG right out of the camera with a Leica DR Summicron focused in its close range:
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Benjamin Marks
Mentor
Here's a picture that seems unremarkable until you consider that it was taken with a 90/2.8 skinny Elmarit in a room this morning with the light off. Overcast clouds outside. So really, no light by traditional film standards. The Z8 assigned an ISO of 5600 and a shutter speed of 1/50. So: impossible light, impossible ISO rating (in the days of film), handheld at a longer shutter speed than 1/focal length. Yup. This photo just wouldn't have existed in this form in the 20th Century. Converted to B&W in PS and contrast tweaked accordingly.
Benjamin Marks
Mentor
I'll end this torture soon, I promise. Here are two pics (actually two versions of the same image) from the Voitlander 15/4.5 Heliar II M-mount. The first is out-of-the camera (sort of) and the second is with PS canned corrections for that lens applied.
Uncorrected:
Now corrected (minimal effort on my part):
More than adequate for my needs, although I kind of like the looks of that Z-mount Heliar that keeps haunting my dreams from the B&H webpage.
Uncorrected:
Now corrected (minimal effort on my part):
More than adequate for my needs, although I kind of like the looks of that Z-mount Heliar that keeps haunting my dreams from the B&H webpage.
Benjamin Marks
Mentor
For the post above, I say "sort of" out-of-the-camera because the original image is an uncompressed NEF file, which was then imported in to PS and adjusted for corner color shift in Camera RAW, then downsized from its "default" 18x27 inches @300 pixels/inch to 8x12 @150, then converted to JPG, then posted to Smug Mug and then copied and pasted here. So those pixels have been processed all to HeXX and back before a tiny portion of the original ones are made available here. But I think it is a fair representation of what a superwide can do on the Z8 under even casual conditions.
Benjamin Marks
Mentor
Next I plan on seeing whether the ZII adapter will allow my 105/2.8 macro to work with its vibration reduction "on".
Benjamin Marks
Mentor
At the risk of boring you all silly with February around-the-house test shots, here's a JPG conversion with no corrections applied from the 105/2.8 G VR lens. I was actually thinking of getting the Z mount version of this, but the G lens + Nikon adapter seem to work creditably. Interestingly the in-camera IBIS is "greyed out" as a choice when using this lens, but the lens's own VR works fine and seems to communicate with the Z8. So this is handheld, using room light with the ISO pegged at 400 rather than letting the ISO "float" with the camera's preferences. Exposure was "A" or 1/8 of a second with the aperture set to 3.0 (?)(oddly, couldn't get the camera to go to 2.8, but two tenths of a stop isn't worth arguing about.
Benjamin Marks
Mentor
Why post the same picture twice? Ha! Gotcha. This is actually the next frame in the series that was taken with the 105/2 DC, one of my favorite portrait lenses of all time. As soon as I snapped this on the Z8, the camera's IBIS settings took back over and turned on the camera's system. This was also taken at ISO 400 at f:2 and 1/20 of a second. Converted to JPG for this posting exercise. But for the sake of this casual testing, I'd say that the adapter talks well to the lenses, that the IBIS/VR issue has been worked out in a manner that is pretty foolproof -- I will just turn off the part of my brain that worries about things like that.
Benjamin Marks
Mentor
Bored yet? Can you believe this is what I do for fun? -- Lordy, I am so easily amused. The picture below is NOT in fact a copy of the ones above, it is the same scene, handheld at 1/8 second at f:2.5 with the venerable 105/2.5 AIS lens. So these threes shots were in sequence on the card. Shoot, change lens, shoot etc. This was the lens I'da killed for in the 1980's. THE portrait lens, I think for a whole generation of photographers. Well, they seem to sell for around $60-!20 today . . . kind of unbelievable. Is there a "skosh" less contrast than its more modern brethren (sisteren)? Maybe in these images that are minimally processed. Truth is, I unlikely to take a portrait at 1/8 of a second or anywhere close to that shutter speed with any of these lenses. But I am pretty impressed with what the Z8 is putting out here. Leaving aside the uninspired nature of my subject (February is dreary in VT . . . trust me, it could be worse), I think any of these lenses could perform well under ideal conditions.
But the takeaway is this: the IBIS/VR question is likely to be a non issue for me with the moderate telephotos that I use. The wedding I am shooting this summer will probably call for one of these, or one of the 80-somethings. I am thinking of toting out a 90 Summicron APH for some of the shots . . .
Next up: Some Russian glass. How about a 50/3.5 from the Soviet days? . . . .
But the takeaway is this: the IBIS/VR question is likely to be a non issue for me with the moderate telephotos that I use. The wedding I am shooting this summer will probably call for one of these, or one of the 80-somethings. I am thinking of toting out a 90 Summicron APH for some of the shots . . .
Next up: Some Russian glass. How about a 50/3.5 from the Soviet days? . . . .
Benjamin Marks
Mentor
Here's what that looks like:
And here's a pretty useless shot from that combo:
And here's a pretty useless shot from that combo:
Benjamin Marks
Mentor
I did also give this a try: a Jupiter 2, with its great, honking rear end:
I did get an image, but I think the rear element is too close to the Z8 sensor to provide what I am looking for. Shots at infinity of clouds showed significant vignetting, even at f:8. Here's an illustrative photo of today's cloudy sky with the little Jupiter focused at infinity:
Still, you want to play? The Jupiter is ready to churn out that picture as a 60 MB file.
I did get an image, but I think the rear element is too close to the Z8 sensor to provide what I am looking for. Shots at infinity of clouds showed significant vignetting, even at f:8. Here's an illustrative photo of today's cloudy sky with the little Jupiter focused at infinity:
Still, you want to play? The Jupiter is ready to churn out that picture as a 60 MB file.
hap
Well-known
beautiful and full of sharpness where needed.
Benjamin Marks
Mentor
So here is a bit of a unicorn. Couple-a-six years ago I swapped the lensmount on a Leica 90 Elmarit-R for a Nikon mount with one of those Leitax aftermarket mount swap kits. The whole thing went smoothly from a no-lost-screws perspective. But I was using the lens on my D3 in stop-down mode and never really got pictures that were as critically sharp as I had come to expect from that lens design. The 90 Elmarit is a pretty well corrected lens, at least my other copy of it was great on Leica R bodies. I should have probably just undid the conversion. But being lazy, it has sat on the shelf for a good long while. This afternoon I popped it on the Z8 to see what's what.
I'm just going to apologize upfront for the subject matter, just because it is so darn boring. But that's what it is to be trapped at home in the Northeast US betwixt and between winter and spring. We call it mud season around here and there's an autumnal corollary, stick season, on the backside of the calendar. So: boring subjects, but perhaps useful as an informal new camera test.
Shot at 5.6. I gotta say, I find the Z9's focus peaking OK when taking a picture of a general scene, but not ideal for isolating one's subject. Particularly like the snap above where the door and the hinge all show red-specklies suggesting that they are in the same plane of focus. They aren't really, though, and you can see I was at a slight angle because the wood grain to the right of the picture doesn't show the same focus qualities as the wood grain on the picture's left.
Here's the ubiquitous clothesline:
You can see the lens is pretty good at isolating subject matter, even at f:5.6. There's a pretty good wind up today and I needed some shutter speed to freeze things. But the clothespin was zinging in and out of the plane of focus.
There's only one backyard cliche that's more well worn than a clothesline, and that is a knotty pine exterior wall. You got it:
And for the pixel peepers, a 100% crop:
I'm just going to apologize upfront for the subject matter, just because it is so darn boring. But that's what it is to be trapped at home in the Northeast US betwixt and between winter and spring. We call it mud season around here and there's an autumnal corollary, stick season, on the backside of the calendar. So: boring subjects, but perhaps useful as an informal new camera test.
Shot at 5.6. I gotta say, I find the Z9's focus peaking OK when taking a picture of a general scene, but not ideal for isolating one's subject. Particularly like the snap above where the door and the hinge all show red-specklies suggesting that they are in the same plane of focus. They aren't really, though, and you can see I was at a slight angle because the wood grain to the right of the picture doesn't show the same focus qualities as the wood grain on the picture's left.
Here's the ubiquitous clothesline:
You can see the lens is pretty good at isolating subject matter, even at f:5.6. There's a pretty good wind up today and I needed some shutter speed to freeze things. But the clothespin was zinging in and out of the plane of focus.
There's only one backyard cliche that's more well worn than a clothesline, and that is a knotty pine exterior wall. You got it:
And for the pixel peepers, a 100% crop:
Benjamin Marks
Mentor
My daughter is taking me to Montreal this weekend, so I will have a chance to use the Z8 's native 35/1.8 and some adaptive/modified Zeiss, Contax, S Mount etc. lenses. See you all Monday, hopefully with some better subject matter in hand.
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mcfingon
Western Australia
It's always fun trying a new camera and seeing what lenses work with it. My experience with Sony mirrorless is the same as yours with the Nikon: the focus peaking is misleading, so I either focus with magnification or reach for an autofocus lens...
Benjamin Marks
Mentor
So I spent the weekend in Montreal, which is the closest big city to us. In between the raindrops I spent some time getting to know the new camera, trying out a number of Leica, Zeiss and native lenses on the thing, seeing what worked, and trying to figure out the dang settings for what didn't. I did satisfy myself that the Leica wides I have can be used perfectly well with the Z8, at least in terms of what I need a lens to do. Here's a snapshot across from the hotel with the 21/2.8 Elmarit M of relatively recent vintage:
The above is converted into a JPG using Lightroom from a DNG file that I created importing the native NEF file. I notice some color shifting in the lower left hand corner, but nothing that PS couldn't handle. The picture below is from the same DNG file, but with the vignetting slider in PS Camera RAW dialed to +33.
The above is converted into a JPG using Lightroom from a DNG file that I created importing the native NEF file. I notice some color shifting in the lower left hand corner, but nothing that PS couldn't handle. The picture below is from the same DNG file, but with the vignetting slider in PS Camera RAW dialed to +33.
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Benjamin Marks
Mentor
I find the 24 a challenging lens to use -- I "see" like a 35 mm lens or a little wider. So I slapped on a 28 Summicron:
(no corrections applied): NEF to DNG, DNG to JPG:
Ordinarily, I would crop out that image on the left of the frame (glove fingertips on a coat rack?), but I wanted to show what this lens was doing in the corners. This was taken in the entranceway of a restaurant with a north-east facing glass door at my back. Metadata says 35/2 but that's incorrect. One thing about using legacy glass with a 'dumb' adapter is that you have to key in a lens id to the camera and then remember to select that lens off the Non-CPU Lens Data list. If you don't, you get errors in the EXIF information. This isn't the end of the world, but if you are doing a little casual lens testing, the routine will punish the absent-minded.
(no corrections applied): NEF to DNG, DNG to JPG:
Ordinarily, I would crop out that image on the left of the frame (glove fingertips on a coat rack?), but I wanted to show what this lens was doing in the corners. This was taken in the entranceway of a restaurant with a north-east facing glass door at my back. Metadata says 35/2 but that's incorrect. One thing about using legacy glass with a 'dumb' adapter is that you have to key in a lens id to the camera and then remember to select that lens off the Non-CPU Lens Data list. If you don't, you get errors in the EXIF information. This isn't the end of the world, but if you are doing a little casual lens testing, the routine will punish the absent-minded.
Benjamin Marks
Mentor
I have a Zeiss 50/1.5 Sonnar of completely modern vintage that is in Nikon S mount. It usually sits in an Amadeo adapter, and for the purposes of this weekend was then additionally adapted to the Nikon-Z. I worry a bit about tolerance stacking with this sort of set up, or having the entire lens essentially off-axis with respect to the film plane. That kind of tolerance-stacking didn't seem to be a problem with these adapters. The Leica M to Nikon Z adapter is from K&F Concept -- basically what eBay threw up without too much searching. Wasn't too expensive. . . which oddly made me suspicious, but it seems to work just fine. And we know that Amadeo is an artist with his helical adaptions. I think this lens will see a LOT more use in this configuration. I just love its rendering.
With these pictures I have cropped and adjusted for cant where I buggered the shot. Ego just won't let me post a picture with a canted horizon . . . but, hey, that's my problem. Once I saw that the wides worked in principle, I relaxed into some "normal" shooting. Because, hey, the whole point of this for me is to have fun, and if it feels like work, it ain't worth doing. At least photographically speaking.
Here's a shot from breakfast yesterday at a hotel restaurant near where we were staying. The image was made with the "magnify viewer" settting (sort of a prefocus situation), rather than focus peaking. First experiment with that manual focus mode, and honestly I don't think I will do it any other way from now on. The picture below is with the 50 at f:2 and the camera rested on my table. The final image is heavily cropped: maybe the central third of the overall image? The Z8's resolution is high enough that, even cropped, it outresolves what I could have done with ISO 400 film in that setting. I processed the converted DNG file w/Silver EFX Pro with one of the old 100-speed film simulations. Once again, please ignore any reference to a 24mm lens in the metadata. It's the Sonnar.
With these pictures I have cropped and adjusted for cant where I buggered the shot. Ego just won't let me post a picture with a canted horizon . . . but, hey, that's my problem. Once I saw that the wides worked in principle, I relaxed into some "normal" shooting. Because, hey, the whole point of this for me is to have fun, and if it feels like work, it ain't worth doing. At least photographically speaking.
Here's a shot from breakfast yesterday at a hotel restaurant near where we were staying. The image was made with the "magnify viewer" settting (sort of a prefocus situation), rather than focus peaking. First experiment with that manual focus mode, and honestly I don't think I will do it any other way from now on. The picture below is with the 50 at f:2 and the camera rested on my table. The final image is heavily cropped: maybe the central third of the overall image? The Z8's resolution is high enough that, even cropped, it outresolves what I could have done with ISO 400 film in that setting. I processed the converted DNG file w/Silver EFX Pro with one of the old 100-speed film simulations. Once again, please ignore any reference to a 24mm lens in the metadata. It's the Sonnar.
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Benjamin Marks
Mentor
Just to prove I can actually post a picture in color, here are two more with the Sonnar: Science Museum
Benjamin Marks
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They pitch these kinds of museums for kids, but I am a total sucker for that stuff. Give me a good sand table, and I am gone for hours. The one in Montreal is highly recommended if you have kids in tow or if, like me, you never grew up when it came to this stuff. Trust me when I say that I am sparing the lot of you from maaaaany photographs of the exhibits at that place. I put the Nikkor S 35/1.8 lens on to see how it handled the various interior lighting situations. Admirably, I'd say. I predict that the challenge here is that the native Nikon glass is so, so good that it is going to be hard to justify other choices. The Nikon 35 is also very light, despite its size . . . the tiny brass Leicas feel like they were carved from the heart of a neutron star by comparison. Here is the one Science Museum picture that I'll burden you all with. Very appropriate given the subject matter. I would have played with these magnetized lens elements all day if my daughter hadn't dragged me away.
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Benjamin Marks
Mentor
The following is more typical of how I would use a 24 in the street. Perspective corrected, heavily cropped, there is still a lot of data/image there.
