Photography News Issue 61

Camera test 55

Photography News | Issue 61 | photographynews.co.uk

Nikon Z 7 v D850

Nikon Z 35mm f/1.8 S

The 35mm focal length on the full-frame format gives a moderate wide-angle effect and many photographers use this focal length as their standard, ideal for general photography but also good for street, travel and people work. Such lenses usually come with a decently fast aperture so f/1.8 or f/2 is what you would expect. Physically, this lens is portable so no concerns as a regular partner with good balance and handling. Optically, this is a high- performing lens with impressive skills especially from f/4 onwards. At f/1.8 central sharpness was very good but it did fall away at the edges and corners of the frame. There was also noticeable vignetting at f/1.8 and this was obvious well into the frame. Stopping down got rid of this effect though and by f/4 illumination across the frame was very even. Image quality picked up even further with stopping down and by f/2.8 the edges had perked up considerably from what’s produced at f/1.8, and by f/5.6 and f/8 the lens was really on song and produced bags

The Nikon Z 7 and Nikon D850 have 45.7-megapixel, backside illuminated CMOS sensors but the image engine is different; the Z 7 has the EXPEED6 and the D850 the EXPEED5. It seemed a good idea to shoot some pictures with the cameras side-by-side using the same lens. We used a 24-70mm f/2.8 G on the D850 and fitted the same lens on the Z 7 with the FTZ adapter. We also used the Z 7 with its dedicated 24-70mm S lens. Uncompressed 14-bit Raws, were then processed in Lightroom with minimal processing so hopefully I was looking at images on a level playing field. The street scene (below right) was shot at ISO 100 using an exposure of 1/250sec at f/8. At 100% on-screen it was quite clear

that the Z 7 image was crisper than the D850’s and this was using the same 24-70mm f/2.8 G lens. The D850’s was still very good and some unsharp mask closed the difference gap significantly. The gap between the two Z 7 shots taken on the two lenses was much narrower. The definition of the new lens was very marginally better. However, to be honest you would be perfectly happy with any of the three images seen in isolation and it is only with very close direct comparison that you see the differences. We repeated the process but this time exploring the ISO performances of both cameras using the same G lens, the 24- 70mm f/2.8. No noise reduction, either in-camera or during

processing was used. Here, we have shown images at ISO 800, 3200 and 12,800. To be honest, the Z 7 was noticeably superior from ISO 800 onwards with cleaner, lower noise images so detail looked really crisp, and that performance differential was maintained as you went up the ISO scale. Looking closely I’d say the Z 7 offers nearly a 1EV benefit, ie. the Z 7 at ISO 6400 gave results that were close or even slightly better to the D850 at ISO 3200. In the context of a comparison, the Z 7 came out best, but it is true that the D850 did very well in both image quality and ISO performance. The images from both can be improved even further with sympathetic processing.

of

fine

detail

and

high

contrast levels. There was some performance drop off at f/11 and f/16 but nothing overly significant and there’s no problem stopping this lens down if maximum depth- of-field is your aim. No issues surfaced shooting into the light and even a low sun in the frame did not create too much flare. All told, this is a high- quality medium wide-angle with the benefit of a very useful maximum aperture, even taking into account the vignetting experienced at this setting.

Original image

Original image

Z 7 with 24-70mm f/4 S

Original image

Z 7 ISO 800

D850 ISO 800

Z 7 with FTZ adapter 24-70mm f/2.8 G

Z 7 ISO 3200

D850 ISO 3200

D850 with 24-70mm f/2.8 G

F/1.8

F/2.8

down to -1EV. In even lower light, you need to set Low Light AF mode and you can AF down to -4EV – in this mode, the AF is slower but that is to ensure accuracy. For those into focus stacking, the Z 7 has focus shift shooting where you can take up to 300 shots with the camera making focus adjustments, from close to far, in steps that you decide automatically. Compared with the D850, the Z Directly above The same scene was shot with the same exposure settings on the Z 7 and D850. Top is the Z 7 with its own 24-70mm f/4 lens and the two below are with the same 24- 70mm f/2.8 G lens on the Z 7 with the FTZ adapter and the D850.

Z 7 ISO 12,800

D850 ISO 12,800

F/4

F/5.6

F/8

F/11

in the centre. The active focus zone has a red outline and this turns green when focus is achieved. If the lens ring is set to focus then you can use this to manually adjust if necessary. Autofocusing itself is swift, silent and sensitive in all sorts of lighting and contrast situations. Face detection is offered too, but there’s no eye detection. I spent much of the time using single AF point with occasional forays into other settings.

I found the single AF option coped with most situations and saw little need for the pinpoint option which seems too small. Being able to adjust single AF point size would be handy though the small wide AF zone option proved useful. AF responsiveness across the image area seems pretty even too so selective focusing at the edges of the frame was not a problem. The Z 7’s AF in normal mode is sensitive

Above The Nikon Z 35mm f/1.8 will be the ideal standard lens for many photographers, and a very good performer it is too. Handling complements the camera very well too.

F/16

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