walt@wblady.com

As it turned out, the jumping focus point didn't actually affect the focus of the image. I had another issue that caused the focus to be soft. Actually the image is taken before the jumping occurs. I was told that the jumping is the focus point re-centering itself.

I have a 200-500mm and a 70-200mm that I use with my Z 7. I use an FTZ adapter. Both lenses work fine when the VR switch on the lens is turned on.

I just bought a Z 9 and tried these two lenses with the VR switch turned on and had horrible results. The AF is set to Single Point. When the VR switch is turned on, the VR stabilization mode immediately engages. When the shutter is depressed the focus point jumps to the left, and the result is a blurry shot.

The focus seems to work (no jumping focus point) when the lens VR is turned off. Does the VR on F lenses not work properly with the Z 9, or am I doing something wrong? The Z 7 worked the same as my D850.

This hand held shot was taken with the  200-500mm and NO VR.

My favorite time in Spring is when these little beauties pop up.

Spring is in the air.

Highway through the Hydro forest. Single lane ahead.

Nikon Z 7

1/1000 sec @ f:9.0

ISO 140

Z 24-70 @ 70 mm

I don't know why some people are down on Mirrorless cameras?

They use identical science as the DSLRs to capture images, but have distinct advantages. They don’t have the additional weight of prisms and mirrors. They don't have a loud mirror slap with its accompanying vibration. They have an EVF that displays the image with all its in-camera adjustments, which is Ideal for making creative, on-the-spot decisions... before the shot is taken... eliminating some guess work and the need for taking additional, what-if shots while you’re on location. What a fantastic time and film saver.

Granted the EVFs are not quite there yet, but they will improve over time. What do DSLRs have that’s better, other than faster rapid-fire shooting? Nothing that I know of. I have a D850 and a Z 7, and the only difference in images quality is what the Z 7s new, larger lens mount and S Line lenses bring to the equation.

Thought I'd post two arial shots of the beautiful Fall colours here in southern Ontario, taken with my flying Hasselblad. It's actually a DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone. 

Hi. I do have a 200-500 and an AF-S TC-20E III. I also have an A-FS TC-14E III. The 2X TC pushes the f stop to f:11. The AF on my D850 or Z 7 don't work above  f:8.

I have tried manual focusing with the 2X TC on a tripod but at 1000mm any slight vibration kills the shot. I recommend either setting the shutter delay to about 2 seconds or use a remote shutter release. You might also want to lock the mirror up before the shot. The 14E III pushes the 500 to 700mm at f:8 where the AF still works. I could never get my focusing to be as pin sharp as the 200-500 is capable of, so I don't use the TCs with this lens. I close crop the 45+mp images. The super high resolution of my Nikons is almost as good as, and much cheaper than, verrrry expensive glass.

I do most of my bird shots with the 200-500 in Manual, hand held at 1000 sec at f:5.6. You can see some of my shots at www.wblady.com. I should also mention that these on-line jpegs were saved at about 6o% quality to save download time. The actual hi-res shots are much sharper.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I thought that one conversion method might result in an image with better dynamic range than the other. It seems that they will both produce the same results.

These photographs were taken in and around the Greater Toronto Area. Images were originally shot in colour, then converted to monochrome PhotoArt with a light tinted background. The original colour photos are posted as well. 

I printed hi-res versions of some photos, in matte black ink on archival paper, giving them a warm antique feel. My wife said why not put them on-line... other people might like to look at your stuff. So, I did what I was told. You can see my stuff at www.wblady.com.

I'm certainly not a professional photographer, and maybe I don't know what I'm talking about but, I have a lens that I call my... "I have no idea what the heck I'm going to shoot today" walk-around lens. It's my 28-300mm f:3.5-5.6 workhorse. I put it on my D850 or my Z 7 (with an FTZ adapter) when I want to pack one camera with one lens. I've used this glass for just about everything. I know its limitations so I'm never really disappointed in the results. I've also got a S24-70mm f:28, a 70-200mm f:28 and a few other assorted macros and wide angle glass, but I always seem to take this one with me instead of lugging a heavy bag. Haven't been disappointed yet..

Hi. I just picked up a Z 7 with the DTZ adapter to compliment my D850. All my lenses (24-70 2.8, 70-200 2.8, 200-500 5.4, 17-35 2.8, 28-300 3.5-5.6 and the 105 macro) worked fine with the Z 7. I use the 850 for wildlife telephoto shots and the Z 7 for walk around and mingle shots.

I wanted a lighter lens for the Mirrorless so I picked up a Z 24-70 2.8 because of the light weight and the excellent edge to edge sharpness. A little costly for a Pro-Am photographer like me, but worth it for a Pro, where the lens will probably earn its keep.

I had a strange thing happen to the metering on my Z 7 the other day. The camera was set up for Single Spot Focusing, Center weighted Metering, Cloudy Sky WB and Auto ISO. The lens was a 70-200mm 2.8G II, attached to a 2X Teleconverter.

The metering and Auto ISO would change automatically depending on where the camera was pointing. At one point I noticed that the image in the viewfinder was far too bright. The ISO was stuck at 8000 and didn’t adjust when I pointed the camera at differently lit scenes. I turned the camera off then on again and the metering and ISO went back to normal again.

Maybe it happened because of some setting I had made. Has anyone else had this problem?

Does anyone know if there are viewfinder "Tilt Sensors" on the mirrorless cameras similar to the one on the D810 and D850 and how I can turn it on? Pressing the F2 button on the DSLRs displays black tilt sensor dashes at the bottom and sides of the viewfinder that indicate if the camera is vertically and horizontally level. These level indicators are especially handy during hand-held shots. So far I've only found the "Virtual Horizon" on the Z cameras that sits in the middle of the viewfinder. I find that it obscures some of the image and interferes with the composition of the shot.