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The Future at Nikon

mansr

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Canon's strength have been its super telephotos
Canon-EF-1200mm-f-5.6-L-USM-Lens-and-Girl.jpg
 

balletboy

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That's the EF 1200mm. It's a special order lens, and I believe it transacted at BH Photo for something like US$120K or more.

Reminded me of a NZ couple I met, he had his wife carry a bag full of Canon lenses around the world while he took photos.
 

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JeffS7444

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It may be tempting to think that one predict the future by extrapolating current trends, but the future is never so straightforward: Today a popular catchphrase is "There's an app for that" but tomorrow's may be "What's an app?"

If Nikon F was my system of choice, I think that simply continuing to use it would be a viable option. While Canon went on record as saying "No further EF-lens development", they went on to say "Unless the market demands it". No one really knows how things will play out! Manufacturer's official product road maps and previews of proposed products are there to gauge customer interest and hence, always subject to revision.
 

Neutron

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Yes... The fact that Nikon people are still talking about the 1950s, in the age of the rise of Mirror less, in the face of the gauntlet thrown by Canon's RF mountvleses is symptomatic of Nikon's decline.

Canon has been taking the lead for quite some time. Nikon's slide these days gives room to Sony and other brands more than it benefits Canon IMHO.

However, Z6 is in deep discount today, and I cannot resist.
 

balletboy

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Canon has been taking the lead for quite some time. Nikon's slide these days gives room to Sony and other brands more than it benefits Canon IMHO.

However, Z6 is in deep discount today, and I cannot resist.

I bought a Z6 at Christmas when Nikon were subsidising big promotions at Park Cameras, a big London store, something like 15% discount. That's probably more than the store's normal profit. My only reservation was that it is a first generation camera. It was released in November 2018, so is 18 months old and you might expect an update soon, but they have managed to achieve much improved performance through software updates, in particular focus tracking.

Pixel-counters will prefer the 42mp Sony a7r III against the 24.5mp Z6, but the Sony is almost 50% more expensive and good luck with Sony software. Apparently the Z6 is particularly good for video and there are plenty of 24-70 f/4's around for a sensible price at mpb.com etc.
20200612_171514.jpg


For a complicated camera its not that difficult to get used to, larger than I might typically use, and there are buttons in places I didn't know exist. I was meant to be using it in Greenland last week, that didn't happen. Wait till next year ...
 

Neutron

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I bought a Z6 at Christmas when Nikon were subsidising big promotions at Park Cameras, a big London store, something like 15% discount. That's probably more than the store's normal profit. My only reservation was that it is a first generation camera. It was released in November 2018, so is 18 months old and you might expect an update soon, but they have managed to achieve much improved performance through software updates, in particular focus tracking.

Pixel-counters will prefer the 42mp Sony a7r III against the 24.5mp Z6, but the Sony is almost 50% more expensive and good luck with Sony software. Apparently the Z6 is particularly good for video and there are plenty of 24-70 f/4's around for a sensible price at mpb.com etc.View attachment 68530

For a complicated camera its not that difficult to get used to, larger than I might typically use, and there are buttons in places I didn't know exist. I was meant to be using it in Greenland last week, that didn't happen. Wait till next year ...

You have a nice rig!

i bought it mainly for my manual lens, at $1644 with FTZ and 32G card included, i will be happy for quite a few years to come:)

My Zm25/2, zf 100/2 and some other nikon RF lens would be thrilling.
 

balletboy

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You have a nice rig!

i bought it mainly for my manual lens, at $1644 with FTZ and 32G card included, i will be happy for quite a few years to come:)

My Zm25/2, zf 100/2 and some other nikon RF lens would be thrilling.

That sounds a very good price. I did a 2-for-1 deal on the 64gb cards.

The Zeiss 100/f2 looks like a very good lens. I had a Leica 90/f2 ASPH but at 475g it was a bit too heavy. A very good portrait focal length. Not sure how you do a portrait with a lens that weighs 800g! I must need to get fitter.

I just bought mine for nature and wildlife. I had a very nice 360mm kit (Leica 180 APO Telyt-R and 2x APO extender), very light, really excellent optics, Leica's first apochromatic lens, but manual focus and not good for whales. I've tried whales before with MF and no good. I sold it back to the guy who I bought it from about 4 years earlier, he'd regretted selling it to me.

I went on a landscape trip with some serious photographers and they had backpacks full of this stuff. I had a Leica M10 round my neck, a Leica Q on my shoulder, two lenses in one coat pocket and a bottle of water and a Mars bar in the other pocket. They were I think rather offended by the 28mm lens in the image above, it's design is ideal for hyperfocal focusing, i.e. landscape and street. It's a 1955 design and does weird things.
 
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JeffS7444

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Nikon's Monarch HG 8x30 binoculars look mighty interesting.
 

Neutron

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That sounds a very good price. I did a 2-for-1 deal on the 64gb cards.

The Zeiss 100/f2 looks like a very good lens. I had a Leica 90/f2 ASPH but at 475g it was a bit too heavy. A very good portrait focal length. Not sure how you do a portrait with a lens that weighs 800g! I must need to get fitter.

I just bought mine for nature and wildlife. I had a very nice 360mm kit (Leica 180 APO Telyt-R and 2x APO extender), very light, really excellent optics, Leica's first apochromatic lens, but manual focus and not good for whales. I've tried whales before with MF and no good. I sold it back to the guy who I bought it from about 4 years earlier, he'd regretted selling it to me.

I went on a landscape trip with some serious photographers and they had backpacks full of this stuff. I had a Leica M10 round my neck, a Leica Q on my shoulder, two lenses in one coat pocket and a bottle of water and a Mars bar in the other pocket. They were I think rather offended by the 28mm lens in the image above, it's design is ideal for hyperfocal focusing, i.e. landscape and street. It's a 1955 design and does weird things.

That's a dream combo! I have a leica R 28/2.8 and it had never failed to be amazing. However I cannot afford to devote to Leica ATM. There are quite a few lens that caught my eyes in M mount, including your 90/2.
 

JeffS7444

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JeffS7444

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Blumlein 88

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I shall leave such things for more serious users than myself. You know that guy who shows up at enthusiast gatherings with the best gear; the one that all salespeople are eager to serve? That's not me.
I've a set of 8x42 Zeiss T* binos. They are superb. I'd say so of course wouldn't I. A very strange situation I was able to get them for 25% of normal price. I'd have never spend what they cost. I had a few other very good binoculars in the mid-range pricing. I could have sold the Zeiss for a nice profit. Instead I sold all my other binocs and kept the Zeiss.

I took them out to a bino star watch party once. Not exactly what they were designed for. Everyone who I let look thru them said something like, "whoa, what are these, who made them, what do they cost, I need some of these" Sort of a blind test as they couldn't see what I had handed them in the low light.
 

mhardy6647

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I've a set of 8x42 Zeiss T* binos. They are superb. I'd say so of course wouldn't I. A very strange situation I was able to get them for 25% of normal price. I'd have never spend what they cost. I had a few other very good binoculars in the mid-range pricing. I could have sold the Zeiss for a nice profit. Instead I sold all my other binocs and kept the Zeiss.

I took them out to a bino star watch party once. Not exactly what they were designed for. Everyone who I let look thru them said something like, "whoa, what are these, who made them, what do they cost, I need some of these" Sort of a blind test as they couldn't see what I had handed them in the low light.
Mrs. H went to the 10 bys for birding in the field after logging many years on the Swarovskis (which still serve in the living room).
The investment totally hinges on the application -- she figured out pretty quickly that, as a serious birder, success is all about being able to see. Those binoculars are not inexpensive, but they're long-term (possibly lifetime) investments.

I, on the other hand, usually use a cheap (!) pair of Cabelas "Intensity HD" 10 x 42 (which are our kitchen binoculars). Other than being a little heavy, they feel nice, they look good (i.e., not cheap), they have some nice touches (e.g., click-stop eyecups -- although that doesn't help me as a full time wearer of eyeglasses) and have decent close focusing capability and eye relief. They also exhibit decent image quality; at less than a tenth of the cost of the Zeiss or the Swarovskis. However, even a minute or two spent looking through the either of the latter compared to the "Cabelas" branded binos quickly reveals that one does get what one pays for.
 

balletboy

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That's a dream combo! I have a leica R 28/2.8 and it had never failed to be amazing. However I cannot afford to devote to Leica ATM. There are quite a few lens that caught my eyes in M mount, including your 90/2.

I sold the 90/f2 ASPH last year due to the weight. It is pretty magnificent. I have a 1974 90/f2.8 tele-elmarit that I bought some years ago and sent back to Leica for a clean and recalibration. Total cost was £600. It’s a very good lens, very small and weighs 226g. Also works well on Sony and Nikon.
 

JeffS7444

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I've a set of 8x42 Zeiss T* binos. They are superb. I'd say so of course wouldn't I. A very strange situation I was able to get them for 25% of normal price. I'd have never spend what they cost. I had a few other very good binoculars in the mid-range pricing. I could have sold the Zeiss for a nice profit. Instead I sold all my other binocs and kept the Zeiss.

I took them out to a bino star watch party once. Not exactly what they were designed for. Everyone who I let look thru them said something like, "whoa, what are these, who made them, what do they cost, I need some of these" Sort of a blind test as they couldn't see what I had handed them in the low light.

The hope is that the Olympus Pros will already be a sufficiently large upgrade from my previous binoculars that I'll be happy enough just so long as I don't compare with the very best units available. But even if I do, the ~2400 USD price differential between mine and the very top-end sets might buy any number of other distractions!

Backyard astronomy was actually one of my passions back when I had a sort of backyard. I really got a rush out of seeing faintly glowing regions of sky resolved into countless granules! Still really want to build a 6" f/8 dob for viewing planets too, and it just doesn't seem right if it's not all Sonotube and birch-ply (but I ramble).
 
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