So, where did we get to on camera gear and how did I arrive here?

My first serious camera was a Nikon F801 and then alongside that a Nikon F601 because “as a serious photographer you needed a second body so you could use a different film, slide film in one and print film in the other”. Both were great cameras and never let me down. I eventually lost interest in lugging a camera everywhere and settled on a Konica Compact digital camera in the new, all singing, all dancing, digital era.

I decided to return to serious photography a few years back but did not want to lug around a full SLR Digital model so I bought a Nikon P9000 to add to my then Nikon P900 pocket size camera. The big limitation was the fact that I could only zoom in and out but not change lenses so I was losing some creative control. I then swapped them both for a Nikon V1, small, compact and with interchangeable lenses. It all worked well but I was having difficulty taking clean crisp digital images. I felt that this was a limitation of the small sensor but clearly, I was wrong as you will see. I then swapped to the Olympus OM System, relatively compact and low weight but ultimately, I could not see the crisp images that I wanted. I tried everything and spent £120 on a day with an Olympus Ambassador in the lashing rain in Glencoe. There were about ten of us along with the local Olympus Rep stuffed into a minibus and the “Host” was intent on us seeing all the sights that he had marked out despite the lashing rain and wind. Glencoe at its absolute November best. The ambassador spent all of ten minutes with me helping to form my image of the hills. Ten whole minutes and I work that out as £12 per minute.

I still could not take the crisp digital images that I could see others posting on Twitter. Yes, they may be professional photographers but they had access to the same equipment as me and yes, I should be able to take the same crisp images, just perhaps not so well framed, use of front to back sharpness or any other “pro” skills. My images should be at least as crisp with that crack that you can get from a good digital image?

So back to the camera shop and this time out with a Nikon D750, SLR, Full Frame, FX Series camera with a 24-120 f4 lens. Great camera, great images but it was a good bit heavier and stayed at home most of the time. I went to the Nikon School in London for two days of instruction with this camera and was able to take some really nice images but, and it’s a big but, it did tend to stay at home. So, I talked to a neighbour who is a pro photographer and several of his colleagues were using Fuji cameras. OK, let’s try Fuji but amongst other things I could not get on with the placement of the retainer for the camera strap which was under my right hand and I found it really annoying. It was the same problem that I had been having with the Olympus OM D5 and I just could not live with it and so where to now?

Well, in between all my comings and goings, Nikon had entered the mirrorless camera market with two full frame FX models, the Z6 and Z7 along with a whole selection of lenses. Halleluiah, here we go. Not only full frame so a much bigger image to play with on my computer but everything was really as it was from a few years ago with my old F801 & F601. A Nikon is always a Nikon at the end of the day.

So how have I been getting on? Initially not so good, marginally heavier than my Olympus equipment but not much. Image quality? Here I was still struggling to find both a fast-enough shutter speed to freeze the motion but also control of depth of field was not as I wanted. I spoke to various people about it and no one came up with a solution. I booked on a Nikon School day out in the Lake District to spent time with the experts from Nikon in the hope that they could come up with a solution AND not cost me £12 per minute!

The course was cancelled due to Covid 19. However, the Nikon School are not an idle bunch and have been offering a whole selection of online courses free of charge via Zoom and I’ve booked onto as many as possible. The first was “Using the Z6 Camera” which was just what I wanted. Most of the information was about setting up the camera and the instructor. Ricci Chera was a keen wildlife photographer. He suggested several settings to help capture a crisp mage but he also told us to use no more than a f8 or f11 aperture and set the shutter speed at 1/2000 or faster to freeze the image and leave the camera to set the ISO.

A high ISO on this camera does not screw up the grain like others or using 35mm film.

Wow, what a revelation, it has changed my life. 

I was always wary of setting too high an ISO as you lose image quality but with the current crop of sensors and the Nikon full frame and new designs, bigger but lighter bodies and lenses anything is possible. I’m absolutely delighted with my photographs. Its been like going through a door into another room. 

The other advantage of swopping to the new Nikon Z Series is that they have a small but great selection of lenses. I have the 14-30 f4 Wide Angle Zoom and the 24-70 f4 Zoom lenses and I only really need to add the 200-600 lens when it is released. I also have the FTZ Adaptor so I can use the 200-500 FX Zoom lens till the newer lens for the Z Series is released and I think that I’d probably be able to trade it or sell in when the newer lens come out. And that’s it, I could live with just that selection; I am sure that there will be other lenses that I’d like but if it came to the bit, I really would not need any other lenses to work with. Not only that but the lens sizes relate to the old 35mm film equivalents so no conversions in my head like times 2 with Olympus or times 1.5 with Fuji. It just makes life that little bit easier.

Now, I just need to get out and take some photos. Watch this space.

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