Chitro's Travel Photography

Finally I gave up and bought a mirrorless camera. I battled a lot of arguments for not going mirrorless, and staying with my DSLRs (they are still there though), but in the end, looking at the attractive summer sale of some of the popular Nikon and Canon mirrorless full frames (not APS-C, because there was not much of a price difference between the two formats), my gear acquisition temptation overpowered me and I ended up buying Nikon Z6II (which was launched in 2020). So I thought for those of you, who also want to buy a Z6II (and not the newest Z6III), I will write a quick blog.

Why Nikon as the first mirrorless brand?

Well, I have been using Nikon DSLRs from 2007, so it’s a no brainer for me to stick with Nikon. However, the decision was not that easy. From the beginning I decided that I will not buy Sony (the design did not appeal to me at all – yes it matters!). And I was not so keen to try other brands like Fujifilm, Olympus etc., so I was basically circling around Nikon or Canon (actually more Canon than Nikon). And indeed, at first I bought a Canon R6II and a Canon RF 24-105mm F4L IS USM lens and was on cloud 9 that it will be my best camera purchase ever (the camera and the lens ticked all my requirements, they looked great, super fast combo and super sharp). Then to my horror, I started finding articles, videos and blogs about the notorious electronic problems with this camera – “Err70″, Err20” etc. ( you can google about it), which to my research were still unresolved. And in fact it applied to other Canon mirrorless as well. So that meant I would go back to my trusty Nikon ecosystem, hoping that it would not throw me similar problems.

So, why Z6II?

Continue reading…

Dealbreaker Price

At the time when I returned my Canon and was looking for a Nikon mirrorless, Z6II was going through a pre-summer/summer sale with cash back here in all big online stores in Germany, plus even in the Nikon online store. So the choice was easy.

Lightweight for Travel

Even though the popular opinion is that mirrorless and DSLR overall weight difference is negligible, I found significant reduction of weight between Z6II and a 24-200 Z lens attached versus a Nikon D750 and 24-120 attached (I used to carry a D800 once for travel!). Most of the time, people compare with the F-mount to Z-mount adapter attached and then attaching a bulky DSLR lens in front of a lightweight Z camera, misbalancing the whole setup. One of the reasons iPhone photography became popular was that it was allowing photographers to travel with a good camera without causing shoulder or back pain. The Z-setup is meant to do the same thing (unless you want to mix DSLR and Z together).

Better Image quality compared to DSLR and better experience

Really? Well, in the end if your post-processing skills are good, it will not matter so much. However the unedited files coming out of Z6II looks sharper and richer in colours than my D750, D800 and other DSLRs that I have. I am not a big fan of electronic viewfinder, however it is fun to shoot with a brighter viewfinder, but more than that the live-view based shooting will give me an extra edge to keep my tripod at any height instead of always peeping through the viewfinder. My D750 also has a tilting screen but the experience with Z6II composing the image is altogether different.

Lesser File size and Speed of Shooting

Bigger file sizes can be managed quite efficiently with today’s computers. My MacBook M2 can easily handle big file sizes (TIFF etc.) to process images without hiccups. But ever since I started using D750, I know the benefits of 24 megapixels cameras, but I wanted to continue that journey with Z6II. Both D750 and Z6II have the same megapixels – you can of course make large prints, plus you get higher frames per second (Z6II allows me to shoot at least 10 frames per sec. and more than Z7II).

Why not the other Nikons like Z8, Z7II or wait for the newer Z6III?

Anybody who loves buying cameras knows that the wait is painful, especially when the previous version is on sale. At the time of writing this blog the Z6III is still not widely available in all stores. Plus Z6III will be more expensive (at least a 1000 Euros more). Better autofocus performance? I don’t do sports photography, I do birds in flight, but for that I can manage a few missed shots, if at all, with Z6II autofocus, and my primary genre is travel photography, so no big deal. Z7II is more megapixels, bigger files and lesser frames per second compared to Z6II and was also more expensive than Z6II. I have a Nikon D800 and a D750, and I know it would be a similar comparison.

Z8 is out of question for me as the price is way too high (at least 2000 Euros more) for features I can happily compromise with.

Why buy a Z lens and not use the Nikon FTZII Adapter to reuse existing DSLR lenses?

I have a load of DSLR lenses which I can happily reuse with Z6II with a FTZ adapter. I did not do that. In fact the FTZII was also on sale when I bought the Z6II. I want to keep a mirrorless setup lightweight, exactly how it is meant to be. That’s why I bought the Z 24-200mm zoom lens, which has the ideal focal length for travel photography without having to carry multiple lenses, fiddling with them in your bag, changing them while shooting and in the end come back home with a tired shoulder and neck.

A comparison between the Nikon Z 24-200 and Canon RF 24-240mm (which I was originally planning to buy with the R6II) is that Canon does not offer a lens hood out of the box, which you need to buy separately (yeah I know you don’t use lens hood, but those who care, need to spend more), and also the Canon has this weird vignetting problems around the corners for wide end of the focal length. Nikon has none of these problems plus it costs 200 Euros less (wow!).

What did I miss in Z6II?

Nothing much for my style of shooting, but one big regret with Z6II is the absence of a shutter curtain, which I had with the Canon R6II. As soon as you detach the lens, the mirrorless sensor is exposed to dust, and all those dust spots that appear in your photos need to be painfully removed afterwards (Gen AI should add this feature in photoshop in my opinion :)). The feature is there in Z8 and Z9, but it is an essential requirement, which Nikon reserved for shooters willing to spend more.