→ Skylum Luminar 3.1.1 released.
→ The Tokina Opera 50mm f/1.4 FF lens for Nikon F-mount is now $150 off at Adorama and B&H.
→ Sigma issued product advisories for the SIGMA 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM | Sports and the SIGMA 70-200mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM | Sports lenses.
→ Comparing mirrorless systems based on Fujifilm’s concept of “Value Angle”.
Birding with Nikon Z6 and the Nikkor 500 f/4 lens by Cedric Beggue (fast birds in flight taken with Nikon Z6 AF tracking):
I own a Z6 since December and decided to take it to its first real challenge in terms of autofocus speed and tracking with my Sigma 500mm F4 Sport lens on European bee-eaters
Last year I had the 400mm F2.8 G with the D500 and I was amazed by the AF performance (almost as much as by the wonderful colors of these birds). I found that group AF worked best for me in this situation, the camera would sometimes lock on the background but not so often while still tracking if the subject went on the corners of the frame.
The Z6 doesn't have an equivalent for group AF, I struggled trying Dynamic Area / Wide S and Wide L but it would not work, always locking on the background.
Keep in mind the birds are not so large (less than 30cm) and the average shooting distance was ~15-20 meters, they are not easy to keep in the frame with the way they fly.
So I tried auto AF and it just worked...
A Guest Post by Douglas Cape z360.com
I am often asked for camera recommendations and my standard reply is the Nikon D5500. The later D5600 is basically the same camera with Snapbridge (an app for phones), which I never use. To make this into a “Pro“ camera I suggest attaching some full frame FX lenses, which will give you startling sharpness, very little vignetting and no corner fuzziness. You are just using the best part of the lens, which is basically over-engineered for usage on DX crop sensor cameras. Take a look at nearly all MTF charts and you are avoiding the wavy (not as sharp) part of the graph on the right-hand side, which is the edge of the sensor.
Here is the Nikon MTF Chart for their AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G full frame lens.
On a DX camera you are only using the lens up to the vertical dotted line.
Adorama currently has the refurbished Nikon AF-S Nikkor 105mm f/1.4E ED lens for $1,6980.
The last time we had a similar offer (the lens was $20 more expensive), it sold out in minutes.
Additional coverage of the Nikkor 105mm f/1.4E ED lens for $1,699 lens can be found here.
DxOMark published their test results for the Nikon Nikkor Z 35mm f/1.8 S mirrorless lens ($847 at Adorama & B&H). Here is their conclusion:
In the past few months, I had several blog posts about Nikon's upcoming cheaper mirrorless camera (see here and here).
Nikkei also just reported that Nikon is going to announce a new mid-level mirrorless camera as early as this year. The price is going to be around 100,000 yen ($920):
