Ok, it might be said I’m a bit stubborn. It can also be said I’m a bit hard headed… It could also be said I can be a bit resistant to change.
I would definitely admit that I am strong willed, and very passionate for what I believe in!
We’ll stand by folks I’m going to blow your mind! With my last post I mentioned I’m looking into Ai a bit more open minded.
This post? Guess what?!? I bought another mirrorless camera! Yes I had purchased one before but I did not like all of the things this old buzzard had to change in order to shoot with it.
Well Nikon came out with an announcement of a $500.00 discount and two years free interest…hmmmm, I like a sale, and anyone that says I can use their money for a couple of years for free is enticing.
So I jumped off the cliff and bought a Z8 mirrorless camera. There are several reasons why I made this purchase… I do not like to run right out and have the latest and greatest of anything.
Back in the day I spent a lot of money on Betamax… wrong! VHS won out… I spent a fortune on that big 850cfm Holly double pumper! But ya had to tweak it every single day! So I went back to Carter.
A lot of people jumped on the Sony bandwagon of early mirrorless cameras… early on Sony was the pioneer in mirrorless. Was this another Betamax? So I stayed on the sidelines… I avoided all the hype.
Sony made a bunch of mistakes with those early cameras. Yes they learned from those mistakes, but I did not need to fund the experiments. I’ve been a Nikon shooter for well over five decades now. Nikon stayed on the mirrorless sidelines too.
I had all the top of the line Nikon cameras over the years. Both film and digital. The awesome D3… then the D4, and the D5… I waited on the D6 cuz I did not think that upgrade was worth the 7k to me.
I had the D800, then the D810. Awesome landscape cameras or for the studio with lights. But pretty crappy for low light performance. I liked shooting outdoors in low light scenarios. My trusty old Nikon D-7200 handled that well. So did the D3, D4, and D5.
But hauling around several different batteries, grips, and chargers became a pretty big pain. Then? Nikon announced the D-850! The hype was HUGE! I remembered my D3 purchase… and then?…
Nikon came out with the D-750 just ten months after I was able to get my hands on the D-3!
All my friends laughed at me! Hard! Man! I took a lot of heat for spending 7k on a camera only to have the D-750 come along and do most everything my D-3 did for half the money… to date the bullying I took over the D3 / D750 incident still remains firmly planted in my memory banks…
The D-850… I waited a year and a half before I bought one. The camera had been proven well by then. To date the D-850 has been the best camera I’ve ever owned from Nikon. I have two of them. One standard light and one infrared. I doubt I’ll ever sell them.
I bought the Z-6II as my first mirrorless. I kept it about 6 months. It’s a fine camera but not what the doctor ordered for my style of shooting. I could not get used to the viewfinder lag and a few other things.
Enter the Nikon Z-9… lots more hype! Nikon did things well with their larger flange. They learned from the mistakes of others. But early on there were reports from seasoned pros that the camera became a brick in their hands with an electronic failure or two.
Remember the cars back in the day? We could fix most anything on our cars back in the day, except electronic issues! Those cost big bucks to triage and repair! That is still true today.
I waited… I studied… I analyzed. I noticed a trend. Nikon had a Z-5, a Z-6, and a Z-7… but now a Z-9? Could this be another D-3 / D-750 scenario? Why no Z-8?? Hmmmm…yup I’m old… but age makes fine wine and whiskey. It also gives charmingly antique ‘ol Photographers a lot of hard lessons and ingrained wisdom.
It took longer this time, but on the heels of the Z-9 came the Z-8! Wow! My suspicions came true! The Z-8 had most of the capabilities of the Z-9 for a LOT less money! But were there going to be some electronic issues like with the early Z-9’s?
So I remained on the sidelines. I rented the camera… still did not like the viewfinder lag. Also?? I had zero idea how to set up this handheld computer for my uses… I waited. I saw a firmware update, then another, then another.
They were tweaking the carburetor. Then?? Nikon did something totally out of the blue I never saw coming! They bought Red! The king of Video Camera’s! 100 grand a piece! Hollywood did not own these… they rented them!
So Nikon buys Red Cinema for 85 million! Pretty cheap for the leading video technology out there. Couple that with Nikon’s large flange to develop cutting edge lenses? Wow!
Yes, Nikon just introduced the first Nikon/Red video camera. This summer another thing happened to me. Now I’ve never been one to go spend thousands of dollars on a seminar to shoot wildlife in a controlled environment.
But I had really good glass on my D-850, coupled with some hard earned knowledge, and I was in the right place, with the right education , to spot an Osprey in the wild, hovering high above a lake looking for dinner.
Now I’ve seen Eagles in the wild… but did not have the camera or lens with me. I’ve seen hawks fly over me with a snake dangling from its talons. But I was driving. There were many other scenarios in the past as well.
But this time?!? This time I was in the right place, at the right time, with a decent camera and lens combination, my camera programming set right for the scenario… this time was mine. All I had to do was be patient.
Waiting, watching, prepared… Then all of a sudden the Osprey was circling lower. Once, twice, three times around… I was on him! Then he brought his wings in for the dive!
All I had to do was stay on him. Keep my focus in tact. And hope my high speed frame setting was enough to capture him hit the water. I saw it in my viewfinder but did I capture it?? I watched him shake the water off… then work to fly off the water…
Did he catch a fish? Yes!! I saw it in the viewfinder! But did I get the shot? I did not know. I kept the button mashed down. I filled the buffer twice and had to wait precious seconds to shoot again.
I followed him all the way till he was out of sight. I hoped he would eat the fish in flight and go dive for another. I was only in the site for maybe 20 minutes. But it felt like hours.
It was ok to breathe now. He was gone. I looked at the images in my camera. It looked like I might have got a shot or two. Was the light right? How about focus? This was in the wild. This was special. I’d have to wait and see the images in my digital darkroom.
Now I have nothing at all to say about people that can afford to spend thousands of dollars on the proper gear, and then more thousands on trips to far off places. Where species to capture are in populations by the thousands.
This ‘ol buzzard does not fly. I am also based in the desert 50% of the year. The rest of the year I venture to places North and on the coast. Or high in the mountains. I go where I can and do what I can.
I become one with the environment. Not for a week or ten days like if I was on a seminar… but for the entire summer! No I don’t fly… but I see and feel things, those that fly will never see.
There’s nothing at all wrong with what others do, I simply do me. Well capturing that Osprey in the wild was exciting! It invigorated me! New found inspiration!
If I was still shooing ballet I’d have bought mirrorless long ago. But I haven’t shot dancers in quite awhile now… Nikon has come out with many firmware updates for the Z-8. It’s been improved now to be even better than at introduction.
So impulse took over!… a sale and free money? For the improved version of the D-850!?! Oops! My finger simply hit the buy button! I don’t need any new Z lenses. I can simply adapt the glass I already have to the new camera.
Now? What’s next? Well now I have to study how to use and set up this new camera. I remember teaching many seminars where students would show up with a brand new camera still in the box!
They would attend a lighting seminar, with a brand new, in the box camera, with technology so new it was not yet known how to trigger studio lights with it, and expect me to teach them!
With every seminar I’ve ever taught, camera operation was never the topic! There are droves of YouTube content creators out there for that! Why reintroduce the wheel?
Now if you happen to be a Nikon shooter, on one of my PhotoSafaris, I’d be more than happy to show you a thing or two. But I’ve NEVER represented myself as the guru of every brand of Camera out there and its operations… or even how to use the latest new Nikon camera!
So now the study begins. Now I take my own medicine and learn how to use this new 4,000 dollar hand held computer imaging device…
For that information I’m turning to the guru of Nikon Camera operation, Mr. Steve Perry! This man should be knighted! The study and testing he does are on another level.
Back in the day I used to buy David Busch’s books on camera operation. But his stuff is published by big publishing companies. They want a return on investment. They stick with proven writers. It’s hard to enter that realm.
New days and new technology! Steve Perry publishes his own books! They are the best! Steve does exhaustive research and testing. He’s a real technophobe! He enjoys what makes the brains of mere mortals turn to mush… his books are exceptional!
One of them I’m now studying is over 650 pages! So the new adventure begins! I’m placing a link to Steve’s website bellow…
Another featured photographer for this month? Mr. Jared Lloyd… this fine Photograoher and gentleman is also a conversationalist and environmental journalist. His work had been published in National Geographic, National Wildlife Magazine, the New York Times, and Audubon Magazine.
Jared is about teaching you the finer points of animal behavior in the wild, amongst other topics. Jared created PhotoWILD magazine to braid together the art and science of wildlife photography with a deeper understanding of the natural world, in order to help aspiring wildlife Photographers all over the world advance their craft.
In other words? Jared becomes one with the environment with even more intensity and passion than I do. A link to his gig is below.
What I try and teach? Is how to use Photography, The Digital Darkroom, and Fine Art Printing to enhance your life, not just become digital dust in nanoseconds online.
Now? As you read this, it is the best of times, and it is the worst of times… The best? It’s Fall! One of my favorite times of the year! Why? Because Winter in Next! That IS my favorite time of year!
The worst? Tomorrow is the first of October. My Summer sojourn is over. It’s time to pull out of high camp… not because I want to, but because it’s dangerous to pull my RV down 10% icy grades. I also need to acclimate to warmer weather and lower altitudes. I’ve been at 8500 feet plus all Summer. The highs are currently perfect at 50 degrees with lows in the high 20’s…
I’ll spend about a week in my Cedar City Print location cleaning up supplies used in Summer Printing. The weather in Cedar is 25 degrees warmer. This will help transition back to Vegas which is over 40 degrees warmer. I’ll also transition down to 6,000 feet and then 2500 feet in elevation. Charmingly antique adults should be mindful of such things… ^_*
The really bright side? I have a new handheld computer imaging device I need to learn and practice with!
Yes! I will be taking my own medicine! The next several months will be spent going through every aspect of this camera. Yes! I will be able to operate it in the dark! Yes, I need faster CF Express Cards! Yes! 20 frames a second plus is no joke! Yes! 8 K video is possible! But I’ll seldome use this. 4K is fine. Everyone is still on 1080p most of the time.
Yes! There are already rumors of a Z-8II… Do I care?? I’ll just bet you can answer that question…
Thanks for being here!
