Z lenses
Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 3:55 pm
What difference is there in using the "Z" lenses vs Nikon lenses with adapter? Is there any loss of image quality, etc?
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That is due to the fact that you are using the sensor to do AF rather than an off sensor AF system in your D850 which is really only dead accurate at whatever distance, temperature, and light source that you did your AF Fine tune with (assuming that you did calibrate it). If you didn't calibrate the lens to your DSLR, then there is almost 0 percent probability that it is as accurate as can be. I have literally done hundreds of 500PF lenses with D4/D5, D850 and D500 cameras and exactly zero of them required no AFFT value change.mlgray12 wrote:image quality I think is improved using the 1.4x with the 500 PF on the Z7 over the D850
EJ - thanks I actually have all the gear to fine tune my lens but in this case I did not - just being lazy - I should have mentioned that - my 500 seems to be pretty accurate without Tc's and I saw same thing with all my older big glass like the 600 f/4 and 400 f/2.8 always needing to do lots more correction with TC'sE.J. Peiker wrote:That is due to the fact that you are using the sensor to do AF rather than an off sensor AF system in your D850 which is really only dead accurate at whatever distance, temperature, and light source that you did your AF Fine tune with (assuming that you did calibrate it). If you didn't calibrate the lens to your DSLR, then there is almost 0 percent probability that it is as accurate as can be. I have literally done hundreds of 500PF lenses with D4/D5, D850 and D500 cameras and exactly zero of them required no AFFT value change.mlgray12 wrote:image quality I think is improved using the 1.4x with the 500 PF on the Z7 over the D850
No point at all in doing the fine tune on a mirrorless camera unless you purposely want to force a lens to front or back focus for some reason. Do they even have AFFT in the menus on the Z cameras? I don't have one to check.mlgray12 wrote:EJ - thanks I actually have all the gear to fine tune my lens but in this case I did not - just being lazy - I should have mentioned that - my 500 seems to be pretty accurate without Tc's and I saw same thing with all my older big glass like the 600 f/4 and 400 f/2.8 always needing to do lots more correction with TC'sE.J. Peiker wrote:That is due to the fact that you are using the sensor to do AF rather than an off sensor AF system in your D850 which is really only dead accurate at whatever distance, temperature, and light source that you did your AF Fine tune with (assuming that you did calibrate it). If you didn't calibrate the lens to your DSLR, then there is almost 0 percent probability that it is as accurate as can be. I have literally done hundreds of 500PF lenses with D4/D5, D850 and D500 cameras and exactly zero of them required no AFFT value change.mlgray12 wrote:image quality I think is improved using the 1.4x with the 500 PF on the Z7 over the D850
That is another reason really like mirrorless - Is there any reason to actually fine tune when using a mirrorless camera like a Z7 - They still have that capability which not sure what it corrects when focusing is done on sensor
Mike
E.J.,E.J. Peiker wrote:The Z lenses are across the board much better due primarily to the straighter light path to the sensor enabled by the much wider mount, as well as that they are all much newer designs. So, IQ is better with every Z lens than it is with it's F-mount equivalent. Additionally, AF will be faster. That's not to say that you can't get good results using F-mount lenses via the adapter but for equivalent lenses, the Zs will be better. The wider the lens, the more noticeable it will be due to the straighter lightpath. For example if I were buying a Z system but could only get 2 of the 3 "trinity" lenses (14-28 or 16-35, 24-70, and 70-200), I would get the Z version of the wide and standard lens and use the F-mount 70-200 until I could replace it at a later date. Hope that helps.
I thought I had seen it on menu but I went and checked the camera to be sure and at least the Z7 has a AFFT on the menuE.J. Peiker wrote:No point at all in doing the fine tune on a mirrorless camera unless you purposely want to force a lens to front or back focus for some reason. Do they even have AFFT in the menus on the Z cameras? I don't have one to check.mlgray12 wrote:EJ - thanks I actually have all the gear to fine tune my lens but in this case I did not - just being lazy - I should have mentioned that - my 500 seems to be pretty accurate without Tc's and I saw same thing with all my older big glass like the 600 f/4 and 400 f/2.8 always needing to do lots more correction with TC'sE.J. Peiker wrote:That is due to the fact that you are using the sensor to do AF rather than an off sensor AF system in your D850 which is really only dead accurate at whatever distance, temperature, and light source that you did your AF Fine tune with (assuming that you did calibrate it). If you didn't calibrate the lens to your DSLR, then there is almost 0 percent probability that it is as accurate as can be. I have literally done hundreds of 500PF lenses with D4/D5, D850 and D500 cameras and exactly zero of them required no AFFT value change.mlgray12 wrote:image quality I think is improved using the 1.4x with the 500 PF on the Z7 over the D850
That is another reason really like mirrorless - Is there any reason to actually fine tune when using a mirrorless camera like a Z7 - They still have that capability which not sure what it corrects when focusing is done on sensor
Mike
Yes, absolutely, the Canon RF lenses blow the doors off of the equivalent EF lenses.Brian K. wrote:E.J.,E.J. Peiker wrote:The Z lenses are across the board much better due primarily to the straighter light path to the sensor enabled by the much wider mount, as well as that they are all much newer designs. So, IQ is better with every Z lens than it is with it's F-mount equivalent. Additionally, AF will be faster. That's not to say that you can't get good results using F-mount lenses via the adapter but for equivalent lenses, the Zs will be better. The wider the lens, the more noticeable it will be due to the straighter lightpath. For example if I were buying a Z system but could only get 2 of the 3 "trinity" lenses (14-28 or 16-35, 24-70, and 70-200), I would get the Z version of the wide and standard lens and use the F-mount 70-200 until I could replace it at a later date. Hope that helps.
This is very interesting. Would you say this is generally true for all new, larger mounts like the Canon RF mount?
Brian
Interesting. So not to get too far off topic, but is it the ratio of the width of the mount to the size of the sensor? That is, if one has a smaller sensor (thinking DX for Nikon or even a micro-thirds camera), then the smaller mount is better relatively to the same size mount on a the larger sensor?E.J. Peiker wrote:Yes, absolutely, the Canon RF lenses blow the doors off of the equivalent EF lenses.Brian K. wrote:E.J.,E.J. Peiker wrote:The Z lenses are across the board much better due primarily to the straighter light path to the sensor enabled by the much wider mount, as well as that they are all much newer designs. So, IQ is better with every Z lens than it is with it's F-mount equivalent. Additionally, AF will be faster. That's not to say that you can't get good results using F-mount lenses via the adapter but for equivalent lenses, the Zs will be better. The wider the lens, the more noticeable it will be due to the straighter lightpath. For example if I were buying a Z system but could only get 2 of the 3 "trinity" lenses (14-28 or 16-35, 24-70, and 70-200), I would get the Z version of the wide and standard lens and use the F-mount 70-200 until I could replace it at a later date. Hope that helps.
This is very interesting. Would you say this is generally true for all new, larger mounts like the Canon RF mount?
Brian
E.J. Peiker wrote:Yes, absolutely, the Canon RF lenses blow the doors off of the equivalent EF lenses.Brian K. wrote:E.J.,E.J. Peiker wrote:The Z lenses are across the board much better due primarily to the straighter light path to the sensor enabled by the much wider mount, as well as that they are all much newer designs. So, IQ is better with every Z lens than it is with it's F-mount equivalent. Additionally, AF will be faster. That's not to say that you can't get good results using F-mount lenses via the adapter but for equivalent lenses, the Zs will be better. The wider the lens, the more noticeable it will be due to the straighter lightpath. For example if I were buying a Z system but could only get 2 of the 3 "trinity" lenses (14-28 or 16-35, 24-70, and 70-200), I would get the Z version of the wide and standard lens and use the F-mount 70-200 until I could replace it at a later date. Hope that helps.
This is very interesting. Would you say this is generally true for all new, larger mounts like the Canon RF mount?
Brian