You also enjoy the amazing speed of your Nikon Z8 (or maybe Z9) like me? But do you check if your memory cards and their settings allow to perform up to 20 frames per second (fps)?
I did not!
Nikon Z8 memory cards for 20 fps weiterlesenKategorie: photography
Pixel Shift Woes: Why the Nikon Z8 Might Disappoint You
Switching from Nikon Z7 to Z8 is a lot of fun. There is only one major disadvantage: 675g compared to 910g is a big difference. Everything else is a game change 😉
One of the new features for Nikon is Pixel Shift first introduced in Nikon Zf and then in firmware update to Nikon Z8. It brings 180 Megapixel instead of 45 Megapixel by shooting 32 images. As this requires the object not to move at all this is feasible for large prints of wide angle landscape pictures without moving clouds. This is my test set-up:
- Nikon Z8
- Nikon Z 24-70mm f2.8
- Nikon Z 14-30mm f4
- Tripod Dörr A4 Alu
- SIRUI KX-Series Aluminium Tripod Head
- ARCA-SWISS Classic Leica R / SL / Hasselblad: fits perfect on Nikon Z8
But the results were really disappointing. Yes, the final pixel shift image as .NEFX file has amazing 16,512 x 11,008 size but the higher resolution on my test scene did not show any improvement in detail resolution nor sharpness. I did test shots with 32 pixel shift images:
| Lens | mm | f |
| Nikon Z 24-70mm f2.8 | 24 | 30 | 2.8 | 4.0 | 8 |
| Nikon Z 14-30mm f4 | 14 | 16 | 20 | 24 | 30 | 4.0 | 8 |
Can you spot a difference?
Pixel Shift Woes: Why the Nikon Z8 Might Disappoint You weiterlesenMacro flash lightning & diffusors
Since corona-lock-down I embraced macro photography more systematically. Many excellent videos are out to learn. Micael Widell inspired me to look closer at diffusors. Here is one of his amazing videos. Her are my settings I derived with multiple tests for different set-ups. My equipment:
- Nikon Z7
- Nikon Z MC 105 mm 2.8
- Laowa 25mm 2.8 2.5-5X with LED on/off
- 2 x Godox V860IIN
- Godox X Pro N
- DÖRR SLR Universal Soft Diffusor
- NAMVO Square Box Diffusor
| Nikon Z MC 105mm 2.8 | @1:1 | |||
| Z7 | 1/200 | f8 | 64 ISO | |
| Godox | M | 1/128 | 20 mm | |
| Godox | A | 1/128 | 20 mm | |
| Laowa 25mm 2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro | @2.5:1 | |||
| Z7 | 1/200 | f4 | 64 ISO | |
| LED | on | |||
| Godox | M | 1/16 | 20 mm | |
| Godox | A | 1/16 | 20 mm | |
| Laowa 25mm 2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro | @2.5:1 | |||
| Z7 | 1/200 | f4 | 64 ISO | |
| LED | off | |||
| Godox | M | 1/16 | 20 mm | |
| Godox | A | 1/16 | 20 mm | |
| Laowa 25mm 2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro | @5:1 | |||
| Z7 | 1/200 | f4 | 64 ISO | |
| LED | on | |||
| Godox | M | 1/16 | 20 mm | |
| Godox | A | 1/16 | 20 mm |
Cleaning scanned documents with Photoshop masks
Scanning high quality handwriting or scanning of important certificates always leaves me with the trouble of removing scratches or blot. I think the best way is to mask „away“ the dirty background pixels. That used to be so easy with PaintShopPro but with some whistles it can be done in Photoshop, too. Here comes the recipe:
Cleaning scanned documents with Photoshop masks weiterlesenWorking on my photography skills
Last but not least, I enjoyed taking my photo equipment and skills to its limits. During my sabbatical I took 6,107 pictures with my Nikon. Trees and animals from the very small to very big, under Uganda heat or Indonesian humidity.
I learned (again) that my photography obsession is capturing magic moments with all the empathy for the people around me. This is my humble “thank you” for your accompanying my sabbatical.
Travel with Lightroom: How to transfer your MacBook pictures when coming home?
During my last trips I have imported my Nikon Z7 pictures to Lightroom on my MacBook Pro. This allows me editing and sharing of pictures while traveling quite useful in the plane or while waiting. But once back home, I want to have the new collected pictures in my main Lightroom catalog on my iMac. There are multiple ways how you can do it all with its pros & cons. Phil Steele shares them in a great tutorial.
Amazing Thunderbolt 3 speed
From F to Z: Upgrading Nikkor 105mm micro
Intro
<tbd>
What are the best photo-stacking settings?
For my old Nikkor AF 105mm micro I had tested the best photo stacking settings based on my DoF measurement and calculation by FocusFinder app below.
The old: Nikkor 105 mm 1:2.8G AF-S VR Micro IF-ED
| f | measured DoF at 1:1 [µm] | calculated DoF at 1:1 [µm] |
| 4.0 | 035 | 206 |
| 5.6 | 69 | 289 |
| 8 | 140 | 413 |
| 11 | 270 | 567 |
| 16 | 560 | 825 |
„My picture feeling“ picked f=5.6 with the best compromise of DoF and sharpness, which resulted in the following save overlapping settings for my two working methods
- Nikon Z7 „focus step width“ = 7 (German „Schrittweite der Fokusverlagerung“)
- NiSi rail with 125µm steps
But what about the new Nikkor Z 105mm? Though the old and new 105mm look very similar there are some differences. Aperture is f4.0 vs f4.5 at minimum distance of 314mm vs 290mm.
The new: NIKKOR Z MC 105 mm 1:2.8 VR S
The new 105mm is much much sharper. The old 105mm has quite some color fringing, not visible in the new one. Therefore, the DoF is not really comparable. Now we only need to know the DoF for each f-stop and than we know how to set things up. Hence, as Nikon does not publish DoF data for the lens – which is a shame by the way – I did my own test.
Getting a grip on Depth-of-Field (DoF): f8
| f | measured DoF at 1:1 [mm] | calculated DoF at 1:1 [mm] |
| 4.5 | <<0.171 | 0.190 |
| 5.6 | <0.171 | 0.236 |
| 8 | 0.171 | 0.337 |
| 11 | 0.354 | 0.464 |
| 16 | 0.530 | 0.675 |
The calculated DoF expects shallower DoF with the new 105mm but in practice the difference is not that big. Defraction starts slightly with f11 and is quite big with f16. Therefore, I will pick f8 at my future foto stacking option.
Next comes the focus steps value for focus stacking via autofocus.
The 100 steps test
Using the „focus shift shooting“ functions of the Nikon Z7 starting from minimum distance of 0.29cm with 100 pictures & steps (1/200 F8 ISO100) I measure the distance on the display after the 100 shots:
| focus step width | distance on display | distance [mm] | average distance per step [µm] |
| 1 |  | ≈0.3 | 1 |
| 2 |  | ≈0.3 | 1 |
| 3 |  | 0.31 | 2 |
| 4 |  | 0.31 | 2 |
| 5 |  | ≈0.32 | 3 |
| 6 |  | ≈0.33 | 4 |
| 7 |  | ≈0.35 | 6 |
| 8 |  | 0.4 | 11 |
| 9 |  | ≈0.47 | 18 |
| 10 |  | 0.62 | 33 |
As the stacking distance is not even distributed over the covered range, we cannot conclude too much regarding minimum distance coverage.
Testing 10 stacked pictures with mm-ruler
Here I simply stacked 10 pictures with Helicon Focus (B, 8, 4) and checked the final picture for sharpness. Best results are:
| Scenario | f | focus step width |
| more DoF | 8 | 5 |
| min DoF | 4.5 | 4 |
Could not resist the Laowa macro 2.5-5.0
… the final conclusion in my last macro article „finally, I will wait for the arrival of the Nikkor Z 105mm Micro S in 2021“. Hence, Nikon did not release any new Z lens the last 7 months! Even though the lens line-up is way behind Sony and Canon mirrorless – what a „§#*+“
Since the (very last) photokina 2019 show in Köln I was aware of Laowa’s exotic lens collection. At their booth I had a look but did not test any lens as I did not have the FTZ for my Nikon Z7 with me. But as there a great videos and articles about macro out there
- Allan Walls great in depth blog and videos
- Johan J Ingles-Le Nobel extreme macro learning site
- Ferdy Christant macro journey – very similar to my
- Renke Bienert web page and advise
- Stewart Wood macro videos – just released his Laowa review
- Matthew Allards test
You can order your Laowa at their venus optics shop in Hong-Kong or as I did here in Germany via the distributor Brenner and tested the Laowa 100mm macro and this Laowa 25mm in the Photo Universal shop under corona rules. Now, let’s start…
Could not resist the Laowa macro 2.5-5.0 weiterlesenMirrorless Macro with Nikon Z7 & Nikon PB-6 Bellows
Already last year I digged up into macro photography with magnification of 1.0 and higher dedusting the solid build mechanical beauty macro bellows Nikon PB-6. After some test shots with my new mirrorless Nikon Z7 I was not really sure that this old technology is still useful with mega-pixel chips and cropping in lightroom. Therefore, I decided to check this a bit more systematically. It is an odd couple, the Nikon PB-6 was introduced 1983 and discontinued whereas the Nikon Z7 hit the market 25 years later in 2018. Hence, the Nikon FTZ adapter makes it fit.
Mirrorless Macro with Nikon Z7 & Nikon PB-6 Bellows weiterlesenOriginal Nikon Coolscan Software on Intel Mac
Need to buy software for your new Mac
If you have one of the old but still excellent Nikon Coolscan like the 5000 ED you cannot run the original scanner software build for PowerPC G3 or G4 on your new Intel Mac. One solution is to buy up-to-date software like
- VueScan for about $80
- Silverfish AI Studio for about EUR 450
But there is a simple way to make the Windows-Version of the Nikon scanner run on your new Mac: Use a windows virtual machine and up-to-date drivers for the scanner.
or installing a virtual machine on your Mac
This is what I did:
- Install a virtual machine that supports USB2.0 running Windows. I used VirtualBox 5.1.14 and Windows 10:
- Install VirtualBox:
- VirtualBox platform packages for OS X host
- VirtualBox Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack
- Get and install a Windows 7, 8, 10 license, CD or Image in the Virtual Box
- Install VirtualBox:
- Configure a folder on your MacOS for usage in the virtual box for windows. Here you will later store your scanned images. I run MacOS 10.11.6 (15G1217) on a MacMini with 1 TB SSD and 4 TB HDD. [I will add some screenshots later.]
- Configure the Device and USB 2.0 connection of your Nikon scanner for exclusiveusage in Virtual Box. [I will add some screenshots later.]
- Install the Windows version of VueScan (Demo is enough) on your virtual Windows. This will install the most current driver for the Nikon scanner. Test with VueScan if your scanner is available and do a test scan. I used VueScan 9.5.70.
- Install the Windows version of original Nikon Scan software on your virtual Windows. I used Nikon Scan 4.0.3.
and getting great usability
as the virtual box behaves like a screen you can switch between Windows and MacOS very naturally. The Nikon Scan software runs just fine: quick and now problems with clock-rate or driver settings.