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Can the Nikon Z7 compete with the Monochrom (CCD) for B/W?


Jdphoto

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am happily surprised about the high quality also of wide angle like 21 SEM pictures. No banding to be seen.

But I saw this about the Z7 too:

Quote

However, there is no focus confirmation still.

That means the EVF must be utmost good for someone not to also rely on those small confirmation features of real finder camera's like those small prisms in the centre - and specially when using M-lenses (and others).

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Best focus confirmation own eyes.

I believe in Z6/Z7 EVF one can use focus peaking and magnification, magnification is of course better.  I have briefly handled Z6 (Z7 should be no different) camera and EVF is wonderful, focused image is clear to see being in focus. 

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On 2/24/2019 at 11:34 PM, mmradman said:

 

Best focus confirmation own eyes.

I believe in Z6/Z7 EVF one can use focus peaking and magnification, magnification is of course better.  I have briefly handled Z6 (Z7 should be no different) camera and EVF is wonderful, focused image is clear to see being in focus.  

Do you think you could focus accurately enough without magnifying or using peaking?

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vor 21 Minuten schrieb wolfloid:

Do you think you could focus accurately enough without magnifying or using peaking?

That was usual in the DSLR aera, as they were thenchal limitations with the OVF (no live view)

Today we have peaking and magnification, which is far superior to the old "focus confirmation"!
So there is no need for it anymore.

But of course, DSLR user have to change their way ...

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I'm not sure I fully understand your post. But I will assume it is ironic - yes, we can focus more accurately than before with magnification, which must be great for people shooting from a tripod, but is a pain in the A** for anyone wanting fast, accurate focusing for catching fleeting subjects.

Rangefinder focusing is also not very good for that without a great deal of forethought and practice, since though it is fast and accurate, it is not much use outside its comfort zone (outside 28-50 mm and relatively slow moving subjects). SLRs with bright finders and fine ground glass were better outside those parameters.

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4 hours ago, wolfloid said:

Do you think you could focus accurately enough without magnifying or using peaking?

I own and focus SL601 with image magnification, never peaking, my sharp image hit rate is much higher than with M camera. Having said that EVF is so good that you get close to desired focus even without the magnification.  Also worth remembering mirrorless Cameras with EVF come with dioptre adjustment which help viewing.

i have tried Z6 and found EVF excellent.

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Yes, I've heard the Nikon evfs are very good. the trouble is it is so hard to quantify how quickly and accurately it is possible to focus the 35/1.4 asph between wide open and f4 for environmental portraits. of course I can use magnification for slower situations, which is a very welcome possibility, but will it do for quick work?

Have you tried raising all the JPEG sharpening settings to creat a viewfinder shimmer when focus is achieved (this is not peaking). I tried this on the Sony A 6000 and it worked pretty well (much quicker and more accurate than Sony's rubbish peaking implementation), but that is only 24mp and has inherently more forgiving DOF.

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Ok, So i've had the chance to use both the Z7 with the Leica M 50mm Lux (pre ASPH) and the Monochrom (CCD), with the same lens. Here'a few images for comparison. Obviously, nothing scientific, but the results were interesting to me. We had a couple of LDS missionaries stop by, so I requested their portraits. The Leica 50mm 1.4 Lux has so much character and beautiful rendering. The on -sensor MF of the Z7 is liberating too. I know this is heresy, but I had to shoot them both. Obviously, these are small jpg's, but also a good indicator to actual results. So, which is which?

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Edited by Jdphoto
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Here's another comparison. I looked at these at 100% both were 33 MB RAW files. Different days, so differing contrast, but it's so close in resolution at the center it's hard to pick a winner.  I think the M might be slightly sharper in the extreme corners, but again, hard to discern a notable difference. Which, by the way, speaks volumes for an 18mp camera like the Monochrom. Tonality differences has a lot to do with editing, so can't really comment on that. The Monochrom is not forgiving of highlights, so a 2 to 3 stop underexposure gives you more room to play.  A 3 stop ND filter goes a long way with the M and that in itself could degrade the resolution a tad too. 

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Edited by Jdphoto
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Nice conversions, no idea which one is which, any chance of Exif?

You actually touched on important advantage of colour sensor in Z camera, low ISO compared to Monochrom, i think ISO 64 versus 320, provides great flexibility when shooting in good daylight, plus no problem overexposing highlights. Having said that I am in love with my M246, occasional conversion from colour camera does no harm.

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The cropped portrait is the Nikon Z and the street pic with shadows is the Leica Monochrom. I think both cameras have their merits, but no clear winner from a pixel peeping standpoint. The Monochrom street pic has more contrast because of the time of day. That, imo, can give the effect of perceived  sharper resolution. I would suspect the Monochrom to be slightly cleaner SOOC, but the Z7 would pull ahead when cropping big. Someone in another thread suggested that the "newest" sensor being replaced in the M9M, doesn't have the same character as the the original sensors. I'm curious if the luminance levels are the same as the old sensor.

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The M does have nice tone, but its really tricky with highlights and with these pics, the tone is probably more of a result of my processing the images. One thing about the Nikon Z is the ability to get good accuracy with MF M lenses at 1.4! I do like the character of the M9M, but it made me realize how little I've used my M2-R. 

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