Professional Photographer - USA (2019-07)

34 PPMAG.COM

PRO REVIEWTHE GOODS

LENSES

The new four-prong Z lens mount appears

quite large relative to the body. The Z

mount’s 55mm diameter throat not only

dwarfs the 44mm diameter of the Nikon

F-mount, it’s substantially larger than oth-

er full-frame cameras, digital or film.

The new mount, together with the 16mm

flange focal distance, meant Nikon’s lens

designers had a free hand in devising new

lenses with improved optical characteris-

tics. The first three Nikkor Z lenses are the

24-70mm f/4 S, 35mm f/1.8 S, and 50mm

f/1.8 S, and by publication time a 14-24mm

f/4 S, and 24-70mm f/2.8 S will be avail-

able. Later this year Nikon will release

24mm f/1.8 S, 85mm f/1.8 S, and 70-200mm

f/2.8 S lenses. Nikon’s FTZ adapter allows

the use of almost all F-mount lenses on the Z

cameras, and the very short flange focal dis-

One of the things that makes the Nikon Z 7 fun to work with is its ability to track and lock focus on

fast-moving subjects.

tance is going to enable a range of third-

party adapters to use other lens mounts.

BAT TERY

Though Japan’s standards agency rates the

new EL-EN15b lithium-ion battery for an

average of 360 full-resolution frames in

the Z 7, my experience shows that’s wildly

off the mark. Over the past four months,

alternating between EVF and rear moni-

tor modes, and constantly using autofocus

and doing a fair amount of reviewing, EN-

EL15b battery life has averaged around 930

frames per full charge. The Z 7 can also use

earlier EN-EL 15a and EN-EL 15 batteries,

but these do not deliver the same level of

performance. The EL-EN15b recharges

through the Z 7 USB-C port or in the same

charger Nikon uses for all EN-EL15 batter-

ies. Although all EN-EL15 batteries share

the same form factor, the new battery is a

darker shade of gray, so it’s easily distin-

guishable among older models.

VIDEO

Stills and 1080p video are written to the

camera’s CFexpress/XQD removable media

or via HDMI to a monitor recorder such as

the Atmos Ninja V. Like the lower-resolution

Z 6, the Z 7 can also record 4K 10-bit 4:2:2

log video to an external recorder. Another

firmware update coming in 2019 will en-

able full raw video in 12-bit 4K, which is an

advantage if you do color grading or green

screen production.

USER EXPERIENCE

The Z7 has been a joy to use, with two ex-

ceptions. The most problematic is banding

that showed up virtually every time I used

the Silent Photography option. I hope that a

firmware update may solve this. The other

problem is that the built-in stereo micro-

phones pick up camera-generated noise when

the camera is tracking subject movement.

Over the past four months, I have exposed

around 12,000 frames using the camera for

studio and location portraits, architecture,

industrial, landscape, and product photog-

raphy. Other than the two issues I’ve men-

tioned and my desire for a second media

slot, the camera has been more fun than

work to use. •

This composition shows a range of tones from deep shadows to specular highlights. The Nikon Z 7 deliv-

ers a maximum dynamic range of 11.56 stops at ISO 64. This exposure is 1/1,000 at f/2.8, ISO 64.