I bought my Z50 to try out Nikon's mirrorless system, knowing that I most likely wouldn't keep it. I said that I'd play with it for a bit and probably try to sell it while the resale value was still reasonable. That time has come. My Z50 is gone! Why? Really for all the reasons …
A Weekend Portrait Session
I took some photos of the boys over Mother's Day weekend while Sally was in Florida. I thought it would make a nice surprise for the occasion and would give me a chance to practice my portrait skills. I'm generally pretty terrible at portraits. I'm terrible at posing, I'm terrible at lighting, and I'm terrible …
Sony a6100 Autofocus & More
In my a6100 first impressions article, I didn't cover the image sensor or autofocus performance. After using the camera for a bit I've got some thoughts in those areas. Image Quality The sensor is higher resolution (24 MP vs 20 MP) but has similar characteristics to the Z50. The noise levels are similar, the sensitivity …
My Experience with Lightroom Smart Previews
When I tested my Z50 with bird photography I generated a lot of images. In one day I took over 1400 images, which, as it turns out, nearly filled the free space on my MacBook Air. Up until recently I've kept two Lightroom libraries – a full library on my external RAID drive with 40,000 - …
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The Z50 and Bird Photography
I started taking bird photography more seriously last year, learning how to get sharper photos, using my giant mega zoom the way I'm supposed to, and buying a pro-level crop-sensor camera with a high continuous frame rate to increase my possible keeper rate. While my Z50 cannot detect birds in its animal eye AF implementation …
Sony a6100 First Impressions
I've had my Sony a6100 for about four weeks now and I'd like to share my first impressions. Four weeks is a bit long for a first impressions article, but the weather wasn't great for a bit and I needed some time to get to know it. Anyway, here it is. Unexpected Surprises It shipped …
Z50 Autofocus Experiences
I purchased my Z50 for many reasons — silent shooting, exposure preview, fast continuous burst speed, good video capabilities — but one primary reason: Eye Autofocus. The other features are great, but I can get by without them on my DSLRs that offer the same or higher resolution and burst speed. Eye AF is supposed to be …
Sony a6100
I'm really enjoying my Nikon Z50 and dipping my toe into Nikon's mirrorless capabilities. I've been able to try out its much-criticized autofocus and I can see how it affects my shooting situation. I'm willing to wait for the Z9's autofocus to trickle down, but I still can't stop thinking about how much better Sony …
Z50 First Impressions
My Z50 arrived on Sunday, a day earlier than I expected. The weather hasn't been as warm as I was hoping, but I've had a chance to setup the camera and start taking some photos. I'm going to save my impressions of its autofocus capabilities for a separate post, but these are my first impressions …
Maybe I’ll Buy into Nikon Mirrorless After All
I just assessed my mirrorless options and Nikon wasn't included because its autofocus is less advanced than its peers. All isn't rosy on the other side however – buying into Sony or Canon is pretty expensive given the lenses I'd need to get. Nikon's high-end flagship has shown that it can close the gap but …
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Relatively Ambitious 