{"id":143,"date":"2024-02-01T17:05:18","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T17:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/?p=143"},"modified":"2024-02-01T17:27:28","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T17:27:28","slug":"new-year-new-contact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/?p=143","title":{"rendered":"New Year, New Contact"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finally making headway again and Vol. 1 is back for another edit, along with my preferred photo for the cover. \u00a0I still want to call the book “Survivors”, because that’s what I see the aircraft as, but I doubt it will be.<\/p>\n

Back on the camera hardware front and despite my ramblings about lens availability and weight etc, booking a holiday led to another purchase, the Nikon Z fc \u00a0and now I’m utterly torn! \u00a0I’m still right on two counts, lack of lenses for Nikon’s Z series, especially affordable used models, but principally ones for their cameras with APS-C sized sensors (aka DX in Nikon speak) and on weight; both camera body and lens. Where weight is concerned, having a full frame sensor means lenses to make the most of it, \u00a0hence the Z5 and it’s better than standard \u00a0kit zoom lens come in at 1.26Kg, which gets a tad heavy if you’re lugging it around all day, especially in sunny climes. \u00a0The APS-C body and its kit lens which admittedly isn’t a patch on the Z5’s, weighs in at a rather more svelte \u00a0715g and the Lumix and even more pocket friendly 615g.<\/p>\n

Where lenses are concerned, there’s maths involved to work out what the “real” size is , as opposed to what it says on the box or the lens barrel for that matter. \u00a0For the uninitiated, digital camera sensor sizes relate back to the days of analog film. \u00a0What’s now referred to as “Full-Frame” relates to a single frame of 35mm film, which is 36mm x 24mm in size and this is the same size as the digital sensor. \u00a0For APS-C sensors this harks back to the final throw of the analog dice, \u00a0the cartridge based APS format, which allowed you to do panoramic and high definition shots at the touch of a button, but was smaller than 35mm. \u00a0Trouble is, it gets more complicated than maybe it should and we get into the realms of crop factors.<\/p>\n

On a lens for a full frame sensor, what you see is what you get, so a 50mm lens is just that. \u00a0With APS-C, for Nikon and most other manufacturers, that same 50mm becomes the equivalent of 1.5x what it says, so in terms of field of view, \u00a0its the equivalent of a 75mm lens on a full frame camera (its 1.6x for Canon). The micro 4\/3 sensor in the Lumix and my old Olympus E-M5 use a 2x crop factor, so the 50mm becomes 100mm. \u00a0Relating everything back to full frame is used to give everything a common reference point, but when you’re looking for a wide angle lens to do landscapes say, the 7-14mm lens for my Lumix actually shoots like a 14-28mm for the Z5 (there’s a 14-30 and it’s \u00a31300 new! It’s also 485g, as opposed to \u00a3400 used and 365g, but that’s a lot of glass for m4\/3))<\/p>\n

\"Crop<\/a>
Digital sensor crop factor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Excuse my diagram, but as you can see, if the lens was set to focus on a full frame sensor, \u00a0the smaller sensors only get part the image, hence the crop factor.<\/p>\n

So why am I torn over which camera? \u00a0Where image sensors are concerned, size really is everything. \u00a0The larger the sensor, the more photo receptors you can fit and the larger these receptors can be, which increases how much light they can collect, photography is all about collecting light. \u00a0I know full well that the Z5 will produce fabulous images, but it’s B heavy after a while, it’s also bulky and it goes in hand luggage, not checked baggage, \u00a0along with all the other “toys” like an iPad and a charger, \u00a0whatever extra lens I’ve brought, a Kindle, \u00a0headphones, \u00a0maybe a magazine from Smiths in the departure lounge, etc, etc. \u00a0 The clever, mainly plastic, collapsing kit lenses on both the Z fc and the Lumix make both much lighter than the one on the Z5. \u00a0even if I take another lens with either of these, it will still be less weight then the Z5 and a single lens.<\/p>\n

The Z fc is also gorgeous, its a retro 35mm style body and to someone who’s used to old school 35mm, its a joy to use, whilst its APS-C sensor should be more capable than the m4\/3 of the Lumix. \u00a0But we’re back to the lens issue, or rather lack of them. \u00a0Nikon were late to the mirrorless party and they’ve also been increasingly reluctant to allow third party manufacturers to have access to the specs for the Z mount. \u00a0Consequently, unlike Sony and Fuji, there’s only a few offerings from the likes of Tamron and Sigma started to appear, while the native Nikon lens production has centred on full-frame FX series lenses. \u00a0Admitted, you can use FX lenses on DX bodies, \u00a0but then we’re back to cost and weight again!<\/p>\n

So I’m now hoping for good, if only dry, weather next week when I’ve a week off and intend to do some shutter therapy to see just what to do with three expensive bits of kit. \u00a0One will be going and I’m not convinced I know which one yet, even the Z5!<\/p>\n

\"Camera<\/a>
Z5 top, Z fc middle, Lumix G9 bottom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finally making headway again and Vol. 1 is back for another edit, along with my preferred photo for the cover. \u00a0I still want to call the book “Survivors”, because that’s what I see the aircraft as, but I doubt it will be. Back on the camera hardware front and despite my ramblings about lens availability … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “New Year, New Contact”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147,"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions\/147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vaughtons.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}