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Mysterious Yggdrasil.

Thank you for a very informative video. I am waiting for a similar operation. Can you give an update looking back since your last video. Did your recovery continue to be as good?

Allen thanks and keep up your photo chats - enjoyable and helpful. I moved away from Leica since I didn’t like the parallax problems of the optical viewfinder and much prefer WYSIWYG. I bought a Z5 on which to use my AiS lenses and prefer that (rather than AF lenses , even with back button focus). I treat the EVF like the plain etched screen when I had an F3 - even wearing glasses I find getting focus on the EVF by eye is easy, without electronic aids, for normal subjects at mid apertures and I just check with the zoom-in for wide stop bokeh shots. More enjoyable than using peaking or focus confirmation . Thanks again Philip

You can shoot a d850 on medium RAW. You don’t have to shoot 45 mp.

Waffle on dude - your'e an artist after all and us working pro's get it. The dust collecting, gear shufflers never will - they are not real photographers. Incidentally - I loved to hear that you had ditched Fuji. For me, they are at the bottom of the photographic pile - even down past the 'S Bend'. I slummed it with them for over ten years, until I saw the light. Have two Nikon Z bodies now and 7 of their Z lenses. My customers noticed the difference, my joy of photography improved, and so did my business. Very important to shoot with the right gear!

How do you deal with damp conditions and rain there in the UK? I love my Leica M too, but it fogs up, stops working, etc. during such conditions.

Got them sorry

What about showing some photos made with the Leica

I've heard of people covering cameras in gaffer tape to make them look less valuable to deter thieves. No clue if it works, but perhaps that's why they removed the red dot.

Did you observe any difference in that Leica look between M240 and M10? For me, I prefer using the vintage non-ASPH lenses on my M9 and M240.

Love my M10, I find the quality of holding and using it is amazing. At times I find it the most frustrating camera I own. You learn your lesson if you overexpose a shot or miss focus. But when you hit those correctly it’s magic!

Nice to hear your thoughts! One question. The Voigtlander 40mm f/1.2 has as I remember, normally not a focus tab. Did you mount one yourself? I made one for my 35mm f/1.2 III with Sugru. Works fine - but not pretty ;)

I enjoy your rambles 💯🌿📷

Liked, and now subscribed. Ramble on, sir!

Don’t worry. I watch your videos and Ron Day’s just for the rambly presentation. Keep up the good work.

Keep rambling, it’s been refreshing to have an actual photographer talking photography and gear in a comprehensive and practical manner. Thank you, from another real photographer who has many of the same sensibilities as yourself.

The red dot only arrived in the late 1970s, most of the Leica film rangefinder era didn't have it.

90mm is for static shots i think. everything above 50 actually is hectic without AF. whereas 35. is doable manual.. the shutter sound is beautiful. very nikon-like in slowmo haha

Harrods😂😂😂

Hi Allen where do you buy your voightlander lens cheers

Very few TH-camrs are real professional like yourself who give honest advice.

A camera is a tool. It's good for you, it's good. It's bad for you, it's bad. Get the tool good for you and move on. Cartier-Bresson used one camera, one lens and made history.

Allen, I’ve asked you this before but I’m going to pick your brain again, hope that’s ok. I trust you. I just made a huge mistake of watching a bunch of TH-cam videos where they review the Z6 III. Conundrum city. I recently got a Nikon Zf and I’ve been looking to aquire a second backup body, that's affordable and takes my Z mount lenses. Honestly, I’ve been leaning towards the Nikon Z6II, but with the recent price drops the Z6III is not much more and is appealing also. It would be a financial stretch though, and would leave me with no room for glass. However, if I sell the Zf, I could get the Z6III, some more Nikon glass and breathe easy. Here’s the thing, though. I really feel attached to my Zf. I sold my beloved Fuji XT5 to get it. But maybe it’s time to move on from nostalgia. I still have my Fuji X100V, which is beautiful and I’ll never sell that. So maybe that’s my refuge if I must have nostalgia. I love my Zf, but the Z6III looks like the best camera Nikon has made in years. And I’ve been shooting Nikon since 1984, when I was gifted a Nikon FE for my 13th birthday. Which again, goes back to why I love the Zf. It’s spectacular. But so is the Z6III. I really can’t decide. Sell the Zf & get the Z6III or keep it & get a Z6II? I know it’s not the fastest but my subjects are slow moving targets. For context, I shoot portraits, headshots, and occasionally a family session. Posed, poised, calculated. But my camera pays part of my rent. It’s a piece of my livelihood. And my heart. What would you do? Head : Sell Zf, get Z6III. Move into the present. Get more glass. Heart: Keep Zf, get Z6II. Rock both. I think maybe I’m just not entirely sold on the Zf, I came from Fuji. I miss the aperture dials and perfect ergonomics. Fuji nailed it in terms of weight, size, feel, true retro exposure triangle, no PASM. EXCEPT…the autofocus on my XT5 was just awful and the Zf is INCREDIBLE by comparison. Zf just feels like it’s almost right in terms of operation and without the small rig grip it’s uncomfortable to hold. I cannot fault its function and it’s a beautiful camera to touch and look at. But I wonder if I’m letting my nostalgia get the better of me. Like you, I don’t use the analog buttons on the Zf. The Z6III looks like Nikon really ticked all the boxes. I just don’t know if I should move onto the future (Z6III) or hold onto the Zf and get the Z6 II so I have the best of both worlds. Almost. PS: IMAGE quality alone, is the Z6III worlds better than the Z6II?

I'm curious to know how the autofocus on the Z6 iii compares with the two systems on the D780.

Allen, love your channel but you got serious G.A.S. 🧐

I've had my D810 for 8 years now. It does everything I need. I looked at the D850, and those huge file sizes and decided against it.

On a bright day or with flash, the ISO capability at 64 ISO should be the best shot. Did you shoot the d850 at ISO64 to get the best out of it?

24mp and SD cards is my sweet spot. More forgiving of lenses, less memory space and cost, and sufficient resolution for large prints with a few tweaks.

Just because you can't seem to make compelling images that are also sharp, and technically correct, does not mean that nobody can, or does, myself included.

I'm not so interested in generic gear reviews, but hearing your real world experience with different gear and how it solves your problems is invaluable. Thanks for the video.

3D tracking on all Nikon DSLR cameras give very mixed results but in general that mode is seldom usable. Much more better is AF-C. That might give better results unless the goal is not to have it manually adjusted. Now, the very fact the D850 had such a physical dent at the battery compartment that the battery itself had to pulled out with pliers hints that it has mechanical and electronic issues after that fall. That can't be ruled out but also is not a clear indication why the focus was soft / too soft. Now in general it seems there's a learning curve with each camera. Of course, if the experience is not up to previous D850 experience, the body itself has some problems and the decision was right. As with Z-line camera bodies being better than D850 is a matter of taste because there are people who still regard highly D700, D750, D850 compared to Z-bodies despite their limitations. I've noticed that in case of setting AF-C on face detect in photo mode it sticks to the face because it was told to do so. In general I think it might have been a bad D850 body or maybe some technical issues with the body itself. As far as calibration goes - it matters but in general we don't tend to calibrate lenses as it marries the lens to the body. Especially when its a Sigma lens where one can have a very precise in-lens calibration to the point the lens focuses on the sensor precisely but the downside of it is the lens is married to body until the in-lens calibration values are erased.

Shutter speeds. Z6-II or Z full frames have IBIS, yes? Higher MP DSLR cameras like the D 850 should be using a higher shutter speed compared to a 20-24mp sensor camera. I remember this when the D850 was first released because the resolution is so good on that camera, it will magnify the littlestof movement or any errors of any type. Especially without IBIS, you would probably need to increase the shutter speed. Of coarse, each & every photographer might have different capabilities when shooting at slower shutter speeds. Or any shutter speed for that matter. You should see what I see thru my viewfinder after 3 16oz. cups of high-test coffee in the morning & trying to shoot a 500mm lens! 😊

What a waffler ! No credibility at all.

Hi Allen, thanks for a very interesting video. I always enjoy your ramblings! I’m just wondering if your D850’s focusing system was damaged when it was dropped. You may have had a bad example to test with. I have a Z7 and was very interested to learn that it would not resolve the best images from my Nikon 58 1.4. Maybe I’ll have to trade in my Z7 for a Z6 3, or Zf. I’m also considering switching away from Z gear altogether and going DSLR as the DSLR lenses are so much cheaper; a D780 perhaps? All the best.

I thought the D850 was a 45mp sensor???

Sigma 105 macro works fantastic for portraits!

In other words are you saying don't get the Z8. I have the new Z 50mm F1.4, Z 35mm F1.8 s, Z 14-30mm F4, 85mm F1.8g, 105 F2.8g macro, 70-200mm F2.8 VRii. Should I get the Z8. I currently have a Z6. I do weddings events and product photography.

as @macwestcanon said try the d4s.

I am an old Nikon shooter and we have, of course tested different cameras and lenses in our studio before buying new gear. Few things, your D850 must have had some problems, probably calibration. It's by far the best camera among all the Nikon's that you are mentioning in this video. And, it's certainly a mistake to reduce the resolution in camera to 24.5 mpx, compared with cropped images with Nikon's software it certainly is less "sharp". Try to do the same with the D780 and reduce it to 12mpx and the D700 beats it in every aspect! Not even the Z8 beats D850 which produces more organic photos. Test it with, for example Zeiss Distagon 35mm f2 ZF2 which I use a lot and you will see what I mean. That lens shows you the difference in camera quality extremely precise because it's resolution is so high. I and many colleagues of mine will never sell D850, despite using Z cameras as well among which only the Z9 somehow compares to D850 so we use both of them in combination most of the time professionally. At the end, D850 is certainly showing you the difference in the lens quality extremely clear, it's really not forgiving a lot. Keep up the good work, best regards from Croatia!

Allen I’ve been saying this for a while. Use the 780 for portraits it rocks man. Loving your posts as they reflect my photographic opinions. Glad you like your Z6 3 I got one 6 months ago. I find the 780 is so easy to use and customize. The 6 3has a lot more options but it’s worth the time and effort. I’m starting portrait work with these rigs and am just loving the images. Even if the 45MP images are sharp they show way too many facial flaws like pores and blackheads that you would be there for hours in light room.😂

New subscriber.... any chance of a link to the site that shows the lenses compatible with the D850 regarding the 45MP sensor.... as being a new D850 owner I am just dipping my foot into the water lens wise... Have always been an Olympus shooter, but the new mirrorless ones to me are very much deep menu styled cameras... wheras the D850 is so easy to set up and use.... so far I have just gone for the regular 16 /35 mm zoom and the 50mm f 1.4 lenses just to get me going... so knowing the lenses to get the max out of the sensor would be super... thanks in advance... going back to watch a few more of the back catalogue vids you have...Yoki...

Is the Zf any good for portraits? Does it's focus let you down compared with the new Z6iii?

I got my D850 for large group shots at Weddings -- I don't need a lot of them, so file size doesn't matter. I'd be in the "poor-house" if I bought enough of those uber-$$$fancy$$$ X-speed cards for an entire Wedding -- and also disk-drive space! Great call on the D850 reducing the quality from "L" to "M" (12-bit to 10-bit) -- that I was unaware of! Also, good info on the focus tracking (Read: Bride walking down the aisle), although why I would need 45MP for those shots remains uncertain. Artificial light is typically available for those anyway. I'm keeping my D850 -- which, via Nikon, I was also planning to pair with a D780 as you did. Currently, my main cameras are Olympus/OM Systems m43 units (Read: OM-1 -- a REALLY great camera!!) which are utterly beautiful cameras -- along with the files I get from them!!! I also plan to do the "walking towards a 'face'" exercise with all my bodies to see how they fare. I'm also planning to get a Sony A99 ii. No, I'm not (Read: don't feel like) a camera hog, but I've got a pile of legacy pro-glass from both Nikon and Minolta -- from film days that I need to 'upgrade' to digital. Your video was surprisingly helpful to me!!!! I just subscribed.

I knew you wouldn't be able to resist making gear videos

Hi! It would be interesting to see how to shoot portraits of your mannequin with the cheapest lenses 40F2 and 28 F2.8. My girlfrend wants me to shoot her, but honestly I don't know how to surprise her so that she would like it!

Glad the gear talk is back as I really enjoy your ramblings. How about using yiur ZF for portraiture. Mine gives excellent colours and 24MP is easily enough resolution.

Keep making gear videos along with the photography videos please. It’s what keeps me from buying gear: watching videos about gear 😂

Nothing better then D4s

I love my D850 images are always good for landscape only one I would upgrade it to is the Z8

Your the prettiest girl In Scotland don't change xx