I have a confession to make


I used to be a Nikon hater. I tried one, literal decades ago, and I thought they were clunky, the menus were stupid, and they looked ugly. Also back then, there was a rivalry between Nikon and Canon shooters and since I fell in love with the ergonomics and the color science of Canons, I defaulted to be a hater too.


But it didn't make sense. I shot film on a point and shoot Yashica for many years; my fondest memory with a camera was a soviet-era Zenit, which I got tattooed; I got cool photos out of a pinhole camera made out of a can once. Sure, I fell in love with Canon since I put my hands on one, but over the years, I have been shedding the brand loyalism, and decided to be polycamerous. There's very little to the camera if the photographer is not good.


Fast forward to present day...


And on top my 4 beloved Canons, I have a Sony bridge camera, a Fuji X series, and a Pentax Auto. And assorted point and shoots. Olympus, Pentax, Yashica (the one from my teens), Minolta. See a name missing? (No, not Leica) The one brand I was still prejudiced about was Nikon. Until on a quest for a vintage-looking mirrorless, I found the Zf. At the time, I couldn't afford it, so I went Fuji. Don't get me wrong, I love the Fuji and I'm not getting rid of it anytime soon, but I wanted full frame.


Then I got lucky. I happened to be in the right place at the right time and got an offer that was simply impossible to refuse on the Nikon Zf with a lens of choice. I tried getting people on Threads to dissuade me (if only because GAS is relentless and I'd end up wanting lenses) but I only heard more reasons to go for it. I finally decided that if I hated it I would just sell it, since I paid a pittance for it. And I would stick to the one lens I chose for the first 6 months at least.


But here it is, and it's been a week

The Nikon Zf, with a smallrig grip and an Amazon replacement shutter button

Ever since I got it, I turned the silly little dial to B&W, set the picture style to "deep tone monochrome", put it in manual, and I don't know if I ever want to change any of it. This is more fun than I've had with the Fuji XT-4 when I got it, because there was almost no menu/settings hassle. I do not miss what I had to do perusing the Fuji-X-forums for an entire week to figure out my settings.


My pros and cons:


Cons:

  • It's a bit heavy, so the smallrig grip is an absolute must to help with that;
  • The shutter button is subpar: I can never feel the half-press well (hence why I got these plastic cover buttons, I use them on most my cameras that have this style of shutter button);
  • The function of the ISO dial is quirky. If you like limiting your ISO, to do it on this camera, you have to turn on Auto ISO, which turns the ISO dial into a "max auto ISO override" dial;
  • For small handed people who like back button focus: the placement of the AE button is a bit too far in, so you'll see yourself having to release the grip to reach it with your thumb. I have the same problem on my Fujis and I had to set the rear dial as my focus;
  • The battery door is cheap plastic and sure to be the first (and maybe only) thing to break on this camera;
  • Doesn't come with a power brick (only the cable for it).


Now, here's a con that's not Nikon's fault: my favorite picture style is "Deep Tone Monochrome" and Capture One doesn't know how to emulate it. Tons of people requested it but I don't think it's coming to C1. So if I want the look, I have to use the Jpegs, or convert my RAWs with NX studio.


Pros:

  • The dynamic range I'm seeing so far is very good. See the first Capitol photo below: I exposed for the midtones. Recovered all in post to my liking;
  • Noise performance is incredible. The cat photos below are ISO 4000 and I removed all the denoise during processing the RAWs. They're just very clean;
  • Autofocus performance is - not gonna lie - sometimes better than my Canon R5. The eye detect is snappy and it detects any eyes all at once - no need to select type (note: I haven't tested it on concerts in my dungeon-esque hangs, so that is going to be the decisive test);
  • Flip out screen. Haters gonna hate, but I love them as a short and not very physically flexible person;
  • Peaking for manual focus is more visible than in any other camera I've had. I'm not afraid to use manual lenses with it;
  • Looks beautiful. Makes people think you're shooting on an old film camera especially if the lens looks the part which is perfect for street photography (don't come at me with "so just get a film camera");


Honorable mention to the lens I got, the Z 40mm f/2, which is super light and cheap, but packs a punch in image quality. Props to Nikon for making their Zf kits with actually good lenses.


Photos


Here are some of the best photos I took this week. They're mostly autofocus, dynamic range, and noise tests. And I can say the camera performance was stellar. This is not a sponsored post and not meant to make you wanna buy it. I'm just excited and needed to write it down!