Horses - Z8+ETZ21+Tamron e-mount 70-180f2.8

[skyrunr]

My daughters have been riding horses for 3-4 years now. This is a local farm which puts on a monthly pot-luck "more fun than competitive" Gymkhana. The forecast was for thunderstorms with a 60% chance, but it turned out to be a sunny 85 degree day. Many sunburns were also distributed.

HEAT: The Z8 was cooking, uncomfortably hot in hand (not the LCD or CFE,) but not overheating or giving me warnings. (just stills!) I tried to keep the LCD vented, but the design is not good for this at all. A flippy or even removeable LCD may have helped. I ran the battery down 3/4 through the day which I found acceptable.

I mostly used Low 4fps or High 12fps which I found just right, and VERY reliable. The responsiveness (D500) was so good I was able to grab last shots I'd miss with a non Z8/Z9. I didn't even out the WB intentionally, because the weather changed throughout the day, and I wanted to keep that vibe. For the most part these are very lightly edited. Shot neutral with my import profile/preset, some shadow boosting, and other minor adjustments. I shot wider than I usually do as this is all new gear, so most of these are at least 50% crops or even crops to portrait.

There are lots of timing shots, and I had a hard time reducing selections to this post. There are some even better images, but I'm not comfortable posting too much online.




The kiddos have the best expressions. Warm, but messing with it messed with the helmet detail.


I just liked this one uncorrected

[ATTACH alt="This is my favorite photo. I have one with the flowers in focus I like even more, but it would be considered "out of focus" and people would freak. LOL"]3357152[/ATTACH]
This is my favorite photo. I have one with the flowers in focus I like even more, but it would be considered "out of focus" and people would freak. LOL


My daughter hustling George around, and winning 2nd. The owner's (wonderful family) children have a bit more riding time and training than she does.


That half scared half smile of initiating a cantor, priceless!


Hold on!


No barrels were harmed creating this image.


Levitate...


I hear these are the money shots, and I see why. I'll cleanup the background on a rainy day.


Smile and the world smiles with you.


Don't bight your tongue... I got this!


Good job, and she knows it!


I have sequences of these which will make nice GIF's.


#2

[ATTACH alt="Random "what will throw the Z8 off?" test, passed!"]3357166[/ATTACH]
Random "what will throw the Z8 off?" test, passed!


Don't forget how much fun this is. The older riders have a lot more technique/pressure.


The money shot for all the carrots.

--
SkyRunR
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TIPS: Be kind, RT#M, use gear not signature, limit/shorten replies with quotes!
'The first casualty, when war comes, is truth' - Hiram Johnson (1866-1945)

 

[dacrema]

What a fun day! With Z9 and Z8 I love how you can go the a series of shots to get the one you want. The pic of the horse with all the feet in the air, while everything is in focus is a good example. I like the lean of the horses in the barrel racing shots. The kid's faces. Over all a great set.

Congrats to your daughter for grabbing second.

 

[Mackiesback]

I have been whining for a while about my 80-200 2.8 being bricked, and this lens may be my solution. I like the idea of this rather than getting an F mount lens that I would adapt in the price range I am considering.

 

[skyrunr]

I have been whining for a while about my 80-200 2.8 being bricked, and this lens may be my solution. I like the idea of this rather than getting an F mount lens that I would adapt in the price range I am considering.

I pre-ordered the Z 70-180f2.8, so I might be selling an ETZ21 with the 70-180f2.8. e-mount in a few weeks. Unfortunately, the Z8 isn't staying over either. There are a few things I can't look past considering the investment. I needed to confirm that it would be good enough, and that there is hope for the III's. I'm certainly not going to sit around waiting for firmware like I did with my Z7II either.

 

[skyrunr]

Thank you. My two daughters have been camera shy for about two years now. They might not appreciate Z sharpness as much as we do. LOL This is the only time I can freely photograph them. Most of my photos of them are unfriendly glares.

 

[dacrema]

You should have seen the look when I told my daughter I "now that I'm retired I can get a pic of you walking into class on your first day of Grad School". I was only kidding but she knew that I was thinking about it...

 

[ghostfox_1]

But I was assured images like these were impossible to take

nice shots, hopefully everyone got to enjoy a good day of fun

 

[skyrunr]

But I was assured images like these were impossible to take

nice shots, hopefully everyone got to enjoy a good day of fun

Thank you! Well I did everything possible to miss some! I even pulled zoom while taking bursts, and I wouldn't even expect this to work well (or complain if it didn't) with an adapted lens. I hope I get the Z version before I have to send this beast back. I'm going to rent a Z9 when needed.

I mostly used Wide (L People) and C1 with the largest "crop" because that is what I'm most used to. 3D would sometimes expose for the rider and silhouette the horse even with matrix adjusted a bit. It was tracking eyes outside of the AF indicator, which I was absolutely fine with, and I don't recall my Z7II doing that as much as the Z8 did. I could see having the option to think inside or outside of the box.

--
SkyRunR
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
TIPS: Be kind, RT#M, use gear not signature, limit/shorten replies with quotes!
'The first casualty, when war comes, is truth' - Hiram Johnson (1866-1945)

 

[Tim Bury]

Great series and I liked all the commentary!

 

[skyrunr]

Great series and I liked all the commentary!

Thank you, I might post a few more if I ever get through the rest of the culling and cropping.

 

[Vandyu]

Loved these. Reminded me of my days as a late teen riding at the roundup club events in Oklahoma. Like cameras, horses are a wonderful hobby.

 

[Ernie Misner]

Excellent images, and great to see that it is sharp wide open. Many thanks!

 

[Sandy27000]

Lovely series!

A quick question: did you find the e-mount lens AF as snappy as you’d have experienced on a Sony body or was it a bit slower to AF on Z8? Thanks!

 

[skyrunr]

Lovely series!

A quick question: did you find the e-mount lens AF as snappy as you’d have experienced on a Sony body or was it a bit slower to AF on Z8? Thanks!

I think the measure/experience was that I didn't notice any slowness AT ALL with the Tamron lenses. Out of a few the 25-35 image bursts 2-3 photos grabbed the background. That only happened with 3-4 bursts out of 30 as well. Mostly when I was panning, or wasn't quite ready to shoot. It was cloudy in the morning and sunny all day. There were very busy backgrounds and patterns too.

I have to mention that it is very slow to pickup eyes in photos around my home. Especially compared to my Z30/A7C. When it does it prefers the black child's face in my test chart. I only get the arrows to switch eyes either. This is why I'd like to have face-only detection be a separate option like the Z6/Z7. This is using the 24-120F4S and at both wide and tele ranges, and filling the frame which was not a problem for my Z7II.

 

[skyrunr]

I forgot to mention that the "Levitate" photo's horses name is Magic. It is a newer horse that is in transitioning to a new home.

On practice day after the event, the smaller black "pack leader" pony George was annoyed by a tiny table near the outside of the fence in some deep grass. He kept stopping to check it out. If the other horses see him dong this they will all become bothered/afraid of the table. Later on he was rolling around like a dog in mud in the open field. That is the best part of practice, when they are all released into the field to graze. I could spend all day at the farm if I had the batteries for it and a lot of bug spray. LOL

 

[piyhaw]

Great pictures!

How is the ETZ working for you? Any issues yet? I am shooting Sony and have shot with Nikon in the past. I wanted to move back to Nikon just for the colors. Nikons are great sooc. But don't want to sell my E lenses. Those are great. In dilemma if using adapted lenses will be a good idea. Can an adapter damage a camera or lens, say if electrical circuits go bad? Heard of ETZs frying.

 

[shuncheung]

Great pictures!

How is the ETZ working for you? Any issues yet? I am shooting Sony and have shot with Nikon in the past. I wanted to move back to Nikon just for the colors. Nikons are great sooc. But don't want to sell my E lenses. Those are great. In dilemma if using adapted lenses will be a good idea. Can an adapter damage a camera or lens, say if electrical circuits go bad? Heard of ETZs frying.

First of all, I dislike all adapters because they introduce play and more weak points to the set up, but it should be a decent interim solution. However, there are people who love adapting all sorts of lenses with different adapters. Therefore, your mileage may vary.

Some ETZ can bridge you over, but IMO the strongest part of the Nikon Z system are the lenses. The Z mount is much wider than Sony E and the flange distance is also 2mm shorter, and that is exactly why an adapter is possible. Those are inherent advantages in the Z mount so that superior lenses are possible.

But an ETZ will let you upgrade your lenses more gradually, and some lenses might not be available in the Z mount at all. One issue you may face is that every time Nikon upgrades the firmware on their body, your ETZ mount could potentially become incompatible and then you'll need to wait for a firmware fix for the adapter. That can get old and annoying pretty quickly.

 

[skyrunr]

Great pictures!

How is the ETZ working for you? Any issues yet? I am shooting Sony and have shot with Nikon in the past. I wanted to move back to Nikon just for the colors. Nikons are great sooc. But don't want to sell my E lenses. Those are great. In dilemma if using adapted lenses will be a good idea. Can an adapter damage a camera or lens, say if electrical circuits go bad? Heard of ETZs frying.

If I spend more than $2,000 on ANY electronics I get an accidental warranty with it. I had at ETX21 brick on me, Megadap was no help, but there are specific handling instructions I wasn't aware of. The Fotodiox has a 2yr warranty, built better, better USB plug design, but it doesn't fit all the Z's. (Z30/Zfc) I would read through all the recent ETZ21 posts here to get a feel for them.

I have F4S glass, don't want to carry f2.8 zooms, and I still prefer used Tamron f2.8 over F4S glass. If the camera is good enough, as the Z8 is, I get the best of both worlds. I don't need the 200% views, and you often won't see that level of detail in prints/products. I have both when I need them. The 70-180f2.8 used is now available in z-mount and pre-ordered. I still use the 20-40f2.8 for now, but then I'll be done adapting.



Not to mention all the more compact Sony G compact primes with aperture rings (smooth or indexed btw.)

 

[piyhaw]

Great pictures!

How is the ETZ working for you? Any issues yet? I am shooting Sony and have shot with Nikon in the past. I wanted to move back to Nikon just for the colors. Nikons are great sooc. But don't want to sell my E lenses. Those are great. In dilemma if using adapted lenses will be a good idea. Can an adapter damage a camera or lens, say if electrical circuits go bad? Heard of ETZs frying.

If I spend more than $2,000 on ANY electronics I get an accidental warranty with it. I had at ETX21 brick on me, Megadap was no help, but there are specific handling instructions I wasn't aware of. The Fotodiox has a 2yr warranty, built better, better USB plug design, but it doesn't fit all the Z's. (Z30/Zfc) I would read through all the recent ETZ21 posts here to get a feel for them.

I have F4S glass, don't want to carry f2.8 zooms, and I still prefer used Tamron f2.8 over F4S glass. If the camera is good enough, as the Z8 is, I get the best of both worlds. I don't need the 200% views, and you often won't see that level of detail in prints/products. I have both when I need them. The 70-180f2.8 used is now available in z-mount and pre-ordered. I still use the 20-40f2.8 for now, but then I'll be done adapting.

Not to mention all the more compact Sony G compact primes with aperture rings (smooth or indexed btw.)

Yes, I agree. The best is to not have to use any adapters but not always you would get an exact replacement in the other system. I really like the aperture rings and the small form factor of GM lenses. And selling lenses from one system and buying the exact lens on another is an expensive affair. I too am planning to get that 70-180 if I get into Nikon. Only my GM lenses are holding me up.

 

[Jeff_0000]

Great pictures!

How is the ETZ working for you? Any issues yet? I am shooting Sony and have shot with Nikon in the past. I wanted to move back to Nikon just for the colors. Nikons are great sooc. But don't want to sell my E lenses. Those are great. In dilemma if using adapted lenses will be a good idea. Can an adapter damage a camera or lens, say if electrical circuits go bad? Heard of ETZs frying.

If I spend more than $2,000 on ANY electronics I get an accidental warranty with it. I had at ETX21 brick on me, Megadap was no help, but there are specific handling instructions I wasn't aware of. The Fotodiox has a 2yr warranty, built better, better USB plug design, but it doesn't fit all the Z's. (Z30/Zfc) I would read through all the recent ETZ21 posts here to get a feel for them.

I have F4S glass, don't want to carry f2.8 zooms, and I still prefer used Tamron f2.8 over F4S glass. If the camera is good enough, as the Z8 is, I get the best of both worlds. I don't need the 200% views, and you often won't see that level of detail in prints/products. I have both when I need them. The 70-180f2.8 used is now available in z-mount and pre-ordered. I still use the 20-40f2.8 for now, but then I'll be done adapting.

Not to mention all the more compact Sony G compact primes with aperture rings (smooth or indexed btw.)

Yes, I agree. The best is to not have to use any adapters but not always you would get an exact replacement in the other system. I really like the aperture rings and the small form factor of GM lenses. And selling lenses from one system and buying the exact lens on another is an expensive affair. I too am planning to get that 70-180 if I get into Nikon. Only my GM lenses are holding me up.

Megadap is about to introduce a ETZ21 pro version... you may wait to see if there are any improvements.