Very serious photographs by a very serious person
Hello there! If you're just tuning in -- or if you don't remember your e-mail from last week, because I sure don't -- you're reading Photo Newsletter, a weekly letter about photographs. I'm Nat Bennett, and I just got a Nikon z6ii with a 24-200mm lens.
Previously I'd only shot on ASP-C sensors, and this one is full frame. That means: twice as big of a sensor, twice as much light. And I can zoom way in or way out on the same lens, which is a big change -- normally I shoot medium telephoto primes with a fixed angle of view.
I took, um, over 1000 photos this week, trying out the new capabilities of the new camera.
There's something really invigorating about a new tool, and this one feels really right. The combination of body and lens is heavier than any piece of photographic equipment I've used so far. It feels substantial. Weighty. It's easier to take myself a little bit more seriously than usual when I'm holding it.
Only a little bit, though. I still mostly take stuff like this.
Still getting the hang of the new autofocusing capabilities but these were fun as heck to make. Edgar enjoyed it too, I think -- there's very little he loves more than running straight at his favorite people -- so he's been an agreeable and patient little model.
Btw -- if you live within ~4 hour driving distance of Berkeley, have a dog, and would be agreeable to setting up a photo shoot later this summer, send me an e-mail. I'd like to work with dogs that aren't Edgar.
The new camera also made me feel like I had permission to really crank the ISO this week. Captured some shots that I absolutely would not have even thought about taking on the ASP-C sensor, out walking around in evening light.
It's funny because it's not even that the full frame sensor is that much better at the high ISO. The grain is definitely still noticeable, especially if you zoom in, and that level of grain would have bugged me on the ASP-C sensor. But now it's like, well! This is the best I can get. Camera you're giving me 6400 because I shot this handheld? YOLO.
This is one area where I do still prefer shooting on a "real" camera to shooting on an iPhone. Instead of grain the iPhone gets all... smeary. This is apparently a deliberate decision to make the iPhone photos look "painterly" but it just leaves me cold. I still shoot with the iPhone in low light all the time, it's very powerful in those conditions, but I prefer the look I get from the cameras that are doing less processing on the image.
Finally: This thing isn't a macro lens but at 200mm it does do a decent impression of one, and I did promise ya'll bee pictures when I started this thing, so here you go.
This is one of the things that sold me on the Nikon Z series, incidentally -- many of the lenses have good close focusing ranges. I still want that 105mm 2.8/f macro lens that everyone on Reddit raves over but it's going to wait until at least the next photo book, and possibly even until Christmas if I can restrain myself. Gotta space out the gear.