Photography

On March 18, 2022 by Jonathan Zdziarski

Like many of D850’s lovers, I swore I would never go mirrorless. As a landscape photographer, I laughed at the idea of the teeny weeny Z6 and Z7, which wouldn’t stand a chance against the wind, hail, and ocean currents that I’ve exposed my camera gear to, let alone a sneeze! I guffawed at the adorable size of the Z7’s battery life, barely able to keep up with a toy camera. I flat out howled at the awful night focus of my friend’s Z7 II, when trying to use it in the dark for astrophotography. In my mind, the D850 was perfect, has served me well, and was the boss for landscape and astrophotography. I could fit my hand around it too, unlike the tiny baby cameras Nikon was cranking out. Then the Z9 came along, and ruined my plans to single-handedly bankrupt Nikon by refusing to buy any new cameras.

After spending a short time with the Z9 in the field, I’ve since walked back the staunch opposition to mirrorless that I held inside the echo chamber that is my mind, promptly sold my D850, stopped speculating about the D880, and instead have become one of the many believers who see no reason Nikon should ever make another DSLR again. Let me explain how significant the differences have been for me, and why I have become a changed man. This glorious epiphany was not the result of the Z9’s new sensor, or the desire to upgrade any of my glass. Based on image quality, this is a lateral move. What you do gain is an incredible amount of new functionality and simplicity that makes landscape photography less laborious and more fun again.

Yes, it has better focus. Yes, it has better video. I don’t care about any of that. I care about that mountain standing in front of me, that isn’t going anywhere, or that waterfall that I need to shoot before my glass mists up. Surprisingly, the Z9 had something special just for people like me.

If you’re shooting landscape, you’ve probably got a bit of a complicated set up; a bank exclusively for Exposure Delay, which you use in conjunction with Mirror Lockup and a remote on your D850. Why? Because these are the things one must do to reduce vibration in the camera, from the mirror to the mechanical shutter, to your own hands. The Z9 took all of these out of your way. Nikon not only ditched the mirror, but also a mechanical shutter. What this means for your shooting process is highly underrated: no more exposure delay mode, no more mirror lockup, no more remote, and a simpler memory bank layout.

While both the D850 and the Z9 have a built-in timer mode for initiating a shot, you couldn’t use it with mirror lockup mode. Now that you’ve got mirror lockup out of the equation, the built-in timer works well for stabilizing the camera after you press the shutter button with your clumsy meat hands. You may also have used a remote for long exposures on the D850, which requires some form of bulb mode after 30″. The Z9 supports up to 900″ of timed shooting in manual mode, allowing you to take up to 15 minute long exposures without the need for bulb mode. So with exposure delay, mirror lockup, and bulb mode all gone from your shooting flow, you’ve now simplified the process down to a press of the shutter button.

You’ve also removed the need for a separate memory bank for all this garbage and having to mess around with menus just to take a good landscape.

The viewfinder. It’s bright. It has a very visible green focusing square to let you know when you’ve nailed your focus. It has focus peaking, allowing you to see the focal plane that is in focus with very easy to see zebras. Do you know what it doesn’t have? Annoying focusing screens for you to strain your eyes on to precisely focus a manual lens. It doesn’t have a dim viewfinder that you have to slam into your eyeball just to see through. It doesn’t have terrible LCD focus points you can’t see against dark subjects. You probably used to think there’s nothing more pure and accurate than looking into a through-the-lens viewfinder, but as soon as you work with the Z9, you’ll immediately see the benefit of having all of these focusing tools at your disposal – especially if you use manual lenses. To top it off, you’ll never need to install another focusing screen again.

Mirrorless cameras suck in the dark, you say! Let me introduce you to your new best friend, Starlight Mode. Starlight Mode can be assigned to a Fn button on the front of the camera. In near pitch black conditions, it will ramp up the ISO to give you a properly exposed view of your frame so you can focus and compose your shot. Composing in the dark has never been easy with an analog viewfinder, and is impossible with most other mirrorless cameras; the Z9’s Starlight Mode makes it effortless.

In addition to performing well in darkness, Starlight Mode is an excellent way to compose – and even focus – with a neutral density filter attached, all without darkening your view. Because what could be better than constantly having to take the filter off just to recompose? Imagine being able to focus and compose with a 10-stop ND 3.0 attached. The Z9 does it.

There’s another little secret to Starlight Mode that not many have figured out yet. It is an excellent tool for metering in manual mode when you have neutral density filters attached. Using Starlight, you can preview your exposure as you adjust your shutter speed, f-stop, and ISO, allowing you to dial in exactly the right recipe without having to do the math. When an image is severely underexposed, Starlight Mode behaves more like a live view preview for long exposure. When you get the frame right, just click. Outside of manual mode, you can switch to Starlight Mode in, say Aperture Priority, the opposite works – Starlight Mode will tell you the timer value it’s using to display the brightened exposure, telling you what shutter speed you should dial in while you play with the f-stop and ISO dials. You can then dial in those settings before turning off Starlight to get the shot. This mode maxes out at 30″, while manual mode allows you to dial in up to 900″. The ability to not only compose and focus your shot with an ND attached, but to use it as a metering guide is invaluable while you’re actively out shooting at different angles and in different light. It allows you to recompose for multiple shots without needing to constantly remove the filter first.

Lastly, the countdown timer on the top display is a much welcomed improvement to the D850, which displayed, well nothing, while doing a long exposure.

I would be remiss not to cover some of the minor improvements that also make your life so much more convenient.

The GPS addition eliminates the need to use Nikon’s stupid iPhone app to get GPS data in your EXIF. This is so valuable as a photographer, not only if you want to visit the same spot, but also when you go to write descriptions for your pieces. It’s incredibly helpful to be able to look up exactly where a shot was taken and figure out the name of the region you’re in, or mapping a location for a tour.

The Z9 comes with two night display modes, one of which allows you to display your live view in tones of red. It was designed to be easy on the eyes, and on many occasions can provide a much better view of the composition at night.

The sensor shield, which can be configured to close every time you turn off the camera, is excellent at preventing dust or mist from ever coming in contact with the sensor. Just try changing lenses in the field with your D850 in Iceland, within 200 yards of a waterfall on a windy day, and see just how easy it is to keep your sensor spotless during the trip.

Because there’s no mechanical shutter, a photographer no longer has to worry about shutter rating or mechanical malfunctions – in other words, you’re not going to wear out this camera. It’s solid state. It will last for decades – or until you trade it in for the Z9 II in a year.

The Z9 offers a sophisticated set of tools for the landscape photographer they’ve never had before. I tip my hat to my old D850, you’ve served me well, but mirrorless systems are light years ahead of what we thought was the best camera system just a few years ago. Nikon came up with an excellent feature set that really helps photographers focus more on taking pictures than getting bogged down with process. For anyone who prefers actually doing photography than thinking about photography (or trolling about photography), the Z9 provides the tools to actually enjoy it again with some of the most modern capabilities available to a photographer.