Nikon Z-Mount Cameras and Lenses Unveiled, thoughts?

Nikon has finally unveiled its Z-mount Cameras and Lenses and there is a lot to unpack. It has revealed a total of two cameras, 3 lenses(plus one in production), and one adapter(for its F-mount). The Cameras will be called the Z7 and Z6, and will be Nikon's mirrorless equivalents to the D850 and the D750. Nikon is launching the Cameras with the 24-70 f/4 lens, the 35mm F/1.8 lens and the 50mm f/1.8 with the 58mm F/.95 in development. The Cameras will cost $3400 and $1996 respectively and will compete against the Sony A7RIII and the A7III head to head. The cameras have 5-axis stabilization, 2- creative picture options(yes, it has an interval meter), and built in wi-fi and both will come with the exspeed 6 processor image processor. The Z7 with be a 45.7MP camera with 493 AF points that cover 90% of the viewfinder area with ISO 64-25,600 natively while the Z6 will be 24.5 mp with ISO 100-51200 ISO with 273 AF points and can shoot at 12fps. Both cameras with have a large grip and a large EvF with .8x magnification. Can't wait to try these out.

Yongnou unveils 50mm 1.4 AF lens for Nikon F-Mount

Yongnou has unveiled a 50mm f/1.4 autofocus lens. The recent releases of third-party lenses for the F-mount says to me the that the native adapters will work with third party lenses since Nikon is going to start migrating from F-Mount to Z-Mount. The lens itself hopefully will be around $200 as Yongnou's 50mm 1.8 is about a third of the price of Nikon 50mm f/1.8 and gives excellent image quality. Yongnou is known for its excellent quality and low prices in terms of lenses.

Samyang(Rokinon) Launches first AF Lens for Nikon F mount

Samyang has launched its first AF lens for Nikon's F mount. Samyung is known for their top notch Manual focus glass but only has 8 AF lenses. The lens in question is the 14mm F/2.8. I happen to have the manual version of the lens and it is excellent. Since Nikon is launching its Z-mount this Thursday, its strange that they would start the F-mount AF now.

Sony overtakes Canon as #1 in Full-frame Camera sales in US

Sony has announced that it has overtaken Canon as the #1 seller of full-frame interchangable lens cameras in the United States thanks to its A7RIII and A7III Cameras. This shows the market clearly moving away from DSLRs and into Mirrorless in the future. Canon and Nikon are both set to introduce their own mirrorless cameras soon to challenge Sony, but if they are both changing mounts, they have a lot of catching up to do in terms of the glass available.

Nikon Focusing on High-End Primes for their Z-mount first, good strategy?

Nikon's Z-Mount Cameras are being announced on the 23rd of August along with 3 lenses. One of them will be the standard 24-70mm f/4 kit lens but the other two are fast primes. Nikon has also planned an f/.9 52mm lens for their new mount. I personally think its a better strategy to focus on commonly used zooms such as 24-20, 18-35, 70-200, and 70-300 rather than these ultra-fast prime lenses because more people use the common zooms and they should be the core of most photographer's kits. Focusing on consumer and pro-sumer lenses helps you grab the market for common people, which is most of the market if you looks at units of Cameras sold.

Nikon Mirrorless Back Button Layout

Nikon Rumors have just published a picture of what the back button layout of Nikon's new Mirrorless Camera will look like. I have to say, I'm a little disappointed that they moved the column of buttons on the left to other spaces because I found those button positions to be extremely easy to use.

Canon Mirrorless Camera Rumors

Sony has two great mirror-less full-frame Cameras out. Nikon is going to announce two on August 23rd, but what Canon is doing is still a mystery. There are professionals out in the field testing the Canon Cameras but there have been no leaks yet. There are rumored to be two models coming out, a flagship model which will compete with the Sony A7RIII and a lower mode, designed to compete with the Sony A7III. It is rumored that the flagship model will had the same resolution as the 5D Mark IV, which would be a mistake since both Nikon's mirrorless flag and the A7RIII are going to have close to 50% more megapixels, putting Canon on the backfoot. The new Canon Mirrorless Flagship should have 40+mp to compete. Second is what mount Canon should go with. Here they have three options. Stick with the EF mount that all their DSLR cameras use, go with the already existing M mount, or design a whole new mount. If it were me, I'd stick with the EF mount because its still very good today and is big enough for Canon to build fast Lenses and features into. Unlike the Nikon F-Mount which has not been changed from the 1950s, the EF Mount was introduced in the 1980s and so does not have some of the problems the F-Mount does. If they go with the M-mount or build a new mount, they will be lagging behind Sony in the Native glass department by several years.

Photography copyright cases, what do you think?

Three decision handed down by judges lately have impacted freelance photographers. Two that are pro photographers and one that is against. This video below discusses my thoughts on each of these decisions and the damages awarded.

Tamron to release 17-35mm, $600 Wide-angel Lens for Canon and Nikon

Tamron announced it was making a 17-35mm lens for Canon and Nikon with the sticker price of $600. The Nikon version will be released in September while the Canon version will follow later. There are no known plans yet for a Sony version. While Tamron offer excellent quality with a much lower sticker price than Nikon or Canon lenses, there is the worry of how it will work with the new adapters to the mirrorless mounts that Canon and Nikon are soon coming out with.

Nikon New Mount Sneak Peak Video and Discussion

Nikon released another teaser video based on its new mount. For the first half it shows Nikon's innovations starting with their first DSLR camera and flows through the generations of Cameras. The last half of the video shows their mirrorless camera's front side and the new mount. It looks like the Camera resembles a Fuji rather than a Sony and the mount is a big one.