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The NIKKOR Z 20mm f/1.8 S has just been officially announced – it should be available in March.

This is certainly going on my shopping list. It’s not as compact as the previous AF-S and AF-D versions, which is a shame because their size made them VERY discreet. And this new version is 150g heavier, and obviously, considerably more expensive – we’re expecting this to cost around the 1200€ mark.

However, if the performance increases are anything like the other recently released NIKKOR Z lenses, this should be a very interesting addition. Comments from a couple of NIKON testers suggest edge to edge sharpness wide open…and the MTF charts seem to confirm this, showing fairly constant contrast and sharpness right out to the edges. PS this is good news!

I personally find this a more interesting lens than either the 24 or the 35mm, although each has it’s uses. Being a fan of « super-wides » this could easily become my ‘standard’ lens – but first, let’s see what it’s like on the camera…

The current f/1.8 prime lens lineup consists of these other lenses:

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(I didn’t include the 50mm f/1.8 – it exists, it’s relatively cheap, but I never use a 50mm lens…)

Interestingly, this new lens is far and away the largest of the group!

24mm – 96,5mm – 450g

35mm – 86,0mm – 370g

85mm – 99,0mm – 470g

20mm – 108,0mm – 505g

500kg of ass, 1 (shared) brain cell – Hollywood.

…that this vain idiot runs a country.

A new exhibition of Robert Doisneau has opened in Bram, to the South of Toulouse. It runs from the 1st of February until the 3rd of May and is entitled « Ombre and Lumière » (‘Shade and Light’)

The organizers have a reputation for bringing some very good work to Bram, a previous exhibition in 2014 was « The Mexican Suitcase » based on work by Rober Capa, so I’m planning a visit – there will be 100 images (not too sure which eras they date from yet…) – should be worth a visit…

Quite a lot going on at the moment – a weekend on the coast, a couple of circus residencies, a photo workshop….let’s start at the beginning.

The last week of January brought another circus company to Auch, with their version of Tchaikovsky’s « Swan Lake » – interesting watching a man romping around in a ‘tutu’…

What made this more interesting, and infinitely more complicated, was the directors inability to understand that I don’t work for free…

Once this was sorted out (and it took 6 days…) we moved on…to a REAL spectacle. This was « Interprète » by the Cheptel Aleïkoum/Maxime Mestre. I know the company well, and while for this spectacle there was only Maxime on stage, the rest of the troupe are here in Auch for virtually a whole month’s « residence » – they have asked me to work for them towards the end of the month – great news – they seem to like what I’ve done for them in the past!!

We enjoyed FANTASTIC weather during our weekend on the Atlantic coast – sunshine the whole time, good grub and lots to photograph (although all I seem able to do when the sun comes out, is point my camera at it – this is particularly frustrating to people who follow me on FLICKR as it seems every image has the sun in it somewhere… )

Of course, it was rather convenient to have the vestiges of a number of WWll blockhouses just laying there on the beach…so photogenic…

This week after ‘covering’ the show at CiRCa, I ran a photo workshop, with a number of adolescents, overseen by the local authorities. The kids had to photograph a number of key places here in the town, and I had to be on hand to ‘help’ in case they had photo related questions. I managed to keep my head down and followed everyone around, listening to our guide.

It’s very difficult trying to get a ‘different’ angle on a building that has been photographed many millions of times before…

The guide gave us all square mirrors, and it was unusual to be able to walk around and try to navigate just by looking up…

What on earth will I come up with to occupy myself next week?

Yes, I know it seems a long way off, but it’s worth noting the dates NOW. Wouldn’t want to miss it…

I should qualify this, I feel – as a general rule, camera straps just get in my way. I have a short ‘hand-grip’ strap for the D3s which is ideal – I can’t drop the camera, and it improves my hold. This connects to the upper right strap lug, and the lower strap fits onto my ARCA type ‘L’ plate that is permanently fixed to the camera.

I have been looking for an equivalents for my Z series cameras, but up until now I couldn’t find one with the additional ARCA type quick-release tripod mount that I use.

Up until now. This is the JJC Pro1M

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It’s fairly clear how this connects to the camera body – a strap passes through the righthand strap lug, and a metal plate screws into the tripod mount underneath.

The advantage of this model is the ARCA type rapid release tripod mount incorporated into the metal plate that fixes underneath the camera. I can slot it straight into my tripod ballheads without a problem.

There is another model, the Pro1P which doesn’t have this mount, but the lower plate has a couple of extendable ‘feet’ which allow the camera down stand on a flat surface without it leaning forwards onto the lens.

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The most amazing thing is that these are available at 22€ post free.

Hard to believe, I know, but it’s true.

All this time I’ve been complaining about this damn joystick thingy that controls the focus point on the Nikon Z series cameras, saying that it’s totally useless etc. but I’ve just discovered there IS a use for it, and it turns out that it’s VERY useful indeed.

Situation: out with my camera, early one morning, aiming to shoot the sunrise over the Pyrénées. Not unnaturally, the camera, equipped with the 70-200 f/4 lens, is firmly seated on a tripod. This is what I see in the viewfinder:-

The focus point falls on the flanks of the mountain (not a lot of contrast there) so to be sure I’m actually focusing on an area that the camera can use to focus, and instead of releasing the ball-head lock and moving the camera up to move the focus point, I moved the little joystick thingy up a couple of blips so that it was on the crest of the mountain and BAMM – it focused perfectly. All this WITHOUT moving the camera. I’m frankly astounded at just how long it has taken me to realize this.

I never thought I’d ever find a use for this damn thing – and now, in the space of a week, I’ve found that there is a use for it, AND that I can programme it to reset itself if I accidentally move it. The world is truly a wonderful place!

More news – it would seem that there is a new firmware update for the Z6/7 coming from Nikon this week. No confirmation, but it’s likely to enable people to use the ProRes RAW format for video enthusiasts, and improved autofocus. Still no news on the firmware update to enable the use of CFExpress cards – which are now available.

The one that’s now « out of the bag »… this is the Nikon Z 7 which is now part of my camera gear…

…and it’s great. I’ve already been out to take make some test shots, and the first thing that surprised me was the lack of hi-ISO noise even though I was shooting at 6400 ISO – remember the sensor is almost twice the pixel density of the Z6.

The battery pack now allows me to shoot continuously for much longer than before – sometimes I had to change the camera battery halfway through a performance, which was a nuisance. The batteries can be « hot swapped » – this means that if one runs down, it can be changed without affecting the power coming from the other battery (assuming it’s charged…) The only button on the battery grip allows you to check the charge of the batteries inside. There is also a USB-C connection to enable external charging (but only when the camera is turned off, strangely)

The grip is metal (magnesium alloy?) but the end caps (battery doors) are plastic. Ergonomically it actually helps (me!) to grip the body of the camera – the only downside at the present moment, is that an ARCA tripod mounting plate designed for this grip hasn’t appeared on the market yet – as I would generally use this for dynamic (concert, performance) work this isn’t a huge problem, but it’ll be nice to see someone get to making one so that I can whack it onto a tripod easily.

There’s not a lot to say about the camera itself – aside from a couple of minor (IMHO) technical issues – slower burst shooting, lower maximum Hi-ISO setting – which don’t affect me in any way, it’s IDENTICAL to the Z6 – in fact, the only thing different is the 6 or the 7 on the bottom righthand of the camera body.

This shot was one of the first I shot on the new body – as you can see, the hi-ISO is pegged at 6400 and frankly the noise is handled extremely well.

This was taken a couple of days earlier, but the ISO was down to 200 as I had the camera on a tripod.

This is confusing in that the detail was masked by the fog! Hi-ISO but on a tripod.