1. Nikon Z6 Ii Capture One
2. Nikon Z6 Raw Capture One

After 4 years with Fujifilm X-T cameras I finally jumped into the Full Frame Mirrorless world with the Nikon Z6.

Why? will you ask

Well as much as I loved Fujifilm cameras, specially the retro design and nice Image quality, I felt Fuji was not evolving the still photography part of their X-T line:

Capture One will add support for the latest Nikon Z6 II and Z7 II cameras at the end of the month (January 2021): “We’ve been receiving many requests for support for Nikon Z6II and Z7II – so we’re letting you know ahead of time that we will now be adding support for these cameras. Use the Windows File Explorer. Create a temp folder to hold the image files. Plug the Z6 in with the USB cable. The Z6 is only supported by the DNG 11.1 Beta converter at the moment. Adobe Digital Negative Converter. Camera Raw 11.1 is no doubt on its way. Good to see the Z6 is supported in Capture One but you do have to buy or upgrade to the new version 12.0 (released 2 weeks ago) to get it. One of the big headlines when the first Nikon Z6 and Z7 tests appeared online is that they exhibited a pattern of “banding,” or line pattern noise, when recovering shadows too much. Although most reviewers were quick to point out that 5-6 stops of shadow recovery is excessive, this issue nonetheless drew a lot of attention.

• Redundant design, it was super sexy at start but you get bored after years
• Dynamic Range was nice but it needed this extra plus a Full Frame has in some difficult light condition like a sunset
• ISO noise is pretty good on the apsc Fujifilm cameras but even at 1600 it’s already noisy
• Weight and size advantage of the apsc cameras disappeared with the X-T4 which is just a hair smaller and lighter than a Z6
• Price of the X-T4 is also way too close to a good FF model like the A7iii or Z6

Why the Z6 and not a Sony A7iii?

• Ergonomics of the Z6 are better for my hands
• The materials
• The menu, specially for someone who had a Nikon before
• The lenses! Same IQ as Sony G Master for a (much) sweeter price

The Design

So how this Z6 looks in reality?

It’s not your usual Nikon DSLR camera nor Fuji retro look, Nikon used a specific design this time, still all black but with a different shape than DSLR, less curvy and more rectangular. I really like it, it doesn’t have a WoW look like when the X-T1(0) were out, but its classic yet fun design will not make it boring in a couple of months/years.

Dials and controls!

Librecad mac os. Coming from the ”analog” style of Fujifilm knobs the Z6 is definitely different but not in a negative way, you have a main dial on top right and one on the front that is programmable. As well as ISO, Exposure and many function programmable buttons.

The ”i” button will open a quick menu just like on Fujis.

The LCD screen is bigger than fujifilm’s x-t3 with 3.2” vs 3”, also the menu is fully usable by touch with shortcuts for ISO, F opening and shutter speed which I found very useful. The LCD is very bright and useful outdoor.

The EVF is excellent.

There is a top black and white lcd for even faster info on the settings.

The grip is pretty good, way better than the x-t3, in a way I don’t really need a hand strap like on Fujis

Most Z lenses if not all have a customizable ring that you can set for Exposure,ISO, Aperture…Very useful specially if you are accustomed to Fuji XF lenses, the top lcd is a great help to read the actual value.

Well yes the ergonomics are really very good, from the dials, buttons to the grip passing by the touch and top LCDs.

ISO Performance

The Z6 is a Full Frame camera, meaning it should naturally have a better noise control at high ISO, let’s see if this is the case.

Native ISO is 100 to 51200 and you can use as low as ISO 50 and as high as 204800 even with RAW which was not the case with Fuji, the X-T3 could only use native ISO with Raw.

Bare in mind also that the Z6 ISO value is different than on the Fujis, the X-t3 ISO for instance is approximately 2/3Ev darker than the Z6.

Here an example from base ISO 100 to max 51200, Luminance NR kept at 0, manual focus on books. Crop at 100%

As you can see, it stays pretty clean up to ISO 6400, at ISO 12800 you start to see noise in the shadows but nothing that can’t be corrected with noise removal, at 25600 it’s still usable with a good amount of NR and if you resize your photo a bit, at 51200 the noise is too high meaning the NR will be too aggressive.

I should also mention that the Z6 produces more color noise than the X-T3 but this is very easy to take away with Color noise removal at 100 in C1 or LR without any impact on the sharpness.

IBIS stabilization

The Z6 has an integrated stabilization IBIS which is helpful for video recording handheld as well as photography as you can go as slow as 1/6sec (depending on your hands shacking ratio), it means that even a slow lens like the 24-70 f4 can have some great low light photos thanks to the clean high ISO and IBIS given you are shooting static subjects.

Image quality

Now the most important part of a camera: the Image quality!

The Z6 can take like most cameras nowadays all kinds of jpeg sizes and compression, as well as Raw which are named NEF here. Raw can be compressed lossless (no loss of quality) for a better memory size. Speaking of memory, the Z6 has a single slot for XQD/CFE cards, while it’s a bad news for certain photographers who prefer to have 2 slots, the XQD format is very solid and won’t fail as easy as an SD, also the XQD and CFE cards are super fast, with a 440mb/s transfer speed for the XQD on USB 3.1 and more than the double for the CFE (if you have an USB 3.2).

Coming from an X-t3 with a rather good lens XF 16mm f1.4 for more than a year, I was surprised to see the photos taken with the Z6 and kit lens 24-70 f4 were even better. yes of course low light photos are better but even in daylight you can see more (micro)details in the snow,skins,walls,wood….

The known problems of getting details of trees and bushes with Fuji Raf are all gone with Nikon Bayer sensor, even with using Capture One and right amount of sharpness I never had a superb rendering of trees and bushes with my Raf(s), this is not the case with NEF.

Some following photos are clickable for bigger size

Dynamic range as expected for a mirrorless Full Frame sensor is great, the shadows recovery and the colors recovery in highlight are clearly better than with the x-T3 which is already very good.

Autofocus since the FW update 3.0 is excellent with a very accurate eye detection AF

The Sun resistance is fantastic with the Z6 and its lenses, I took several photos facing the sun on a bright sunny day and never got the irritating sensor grid pattern (aligned green blotches on x-t3, aligned purple blotches on x-t10 and x-t20), 1st photo is an example of the Fuji sensor grid.

Z6 photos:

Color wise I am very satisfied with this camera, for landscape it sometimes steers a bit to the cold side of WB just like the Fujis, as for skin tones it’s as good as Fujifilm

Menu UI

The Nikon Z6 menu is an evolved one compared to the old UI Nikon used on older cameras like the D300 and D90 for example.

The new stuff are really interesting and useful like Full touch control, a dedicated time-lapse mode that will generate a video on the camera itself, an HDR mode that will use 2 different exposures to build an HDR photo on the camera itself and you can save the used NEF so you can try yourself bracketing later at home, it also has an interval timer shooter with a programmable timer (yes you can go and sleep while the camera will wake up and take photos of Neowise or MW at a given time) but it’s rather a complicated one.

You can also retouch your photos on the camera itself, you can even use d-Lighting which is a sort of Shadows recovery mode but strangely not Highlight.

Does the Z6 includes film simulation? No and….yes! Out of the box it does just have some ”picture control” modes like b&w and sepia, but it includes empty slots that you can use to add your own film simulations, you have a bunch at the Nikon Picture Control website https://nikonpc.com/

Also you can find some ported Fujifilm film simulations for Capture 1 and LR if you do a good search in google.

As already said before you can fully control your aperture,shutter speed and ISO thanks to shortcut on the screen when in shooting mode.

All and all the UI of the Nikon Z6 is a winner minus the interval timer shooter mode that could be more user friendly.

Conclusion

Do I regret my jump from Fujifilm apsc cameras to Nikon’s Z6? No.

Nonin medical port devices driver download for windows 10. Yes I do regret the small size and weight of an X-T20 but not an x-T3 that was nearly as bulky and heavy than the Z6 (I had the XF 16 f1.4), the z6 is better in IQ, menus are 100% touch compatible, the lenses are top notch and increasing year after year while I feel Fuji is limited by the apsc sensor as well as it needs to refresh some great lenses like the 23mm f1.4 that has a noisy AF and high CA.

What I liked on the Z6:

-The Image Quality thanks to FF bayer + excellent lenses

-Real grip

-Bigger LCD screen

-Fully touch menu

-Low light

-Top lcd

-Super fast XQD

-EVF size

-No sensor grid artifact when facing the sun

Nikon Z6 Ii Capture One

-Dynamic Range quantity and quality

-Great for astrophotography

-Fast and precise AF

-Very low CA (lenses)

-IBIS

What I missed from Fujfilm

-Small and light option of the X-t20/30 (not the X-t3/4)

-3 ways tilt lcd from the x-t3

-Film simulations out of the box (but you can get them ported on Nikon somehow)

Well yes my dream camera would be a Z6 in a small body size of the x-t30 with a 3 ways tilting screen of the x-t3, but this perfect camera doesn’t exist.

Nikon Z6 Raw Capture One

You must see your priorities, if you want a super discreet and light option above all then take the x-t20/30, if you are searching for the ultimate IQ with a wider DR and low noise on high ISO then get a Z6 asap, don’t take me wrong the Fujfilm X-T3/T4 are great cameras and I still recommend them for new comers but they lack this little extra details that the Z6 gives specially for landscapes

Current camera firmware (downloadable from nikonimglib.com):

• Z5 — 1.02 (October 2020)
• Z6 — 3.20 (December 2020)
• Z6 II — 1.10 (February 2021)
• Z7 — 3.20 (December 2020)
• Z7 II — 1.10 (February 2021)
• Z50 — 2.03 (March 2021)

Current lens firmware (downloadable from nikonimglib.com):

• FTZ — 1.10 (July 2020)
• 50mm f/1.8 S — 1.01 (June 2019)
• 24-70mm f/4 S — 1.01 (April 2020)
• 24-70mm f/2.8 S — 1.10 (November 2020)

Current Nikon software applications (downloadable from nikonimglib.com):

• Nikon Capture NX-D version 1.6.5 macOS/Windows (free). Capture NX-D is a raw converter for NEF and NRW files that is based upon Silkypix. Supports Z5, Z6, Z6 II, Z7, Z7 II, Z50. Last updated March 2021.
• Nikon ViewNX-i version 1.4.5 macOS, Windows (free). View NX-i is an image browsing program with minor editing capabilities, including raw support. Supports Z5, Z6, Z6 II, Z7, Z7 II, Z50. Last updated March 2021.
• Nikon Picture Control Utility version 2.4.7 macOS/Windows (free). Bundled with the above products, this utility lets you modify Nikon’s Picture Controls and save those to be loaded on your camera. Supports Z5, Z6, Z6 II, Z7, Z7 II, Z50. Last updated October 2020.
• Nikon Camera Control Pro 2.33.1 macOS/Windows (US$180). Camera Control Pro allows for shooting tethered as well as interactively changing of some camera settings from a computer. Supports Z5, Z6, Z6 II, Z7, Z7 II, Z50. Last updated February 2021.
• Nikon Wireless Transmitter Utility version 1.9.4 (free). A Utility to set up Nikon’s advanced wireless functions with the Nikon Z series. Supports Z5, Z6, Z6 II, Z7, Z7 II, Z50. Last updated October 2020.
• Nikon Webcam Utility 1.0.1 (macOS) 1.0.1 (Windows) (free). Allows the Z cameras to be used as Webcams with programs such as Zoom or OBS.

Note: Nikon currently only supports macOS 10.14 through 11 (Mojave, Catalina, and Big Sur), as well as Windows 10. The good news is that Nikon has gotten a little better at keeping up with the latest OS releases. The bad news is that they've dropped support of earlier OS versions aggressively.

Other relevant Nikon software for Z System owners:

• Nikon SnapBridge (free) iOS 2.7.0, Android 2.7.0. The SnapBridge app is needed for the Z50, Z5, Z6, and Z7 to communicate with your smartphone via Bluetooth. Supports time lookup, GPS for camera, transfer of images from camera to smartphone, control of camera from smartphone, raw file transfers, tablets, and more. Last updated July 2020.
• Nikon NEF Codec (Windows) version 1.31.1 (free). An extension for Windows that allows the operating system to understand and properly display and interact with Nikon NEF raw files. Last updated March 2021.
• Nikon Message Center 2.3.1 (free). A system that provides update information to you as new updates appear. Installed with some other Nikon software. Last updated November 2018.
• Short Movie Creator 1.4.0 (Mac) 1.3.1 (Windows). Last updated May 2013.
• Nikon N-Log 3D LUT 1.0.2 (Mac/Windows). A look-up table used in post processing of Z6, Z6 II, Z7, and Z7 II video files shot in N-Log, supported by Premiere CC, Final Cut Pro X, and DaVinci Resolve. Last updated January 2021.

Finally, if you're looking for a free raw converter for Nikon NEF files produced by the Z cameras, you should consider Capture One Express for Nikon. This reduced feature set version leaves out the tethered shooting capabilities and many advanced editing features, but provides a solid basic raw conversion capability.