Category: Photography

Camera menus are a very personal thing. If you use a camera every day you soon learn your way around. A Nikon camera faced with a Canon will struggle at first and a Canon user with a Nikon.

Two camera manufacturers that have been far ahead of the pack with logical and simple structures have been Leica and Hasselblad.

Major updates always cause a little confusion and the latest v4 firmware for the Leica Q has standardised the menus across all there cameras now. With this update the Q now has the same menu system as the SL.

When Nikon released the Z9 with the new processor the menu system changed somewhat and all Nikons with that generation of processor have that menu system. The older Nikons still have the old menu system and switching between the two can cause a little confusion. I think I prefer Leicas idea of updating older cameras to match the latest. If you only have the one body I can see this causing a lot of confusion but for those of us with multiple bodies this would be very helpful.

The image above was taken fifteen years ago. I think with a 10 megapixel Nikon D200 with its cropped DX sensor.

The above image, a Nikon D800 with 36 megapixels, the first of the big megapixels cameras that started to dominate the market.

This one a 24 megapixel Leica M10.

Lastly a modern Nikon mirrorless at close to 50 Megapixels.

All of these images are good. Are the new ones a bit better, possibly but is that due to me becoming a better photographer, getting better at editing and processing digital images, or a better lens or camera. Maybe a bit of all of this, but these are all great images and all modern cameras are now very good. It’s now down to the photographer. I think the camera wars should be over, use what inspires you, use what feels good in the hand. But don’t argue that your camera is better than someone else’s. Whether an ancient Nikon D70 at 6 megapixels or the latest Sony A7R V at 61 Megapixels, you can get great images from either.

https://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/download/fw/593.html

Nikon have released a minor firmware update for the Nikon ZFc. I also noticed updates for The Z50II and Z5II that came out in the last couple of months.

Also remember to check your lens as they get updates occasionally as well. The most recent being the fantastic 24-120mm f/4.

So last Thursday I posted no new products likely from Leica and then they announce a range of new colours; so I suppose I was kind of correct.

The new gray looks nice and it’s not unusual for Leica to release special colour releases. People critique Leica for their expensive special editions but they are a small company and releases like these help pay for product development and new releases.

It seems we have reached update time for Sony and Canon with new releases over the last few months but a few rumour sites are going: what about Leica.

It seems nothing is expected this year from Leica but we while we have had the mid cycle refresh of the Leica M already with the Leica M11-P we have not had the P version of the Leica SL3 yet.

So if there is to be a release expect a P version of the SL.

I noticed a few comments that Leica apart from a few special editions will not be releasing any new models this year.

With the release of the recent Canon’s and Sony’s Nikon users are asking where are the new cameras.

Too many photographers seem stuck in upgrade cycles forever buying the latest gear, sometimes switching systems to the latest and most modern.

But looking through my library is there really a difference between photographs I took over ten years ago to those I took in the last three years with my current cameras.

Not really. New cameras can make somethings easier, and a new camera can inspire you to go out and take pictures but essentially its you taking the shot.

The Sony A7RVI is the latest high megapixel camera to be released and now we are at 66.8 megapixels, not a huge increase from the previous 50 megapixels that most manufacturers have reached now but still another jump.

There are some in the landscape and studio field who will welcome the increase though many of these photographers will be reaching for a Fuji, Hasselblad or Phase medium format at 50mp, 100mp or higher.

More megapixels can bring benefits but sharpness and diffraction become issues on the smaller 35mm format. I doubt anyone will be going beyond f/8 if not even keeping it at f/5.6.

I would hope successors to the Nikon Z9 and Z8 stay around 50mp but a future Z7 might use a variation of this technology.