List of all Nikon F to Z-mount adapters

I'm currently in a research phase regarding getting a Nikon Z6 (or a Nikon Z50) with an F-mount to Z-mount adapter to create a very light and portable kit with my old manual lens collection which I plan to mainly use for street photography. The good thing is that since Nikon launched its latest mirrorless system a lot of 3rd party adapter manufacturers launched their solutions, too. My goal is to find cheap and good quality options of adapting F-mount lenses to the Z-mount. These usually don't come with any electronics and are called "dummy adapters". You have to change the aperture manually, and mainly use the manual mode (which is my preferred mode anyway) to operate the camera. I would like to get the FTZ adapter by Nikon, too, but I would use it mainly with my Nikkor G lenses (and some manual lenses with the CPU on board). But before I invest in such setup which ain't cheap, I will borrow the Z6 and just buy a dummy adapter to test it out. Once I do that I will share my experience on this blog.

The Nikon Z6 with the battery pack looks retro

I just saw a Nikon F2 camera on Flickr, and I was mesmerized by the beauty of its design. Then I saw the battery pack, and it totally reminded me of new Nikon Z6 / Z7 battery pack that was just recently launched. Both cameras look very boxy, and I see some similarity in that classic Nikon design in both of them. Naturally the Z6 is a digital camera with better ergonomics, but I think those old Nikon film cameras were built to last and will look great in decades from now. For the Z6 and Z7, I'm not so sure.

My Nikon 100mm f/2.8 Series E lens review

This is my first extensive review of a lens and I hope to make it a series, because I had a lot of fun making it. The goal here is to give you my opinion from a real world experience point of view. I will share some specs and data, too, but not too much. So let's get into it.

My Nikon 100mm f/2.8 Series E photo gallery

This photo gallery was created as an accompanying post to my Nikon 100mm f/2.8 Series E lens review. These are heavily post processed RAW files in Lightroom converted to JPEG. All images were shot with the Nikon D810, focussed manually, in October 2019 in 3 different suburbs around Taipei City. The primary goal of this post is to show what kind of street photography this lens is able to produce, and how it performs in various situations at various aperture values. Do check my original review to get all the detailed conclusions and opinions. All images can be clicked for a higher resolution version.

"Blossom" — 100 mm, f/2.8, 1/160, ISO 180

iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro: First impressions in Taipei's Apple Store

Apple just launched new iPhones a few weeks ago (the iPhone 11 family of phones), and as a tradition, I went to check them out at the Apple store in Taipei. This time I went to the newly opened flagship store outside of Taipei 101 at Xinyi A13, and not to the older one inside Taipei 101. It clear why Apple chose to build a separate store outside the landmark on one of the most expensive pieces of land in Taipei, as it enables them huge visibility in the largest pedestrian area in the city. It's a big advertising platform for whatever the latest and greatest product they have launched, and so far whenever I visited the store was full, at least on the upper level (there's a basement level as well).

Is Tony Northrup the Trump of photography Youtubers?

This is the question that popped into my head when I saw the thumbnail for his latest video titled "The Nikon Z50 is a HUGE Mistake". One thing that reminded me of Trump was his use of "HUGE" (capitalized), another thing was the fact that he's using a title which he knows will stir controversy among the photography community. And of course my title and artwork are a commentary on this very same clickbait that has become so rampant among online reviewers (and falls well within fair use).

My analysis of Nikon's October 2019 launches

After merely announcing the development of the D6 flagship DSLR and a 120-300mm f/2.8 F-mount lens a month ago, Nikon had finally released multiple products on October 10th just in time for the holiday season. I find the timing as well as the way they did it and what they said very interesting, so here's some of my opinions on each product and at the end I will summarize what it all means in the grand scheme of things.

Apple Store and Taipei 101 night photo

I usually don't post my photography on this blog, but I think this image is fitting. I visited the new Taipei Xinyi A13 Apple Store with a tripod and my trusty Nikon D810 and the Voigtlander 28mm f/2.8 Color Skopar and took this shot late in the evening. It turned out quite well, but it's the only shot. Right after this one my battery died. I have to return with the Nikkor 20mm f/1.8 and a full battery and I believe I'll be able to produce even a better photo.

Nikon D810 long term review

I bought my Nikon D810 in January 2018, so the camera is not yet 2 years old, but very close to that. The shutter is currently at 15900 shots, which means I took around 720 shots per month, which is not bad for a purely hobbyist photographer. I bought this camera after a few years shooting APS-C (I started with the D5300 and then upgraded to a D7100) and I needed something more rugged. I was also interested to jump into full frame, because I already had a lot of full frame glass, and I wanted to have that extra quality and wider field of view. So when Nikon launched the D850 in September 2017, the prices on the D810 started to dip. I got mine in a shop here in Taipei for about 2050 USD as they were clearing stock, and I thought it was a steal (the D810 launch price was 3000 USD).