12/04/2019
Photographer Mr. Ashok Kandimalla shares his experience with the Nikon Z 6 mirrorless camera in low light.
"I have used Nikon DSLRs for more than a decade. During the last few years, I was eagerly waiting for a mirrorless camera from Nikon, as none of the current offerings from others were fully satisfying. Finally, when Nikon announced the Z series, my wait was over and yes, it was well worth it. I was one of the first purchasers of the Z 6 in India. Having handled Nikon DSLRs, the learning curve for using the Z 6 was pretty quick, maybe just a few hours. All my lenses and many of the accessories like flashes of my DSLRs are still perfectly usable, thus protecting my huge past investments.
Soon after I started using the Z 6, I was in for a major surprise and it was a very pleasant one. While all full frame Nikon DSLRs were known for high dynamic range and low light (high ISO) performance, the Z 6 moves these to another plane altogether. I quickly realized that for many high contrast scenes, I don't need HDR stacks and the associated post-processing as the dynamic range is so good. Except in the extreme cases, I was able to recover all the highlight and shadow details from a single raw image.
Coming to low light performance, the shown image is an example of how incredible it is. When I first walked into a room showing this apparatus in a photography exhibition, I never even thought a picture could be taken. There were a few people there and we could barely see each other. Nevertheless, I thought I will give it a try. I brought the viewfinder to my eye and the indicated was 51200! I just pressed the shutter and did not even see the playback as I was sure that I will see nothing but a black screen. I came home and opened the raw image and was blown away! I will not be surprised if your reaction is the same too. The Z 6 is the new 'Dark Knight' of the photographic world!!"