Just purchased a new Nikon Z Fc. I hope DXO will eventually support it

It sounds like you are suffering from GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) :laughing:

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You’re right Joanna, it is G.A.S. but in my case it stands for Getting old with Aches and Soreness. I hadn’t purchased any new gear in years.

This new camera with lens attached weighs just 17 oz which is 2 oz less than the weight of my favorite walkaround lens by itself, Canon’s 15-85 mm. It’s not just about the weight, it’s also about the bulk. The combo of my Canon 70 Mark II with my other favorite lens, the wonderful Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8, attached not only weighs close to 4 lbs, but is physically very large. I just turned 75 and frankly it’s not as much fun dragging it around with me all day while I’m sightseeing or going to a museum.

I was absolutely shocked by the incredible quality of the images I am able to get with the puny little 4 and 1/2 oz Nikkor 16-50 f/3.5-6.3 lens. Even in low-light it focuses immediately and the images are as sharp as a tack. I won’t pretend that the form factor of this Nikon FM2 film camera look alike doesn’t appeal to me. It certainly does and I’m having more fun taking pictures with it than I have in a long time.

When the lens becomes available, I’m also intending on purchasing the new Nikkor Z mount 28mm f/2.8. which I suspect will be great in lowlight situations and terrific for general street photography with a 35 mm equivalent angle of view of 42mm.

Mark

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Hi Mark, congratulation!
Just wondered, that a long time Canon user goes Nikon. :slight_smile:

Some years ago, I got a Lumix LX100. Beside weight and size – and no chance to mount another lens – it’s also less obtrusive, while for planned events I still hang on to my trusty DSLR’s.

have fun, Wolfgang

Yes I appreciate the heresy of a Canon shooter moving to Nikon. :slightly_smiling_face: It was a combination of the vintage form factor which really appealed to me as well as the excellent reviews.

One of the only negative comments in the reviews is its lack of IBIS. The fact that this camera doesn’t have IBIS like some competing cameras is not an issue for me. I have never used a camera with IBIS and even several of my current lenes don’t have image stabilization. I’ve never found it to be a problem.

There are also competing cameras in the same price range with larger pixel counts, most notably Fuji 26mp sensors. However, I believe for my uses the 21 megapixel Nikon sensor will meet my needs.

I shoot almost 100% manually and I’m really enjoying controlling the camera using the physical dials to change aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. I also find it forces me to think more about about each shot I take, similarly to when I used my old Pentax K1000 film body. So far, for the most part, I’m keeping the lcd touch screen folded into the camera which prevents me from pixel peeping after every shot which reinforces the film camera experience.

Mark

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Having moved past 77 I also have been finding my Canon gear an increasing pain to hump about. In my case I got a Sony a6000 some years ago as a spare camera when using my 800mm and 7D2 it let me do landscapes etc. when birding. At the time it was way better than any Canon mirrorless camera and I largely got to grips with its appalling menu and oddities of controls. So I had batteries and 2 lenses so I jumped into getting a a6400 with a 75-350 and 90mm macro. I now have a small bag with 3 lenses covering 16mm up to 350 with a 90mm macro along with a flash and handful of batteries. I don’t think the weight is as much as my 7D2 and 16-35mm let alone adding in the 24-70 and what is now mind boggling 70-200 and sill not reaching 350 or macro. In deed the a6000 is so light I can carry that attached to one lens with the 6400 on another. I can’t use a 800mm lenses, well I could just lug the 5D2 and lenses about for the odd occasion but in the last 2 years it’s only been used in the back garden! My advantage however is all the Sony gear is covered by PL.

Yes your Sony gear is covered by PhotoLab. That is great. Unfortunately, my new camera and lens isn’t supported yet. As I said earlier, I hope they will support it eventually, sooner rather then later. In the meantime, I’ve downloaded Nikon’s NX Studio to create tiffs from the raw files. NX Studio is very nice for free software, but it is not PhotoLab. .

Mark

I am mostly on A-mode and i-ISO but i like to change offten when i play around.
(aka have time to take photo’s instead of keeping one eye on the family to avoid too much delay.)
So i like dedicated knobs and buttons. My G80 has programmable buttons which is great but sometimes i forgot which function i placed where.
Like touchscreenlock unlock. I am left eye dominant which is a horror ,your nose turns right, right on the touchscreen altering focus area… As everyone knows ears and noses keep growing when aging…so…:disappointed_relieved:
And i need lcd for quick change when i don’t have the eye on EVF. And on low light also a reading glasses sins a year… To see clear and sharp the LCD…
But i like dual IS. IBIS and IOS. On a m43 sensor and PL’s denoising i can use it as like a FF. ( high iso for motion, lower iso and dual is for scenery without motion.)

But G.A:S. Is a syndrome we humans never get rid of. The collectors gen. :grin:

Your physical layout ofvthe Nikon looks very comfortable.

Hi Mark,

Greetings! I got my Nikon z fc with kit 16-50 on Aug 4th. I completely agree with your observations. To quote John Keats, “ A thing of beauty is a joy for ever “. This little beauty Is taking much better pictures than my Nikon D7200 with Tokina 16-50 f/2.8 at less than half the weight. I have also ordered z50-250 dx lens which is very light and nicely reviewed.

Yes, we need dxo support for Nikon z fc, 16-50 and 50-250 lenses!

This is my first posting in dxo forums.

Regards,

Mohan

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Hello Mohan,

Welcome to the forum.

This pitch would got me dumping my DSLR and run of to the local shop to spend more money then i can afford to tell at home…:grin:

Luckaly i have a weightsafer, M43 system. Which DxO’s optics and denoise levelt up a notch in quality.

So for the sake of getting more out your rawfiles i do hope DxO is adopting fast this model.
Until then enjoy it’s looks, feel and use. I will sobb in the corner … :yum:

Thinking of this request, which isn’t tagged as request, would it be a good system to have on the main website in the corner where the supported camera’s are listed a voting entry made so everyone who has a non supported camera can vote on his camera or place a new lens or body to the list. In full view and hopefully answered with releasedates of the new supported lenses and bodies.

Hi Peter,

Thanks for welcoming me!

I also have a m4/3 - Panasonic Gx85 - with both kit lenses, like you.

Still learning the new features of Nikon z fc and in the meanwhile admiring its beauty, while sipping a cup of tea!

I like this forum very much!

Regards,

Mohan

Welcome Mohan. This is a great site to get help and share information on DXO products. DXO staff members contribute regularly.

Mark

BTW, here’s a link to a support request. Please upvote!

Mind if I join the party? I have been using DxO for a few months now and just now joined the forums. Same thing as Mark and a couple others… curious about support for the Z fc. I got mine about a week ago and I’m really enjoying it. I owned FM, FE2 and FG bodies back in the day and as soon as Nikon announced this I pre-ordered (splurged for the cool green color). I normally shoot full size DSLR (D780/D850) but this is perfect for travel.

My complete kit is the Z fc body with Z DX 16-50 and 50-250. Gives me 24-375mm equivalent coverage in a package that is smaller than a D780 and a 24-70 F2.8 and a LOT lighter. Sure the lenses are slower that my big glass, but between the 5 stop image stabilization and DxOs awesome DeepPrime AI, lens speed isn’t a concern.

FWIW, the ThinkTank Turnstyle 5 V2.0 sling bag is terrific for this kit. Fits nice and snug, with additional for charger, batteries (if I can ever get one) cards and additional filters (I bought step-up rings for both lenses to shoot with a CPL) and I even manage to get an Ultra Pod in it.

Anyway, will be curious to see how long it takes for Z fc support in PL4. It’s an extremely popular body with Nikon already struggling to keep up from their pre-orders, not to mention it’s basically a Z50 in retro clothing. So I’ll bet it won’t be long. Adobe just added support for it today so I can at least edit in LR for now.

Cheers!
Kevin

Thanks, Mark.

Sure.

Take care,

Regards,

Mohan

Congrats on the new camera, Mark! I also just turned 75 back in May and bought myself (preordered) a new Pentax K-3 Mk III back in February and it finally arrived in late April. Hopefully you won’t have to wait as long as I’m waiting. Marie told me DXO didn’t finish profiling the camera in time for the June update but I should see it in the October update of PhotoLab. Lets hope the profile for your Z Fc will be included in the October update too. Again congrats and enjoy the new toy!

Larry

Thanks Larry. In the meantime, I’ve downloaded Nikon’s NX Studio ao I can export Z fc NEF files to TIFF and continue editing in PhotoLab.

Mark

Hello,

don’t worry, we will support the Nikon Z Fc soon.

Regards,
Marie

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Thank you Marie. I look forward to it. Until then, as I indicated above, I have a workaround.

Mark

Welcome to the dark side, Mark. I was a Canon shooter when I first started using Photolab and joined the community here. I tired of Canon’s cripple hammer on video (5D III, M6, 5DSR) and didn’t like shooting two brands.

After trying this and that, I brought in a Nikon Z6 for testing. I liked it so much that eventually I sold all of my Canon and Sony gear and went entirely Nikon. The ISO invariant shadows for most of Nikon’s line (not the D4 and especially not the D5 but the D750, D810, Z6, D850, Z7, Z50, etc) are a real blessing to retain highlights and raise shadows. High ISO noise is much better with Nikon cameras. This is important for photographers using any RAW development tool except for DxO Photolab ironically. Photolab does such a great job on Canon high ISO chroma noise (at least two stops) that the difference in high ISO noise (at least one stop) is largely neutralised (Photolab gives roughly one stop back to Nikon RAW images as the noise is less chroma and more luminance).

Still miss Canon menus and skin tones just a bit (Nikon is much better than Sony but Canon handles caucasian skin tones best with just the right amount of cherry in the cheeks without turning anyone orange or purple) but otherwise the Nikon experience has been great. Nikon auto-focus is a bit better than Canon except when shooting something dark backlit. Canon did this better. Once a photographer knows about this weakness, it’s a rare shot and there’s any number of ways to work around it (most easily by focusing on something lighter at the same focal plane).

What’s particularly nice about shooting Nikon is they are focused on high quality affordable lenses which high end amateur photographers would want to use. Instead of €3000 f1.2 prime lenses which weigh 2kg, Nikon releases €600 f1.8 lenses which weigh 500gr.

Of course with both Canon and Nikon, there are so many great used lenses out there it’s possible to build a very decent bag at great prices. My new favourite Nikon lens is the venerable Nikon F 35-70mm f2.8 at 660gr which preceded the 24-70mm f2.8 VR at 1060gr.

If I owned the second I’d rarely take it out, whereas the 35-70mm works as a walkaround lens. Thanks for sharing your experience with equipment as a photographer getting older. I’m following the same path but twenty years behind you. The Nikon D850 with grip and 300mm f2.8 is hard on the elbows but the results are often worth it.

I also own a Z50 which is very similar to the Z fc, using the same sensor. Like you I’m sometimes astonished at the quality of images which come off of this little APS-C sensor. I’m fairly certain that it would be possible to successfully edit Z fc RAW images in Photolab if the EXIF information were changed to declare that the images came from a Z50. Unlike some of the other masquerading where there will be a real difference and there’s a risk of permanent confusion with one’s RAW images by declaring one set of files to be shot with a different device, in this case there would be little if any harm done.

I have a draft post mostly ready for our weblog with some detailed and simple information on using EXIF tool for batch work (which is what slowed me down last time). I’ll finish it and let you know.

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Needless to say, DxO should add support for the Z fc very quickly as Photolab 4 already supports the Z50 and has for a good long time. Just done a check in the Supported Camera Database (should have gone there first, actually hand checked a Z50 file). Nikon Z50 support has been in place since DxO PhotoLab 3.1.0.

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