I had thought a lot about the new camera I was going to buy, but I made decisions, plans and started executing it.

The decision was that the camera would be a mirrorless one. I went down this path because it’s almost inevitable, Nikon is phasing out their DSLRs (such a shame).

I decided not to go with the Z7 (/Z7II) as I was looking at before, instead I decided to go with the Z6II. What changed my mind? Well, for one the price. But that was not the main driver, as I would be ok saving a bit more for a better camera in the future IF the Z6II didn’t satisfy my requirements.

One of the reasons I wanted to get a new camera was because the D610 just doesn’t have the memory/processing power to process more than seven or nine “burst” shots at a time. So, when I take too many photos consecutively, the interval between shots increases until it’s just better to wait a minute before trying again – whatever quick event that was happening probably finished by the time the camera was ready for another burst. The Z6II says it can mange 14 fps as bursts, already superior.

The D850, which was my DSLR candidate to replace the D610 (as well as the D610), has (two) SD slots to store the photos. The Z7 and Z6 only had CFExpress slots. Now the Z6II has one CFExpress (Type B)/XQD and one HCSD slot, which makes all the investment in memory cards I have made thus far still valid. I will probably have another couple of years using these memory cards before I need to replace them with a CFExpess Type B or XQD card.

I want higher ISO with lower noise to take photos of the night sky. The Z6II goes to higher ISO than the D610, so it does satisfy that requirement. The alternative, going to the D850, would have also been ok, but that was going against the Nikon mirrorless trend.

I wanted a denser sensor, the D610 is currently 24MP, but the Z6II has the same/similar density (24MP). This wasn’t high on my list, but it would have been good to have more pixels on the photo, as the Z7 and D850 have.

Now, to explain the title of the post: Piecemeal Journey.

Buying a mirrorless camera means I needed to buy a whole new set of lenses. That will happen at some point, but not straight away. To cope with the transition, I bought the Z6II and the 50mm f/1.8 S, seeing that the 50mm is the lens I use the most. The next step is the F to Z (FTZ) adaptor so that I can start using the camera with my old lenses. The performance of the lens/camera won’t be as good as if the lenses were already Z format, but I hear the FTZ II it is very close and will do as part of a transition. I initially looked at buying the camera, the adaptor and a “jack-of-all-trades” lens: a 70-200mm so that I can take it on trips, but trips are not my primary focus on photography anymore (at least not as “documenting my trip to …” type). Comparing to how much I would use such a lens, I decided to stick with my decision to acquire the 50mm lens, then the FTZ II for a bit later and other lenses much later.

As soon as I start getting used to the camera (I will be using both, especially during theatre and other performances), and I start saving more money, I will buy other Z format lenses. The FTZ II adaptor alleviates the need to rush into buying the lenses, but I know I will only be able to hold it out for so long. In my list of future lenses, I will get a wide angle lens for my landscape photography, and medium zoom lens (300mm maximum) for taking photos of things that are far away, a macro lens and a teleconverter to increase the size of the objects in the macro photos. At the moment, while I look at photography equipment sites, I see no real equivalent to the current lenses I have in terms of wide angle, which saddens me. Again, this is a problem to deal with in the future.

For now, I’m enjoying immensely the new acquired equipment.