Cameras and Photography Explained

LEDE ON

As you probably know, I teach photo workshops outside the US, and I talk to other photographers doing the same, as well as travel agencies trying to get my attention. I’m now hearing from others that 2027 bookings are not currently as full as would be expected at this point in time (my one workshop for the year is full, though). This seems to be due to a combination of factors, but the whatever-it-is happening in Iran seems to be a primary one. When gas prices go up, so do airfares. Travel from the US through Middle East hubs is disrupted. Fear that inflation and interest rates are going to keep rising also has many getting conservative with their commitments to future spending. 

This is what I call a tipping point indicator. When those with clear disposable income—which defines the International travel and photo workshop crowd—start pulling back on future travel, that means a lion is entering the coal mine and the canary better watch out. 

No, I’m not predicting a recession (yet). But I’d judge the US and world economies to be significantly out of balance at the moment. Things are positive in some key areas, negative in others. It’s impossible to predict exactly how or when balance might get back to a more expected level, as both resolution of conflicts and whether or not the AI scene has gotten too close to the sun are not easily predicted. But the trend has been clear: we’re closer to economic lapses than we were. Those may be regional or industry specific. 

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News

Nikon goes casual

The big news of the past week was Nikon’s announcement of the US$1399 full frame Z5IIC. I cover that in detail on the zsystemuser.com site, but I’ll add a couple of extra tidbits here.

First, the dealers I’ve talked to so far (three) all seem pleased. While they’re not going to sell out of what they can get at the moment, they all were surprised at all how many people got in line for one the first day. Not a stampede, for sure, just a small, orderly line. This doesn’t surprise me, as I’ve seen the demand for a more full-time-carry-around full-frame camera for awhile now among my readers. With the right lens, the Z5IIC comes mighty close to what those folk wanted (it’s still a bit heavier than they wanted, though).

So what’s the right lens? My preference would be for something that doesn’t stick out past the hand grip, as that makes it easier to get in and out of (large) pockets and small bags. As I wrote, I used the Nikon 26mm f/2.8 on the camera in my pre-launch session. That’s near perfect. Other autofocus full-frame lenses that fit this same basic sizing model (no more than 2” long) are: 7Artisans 40mm f/2.5 Lite, 7Artisans 50mm f/1.8 Lite, SG-Image 35mm f/2.2, TTArtisans 32mm f/2.8, TTArtisans 35mm f/1.8 II, TTArtisans 40mm f/2, Viltrox 26mm f/2.8 EVO, and Viltrox 28mm f/4.5. Quite a few other lenses are just outside the 2” boundary I set, including the Viltrox 50mm f/2 Air (2.3”). So if you’re a prime user, there’s a simple way to make a Z5IIC into your compact camera: buy a small prime. (The zsystemuser.com site has a full database of lenses for the Z-mount, including manual focus ones, if you’re so inclined. Just drill down into the NIKKOR or Third-Party lens sections.)

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Commentary 

Nikon goes casual but Internet goes rebellious

It seems that Fro and Fstoppers both saw the Nikon Z5IIC announcement as a way to go viral by presenting a faux argument: real cameras are for photographers and must have a viewfinder. That borders on Luddite. Meanwhile, others on the Internet are getting all riled up over a camera that isn’t actually targeted at them. Many with seemingly strong opinions haven’t even seen the camera, let alone used it. 

Would I have made the Z5IIC differently? Yes, but not in the ways that everyone is suddenly arguing about. I’m not a fan of offset viewfinders (e.g. rangefinder position), as they introduce a stability issue, particularly with people stabbing the shutter release on the other side of the camera, where its unbraced (you get rotation, which may or may not be helped by stabilization). I would have probably gone for a brighter, tilting Rear LCD with more resolution. I would have considered dropping most connectors and drawing the body size down some. I wouldn’t have dropped the thumb stick. But all those things have costs, and the reality is that Nikon is attempting to make the Z5IIC an affordable entry camera, and the days of a US$1000 entry point are now gone due to inflation and parts supply issues. I long ago learned that sometimes you have to make do with what you’ve got available. To a large degree, the Z5IIC is what I’ve long called a parts-bin camera, meaning that it had little direct R&D cost, but rather simply borrowed from things already done. The only significant engineering cost was redesigning the body’s top plate. 

I need to take on some of the statements being made and give them more scrutiny. For instance, Fro’s insistence that you need an EVF in a camera that someone can grow into. I understand where he’s coming from with that statement, but I’m not sure that it applies any more (or ever). (See my article on Composing on zsystemuser.com). One thing I note more and more is that when younger folk use a camera, they do so socially. Hiding your face behind a box is anti-social. Occasionally looking at a screen isn’t. The whole “look through a viewfinder” thing is voyeuristic at worst, journalistic at best. Viewing through a hole means that photographs can only be done by detaching yourself away from what’s happening in front of you, and that’s a contention I dispute. And didn’t photography start by looking at large screens? Also: if a viewfinder is an absolute requirement for taking photos, does that mean camera makers can drop the Rear LCD completely? After all, you can see the menus and do photo review in the viewfinder now. 

Meanwhile, Burn’s headline in fstoppers was “Nikon has Forgotten the Photographer.” I’m going to make you a bet that he eats his words soon. Yes, Nikon is diversifying its portfolio of products and the RED acquisition was part of that. However, Nikon has most definitely not forgotten the photographer. I’m 100% sure of that.

Deeper in Burn’s article was the explicit contention that hybrid (photo/video) is bad and that somehow photo-only was better. The camera he uses to illustrate that is a Leica M10. Sorry, but I can take better photos with my (hybrid) Z8. Not only that, but do so with faster response, more control, more directness, and better results. Burn seems to want a mechanical shutter, a metal body, and dials, but then says it’s okay to modernize that with “an excellent electronic viewfinder.” Hmm. So viewfinder blackout is okay, and non-continguous autofocus is okay, too. Yeah, we’ve been there. It’s called a Nikon D850, and I’d rather have my Z8. Why? Because there are no momentary gaps in my photographic decisions and performance while I wait for a shutter.

Once again we have people—not just Burn—asking to leave off video. I’m of a different opinion. Given the fact that modern cameras are using video streams from the image sensor for some very useful purposes now, all I want is for the still and video functions to be more separated in use. For example, if the Live View switch on my Z is on stills, why do I have to even navigate past the VIDEO RECORDING menu or see items that only apply to video? On cameras with Mode dials, the U# settings should be solely for stills when I’m taking stills; the same U# positions should have completely different settings when the Live View switch is on video. These parts of the dislike of hybrid I get, but that doesn’t mean we should simply drop their hybrid nature entirely. We’ll still be using all that video sensor capability, so I’m perfectly fine with it being in a camera I mostly use for stills, as long as it gets fully out of the way when I’m taking photographs (likewise, the still photography things should get out of the way when I’m recording video).

As someone who pioneered the “criticize Nikon” writing on the Internet (dates back to 1994), I try to be careful to make sure my criticisms are directed at real issues, real problems, and real needs that aren’t being addressed. It seems that we’re now in an era where it’s just a fun game to find reasons to criticize Nikon, yet not critically think through your arguments. The wierd thing is this: Nikon seems to be the primary company that gets targeted with such uncritical criticisms, while I see the other makers generally skating free of the same type of writing, despite making similar products. 

I want Nikon to be “a better Nikon.” When I get around to publishing my review of the Z5IIC, you can expect that I won’t hold back my criticisms. But they will be carefully considered criticisms, not pre-biased assertions that have a Luddite base and little open-minded analysis. 

The Z5IIC is what it is. It extends Nikon’s Z lineup. Not by a lot and perhaps not where you want the lineup extended. So get over it and move along. Dealers tell me there are indeed some customers lining up for the Z5IIC, it’s just not for you (or Fro or Burn). Should we deny Nikon those customers because your needs are something else? I don’t think so.

\rant off

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Advice 

Buying SSDs and Cards

Over the past twelve months storage costs have basically doubled in price. Particularly for state of the art ones (e.g. UHS-II, CFExpress, USB-2 3.2 or Thunderbolt). I started warning about this in December 2025, and what I was predicting has basically come true.

So here we are in late 2026. What should you do? Basically this: wait for sales. What I see happening is that storage makers are managing inventory and incoming cash closely. If they start seeing overstock to demand or they need some additional cash, they’ll take a margin hit and put a product on sale briefly. This seems particularly true for the older-leading edge products, in other words, the first UHS-II or earlier CFExpress cards they were making, not so much the most recent additions to their lineup. That’s fine, as UHS-II and pretty much any CFExpress card is more than you need (exception: you’re recording 8K video or high quality raw video). Likewise, most people don’t need faster than 1050MB/s on an SSD, and every now and then I see one of these older devices pop up on sale.

If you want to be state of the art, beware: the price for a 4TB SSD with both fast write and transfer is now over US$1100 and still rising. 

The good news is this: the rise in storage costs reduced demand. That old MBA-school price/demand curve seems to be working. That means that we’re not seeing “out of stock” on these products very often, we’re just seeing high prices. 

I expect to see storage sales during the holidays. But it’s likely to follow the above: more on older inventory than new-to-dealer stock.

I’m in my bi-annual storage updating cycle here at Oficina byThom. Ouch. Oof. Who stole my wallet? 

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Advice 

macOS Golden Gate

A fair amount of software (and printer drivers) have not yet been updated for macOS Golden Gate, but the number one issue I’m seeing is that many of the compatibility problems being triggered are actually due to something else: Golden Gate doesn’t install Rosetta 2. So any app or driver that includes or relies upon Intel code is going to fail until you install Rosetta 2 manually. How do you do that? In Terminal (Applications/Utilities/Terminal) type:

This simple command installs the necessary middle-man to deal with Intel code. 

Just a warning though: Golden Gate will be the last major macOS version to include Rosetta. Thus, an app or driver that doesn’t update to all Apple Silicon code in the next twelve months is going to not work on the next major version of the macOS. Major macOS releases get announced in June of each year, and typically deliver final versions sometime in September or October, when they become the “current” macOS. 

Note that macOS Golden Gate won’t run on an Intel-based Mac, only Apple Silicon ones. So if you’re still on an Intel-based Mac the clock has started ticking on how long you’ll get security updates for macOS Tahoe. That moment will likely expire in sometime in fall 2028. If you’re on macOS Sequoia, your expiration date is in fall 2027. If you’re on any earlier version, you’re no longer getting macOS security updates, which is becoming dangerous in these days of AI. If you’re holding out on updating your macOS, don’t. The current macOS Tahoe is very stable, as is Sequoia. 

If you’re holding out because an older program you like or rely upon won’t run on the newer macOS versions, you really should think about virtualization. It’s a pain in the butt to set up (even using a commercial product, such as Parallels), however once done, you’ll find your application works fine (if it requires a driver that’s no longer updated, that’s a big problem there might not be an answer for, though). The M5 Mac I’m typing this on is running macOS Tahoe, but both macOS Monterey and Windows 11 in virtualization. Old program problem solved (hint: I moved the Monterey dock to the left and the Tahoe dock to the right (Windows is on bottom and more obvious) so that I have a reminder of which OS I’m working with.)