It has been widely publicized that Nikon doesn’t support their screw-drive autofocus lenses on their mirrorless cameras. Does that mean you can’t use these lenses on cameras like the Z9? Absolutely not. Think about some of the higher-end lenses out there, such as the Nikkor 58mm f/0.95 S Noct lens. This baby is manual focus and costs $8,000.00! The Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4 manual focus lens for Nikon is $3,400. Are photographers ditching these lenses? Nope. The Nikon screw-drive lenses can be manually focused, exactly like those uber-expensive manual-focus lenses. The Nikon Z9 camera has focus aids that make manually-focusing this style of lens easier and more accurate than ever. For F-mount Nikkor lenses, all you’ll need is the cheap FTZ-ii adapter. You can also get adapters for lenses like the classic Canon 85mm f/1.2 that will allow their use on the Z9. A couple of lens adapter manufacturers are Viltrox and Fotasy. Since you get to view your subject at the shooting aperture (up through f/5.6) you get much better information about where and how deep the focus is. This is especially important for really bright lenses with wide apertures, which can tend to shift focus as you change the aperture. But wait, there’s more. You also get vibration reduction via the camera’s IBIS at no extra cost. Typical Nikkor Screw-Drive AF lens with FTZ-ii adapter on Z9 camera Lens with FTZ-ii adapter Simple, clean viewfinder with green square focus confirmation My generally preferred mode of operation with a screw-drive or manual-focus lens is shown above. I have a clean, unobstructed viewfinder configuration. The little square focus indicator turns from red to green when the subject under the focus point is accurately focused. I typically stay in aperture-priority mode and auto-ISO, so that I can concentrate on the subject composition instead of exposure. This little square focus indicator is amazingly accurate, and it only turns green when critical focus is achieved. You can move this focus square nearly anywhere in the field of view using the arrows on the camera multi-selector. The focus square gets a tiny dot in its middle when you place it into the screen center location. If I want extra information about the camera settings to show up on the display, then I press the DISP button on the back of the camera to select between none, some, or extensive shooting information. This configuration is great for static subjects, when you aren’t in a hurry to get the subject into critical focus. If you encounter a moving subject instead, then you’ll probably want to activate focus peaking to help you quickly observe and then adjust the zone of focus. There are magnifier "+" and "-" buttons on the back of the camera if you have a very static subject, and want to check focus by zooming in with the viewfinder. This can get tricky without using a tripod, especially with telephotos. i-Menu to access the focus-peaking menu I use the i-Menu to quickly access the focus-peaking features. Control focus peaking features Here is a full-featured menu to turn focus-peaking on/off, alter its sensitivity, and even change the color of the peaking highlight spreckles. A very busy display, including focus peaking enabled I will typically activate this busy display long enough to configure each of the appropriate camera shooting controls. Right after the configuration is set up, I then press the DISP button to get back to a cleaner display with less (or zero) shooting information. Subject is out of focus with focus indicator now colored red The shot above is out of focus. The focus-peaking spreckles have shifted away from the subject, and the little focus indicator square (screen center) has changed to a red color. Notice that there’s also a little white arrow at the bottom-left of the display that indicates which direction to twist the top of the lens focus ring to get the subject into focus. This little white arrow will turn into a white dot when sharp focus is achieved. Simpler display with subject in-focus The shot above shows a ‘clean’ display (!?). The subject is now in focus (focus indicator is green), but focus-peaking isn’t really appropriate for this subject. For some lens/subject combinations, focus-peaking is nearly impossible to use. Here’s a case where I would use the i-Menu to turn off focus peaking, and just use the little square focus indicator instead. Busy display with subject in-focus This picture shows how bad the viewfinder information overload can get. The subject is getting lost behind all of the indicators and focus peaking. And I'm not even showing the virtual horizon or histogram options! This is an example of what NOT to do. Summary The Nikon Z9 is crammed full of controls and indicators to give you as much or as little information as you want. You’ll need to spend some time to work with these controls and understand when they’re appropriate and when they’re not. It's especially important to get comfortable using the i-Menu and the DISP button to quickly configure the viewfinder to suit the subject matter and the lens. You'll thank yourself for the time spent learning these controls. Using manual focus or screw-drive lenses on the Z9 can be a rewarding or irritating experience, depending upon how you set up your camera. But you shouldn’t have any excuses not to get pictures in focus, when there are 4 different viewfinder features available to indicate correct focus.

Capture One Pro22 is the best editor that I have encountered for its ability to manipulate infrared photos. It has superior white-balancing capabilities and very advanced hue-shifting. I’ll attempt to show you how to take advantage of this power. You will need the “Pro” version to do these techniques. What I’m going to demonstrate isn’t very straightforward, but once Capture One is set up, it’s very easy to use on subsequent photographs. In my article, I’m starting with a camera that has been converted to pass 590nm infrared. This wavelength passes a little bit of visible (color) light, in addition to infrared. My camera sensor also has an anti-reflection coating (in the infrared region), which greatly expands the number of suitable lenses available. Cameras that don’t have this coating (or cameras just using an infrared lens filter instead) often have the dreaded hotspot in the middle of the picture, especially when the lens is stopped down beyond about f/5.6. My camera was IR-converted by Kolari Vision. If you are using long-wave infrared filtering, such as 850nm, then you won’t be able to perform these color hue-shifts. In that case, you should stick to black-and-white operations or a plug-in like Silver Efex. IR 590nm with separate sky/foliage hue shift White Balance Most cameras cannot be configured for correct infrared white balance, so it’s important that your photo editor has these capabilities. Most editors don’t have a sufficient color temperature range for infrared, but Capture One does. Before manipulating infrared colors, it’s important that you first get a good white balance in your pictures. The easiest way to get a good white balance is to start with a photo that contains either a white card or a neutral grey card that can be used by the editor to designate a neutral tone. You only need a single shot that represents typical lighting, where the colors in this photo can be used for other shots with similar lighting. If you don’t have a white or grey card, you can often use a subject such as a sidewalk or a patch of clean snow to supply a neutral tone in your photograph. Select the Eyedropper tool Infrared colors before white balance Infrared colors after clicking with WB eyedropper The photo now has a proper white balance after selecting a neutral color (such as the snow) with the eyedropper tool. Foliage typically will have a blue hue, and the sky has a “tobacco” color. Click this “Presets” icon to save the custom white balance After selecting the neutral spot in the photo with the eyedropper, click the “3 horizontal lines” (Presets) icon shown above to get to a white-balance menu. Select “Save Custom Preset…” Save your preset for use with other photos You should save this custom white balance for use with other photos later. For those other suitable photos with similar lighting, just click the same “Presets” icon and then select the named white balance. This is very handy for photos that don’t have any neutral subjects in them to select for a white balance. As you move the mouse pointer to different saved custom white balances in the menu, you can see the effect in the photo. For infrared white balance choices, you may want a photo taken in sunshine and another taken in shade. If you use different IR filters with various wavelengths, then you’d need to save white balances for each different filter, too. Remember to save those custom white balances with useful names. If you later change your mind, Capture One lets you delete any unwanted custom white balance presets. Adjust the sky hue Color infrared photos almost always need to have a blue sky (sunny day!). As shown in the “neutral” white balance shot above, the sky takes on a “tobacco” hue. On a color wheel, the tobacco color is about 180 degrees from a “blue” hue. It’s tricky to perform a 180-degree hue shift on the sky using Capture One Pro 22, but fortunately it only needs to be done once. Remember to perform a white balance on your shot before doing any hue shifts! Capture One Pro 22 lets you perform hue shifts of up to 30 degrees in one operation. To get a 180-degree shift, you need to do a series of 6 hue shifts of 30 degrees each. These operations are performed in the Advanced menu of the Color Editor. Click the eyedropper in Color Editor Advanced menu Note that the color wheel just above the eyedropper tool in the Advanced Color Editor starts as a small pie-shaped wedge. After selecting the sky in your photo with the eyedropper, note that this wedge encompasses the colors that make up the “tobacco” color. You’ll want to mouse-drag this pie-shape to be about 90 degrees and also extend it out to the edge of the circle. If you have much variation in color with your sky, you may need to extend this 90-degree pie-wedge suggestion to be larger, such as 120 degrees. Expand pie wedge range through 90 degrees Slide the hue slider out to 30 degrees, which is the maximum shift allowed. You’ll note a shift in the hue of your sky in the photo, but it’s still nowhere near the blue color you’re after. Repeat the operations of clicking the sky with the eyedropper tool, expanding the pie-shape to 90 degrees, and sliding the hue out to 30 degrees. You’ll typically need to do these operations a total of 6 times to get the 180-degree hue shift (30 * 6 = 180). You may want to alter the 180-degree shift to be slightly more or less, according to what you think is a proper blue color for the sky. Adjust the foliage hue Next, we’ll work on the foliage hue. Most people like the foliage color in infrared shots to look yellow-orange, but personally I like magenta on some shots. Note that yellow is about 180 degrees of a hue shift from the blue color of the white-balanced infrared shot. If you’re after yellow-orange-looking foliage then all you have to do is repeat the steps above (6 times again). The color picker should get pointed at the foliage, instead of the sky. If you would rather make the foliage look red or green or whatever, then simply adjust the hue shift to be more or less than 180 degrees total. Personally, I have made up several hue shift combinations, which include red, green, and yellow. Capture One lets you save your custom hue shifts with a name of your choosing! 3 Hue shifts of 30 degrees with color picker on foliage To save these split-hue adjustments, you use the “Presets” icon just to the right of the Color Editor heading. Saved the sky-blue, foliage-magenta hue shifts Pick foliage with 30-degree shift 6 times total for ‘yellow’ Select Custom Saved Split-Hue Shift You can now quickly select which hue-shift to try out on your other (white-balanced) infrared photos. Pick which hue shift to use To select a hue-shift, just click the “Presets” icon and then click on the desired preset. Your photo will show the hue-shift effect as you hover over each preset. Again, remember to white-balance your photo using your saved custom white balance preset before performing a hue shift. After selecting a pre-defined custom hue shift, you can still tweak the hue slider in your Advanced Color Editor to fine-tune the colors to suit the shot. Summary It is pretty tedious to perform all of the operations to accomplish split-hue shifts, but fortunately they only have to be done once. After saving these shifts, you can simply select them in the Color Editor “Presets”. I typically convert my infrared shots into black-and-white, but once in a while it’s fun to see what color can do. Another world I tweaked other settings to adjust saturation, vignetting, highlights, shadows, and clarity to add a bit of drama.

The newer image editing software that features use of artificial intelligence is both a blessing and a curse. It can enhance images in amazing ways, but it can require massive computer processing resources and can also be painful to endure the wait times it requires. My favorite example of this kind of software is Topaz Denoise AI. The sophistication in its image sharpening and noise removal seems almost magical, but I dread how long it takes to perform its miracles. The future promises to offer more and more programs that operate using artificial intelligence, demanding ever more computing resources. Even when you buy that new computer with a better GPU, there’s still a significant time penalty to pay for using AI. A good way to cope with this reality is to turn to ‘batch’ processing. You’ll want to save the AI processing steps (e.g. sharpening and noise reduction) until the last stage of your image processing, so that you can go get some coffee or sleep while the computer finishes processing your photos. It just so happens that saving noise removal and sharpening to the very last steps in image processing is nearly always the best technique, anyway. If you edit all of your images with the exception of sharpening and noise reduction, then you can send all of these images into programs like Topaz Denoise AI in a large group, to be processed in one batch. You can even customize the sharpening/noise reduction algorithm per photo before executing the batch processing! My most commonly-used image editor is Lightroom, so I’m going to show you how to batch-process images using this program. Lightroom with Topaz Denoise AI First, complete your usual image edits, but skip performing any sharpening or noise reduction for each image. Please shoot in Raw format! Go to the Library tab. Pick which photos to send to Topaz Select each DNG/RAW image that you want to process with Topaz. Use the CNTL and SHIFT keys while mouse-clicking to select multiples. In the example above, 3 shots are selected to batch-process. Photo | Edit In | Edit in Topaz Denoise.exe Retain all of your adjustments You will want to sharpen and rid noise from the photos that contain the edits you performed in Lightroom. The Topaz Denoise AI program will process and then create new photos in the selected file format as shown above. Inside Topaz: select all of the photos, and then start processing I have DeNoise AI set up to use my favorite AI ‘Clear’ recipe for my shots, which it will apply to each photo. Topaz will by default apply the last-used algorithm for each shot. Select custom processing for each shot The Topaz DeNoise AI is actually so sophisticated that you can click on each shot in the list and customize which AI algorithm you want to use on it. As you click on a filename at the screen bottom, you can preview the effect and decide which algorithm to use. When each shot has the custom algorithm assigned, finally click on “Select All” to begin the batch process. Topaz Denoise AI progress display Your Lightroom library will contain the new files and you’ll be automatically returned to Lightroom after all of the photos have been processed in Topaz Denoise AI. In the sample shown above, the new (sharpened) photos will be in TIFF format. Now go get that cup of coffee. If you have many photos to process, this may take a while. Some of the AI algorithms can take much longer to process a shot than others do, but if you’re away from your computer this can become a “don’t care”. Back in Lightroom after batch processing finishes Back in Lightroom, the new (sharpened) files are highlighted/selected in the Library module, as shown above. If you wish, you can export these photos right from the Library module. Typically, you’d export these sharpened photos as something like jpeg format. If you leave them all selected as shown above, then the files can also be exported as a batch process. Batch Processing in DeNoise AI from the Desktop In Windows, you can batch-process photos in DeNoise AI by itself, too. If you use an editor that doesn’t play nicely with Topaz, then this is how you can still finish sharpening and noise removal as a batch process. Here’s one way to do that: First, export the files you want to later edit in Topaz from Lightroom (or whatever editor you use). Do this step to capture all of the edits (without sharpening or noise removal). From the Library tab, multi-select the files to export. File | Export… I’d suggest you export the files in a high-quality format, such as TIFF. The screen shot above shows using DNG output, which Topaz understands, but there’s a problem with that format I’ll discuss later. From Windows File Explorer, select photos that have been edited and exported (so that the edits are embedded in the files). You can use the Shift or Cntl keys with the left mouse button to refine your selections. Now, just drag the photos to the Desktop “Topaz DeNoise AI” icon. The DeNoise AI program will automatically start running. In DeNoise AI, click ‘Select All’, then ‘Save’ Like I mentioned earlier, you can also click on each photo filename and customize which AI algorithm to use, with the ability to preview what the selected algorithm will do. After you’re ready, click the “Select All” just above the filename list. Confirm how to save images Progress update while Topaz is processing When the batch processing is finished, you can just quit the program. If you selected “Preserve Source Directory” for the batch output, then the results will be saved in the same folder as your original photos. I’d recommend that you NOT use DNG files in the Topaz software, but use TIFF instead. The Denoise AI program appears to “undo” the edits when using that format. If you stick with TIFF instead, the edits done via Lightroom (or whatever editor you use) get retained. Summary If you have lots of photos that you want to edit and then sharpen, batch processing is the way to go. If you haven’t done it yet, you will probably need to get a computer with a really good GPU to handle the extreme resources that AI-based programs like DeNoise AI need. Otherwise, you might be faced with drinking more than a couple cups of coffee waiting for the processing to finish.

I have a few Nikkor “F-mount” lenses that I recently started using again. Why did I stop using them in the first place? In a word: focus. The Nikon Z9 has the best focus capabilities of any camera I have ever tried, and it is now giving new life to lenses that have frustrated me since I first got them. Nikon Z9 and Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF-S The first lens I un-retired is my Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF-S. I had virtually stopped using this lens because of an optical effect called spherical aberration. For many (most?) high-speed lenses, they will shift focus when you change the lens aperture. You can only focus-calibrate a lens at a single aperture setting, which isn’t a problem for most lenses, but it sure is for this 85mm. Every aperture change, up through about f/5.6, would shift the focus and generally ruin the shot. I calibrated my lens at f/1.4, but every shot at a different aperture would be soft. Very irritating. DSLRs focus with the lens aperture wide-open, and then stop the lens down an instant before taking the shot. Therein lies the problem: automatically shifting the focus before taking the shot. The Z9 will focus at the requested aperture (through f/5.6), and totally avoid the problem of spherical aberration. It’s of course possible to always shoot a DSLR using contrast-detect at the requested aperture, as long as you don’t mind super slow focus and trying to see the rear screen out in the sunshine. I happen to mind. Also, DSLRs aren’t as good at accurate contrast-detect focusing as you might think. All of my DSLRs operate on the principle of “good enough” for focus. After they get within a small tolerance of correct focus, they simply stop. This is especially true of phase-detect focus. Most users are happy with the focus results, but my resolution-measuring software shows just how loose and variable this good-enough approach is. I can rarely get peak resolution readings by using either phase-detect or contrast-detect focus on a DSLR; I have to manually shift focus by small amounts to get the highest resolution results (one out of a ton of shots), or else pick the best results out of a bunch of auto-focus attempts. I have tried experiments with my Nikon Z9, and have found that the resolution-measurements are typically repeatable within an MTF50 contrast variation of 1 or 2 lp/mm! This is just extraordinary. There’s one more reason that I have started using my 85mm f/1.4 lens again: it now has vibration reduction. The Nikon Z9 includes in-body image stabilization (IBIS), so now the 85mm (that has no VR) can suddenly take advantage of stabilization! Just wonderful. Z9 with Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8 VR Another ‘F’ lens that has been taken out of semi-retirement is my 24-70 f/2.8 VR. This lens is notorious for shifting focus as you zoom it. I would focus-calibrate it at 70mm, and find that 24mm (and most other focal lengths) was terrible when shot wide-open. No matter which focal length I would choose for focus-calibration, the other focal lengths were always soft. My Sigma lenses can be calibrated at multiple focal lengths to solve issues like this, but not Nikon lenses. The Nikon Z9 with its super high-speed Expeed 7 processor just nails focus. Zooming no longer has an impact on focus calibration. As a matter of fact, the Nikon Z9 needs NO focus calibration with any of my lenses, even though it still offers a focus-calibration feature. You have to use the FTZ-ii adapter with these lenses, of course, but focus speed isn’t impacted at all. The increase in weight is trivial, and I honestly don’t even notice the adapter while I’m shooting. I have a friend that has un-retired his F-mount Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 lens since he got his Z9. That lens also suffered from severe focus shift while zooming, which drove him crazy. He reports that it now works perfectly on his Z9. Now he’s considering retiring his D850 and D500 cameras and getting a second Z9. I already wrote some articles (for example) on lenses with different mounts that can be adapted to the ‘Z’ mount. These are manual-focus lenses, but the great focus-peaking found on the Z9 has now given these lenses new life (including vibration reduction), as well. I don’t feel any pressure to get Z-mount lenses, since my F-mount lenses perform better than they ever have. My Z9 has nearly paid for itself by letting me use lenses that had been largely abandoned. It’s just a bummer that my screw-drive auto-focus lenses won’t work on the Z9.

Have you ever been frustrated by being unable to get that peak-action shot, even when you thought you were “ready” for it? Some subjects simply go way beyond human reaction time. Nikon has solved this problem with their Z9 camera: pre-release shooting. What exactly is pre-release capture shooting? This means capturing photos before you press the shutter. You can configure the Z9 to start taking photos while you half-press the shutter release and then save up to 1 second of these photos when you fully press the shutter, along with all of the shots you take while you keep pressing the shutter release. While you half-press the shutter, the shots that are being saved up in the camera buffer are simply thrown out once they are over one second old. Actually, you can configure this pre-release buffer to range from 1 second down to 0.3 seconds. You can also configure how long to take shots after you press the shutter fully, from 1 second up to about 4 seconds. You can take these shots from 30 frames per second up to 120 frames per second. The ‘gotcha’ here is that you can only shoot in jpeg shooting mode, and not raw mode. Maybe a future firmware release will allow raw shooting… This feature became available with firmware version 2.0. Note that the camera can continuously auto-focus and update the exposure while this form of shooting happens! Amazing processor speed. Capture the exact peak of action with ease Configure the Camera The pre-release capture feature has one of the most complicated setups on the Z9. I’ll try to distill down what controls you need to set and what you need to look for. Configure the camera buffer In the Custom Settings menu, select the d4 continuous shooting pre- and post-release buffer size. This is how long to save the shots before and after pressing the shutter button. You can specify from 0.3 to 1.0 seconds of shots to save while half-pressing the shutter button. You can also specify from 1 second to ‘Max’ (about 4 seconds) to save after pressing the shutter release. Select a picture quality from the jpeg options Unfortunately, you have to switch to a jpeg-only mode for shooting. The shot above shows my i-button screen, where I select the picture quality. Pick a jpeg quality. No Raw allowed! Spin the dial to the continuous ‘Quick Release’ setting Press the Release Mode to select either 30 or 120 fps Select either 30 fps or 120 fps Half-press the shutter release You’re now ready to start taking photos. Next, you’ll need to half-press the shutter to start continuously-filling the camera pre-release buffer with pictures. Nothing is permanently saved until the shutter is fully pressed down. You should now start tracking your subject and focusing the lens. After you note that the subject action you were waiting for has already come and gone, fully-press down the shutter release. The camera will now save the shots in its ‘pre-release’ buffer and also the shots after you pressed the shutter all the way down. Be prepared to delete a whole bunch of shots. Getting “the shot” means you’ll have a ton of off-peak action shots to get rid of, or else you’ll soon end up filling up your memory card. Summary Pre-release capture is one of the nicest new Nikon Z9 features. It’s a bit unfortunate that setting it up is so complicated. You now finally have a chance to record that baseball when it smashes against the bat, or the grass hopper as it leaps into the air.

Here’s another lens that got as much respect as Rodney Dangerfield. I got a cheap Fotasy MD-N/Z adapter to put old manual-focus Minolta lenses on my Nikon Z9, including this 50mm macro. The quality results have been very surprising using old Minolta lenses; some good and some bad. This Rokkor 50mm macro lens falls into the “good” category. Actually, my lens copy beats the legendary Nikkor 55mm pre-AI Micro Nikkor that was used in the original Star Wars film. If you occasionally explore macro photography, where auto-focus is rarely even needed, it can be a smart financial move to get some old manual gear. This Minolta stuff is really cheap, and the photographic results can border on stunning. The Nikon Z mount has made mixing and matching lenses very easy to explore. The very short flange distance and large mount diameter makes it possible to mount most anything onto the Nikon mirrorless cameras. My Fotasy adapter lets me explore old Rokkor MD and MC lenses, where I still get infinity-focus capabilities. This adapter has no electrical contacts, but that’s no problem on Nikons with non-CPU lens capability, which still permits auto-exposure in aperture-priority mode. For non-macro photography, this Nikon Z9 lets me have IBIS (vibration reduction), aperture-priority, auto-exposure, and focus-peaking with any manual focus, non-CPU lens. It’s much easier to focus these old lenses using focus-peaking than it ever was with split-image or micro-prism screens in the film era. Here’s a link to various settings for getting the most out of any fully-manual lens used on a Z-mount. This 50mm lens has 5 aperture blades, 6 elements (4 groups), and the “MC” in its name means it is meter-coupled. It stops down to f/22. It has a red “R” on its focus scale for a typical infrared photography focus-shift. This pure metal-and-glass lens weighs 330 grams. It is built with very high quality, and it still has perfectly smooth focus action. It was made in 1967, but I’ll bet that photos taken with this lens could easily be mistaken for a totally modern lens. Since these old lenses don’t have electronics in them, they generally last a very long time if they’re not mistreated (e.g. used in the rain). Since this 50mm Macro only focuses down to ½ life size, Minolta also made a set of extension tubes (EB, No.1, No.2, No.3, and EL) to get down to life-size. These tubes are also dirt-cheap to buy used. If you like more extreme magnification photography, you can also combine bellows units, like my Nikon PB-4, with this old Minolta lens, too. Image quality is improved if you reverse-mount lenses when going beyond life-size magnification, so I also have a Nikon BR-2 ring for that purpose. This 50mm Rokkor has a 55mm filter thread, so I also need a 55-to-52 mm step-down ring to attach it to the BR-2 ring. As usual, you’ll need an FTZii adapter to connect the Z-mount camera onto F-mount equipment, such as this PB-4 bellows unit. MC Macro Rokkor-QF f/3.5 50mm on Nikon Z9 Fotasy adapter to mount the Rokkor onto the Nikon Z9 Low-magnification shot Magnification: white = lens alone, orange = extension tubes Macro range, lens alone Reverse-mounted lens on Nikon PB-4 bellows Note that a wired remote is attached to the camera 10-pin connector for taking the shots without any vibration. The “EL” and “No.3” Minolta extension tube is mounted on the lens to protect it and to act as a lens shade. The extension tube of course limits subject lighting options and also working distance; it isn’t mandatory. You can also swap the No.1 or No.2 tubes for better working distance and easier lighting setups, with a little less protection. You might not even think of using a non-Nikon lens on this PB-4 bellows, but the Nikon BR-2 ring, step-down rings, and adapters like the Fotasy MD-N/Z open up a whole new world of possibilities. Reverse-mounted lens on PB-4 bellows The high-magnification shot above couldn’t have been done without using the bellows. The whole bellows rig was shifted along its rail to get a series of overlapping shots, which were then focus-stacked using the Helicon Focus program. The focus-peaking camera feature makes it pretty easy to observe how the focus shifts shot-to-shot as the camera is shifted along the bellows rail. You can even see some of the facets on the bee’s eye. To me, this looks like first-rate optics in action. Extreme magnification at maximum bellows extension Focus-stacking was used here, too. Each individual shot in the stack has paper-thin depth of focus. These results look sharp, sharp, sharp. Extra pieces of gear to mount the lens in reverse for best quality Using the Fotasy adapter to protect and shade the lens In the shot above, I substituted the Fotasy adapter to be used as a lens shade and protector (this is optional). Note that the FTZ-ii adapter is required to connect the camera to the PB-4 bellows. The Nikon Z9 must be rotated to vertical-format shooting if you want to slide it along the PB-4 rail, because its vertical grip makes the camera a bit too tall. Lens Measurements I used the MTFMapper program to analyze shots from the Nikon Z9, taken in raw HighEfficiency format, converted to DNG format. I used the free Adobe DNG converter program to convert the HE shots (1/3 the size of regular compressed raw) into DNG. As of this date, none of my photo editors understand the HE format, but most of them understand the DNG format. The Zoner Photo Studio automatically invokes the conversion into DNG, so at least that editor works seamlessly with the HE format. The full resolution target The chart above is what I used to get the resolution, contrast, and lateral chromatic aberration measurements. The target is 40 inches tall by 55 inches wide. The chart also works well to get a visual evaluation of vignetting. I don’t have a chart that is small enough to directly measure the optics performance in the macro range. 50mm f/3.5 Resolution Resolution across the whole frame, with a peak of 50.9 lp/mm wide-open. I wouldn’t recommend this aperture, although the center resolution is entirely acceptable. Resolution numbers and vignetting sample, 50mm f/3.5 The shot above shows some sample resolution measurements overlaid onto the resolution chart photo. This also demonstrates the worst-case (f/3.5) vignetting. Nearly any photo editor can easily rid this vignetting, if you don’t want it. 50mm f/5.6 Resolution Stopping down to f/5.6 gets a peak resolution of 64.2 lp/mm. The edge-to-edge resolution is just now getting acceptable, while the center nears maximum resolution. Resolution numbers and vignetting sample, 50mm f/5.6 Stopping down one stop helps vignetting, too. 50mm f/8.0 Resolution Stopping down to f/8.0 smoothes the across-frame resolution, with a peak of 58.1 lp/mm. Resolution numbers and vignetting sample, 50mm f/8.0 50mm f/11.0 Resolution Stopping down to f/11.0 reaches this lens’ smoothest performance; going to 54.7 lp/mm. Image quality here is just excellent across the frame. Resolution numbers and vignetting sample, 50mm f/11.0 Summary The price-to-performance ratio here is excellent. As an overall lens line, I still give the edge to my old Nikkors, but photos made with this Rokkor 50mm macro lens can look excellent. A camera like the Nikon Z9 makes shooting with a manual lens like this easier than it has ever been, especially at extreme magnifications. An adapter like the Fotasy MD-N/Z makes exploring the old Rokkors almost financially risk-free. If you only shoot close up once in a while, then you can’t go wrong with a lens like this.

What’s a more insane combination than an old Minolta manual focus Rokkor lens on the Nikon Z9? I can’t off-hand think of anything, so of course I had to try it. I got a Fotasy MD-N/Z adapter that set me back a whopping $16 to try this combination out ;~). This adapter will let you mount MC or MD Rokkor lenses on a Nikon Z-mount. The Fotasy adapter has no electronics or optics; it’s basically a metal tube. I have had some Minolta gear literally sitting on a shelf as knickknacks for several years. This stuff is there as a reminder of old adventures I had with it, before I switched to mainly Nikon gear. I never thought I’d shoot any more pictures with these lenses, since the death of the film era. Did you know that Sony bought Minolta, and their original interchangeable lens cameras had Minolta (auto-focus) optics on them? Most people thought of Minolta lenses as second-best to Nikon, back in the day. You might think otherwise by the end of this article. Yes, Minolta made some lenses that were really second-rate, but there were also some gems. Nikon just had to turn things upside down by inventing a ‘Z’ lens mount that will allow you to mount most anything on it, thanks to its large diameter and short flange distance. You just need to configure the “Non-CPU lens data” in their Setup menu to let the Z9 know what’s mounted on it. Here’s a link to various settings for getting the most out of any fully-manual lens used on a Z-mount. Note that the camera EXIF data will record the lens focal length, the ISO and shutter speed, but the aperture will always be recorded as the same maximum aperture that you configured in the non-CPU lens setting. I did a quick internet search and found a few adapters that let you mount the Minolta Rokkor MD or MC lenses onto a Nikon Z mount. They all allow infinity focus using the Minolta lenses. Needless to say, I couldn’t resist the temptation to try one of these adapters out. Keep in mind, this Nikon Z9 lets me have IBIS (vibration reduction), aperture-priority, auto-exposure, and focus-peaking with any manual focus, non-CPU lens. It’s much easier to focus these old lenses using focus-peaking than it ever was with split-image or micro-prism screens in the film era. MC Tele Rokkor-PF 135mm f/2.8 on Nikon Z9 I bought a used 135mm f/2.8 lens, which was manufactured around 1970. It has 6 elements in 5 groups, and has a minimum focus distance of 5 feet (I wish it focused nearer). It has the slip-out built-in lens shade, which I have always preferred. It has 55mm filter threads. The “MC” stands for “meter-coupled”. I wanted a ‘portrait’ lens that gives the subject a bit more breathing room, leading to pictures where the person looks more at ease. This is an all-metal-exterior 135mm lens, and the optics have truly good bokeh. The focus ring rotates as smoothly as it did when it first came out of the factory. It only weighs 490 grams, which is surprising for an all-metal lens. I “baby” my lenses; they don’t go out in the rain or get covered with sand or mud. I seriously doubt that these old Rokkors have any weather sealing, but if you treat them well, they should return the favor and treat you well, too. Since they don’t have any electronics in them, their lifetimes are almost guaranteed to far exceed lenses with focus motors and vibration reduction. Just don’t drop it. Worst-case vignetting at f/2.8 Note how sharp the photo is edge-to-edge, even though the lens was used wide-open. If the vignetting looks excessive to you, it’s simple to fix it in an editor. I can see only slight lateral chromatic aberration, and I haven’t seen any distortion at all. Frame edge detail from the shot above Details like what’s shown above will readily show the dreaded purple fringes, if the lens has any tendencies to have lateral chromatic aberration. I don’t see any here at all. When I use focus peaking and point the lens at flat lawn grass or textured carpeting, it’s easy to see if there is any field curvature. I don’t see any of that, either; the focus-peak speckles that I see are all parallel to the frame horizontal edge. Lights at f/2.8 on the edge of the frame If I hadn’t said anything about this lens’ origin, I doubt that anybody would guess that this photo wasn’t shot with a modern lens. Very, very nice bokeh. Focus-peaking makes manual focus easy and accurate You can see the little red edges around the parts that are in focus. It’s of course easier to use this same focus-peaking feature while looking through the viewfinder. 135mm f/2.8 Lens Measurements I used the MTFMapper program to analyze shots from the Nikon Z9, taken in raw HighEfficiency format, converted to DNG format. I used the free Adobe DNG converter program to convert the HE shots (1/3 the size of regular compressed raw) into DNG. As of this date, none of my photo editors understand the HE format, but most of them understand the DNG format. The Zoner Photo Studio automatically invokes the conversion into DNG, so at least that editor works seamlessly with the HE format. The full resolution target The chart above is what I used to get the resolution, contrast, and lateral chromatic aberration measurements. The target is 40 inches tall by 55 inches wide. The chart also works well to get a visual evaluation of vignetting. 135mm f/2.8 Resolution Notice how even the resolution is across the whole frame, with a peak of 40.9 lp/mm wide-open. This is plenty of resolution, even without stopping down. Lots of modern lenses aren’t this good. Resolution numbers and vignetting sample, 135mm f/2.8 The shot above shows some sample resolution measurements overlaid onto the resolution chart photo. This also demonstrates the worst-case (f/2.8) vignetting. Nearly any photo editor can easily rid this vignetting, if you don’t want it. MTF Contrast actual measurements, 135mm f/2.8 Notice how little astigmatism this lens has. Impressive. I always have to mention that most companies only publish 'theoretical' MTF contrast curves. My software produces these curves from actual measurements. Lateral chromatic aberration, microns Probably the weakest aspect of this lens is its lateral chromatic aberration. Fortunately, photo editors can (mostly) take care of this. When this lens was manufactured, your slides were stuck with this color fringing. 135mm f/4.0 Resolution Stopping down one stop to f/4.0 gets a peak resolution of 44.5 lp/mm. Resolution numbers and vignetting sample, 135mm f/4.0 Stopping down one stop really decreases vignetting. 135mm f/5.6 Resolution Stopping down to f/5.6 gets a real jump in peak resolution, going to 50.4 lp/mm. Resolution numbers and vignetting sample, 135mm f/5.6 135mm f/8.0 Resolution Stopping down to f/8.0 reaches this lens’ highest resolution, going to 54.0 lp/mm. Image quality here is just excellent. Stopping down further starts reducing resolution. The lens goes to f/22, but I'd recommend you don't go beyond f/16. Resolution numbers and vignetting sample, 135mm f/8.0 Summary I always liked this lens’ image quality, but only shooting with film never let the lens really show what it was capable of. Minolta (mostly) made better gear than people realized, and they had to design old lenses like this without the benefit of computers. I can’t guarantee that this lens is representative of others using this design, but hopefully it will give you some idea of what kind of images these lenses are capable of producing. As a public service, I should mention that you should avoid their MD Tele Rokkor-X 300mm f/4.5 lens; I wish someone had warned me before I bought one many years ago. If there’s a focal length that you know will only get used occasionally, a lens like this can be found for dirt cheap. Why on earth should a gem like this end up in the landfill? It’s very liberating to know that you’re not constrained to just Nikon lenses when you are using a Z-mount camera. There will probably be many different third-party lens adapters that become available in the future.

The Nikon Z9 has quickly gained a reputation for its focusing prowess. This reputation centers around its ‘stickiness’ and accuracy. I couldn’t find any useful data about how its various focus area modes compare for actual focusing speed. I wanted to find out if there were any significant focus speed advantages or disadvantages when changing focus-area modes. I’m using the firmware version 2.1 and testing with the Nikkor 500mm PF f/5.6 lens. This is of course an F-mount lens, so I’m using the FTZ-II adapter. Nikon Z9 with 500mm f/5.6 PF I have assigned 4 different focus-area modes to 4 different buttons, since I found out on the first day of Z9 shooting that one mode definitely won’t suffice. I always leave my focus on AF-C. My camera is set to “automatic subject detection”, which I think means that it will first try ‘people’, then switch to ‘animal’, and finally switch to ‘vehicle’. My testing involves setting the lens on minimum focus and then having the camera focus on a target (a high-contrast distant tree) at ‘infinity’. For all tests, the same sunny conditions were used, as well as the same high-contrast distant target. In real life, you’d almost never have your lens at minimum focus distance and then focus on infinity; realistic focus times will be much faster than what my test numbers indicate. I used 120 fps slow-motion video to record the 500mm lens focus scale during the test. To time the focus, all I have to do is count the frames to go from the start of focus scale motion to the end of motion. Each frame is 1/120 or 0.0083 seconds. As an added benefit, the video will clearly record if there are any hiccups or stutters while focusing. This stuff can happen faster than your eye can track. For comparison to the Z9 camera, my Nikon D500 focus speed with this 500mm lens is typically 0.308 seconds. The D500 focus system is supposed to be the same as the D5 model, and it seems to be just a hair faster than the D850 focus system. 3D-Tracking Mode This is my favorite focus-tracking mode. In most situations, the focus box will really stick to the selected subject, no matter how it moves around the frame. It works for more than just eyes. I assigned this mode to the AF-ON button (I never use the shutter button to focus). Focus typically took 41 frames, or 0.342 seconds. A couple of times, I got 39 frames, or 0.325 seconds. This is about 5 to 10% slower than the D500. In actual practice, you should consider this contest to be a tie with the D500; you’d never notice the difference. Wide-Area Large I assigned this mode to my fn1 button. For stuff with eyes, this mode works well most of the time. Sometimes this mode totally outperforms 3D-tracking, and often it’s unpredictable when those occasions are going to be. Focus took 42 frames, or 0.350 seconds. A bit slower, but not really enough to perceive the difference. Dynamic-Area Medium This is a ‘dumb’ mode, used for when the camera insists on tracking the wrong thing with the fancy AI modes. This is also the primary mode I’d be using with my D500 camera. I assign this to my fn2 button. Focus took 41 frames, or 0.342 seconds. Single-Point Use this when you need precision, and the subject isn’t moving. I assign this to my fn3 button. This is another “dumb” mode with no AI behind it. Focus took 40 frames, or 0.333 seconds. This seems to be the fastest mode, but not enough to tell the difference from the others. Conclusion I didn’t see any focus-stutter in any of the modes. If I switched to low-contrast targets, I could get any of the modes to focus-stutter a bit, although nothing that you could notice with the naked eye until really dim conditions. It appears that you needn’t worry about which focus mode you select causing a slowdown. The Z9 is really fast at focus speed, period. It was quite unexpected, however to see that my D500 had a slight edge at raw focus speed, although it’s no competition with the Z9 when it comes to either focus precision or ‘stickiness’ at subject tracking. Don’t worry about the F-mount lenses being slow to focus, compared to the pro-level DSLRs. I seriously doubt that you could notice any difference. I bet you will notice a difference in focus precision, compared to DSLRs; the Z9 just nails focus wherever the focus sensor is aimed.

I had to perform this test comparison several times, because I could hardly believe my eyes. The Nikon Z9 focuses some lenses just as quickly with my teleconverter attached as it does without! I am using my Sigma TC-1401 1.4X teleconverter with both my Nikkor 500mm f/5.6 PF and my Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 Sport lens. Nikon Z9 with the Sigma TC-1401 1.4X teleconverter The shot above shows the Z9 with both the FTZ-II and Sigma 1.4X teleconverter attached to my 500mm f/5.6 PF lens. This is one of the combinations I used to measure focus speed. With the DSLRs that I have tried, attaching this teleconverter will slow down focus speed by about 25%. The 1-stop lesser light level always gives you a speed penalty, in addition to the resolution drop. I used 120 fps video to record the focus scale motion on my lenses in bright light. I just have to count the frames that show the focus scale motion to measure the focus speed. When I did this test to see how much my teleconverter would slow down the focus time on my 500mm PF, I found no difference when using the Nikon Z9! How can this be? The Nikon Z9 shoots with the requested lens aperture, down through f/5.6. It never opens up the aperture while shooting. Any DSLR will focus with the lens at its widest aperture, and then quickly stop down the aperture to take the shot. DSLRs need all the light they can get to focus quickly. The Nikon Z9 can focus in dim light, and it doesn’t need the lens aperture to be wide open. The 500mm Test Without using a teleconverter, I focused the 500mm PF with the Z9 in sunlight. I started with the lens on minimum focus distance, and focused on a distant tree using the “3D-Tracking” focus mode. I recorded the focus scale using video at 120 fps. I counted 41 frames that showed focus scale motion, or 0.342 seconds. I repeated the test (several times!) with the Sigma 1.4X teleconverter attached, and again recorded typically 41 frames of focus activity going from minimuim focus to infinity (0.342 seconds). No change in focus speed when I include the teleconverter! When I did focus speed tests using my D500 DSLR and this same lens, it could focus in 0.308 seconds without using the teleconverter, but it took 0.400 seconds when I attached the teleconverter. The Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 Sport Test Still using 3D-tracking for focus, my testing found the following: No teleconverter at 200mm, f/4: 49 frames, or 0.408 seconds. With teleconverter 280mm, f/4: 53 frames, or 0.442 seconds. I also tried wide open at f/2.8, 200mm with no measured focus speed change. In all of my tests, I went from minimum focus (about 4 feet) to infinity. This is a much longer range than the 500mm PF lens, which I think accounts for the longer focus time. Similar to the 500mm results, my D500 was faster-focusing than the Z9 without the teleconverter (0.36 seconds) but slower than the Z9 with the teleconverter (0.45 seconds). Again, you couldn’t perceive this slight difference with the naked eye. This is only about an 8% slowdown using the Z9, compared to a 25% slowdown on my D500 camera. This speed change can’t be noticed in use; there’s essentially no focus-speed penalty here, either! Other Benefits I also noticed that my Z9 really reduced focus-hunting when using the 500mm/TC combination in dim lighting, compared to either the Nikon D850 or D500 cameras. Focus of course gets slower in really dim light with the Z9, but it retains fantastic focus precision. Due to the extra focus accuracy and repeatability, my shots are nearly always a tiny bit sharper when using the Z9/TC combination compared to my DSLRs. I haven’t even had to perform any focus fine-tune calibration with the Z9. Expect similar results to the Sigma TC-1401 when using the Nikon teleconverters. I think that the Z9 is just showing off. I had held off for a long time getting a mirrorless camera. I wanted nothing to do with short battery life, poor viewfinder frame refresh rates, low viewfinder resolution, substandard low-light performance, and slow focus. Those days thankfully are now over.

With all the discussion about dumping your F-mount lenses for Z lenses, here’s something completely different. How about using Nikon’s oldest lenses? It may not have been their intention, but Nikon has made using manual–focus lenses better than it has ever been. I fell in love with shooting Nikon gear after my first outing with the Nikkor-P C 105mm f/2.5 portrait lens years ago. This is the lens that really established Nikon’s reputation. It was invented before auto-indexing, auto-focus, auto-exposure, virtual horizons, histograms, and vibration reduction. With no electronics to fail, it works just as well as the day it was made (around 1973). The next-generation version of this lens (Ai-S version) was used by National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry to take the “Afgan Girl” photo, using the Nikon FM2 in 1984. Her name is Sharbat Gula. But I digress. Through the years I have held onto this lens, even though the newer generations of digital cameras made the lens unusable and obsolete. Nikon, perhaps unintentionally, did something special for this old lens. They made the Z9 and the FTZII adapter. I now have a system that offers aperture priority, auto exposure, focus-peaking, and even vibration reduction for my old 105mm. I can hardly believe it. These same capabilities, of course, also apply to the newest Zeiss Otus manual-focus lenses. Most photographers probably think that this lens/camera combination is totally insane and, by extension, so am I. There’s just something about this lens that I will always treasure. The feel of the focus action is just perfect, and the optics can still deliver. If people can still buy LP’s and enjoy listening to them, then I should be able to shoot with old classic glass and enjoy that, too. If you’re interested, here’s a link to my original article on the 105mm f/2.5 Nikkor-P C. Z9 and FTZII with 105mm f/2.5 pre-AI lens and hood Tell the Z9 about your pre-AI lens The first step in using this lens is to give the Z9 camera a clue about what is attached. This is done through the Setup Menu Non-CPU lens data option. You’ll need to do this for any lens that doesn’t have a CPU in it, and not just pre-Ai lenses. It shouldn’t need mentioning, but please remember to attach the FTZ adapter to the camera before trying to attach your F-mount lens. You could jam it into the sensor or the camera’s sensor guard if you forget to do this. Configure the lens in the Setup Menu After setting up this lens, select it by the Lens number in the Setup menu. Keep the camera in the Aperture Priority mode. The EXIF data will record the ISO and shutter speed, but it won’t know what aperture you used, so it will always display f/2.5 for this lens. Don’t worry; the exposure will be correct. For quickly selecting this lens in the future, I’d recommend that you assign a button via the Custom Settings , Controls menu “f2”, such as the “Audio” (microphone) button to Choose Non-CPU lens number. If you do that, then you can hold down the assigned button and spin the rear dial to quickly set the lens number. If you forget to set the lens number, then the EXIF data will be incorrect; the exposure will still be okay. Set up Vibration Reduction (IBIS) Activate Vibration Reduction You’ll probably want VR to be active, which is set up in the Photo Shooting menu. Some people call this feature IBIS, or in-body image stabilization. Select the VR style you prefer Set up the style of vibration reduction that you prefer. The viewfinder seems smoother to me when using “Sport” VR. The horizontal stabilization will automatically turn off while panning horizontally. It’s okay to leave VR on when using a tripod or monopod. Normal mode is more effective than Sport mode, so this is preferred when the subject is static. I assigned VR to one of the options in the “i” menu, so that I can toggle Sport/Normal easily. You can customize the “i” menu via the Controls “f1” menu in the Custom Settings menu. F-mount lenses that have a VR switch will automatically disable in-camera VR. Fortunately, the Z9 IBIS automatically locks in place when the camera is turned off. Many cameras don’t lock their sensor when powered down, which can lead to damage when cleaning the sensor. Make sure extra features are displayed To enable viewing things like the histogram in the display (the viewfinder or the rear screen) you need to configure the “view mode”. Navigate to the Shooting/display menu Select the “Show effects of settings” in View mode d9 Set up Virtual Horizon Go to Custom Settings d17 to select the virtual horizon style If you want to add the virtual horizon, then pick the desired style to use in the Custom Settings d17 as shown above. Set up Focus Peaking Next, you’ll want to configure focus peaking. I think that the low-sensitivity focus peaking is totally useless. Pick the maximum sensitivity (3), in order to get precision manual focus. I find focus peaking is crucial for proper use of any manual-focus lens (or for the manual-focus mode on auto-focus lenses). Go to the Custom Settings a13 “Focus peaking” menu Activate focus peaking Focus Peaking sensitivity selection a13 Focus Peaking highlight color selection a13 Some subjects end up being the same color as the focus-peaking color. To avoid this frustration, you can just pick another peaking color to use in this menu. Focus-peaking The shot above shows focus-peaking on the rear display, without showing any extra data. You would of course typically use this same feature while looking through the viewfinder instead. Customize your viewfinder and rear display Rear display options configuration d18 To set up the rear camera display, go to the d18 Custom monitor shooting display. You can set this up like your viewfinder display, but you can also configure it differently, if you prefer. You can set up 5 different rear displays, which are selected during shooting via the DISP button. To avoid confusion, I’d suggest you set up the first 4 displays to match the options that you configure for the viewfinder display. Select the monitor display to customize “d18” Pick the display number to customize, and hit the right-arrow to pick which options you want in it. You don’t have to use all 5 displays, if you don’t want to. Simply un-check the display number(s) you want to skip. Press the DISP button while using the rear display to cycle through each enabled display option. Select the viewfinder display to customize “d19” Go to the custom menu option d19 to set up what the viewfinder display options will look like. Again, you can cycle thorough the different displays (up to 4) using the DISP button. Selected options for the #3 viewfinder display “d19” The shot above shows that the virtual horizon and histogram are among the options that will show up for Display #3 on the viewfinder display d19. You can make the viewfinder as crowded or as sparse as you wish. The setup procedure is just the same as the rear screen monitor setup (d18), except the viewfinder only has 4 displays instead of 5. These display options aren’t needed specifically for using a manual focus lens, of course. Note that for old non-CPU lenses, the displayed f-stop will only ever display “F—”. In aperture-priority mode, however, the shutter speed will adjust automatically as you twist the aperture ring, in order to maintain correct exposure. Switch between custom displays in viewfinder or rear screen The “DISP” button is next to the “AF-ON” button Press the DISP button repeatedly until you see the configured display you’re interested in using. Focus-peaking in action The busy-looking rear display is shown above. The red speckles on the statue face show the zone of sharp focus, courtesy of focus-peaking. Notice that the f-stop shows up as “F—“ above, since the lens can’t tell the camera what the aperture setting is. The viewfinder display will show the same focus-peak speckles as the rear display. The wiggling hand icon above (next to the “105mm”) shows that in-camera vibration reduction is active, too. The “A” in the top-left corner indicates the camera is in aperture-priority mode, and the “MF” indicates the lens is manual-focus. Unfortunately, you can’t scooch the histogram display more toward the edge of the screen. It’s placed in a better location in the viewfinder display than the rear screen. You can configure the viewfinder to have the same level of detail as the rear display, if you wish. I’d recommend that at least one of the display choices be set to have a minimum of detail selections, since too many selections can make the display too busy and distracting. Each mode will still show the focus-peaking. Summary With so many options that you can set, it seems like a nightmare to configure an old manual-focus, non-CPU lens. The thing is, you only need to do this once. The only setup that needs to be repeated is the Setup Menu Non-CPU lens data configuration for other manual lenses you use. Thanks for breathing new life into my 105, Nikon! Now, please make an adapter for the screw-drive lenses. By the way, a guy named John White does conversions of old lenses to at least make them fit on newer cameras. He has a cool compatibility chart of what fits on what. Here’s a link to his chart: You should probably read this chart before you start trying to mount lens A on camera body B. The non-Ai lenses need no modifications to work on the FTZ adapters. By the way, there are also third-party adapters to enable shooting nearly any non-Nikon lens on the Nikon Z-mount cameras. But that's a topic for another day. Happy shooting.

Helicon Focus is of course known for its software for stacking photos. How about making a movie of a stack? Huh? This is really cool. And pretty easy. First things first. I use my Nikon D850 to get photos to combine into a focus stack by using its “focus shift shooting” feature. I use this mostly for macro photography, using my Micro Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 AF-S lens. I grew tired of always setting up a tripod for focus-stack shooting. I discovered that I could make a rig that made shooting these stacks pretty easy and “good enough”. My focus-stacking software is good at aligning my photos, and it automatically corrects for any of my “wiggle” when shooting. A typical video made from a focus stack Helicon Focus has found a way to combine the photo slice depth information into a 3D model, and then convert it into an MP4 movie. What’s so cool is that the video has everything in focus all the time. Any conventional video would have paper-thin focus. I could imagine doctors, for instance, finding it really valuable to have videos of small structures totally in focus. Seeing something from even slightly different angles is much more informative than a single shot. Home made camera gun stock The rig shown above lets me get pretty steady macro focus stacks by leaning against stuff or pivoting on its little monopod. The D850 can very rapidly do a bunch of focus-shifted shots, which limits the shot-to-shot wiggle. There are lots of examples on the web to show you how to make or obtain a rifle stock to hold your camera. Neewer LED ring light on Micro Nikkor 105mm If the light gets too dim, I have an LED ring light powered by AA batteries that screws onto my lens filter threads. It’s very portable and pretty light (no pun intended). I did have to modify this light by painting its inner diameter with black paint to control glare. Once I get the (raw-format) shots, I just mouse-drag them into Helicon Focus to make a focus stack. When I click on the “Saving” tab, there’s an option to “Export 3D model”. Use “Export 3D model” Helicon 3D Viewer The “Export 3D model” starts up the Helicon 3D Viewer. You get to see a movie of your focus stack! You can alter things like the rotation angle, which lets you view it from a different angle. You can also change lighting and zoom in. I select “Save video”, and I can save this movie in my desired resolution and fps. The number of rotations around your subject can also be configured. The movie format is H.264-MP4. I think that you’ll prefer to have a black background for your subject, or else zoom in prior to saving the movie. The finished video A video after using the Helicon zoom feature

I have used Combine ZM (and Combine ZP) for many years when I wanted to perform focus stacking, but I recently switched to using Helicon Focus. I thought I’d share a few reasons for making this switch. Combine ZM focus stack, 20 shots of a kangaroo paw Before I begin, I should make some explanations for people that aren’t familiar with the concept of focus stacking. Stacking is a method to combine a series of photos that have overlapped zones of sharp focus, ignoring the portions of the shots that are out of focus. This technique is useful for landscapes, where you want to get everything from the foreground to the background in sharp focus. The more common use of focus stacking is for macro shooting, where a typical individual photo only has a paper-thin depth of focus. I have a link to an article here that I wrote showing typical usage of Combine ZM here. As long as you stick with shots that don’t go beyond magnifications of roughly half-life-size, you can often get by without even having to use a tripod. Both of these programs have the capability to align the shots and fix minor misalignments. Cameras like the Nikon D850 and Z9 have built-in “focus shift shooting”, which makes it really easy to automatically get a stack of properly-overlapped shots. The more traditional method to get stacked shots is to use a macro bellows with a focusing rail, which is also the best way to get high magnifications. I own the Nikon PB-4 bellows for this purpose. The focus stacks in this article were made using a Nikon D850 with the 105mm f/2.8 AF-S Micro-Nikkor. I used the built-in focus-shift feature. It bears mentioning that Combine ZM is free, but Helicon Focus is not. Also, Combine ZM/Combine ZP is no longer supported, while Helicon Focus is still being supported and enhanced. Also, Combine ZM can’t be used with Mac computers; it requires Windows. Helicon Focus will work with both operating systems. You can use the older Combine ZM program in basically the same way as Combine ZP, but it will have fewer stacking algorithm options. The “P” in “ZP” stands for “pyramid”, which is a newer stacking algorithm option. If you only rarely do focus-stacking, and are willing to put up with some compromises, Combine ZM can do the job. If you need more flexibility and speed, you might opt for Helicon Focus instead. Also, you can get a free trial of Helicon Focus to try it out before you decide to buy it or not. How Combine ZM Works The first thing you’ll need to do before stacking your shots with Combine ZM is to convert them into 16-bit TIFF (for maximum quality). Combine ZM doesn’t understand camera raw-formats. Also, if you have lots of shots to stack, this program tends to fail when using high-megapixel files. I tend to switch to DX mode on my Nikon D850 to reduce file size. These concerns aren’t an issue when using Helicon Focus. The link provided above gives an example of how to convert the photos. Open up the Combine ZM program, and start by clicking the “Enable Menu” icon. Next, select the “File | *New” option and select the photos in the folder with the TIFF pictures that Capture NX-D (or whatever converter program) just made. File loading progress screen Wait until all of your (Tiff) files are loaded. If you didn’t use a tripod, select the “Macro | Align and Balance Used Frames (Thorough)” option. The program then proceeds to analyze, align, and exposure-balance the shots. The photos are shifted/rotated/scaled in order to prepare them for stacking. A message “Finished Executing Align and Balance…” is displayed when this step completes. Be patient. If you happened to use a tripod for the focus-shift shooting, then you could simply skip the step above and go straight for the “stacking” step that follows. The Helicon program will automatically align shots as needed. ‘Do Weighted Average’ macro progress screen Next, select the “Macro | Do Weighted Average” option. The program will proceed to focus-stack the aligned images. Did I mention that patience is a virtue? The Helicon program understands how to use most GPUs, and is much, much faster at stacking in that case. When it completes, crop the central portion of the finished image. The borders have a sort of mirror-image effect, which needs to be cropped from the final image. The Helicon Focus program automatically crops off the edges of the stacked photo, so this step is unnecessary when you use that program. If you have defects in your output results due to things like wind, you’ll need to edit the files in other editors to make use of healing brushes, etc. For most stacks, the results are excellent. Most problems are user-caused, such as uneven focus shifting or wind-induced subject motion. How Helilcon Focus Works Helicon Focus focus stack closeup of a kangaroo paw (15 shots) The shot above is from a different set of 15 shots than the photo at the top of this article. This shot is the un-cropped result. The Helicon Focus Welcome screen After you start up Helicon Focus, you see a prompt to simply mouse-drag the set of photos to be stacked onto the main screen. You don’t need to bother with conversion into TIFF format first; Helicon Focus understands your camera’s raw-format, too First image in the stack After dragging your photos onto the main screen, you’ll see the screen as shown above. Your first shot of the stack is shown. You can select some other shot to view it, if you wish. You should select which stacking algorithm you want to try next. I’ve selected the “Method B” algorithm, or “depth map”. Beneath the algorithm choice are input algorithm values you can play with, if you don’t like the defaults (here, ‘Radius’ and ‘Smoothing’). The rendered focus stack If you’re unhappy with the results, you can try another stacking algorithm, or different adjustment parameters for the selected algorithm. If you have some defects in the stacked shot (such as multiple branches where there should be only one, but it was windy) you can select “Retouching”. “Retouching” tab There’s an option in the “Retouching” screen to let you clone a piece from one of your selected input files over the defect in the stacked file. You can set the brush diameter (size), its hardness, etc. This is good for getting rid of multiple branches, insect antennas, etc. that resulted from image movement between frames. There’s a tool to smooth over image defects, too. If you mess up, there’s an “eraser” to un-do your edits. “Saving” tab The “Saving” tab is where you can save your finished stack in the desired file format (Tiff, jpeg, png). But wait, there’s more. Helicon 3D Viewer If you select “Export 3D model” you can save the stack as 3D, and you can actually make an MP4 movie of your subject rotating around in space. It opens up the Helicon 3D Viewer, which allows saving your stacked image data in various 3D formats or even a movie with selectable resolution. Summary Generally speaking, the results from Helicon Focus look just the same as the results from Combine ZM or Combine ZP, except that I always have to crop off the stacked photo output edges from the Combine ZM results. Here’s my list of the main advantages I have noticed that Helicon Focus has over Combine ZM. Raw-file support Handles more files and larger file sizes Built-in retouching tools GPU support for speed (newer GPUs) Invoke it from within programs such as Lightroom Automatic photo alignment correction Works in Mac operating systems Helicon Remote control for many Nikon, Canon, Sony cameras. Helicon 3D Viewer to save images in various 3D formats or video. You can make macro panoramas from a grid of photos This program, and associated Helicon programs, can actually do a lot more than make a focus stack. There is a Helicon Remote option that you can buy that will automate getting the stacked images for selected Nikon, Canon, and Sony cameras. Since my Nikon D850 already provides this service to me (via focus-shift shooting), I don’t need that Helicon offering. The ‘focus’ of this article is simply focus-stacking, so I stuck to that topic alone. I’m not actually trying to sell you anything. I don’t get any income from doing this, if you wondered.