Cameras and Photography Explained

Thom promised surprises on Black Friday, so what actually happened when he showed up in Los Angeles?

• Thom announced a new book to be available sometime in Q1 2025: Mastering Nikon JPEGs. Now if you think you don’t need this book, think again if you have a Zf, Z50II, Z6III, Z8, or Z9: Pre-release capture is always performed in JPEG! If you just set your camera to take NEF files but have lots of JPEG defaults active and then dial into Pre-release capture for that bird-on-a-stick, you can be in for a world of hurt (typically blown out highlights and too much contrast, but also wrong color and more).
• Thom presented his views on the recently announced Z50II: no, it’s not really a D500 replacement. The focus performance is there, as the Z50II contains all the Z9 autofocus goodness and manages that using its 20.9mp image sensor just fine. However, the shutter (release mode) and viewfinder impacts may keep it from being a real replacement (as well as a few other drawbacks, such as battery life). So what does Thom mean by that? The mechanical shutter only goes to 1/4000, the electronic to 1/2000. Each of the shutter options creates different maximum frame rates. Electronic shutter can be performed at 15 fps, but that comes with rolling shutter impacts, plus now you’re starting to see slide show instead of real time. That said, the Z50II is still a remarkably good camera. More will be told when Thom eventually posts his Z50II camera review (also likely Q1 2025, probably coincident with his unannounced but upcoming Complete Guide to the Nikon Z50II).
• Thom gave things away: Nikon tattoos (!), printer cartridges, lenses (!!), GoPro accessories, luggage tags, bags, playing cards, batteries, and much more. He left LA with luggage that was mostly empty. Nikon gave out Z6III t-shirts. 
• Thom introduced the new byThom logo. 

• Thom went on some walks. Specifically, at the Ken Malloy Harbor Regional park looking for birds with a large group of other photographers. Saturday produced more opportunities for good photos than Friday, but that wasn’t exactly the point of the walks. The real point was to let people pick Thom’s brain about how he approached things. The introductory mantra was “start wide and narrow.” Everything in bird work tends to boil down to that, even just observing them. With autofocus, sure try the all automatic approach. It works for certain situations, but when the branches start intruding and the focus system starts hiccuping, that’s when you take some control and narrow what the camera is thinking about. The ultimate in “narrow”—at least on the mirrorless cameras—is manual focus override with peaking at 100% view (assuming the bird is relatively static on a branch). But there’s many in between points in that process. So teaching that was one of the things Thom tried to do. He also tried to get everyone “thinking like birds.” “What does the bird want to do?” Well, the hawk wanted its mate to join them, the vermillion flycatcher wanted to grab insects, the ducks wanted to be at waters edge foraging. Well, if you rush down to the water’s edge, the ducks swim away. You have to figure out where they’re going, put yourself there down low and not moving, and guess what? They’ll come to you. Stay patient, stationary, and quiet, and if you guessed correctly at what the bird wanted to do, you’ll be rewarded. If you chase, you’re going to be rewarded with more and more distant bird butt images. If that’s what you want, chase away.

• Thom answered questions. Lots and lots of questions. Several hours of questions. “Does the Z50II autofocus work as well as the Z9?” Yes, pretty much. Impressively so. Just make sure you’ve given the subject enough exposure. “Is this image sharp?” No. Which always led to a discussion of why. “Which camera/lens is better, X or Y?” Ultimately that doesn’t matter unless you learn how to use it to full advantage. The differences between a 28-400mm f/4-8 VR and a 400mm f/4.5 VR S and a 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S all at maximum aperture and 400mm can be smaller than you might think, particularly if your subject is well isolated from the background. With the Z50II and a 28-400mm f/4-8 VR lens you can do an awful lot of good with minimal kit (see above). Can you do better with a Z9 and 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S? Sure. But the price you pay for each “betterment” these days escalates very, very rapidly. Plus other factors come into play. It’s pretty easy handling a Z50II and the smaller zoom in a vehicle or while going on a casual hike. The Z9 and the big prime require a lot of effort just to carry and keep reasonably steady. What if your lack of steadiness dilutes the acuity of the big, expensive lens? Oops. Thom also answered a lot of questions about noise, often with the phrase “there’s really no reason to be afraid of random photon noise any more.” When cameras were putting a lot of electronic noise into high ISO images, yes, that was problematic and even Thom tried to avoid getting into situations where he needed ISO 6400, for example. However, random photon noise can be relatively well corrected, and today’s cameras generally do a really good job of accurately capturing that randomness, so the old thinking no longer should apply. Thom says that if you need more shutter speed, don’t be afraid of ISO. 
• Thom hung around the store. During his brief “off” time, Thom mingled among the Black Friday store goers at Paul’s Photo, observing their questions and buying habits. Mark Comon, store owner, had to be on his best behavior, as Thom threatened to knock over tripods, open boxes, put fingerprints on lenses, or worse if he wasn’t. As Thom has explained in the past, while the Internet fora are full of photography-know-it-alls, there’s still a more naive buying public coming into the camera stores (particularly this time of year), and like watching wildlife, you learn things about their habits by observing them. One thing Thom noticed is that in the store most of the decisions get totally dictated by price, not by features, performance or something else. You’ll see people drool over the top gear, but then come to economic reality and buy the basic camera and lens that fits their budget instead. Many of the Black Friday shoppers had very specific spending targets (e.g. US$4400), and they added boxes and accessories until they hit that.  

Obviously, Thom doesn’t do events like this very often (since this is the first one in his 30-year presence on the Internet ;~). He’s actually an introvert and near hermit, believe it or not. But when he does come out of his shell (or uses his superpower with his fingers on a keyboard), he generates chaos, energy, information, excitement, and more. So…should you ever see another all-day Thom event offered in the future, you’d be wise to take advantage of it. Will there be one? Hmm. You should probably consult your Magic 8-ball (that’s as useful as asking Thom a direct question ;~).

Why was this article written in the third person? Yet another surprise, it seems.