Ask Matthew...

Our resident Nikon expert Matthew Richards answers your questions and solves your problems. If you have a Nikon-related question, email it to mail@nphotomag.com

Q I have Z 6 body and FTZ mount adapter. Can I use my AF-S 500mm f/5.6e and Nikon 70-200mm f/4g ED VR lenses along with a teleconverter, in addition to the mount adapter?

Kevin Collins

The answer is yes and no. Yes, you A can mount the FTZ mount adapter to your Z 6 and then use any of Nikon’s F-mount AF-S TC-14E III, TC-17E II and TC-20E III teleconverters between the FTZ mount adapter and either of your lenses. Naturally, using a 2x teleconverter gives a 2-stop reduction in aperture width but, unlike with DSLRS, autofocus will still be possible at f/11 with your mirrorless Z 6, when using your AF-S 500mm f/5.6e PF ED VR lens.

What you can’t do is mount one of Nikon’s Z-mount Z TC-1.4X or Z TC-2X teleconverters to a mirrorless Z system body, and then attach the FTZ mount adapter between the teleconverter and the lens. The FTZ mount adapter is incompatible with Z-mount teleconverters and physically won’t fit.

Q I’ve bought the Yongnuo 85mm f/1.8 lens, as featured in issue 140’s Big Test, but the L-fn button and focus ring don’t seem to work with my Z 6II. Can you help?

Ron Cairns

The Yongnuo Yn85mm A F1.8Z DF DSM really is great value for a full framecompatible Z-mount lens that comes complete with full onboard electronics, a fast linear stepping motor-based autofocus system and even a Lens-function button. The focus ring and L-fn buttons definitely work, so you may need to check your camera’s custom settings. In the Custom Settings menu, select ‘f2 Custom controls’. Check that the lens control ring is set to ‘M/A’. This will enable you to switch from autofocus to manual focusing simply by twisting the lens’s control ring. In the same ‘f2’ menu, you can also set up the action of the L-fn button. Select ‘L-fn’ then press the OK button, and scroll down the list of available functions. Highlight your preferred option then press the OK button again to store the setting.

Q I’ve long been a Tamron fan and am thinking of buying one of their superzoom lenses for my D7100. Would you recommend the 18-200mm or the 18-400mm for travel photography?

Mark Baines

Although both of these Tamron A lenses qualify as ‘superzooms’, with effective zoom ranges of 27-300mm and 27-600mm respectively on DX format cameras, they’re rather different lenses. The 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC is very much the more travel-friendly option, as it’s particularly compact and lightweight for a superzoom, at just 75x97mm and 400g. Even so, it gives a generous overall zoom range and features highly effective optical stabilization, or ‘Vibration Compensation’, adding to its credentials as a travel lens. It’s also comparatively inexpensive at around £209/$249.

The Tamron 18-400mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD is a larger, heavier lens at 79x124mm

and 710g, and it’s considerably pricier at around £599/$649. In our tests, sharpness and overall image quality proved very similar in the 18-200mm range, but the 18-400mm dropped off in sharpness and gave more colour fringing at longer zoom settings.

Q I have a 7Artisans 50mm f/1.05 manual lens that I use for portraiture with my Z fc camera, but am struggling to focus accurately. Do you have any tips?

Jenny Jackson

That’s a great choice of lens A for both FX and DX format Z-system cameras, even though it’s a fully manual lens. A good trick for accurate manual focusing is to use the ‘Focus Peaking’ option. Go to the Custom Settings menu and select ‘d9’ in the Z fc, and you can set Focus Peaking to on, as well as selecting a ‘Peaking Highlight Colour’. I tend to use ‘2 (standard sensitivity)’, as I find that ‘1 (low sensitivity)’ is a bit overly precise and fiddly, whereas ‘3 (high sensitivity)’ is a little too vague. Perhaps counterintuitively, the high-sensitivity option is the least precise. As you focus manually, outlines in objects within the image frame that are in focus light up in your chosen colour, both with the viewfinder and the rear screen.

With hybrid phase/contrast-detection autofocus being taken direct from the image sensor on Z-system mirrorless cameras, autofocus is still available at relatively narrow apertures.

Many photographers like to assign ‘AF lock only’ to the L-fn button, but both ‘AE lock only’ and ‘AE/AF lock’ are equally good options, and there are plenty of other choices on the menu.

The Tamron 18-200mm (pictured) is a more travel-friendly superzoom, unless you feel a burning desire for the 18-400mm lens’s extra telephoto reach.

The Focus Peaking option of the mirrorless Z system camera can make it much easier to focus accurately in manual focus mode.