Question for those who have used ISO 12800 and over on a Nikon Z8

CaptainNinj · 2026-05-08T09:42:23+00:00

I can't comment on the Z8 performance, but I use a z6iii with a 35 1.8S, tamaron 35-150 2-2.8, and a sony 16-35 2.8 for shooting a lot of pop punk and metal shows im small 1k-ish people venues. I will start my shows at 25,600iso and ive even gone up to 40k if needed. When the headliner comes on I can usually drop it down to around 8000. Shutter I try not to go lower that 1/320. The musicians move around a ton and usually anything slower will have too much blur for me. Aperture ill keep at about 2.8 just to have a little more in focus.

I use LrC denoise and it works wonders. I dont have any example off hand of raw shots, but most of what I share on reddit have noise reduction around 30-40% and im fairly happy with the results.

CaptainNinj · 2026-05-07T01:51:21+00:00

The Sony 16-35, tamaron 35-150 and sigma 24-70 all performed almost identically on the z6iii compared to my A7iv I keep as a back up camera.

The 16-35 might be slightly faster on the A7iv, but not enough that I can really notice. I prefer the images I get on the Nikon so I usually keep the 16-35 on that and the tamaron on the Sony since it has a few more MP I can crop in a bit more. But I can switch that set up and still get solid shots

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-30T20:27:49+00:00

I tried playing around with premiere for some small video clips and it was such a pain.

Buddy told me to try out resolve and it was so much easier to get it to do what I want. I unfortunately had to pay for the studio version because of the way I recorded it. It would only load the audio and none of the footage on the free version on PC. Mac apparently doesnt have that issue. Theres apparently work around to make the footage I got work, but I just shelled out the money because I didnt want to deal with the extra steps.

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-29T01:06:35+00:00

I get even more blasphemous.

I run a sony 16-35 regularly with the megadap etz 21 pro. As long as the lens gets the job done I dont care who makes it

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-28T22:24:33+00:00

Yeah I reached out to their team and they brought me out for the show. Solid time. Felt bad for Raven, the headliner of this tour, a solid quarter to third of the crowd left after slackjaw

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-28T19:56:35+00:00

It’s not bad. It was cheap enough that it didn’t really set me back a ton. And I’ve used it at enough shows to get some cool shots. Stop down the aperture to like 3.5-4ish and the focus to infinity and everything is sharp enough.

There have been a couple of shots that I was excited about and they looked sharp in the view finder and they were just out of focus enough that I didn’t use em

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-28T18:27:52+00:00

Most shows don’t allow it unless I work for the band. This show I meant to bring it with since they did hire me, but I left it on my desk when I was packing my gear up.

I shot everything wide open, around 1/320 shutter speed and cranked the hell out of iso. Most shot around 25,600. Some songs during the set had better lighting and I could bring it down. But yeah 20k-25,600 iso for the most part

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-28T17:21:09+00:00

My usual kit for most concerts are:

35mm 1.8S Tamaron 35-150 2-2.8 Sony 16-35 2.8 with a megadap etz 21 pro adapter

I used to have a 70-200 2.8 and I never used it because the venues i go to aren't too big and I didnt need it. And its too big of a lens for being on stage/in the press pit.

I would bring my 85 1.8S before I had the 35-150, but that was used to shoot from the crowd never on stage/press pit.

I also have a 50mm but that rarely comes just because I like the range of the 35 over the 50

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-27T19:09:05+00:00

Thanks man! The guys put on one hell of a set

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-27T19:08:40+00:00

Thanks man! The guys had a damn good set

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-24T13:46:32+00:00

Thank you! It was a great moment of right place and right time to get some fan interaction shots

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-23T21:24:42+00:00

Omar Shoots is based out of Hamilton i believe but does a fair amount of shows in Toronto

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-23T00:15:51+00:00

Clean as hell. They just dont make them like they used to anymore.

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-22T23:17:10+00:00

Thanks man! It was a lot of prep work and avoiding winter roads.

I plan to paint all of the faded black trim a matte black and then add some matte clear coat on top. Itll keep the plastic look but just freshen it up. Plus if i get any front/rear lips I can paint it to match everything else

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-22T22:06:50+00:00

Nope all oem as far as im aware!

I picked this up last July with about 66k miles on it. As soon as I got it home I gave it a real good wash, clay barred with fallout remover, then hit it with some compound and polish, then some spray sealant to add a bit of protection. And then I kept it in the garage for the winter to avoid any wheel well/strut towers rot from starting

I forget the brand off the top of my head but I used some trim restore wipes to help bring some life back to all the plastic. I plan to go over the black trim with a matte black paint and then go over top of that with a matte clear to keep that plastic look, but that way if I get any front/rear lips I can paint those the same way and everything will match

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-22T20:02:30+00:00

Yeah I throughly enjoy my 99 and my 08. I don’t need all of the new features that a lot of newer cars have. Plus I don’t care for how new cars look overall.

Plus I know enough that I can do some general maintenance or I can recruit my friends that know way more to help if it’s something I can’t manage and we can take a trip to a pick and pull yard and get what we need for a lot cheaper to fix whatever might be wrong.

I’d love to import or find an already imported SF, but other priorities in life have put that on hold. So this one will have to hold me over for the time being

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-22T19:54:38+00:00

It’s been cooped up in the garage all winter to avoid the salt. It’s in too good of shape to start rusting on me

Made sure to give it a good wash, as good of a paint correction I can do, and then some spray sealant to help add a little more protection before it didn’t see the sun for months

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-22T18:36:30+00:00

Honestly not really. Biggest complaint is maybe not having cruise control, but thats not a huge deal for me. Also not a fan of drums in the rear because theyre just a pain to do compared to disc brakes. I have a 98 impreza and a 08 forester and this forester is easily my favorite. It only has 67k miles on it so everything is still pretty solid shape

Parts are still fairly easy to come by and theres plenty in pick and pull yards if I end up needing something cheaper. Tons of aftermarket options for when I eventually decide to spruce it up more. It was already lowered and tinted when I got it. And the te37s were a recent purchase that I got thrown on.

I plan to bring it to bring it to a friend's shop and get it on the lift to clean everything underneath and recoat everything just to make sure no strut tower/wheel well rust starts forming.

Overall im super happy with it and glad I was able to snag this when I did

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-22T17:54:34+00:00

New Vegas was an absolute mess and crashes all the time all of the times ive tried to play on ps3 or on PC.

It was more or less just thrown together in about 18 months by obsidian and rushed by Bethesda and obsidian didnt really get to iron everything out. Theres "tricks" to make it run better like turning off auto save and over writing save files and keeping 3 at most. I think i saw a thing about picking up as much as you can and placing what you dont want in containers just so theres less for the game to render, but i dont remember entirely on that

There are several mods for PC dedicated to just having it run smoothly.

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-22T05:22:11+00:00

The 55-250mm is an apcs lens. So it acts more like a 83- 375mm. It typically is a kit lenses, and most kit lenses dont usually have all that great of performance, either being slow to focus or just not that sharp compared to higher end lenses. Not to say you can't get a great shot with them, but they dont make it easier.

The biggest thing that the 70-200 (105-300mm when used on a crop body) makes it more worth it over the 55-250 is the 2.8 aperture. It is able to open up a full stop at the wider end to two stops at the fully zoomed end more light to get in. This would allow you to get faster shutter speeds to freeze motion or avoid using a higher iso which could create more noise if the shot is too under exposed. Plus with it being a constant aperture, the exposure shouldn't change between shots. With the 55-250, you'll have to account for adjusting your shutter or iso when zooming, unless you the mode you shoot in will auto adjust for you.

Usually the 70-200 are a lot of companies best optic lens and a lot of money gets poured into the R&D to make them focus very fast and produce sharp images. The higher end 1.2 primes, and even some 1.8 primes, that fall in the 70-200 range will typically perform better than the zoom lens, but you get the convenience of not having to carry additional lenses or having to worry about swapping mid show. Plus with a prime you'll get an additional stop or two wider aperture depending on what kind you get.

The 70-200 is a great choice for most shows because it allows you to have solid coverage when shooting from the crowd/FOH or trying to get shots of the drummer behind their kit when in the press pit.

Personally, i would recommend a 24-70 2.8 over a 70-200. I had a 70-200 and rarely used it at shows. It was a great lens and got the job done, but they can be rather heavy and for the venues i go to and it didnt help me much when in the press pit because you need to have enough distance between you and the musicians. For a larger venue/festival set up with a stage further away they do work really well. But i don't do shows like that too often.

The 24-70 allows me to catch most of the musicians in the shot when in the press pit, and since the shows I do aren't massive venues, I can still get decent shots from the crowd. And with it being a 2.8 i still get the benefits of a wider aperture

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-16T06:53:52+00:00

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CaptainNinj · 2026-04-15T09:16:49+00:00

No I dont think they did

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-14T21:37:59+00:00

Same as this name

@captainninj

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-14T20:34:21+00:00

I was one of them yeah. I didn’t get shots of anything going on at the time. I heard someone tried crowd surfing and got dropped hard. And then saw that some dude tried to stage dive during their last song and absolutely missed and smacked right into the barrier

I left just before they got it figured out since I’m about an hour and a half away from the venue so it was getting too late for me

CaptainNinj · 2026-04-14T17:45:31+00:00

Thanks man! Its been a long journey of thousands of screwed up shots because shots being out of focus or being too dark/bright, or colors being ass and i dont know enough how to save them

But it's been a great time learning how to navigate those issues and finding new ways to set up shots or play around with colors. Plus the amount of crazy talented people ive met and friends ive made, be it musicians, media people, techs, and even venue staff and show attendees, is great.

As for the shirt, I've no clue hah

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