We’ve updated our Nikon Zf review recently to include findings from Capture One Pro. We know that most readers use Lightroom, but if you’re a Phoblographer membership subscriber, you can get a discount on Capture One Pro. We’re adding the updated text down below, but also please dive further into our full review to find out more. We’ve got findings that many other outlets do not have.
Here’s the updated text from our Nikon Zf review. Want one? Check them out on Amazon.
RAW File Versatility Update February 2024
Capture One Pro supports the Nikon Zf now. And wow! As if I didn’t need another reason to buy this camera just to adapt manual focus lenses to it. We’ve always stated that Capture One Pro is a much better photo editor than Lightroom is. But in this case, it really hits home. In Capture One, you can access the Nikon image profile curves such as Vivid, Monochrome, Flat, etc. Then you can combine this with the ProStandard ICC profile to make something really gorgeous. On top of all this, Capture One has a few great presets of their own. In this case, I used their film presets.
Lots of these images were shot with the Zeiss 35mm f2 Loxia or the Sony 35mm f1.8 FE adapted to Nikon Z. Then they were edited in Capture One.
Truly, this feels almost like I’m shooting with a Leica. With that in mind, I really wonder what the point is of using Nikon’s small primes when their autofocus isn’t all that great to begin with. To clarify that statement, the autofocus on the lenses feels like the sadness and shame you experience after getting hyped up for the McRib every single year. The ZF’s autofocus is pretty decent.
Truly, it’s easy to see why the Nikon Zf was one of the most in-demand cameras of 2023. They’ve nailed it where Fujifilm has simply just forgotten its identity.
The Nikon Zf has a sensor that is very much like several other cameras these days. That’s to say that it won’t recover much detail from the highlights. Instead, you’re supposed to underexpose the scene, and push it back in post-production. This is kind of a disappointment because it means that I really need to edit in post-production unless I’ve got the HDR settings in-camera perfectly optomized. Then you have to do things like set the picture control to add film simulations to the camera. This way you won’t really have to do edits; and in Capture One you can most likely set the curve to auto to have it render the scene you need.