PrimaLuce Nikon Z5 Full-spectrum camera review

[dabateman]

What you don't like green Santa, jumping out from the fence with warm hands?

Looks like a green future indeed.

 

At least its not the Kool Aid man bursting through your living room.

 

I didn't say earlier, but that 11mm lens with 62mm front filter thread peaked my interest. The Laowa 10mm f2 also looks amazing and I might get one into the next year.

[Andrea B.]

oh merciful heavens! Even Norway has inflatable Santas !!

 

That is a terrific photo though. I have thoroughly enjoyed this Z5 thread and hope you continue it for a long time.

[nfoto]

A quick reminder that given enough illumination, even a Baader U filter on the 14-element modern lens Laowa 11mm f/4.5 will produce an image.

 

Proof of concept follows. The PrimaLuce Z5 set to ISO 200 and the Laowa lens to f/11. I used a single Broncolor studio flash at a fairly short distance, about 50 cm.

 

 

I did this using a front-mounted filter, which of course cuts off a lot of the frame. Proof of concept, remember? I will repeat with another Baader U rear-mounted once I manage to dig it out of its present container.

 

The angle of view of Laowa is very wide, 126 degrees, so colour shifts from a dichroic front-mounted filter is to be expected, and indeed seen clearly. Image sharpness is amazing, though. 100% crops from the same NEF as above run straight through Photo Ninja (left) and Capture NX-D (right). No attempt of extra sharpening or other processing.

 

[nfoto]

Today I managed to crash an SD card in the Z5 - not sure how. Probably I hadn't properly seated the card before closing the door of the card slots? Anyhow, I got a flashing error message the card could *not* be used. The camera was locked up and turning on/off did not help as long as the corrupted card was present. A pity as I just had returned home with lots of captures to it. Inserted into the SD slot of my laptop, most frames showed up, but not the last 5-10 or so. Of course they were the ones of importance. Darned.

 

I ran a restore software (Piriform Recuva) on the card and it found the files, but couldn't show the previews. I restored the affected files to another card and ran Photo Ninja on the second card. The NEFs now looked OK.

 

 

(this was one of the restored photos. Beware - not all Christmas gifts have a happy ending ... Food for thought as this is. or was, one of my neighbour dwellings. All houses here are wooden. PrimaLuce Z5, AFS 105mm f/1.4 E)

 

I suspect the card has quietly been going bad as all my Windows boxes insisted it was "flawed" the last month, and demanded it be scanned and "fixed". Nothing was found during the "fix", though, yet the very first preview of a file on the camera took longer and longer.. On my Linux machines, no problems were noted as the card was mounted immediately and browsing response was instantaneous.

[Stefano]

Not long ago, my dad and I found an old SD card. It was snapped in half, but still in one piece. I was sure it would have been unreadable, but he insisted we should have tried anyway and so we put it in a camera to read it (I don't have an adapter, just bought one). To my surprise, we could read it. There were just 4 photos of a dog my uncle had, I copied them in my PC and then put the card away (I don't remember where). So if your card is physically damaged, but still in one piece, there is the possibility you can still read it.

[nfoto]

The damage was not to the physical card, it was to the file system logics.

 

Main issue with SD card, apart from their being so flimsy, is the tiny size. Meaning they are awkward to handle (try with winter gloves ...,) and are easily lost. I find a cache of forgotten or lost cards ever so often. Now in my new manifestation, there is room in the handbag for some extra cards in case I have forgotten to bring with me, or the usual in-camera card has gone AWOL.

[dabateman]

I like micro Sd cards now. Due to phone they are quite cheap. I just get a 256 or 512 Gb one, pop it into a Sd adapter and use them on all my cameras.

I have a compact flash to SD adapter that I use to work with the micro SD cards in some cameras.

They are crazy tinny. but I just write once and them store them away in a container.

 

[Andy Perrin]

I've never removed the SD card from my camera, after I first installed it. I use USB to transfer files exclusively. I don't understand the point of removable media.

[otoien]

When coming in from a really cold environment one does not want the camera sitting in the open and collect condensation while downloading via USB. The card can be taken out before coming in and downloaded right away (much easier to warm up that little card in a few moments). Besides that, the download via USB drains the camera battery.

[nfoto]

Very valid points there, Øivind. They echo my thinking.

[Andy Perrin]

When coming in from a really cold environment one does not want the camera sitting in the open and collect condensation while downloading via USB. The card can be taken out before coming in and downloaded right away (much easier to warm up that little card in a few moments).

I have literally never seen this happen (condensation forming on the camera), although I guess it's possible in principle. In winter where I live, the humidity is usually very very low indoors. Currently my indoor humidity is 30%.

 

Besides that, the download via USB drains the camera battery.

Surely that depends on your camera? Mine can charge via USB (although probably not at the same time as a download) but after I download I just turn the camera off and it recharges.

[nfoto]

There are lots of situations in which downloading the images over USB to a computer is not feasible or impractical. Pulling the [sD] card and inserting a fresh one is more versatile.

 

Besides, not all cameras or computer hardware allow charging the camera over USB. In fact, sometimes the USB camera port itself might be inaccessible due to additional stuff (L-brackets or similar).

 

I suggest further comments dealing with this particular aspect be put into a separate thread.

[nfoto]

I decide to try the Laowa 11mm lens once I found suitable filters for it. The lens has, unusual for ultra wide designs, 62mm filter threads. A Hoya R72 surfaced today and a test capture promptly was dispatched.

 

The Laowa is apparently not quite as sharp in IR as it was for UV, but nonetheless delivered acceptable results. The slow shutter speed for a hand-held camera might have contributed as well.

 

 

Even at f/11 there is significant vignetting, however the flat-field option in Photo Ninja helped alleviate the worst of the fall-off. Ww have had another dusting of (wet) snow, so the ground cover is not very bright in IR.

 

I have considered putting an unmounted Baader U to the rear of the lens, which appears to be doable with some care. However, my only Baader U suitable for that project is seated inside a rear-mount adapter for F-m43/Z, and I will have to disassemble the contraption first.

[Stefano]

Birna, I see some striping in your last image. Is this a bad sign?

[nfoto]

The scene contrast was very low, so contrast is increased in post to make a useful image at all. That can induce some artefacts. I noticed some roughness, but wasn't overly concerned.

[nfoto]

At closer range, the scene dynamics become dramatic with the ultra-wide Laowa 11mm. Winter is teasing us over here with snowfall followed by rapid thaw, meaning there can be lots of wet snow deposited in undesirable spots ....

 

 

The Laowa lens has vignetting that at least partially can be dealt with in processing software. The Hoya R72 filter is not a slim version yet scarcely intrudes into the angle of view of the lens.

[nfoto]

At New Year's Eve, weather seems to have decided to return to some resemblance of normalcy. At least there is snow around, as would be expected, and without the low-lying blanket of wet clouds, some UV can be captured by my cameras as well. Good on me.

 

I take the opportunity to present a combined UV shot and my best wishes for the rapidly arriving Year 2021. Panagor 21mm f/4, Baader U rear mounted), PrimaLuce Z5.

 

[nfoto]

A New Year -- and finally, winter is here. With its arrival, any colours in the landscape, false or otherwise, become muted or fade away.

 

A rural landscape view, captured during a light snow fall which further tends to soften the rendition.

 

 

This is with the AFS 105mm f/1.4E, which is a very nice lens albeit on the heavy side. It's main problem with the full-spectrum camera is the tendency to colour shifts across the frame. These are more pronounced when the lens is stopped well down.

[nfoto]

In order to circumvent the sometimes troublesome colour behaviour of the AFS 105/1.4E, I tried the old legendary classic 105mm f/2.5 Nikkor instead. In this case, the AI version was pressed into service. There is much less colour unevenness towards the periphery with this lens, but contingent upon the actual filter(s), longitudinal chromatic aberration can come into play instead. No free lunch here, then.

 

In my neighbourhood, the kindergarten has been forced to simplify the care to the children due to austerity measures by penny-pinching local authorities. The kids, being raised in a true Nordic spirit, thus have to make due with this traditional lavvo even in the deep, cold and dark of the winter. The snow-covered lavvo is eminently suited to false-colour treatment by the 105/2.5 and the PrimaLuce Z5.

 

 

I shall try the 105/4 Micro or the UV-Nikkor next time.

[colinbm]

Nice photos Birna, of scenes I'll never see...

[ulf]

Interesting that the name of this dwelling differs so much, even within the Sami languages. I only knew it as a kåta.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavvu

[nfoto]

An example to show the 105/2.5 AI Nikkor can do pretty well on the PrimaLuce Z5. Snow scenes are ideal for finding signs of vignetting or colour unevenness, of course.

 

 

I had hopes for the Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/4 that only were partially fulfilled. Apparently there is more residual chromatic aberrations than I had anticipated. Must test further, though.

 

[nfoto]

We have had more snow, so it was time to pull out the Coastal Optics 60mm f/4 APO lens. It is super sharp around f/5.6.

 

Snow Queen

 

 

(the above is 100% crop of the centre of the frame. ISO 400, f/5.6)

 

However, I was a bit surprised to see the corners again indicated some shifting of colours. I have seen this occurring for landscape shooting with the dichroic Baader U, but now I had the orange Nikon O56 filter on the lens.

[Andy Perrin]

What are the yellow dots on the snowflake for?

[nfoto]

LED lights, I presume ....