Nikon Z7ii: low light performance

On a recent trip to visit our first newborn grandchild, we stopped off at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. I had never visited and was excited to test out my new Nikon Z7ii in the field; yes, I converted to mirror-less a few months ago. The catalyst for change was the performance of a test camera I used to photograph the Blood Moon of 15 May 2022: Its high-ISO (low light) performance was nothing short of astonishing. A few sample shots can be seen here:

Click on the thumbnail above to see enlarged. Hover to see text.

Also, when I tried out the new Z-series 24-120 mm S lens I was so impressed, I sold all my existing Nikon gear except for the F-mount 16-35 f/4, put the 24-120 and 100-400 S lenses on two bodies, and haven’t regretted doing so.

One of the first images with the 24-120 was from a dusty summer morning after overnight high winds in the Verde Valley, shown below. I seem to be in a “dark period” with my focus 😉 these days, but perhaps more on that later sometime.

When I finally received the new Nikon 100-400 canon 🤣, I was doing test photographs to get a feel for how it handles. All I can say is fantastic. The following was shot from about four feet at 400 mm: Hornets are a bane of summer existence in Arizona around water.

Anyway, I have yet to come against any disappointments in these camera and lens combinations, but I wanted to see how they performed in low light conditions necessitating hand held shooting (no tripod), auto-focus, and image stabilization. I thought Carlsbad Caverns would provide a near ideal proving ground.

After checking in with the NPS, we had about a mile walk to the cave entrance in the early morning sunlight. We elected to walk down the trail and into the cavern, figuring we could take the elevator up after spending half a day in the gloom, me being elderly and all 🥲🧐 It is quite a steep descent and as we worked our way deeper, I couldn’t help thinking we were entering something right out of Danté. Of course the more I thought about it, the more the allusion grew. Our first view of the entrance reminded me of the words from Inferno, “Abandon hope all ye that enter…” If you have not read The Divine Comedy, you should; great poetry and imagery.

There is a phenomenon in psychology called pareidolia, for example, seeing animal shapes or faces in clouds. In my case, with Danté in my brain, the image that we were descending into Hell… well the allegory would just not leave me alone as we followed the path of the River Styx further in.

Styx, sticks, get it? The sticks of the guide rail along the path. Oh well 😱 Pretty soon, I started to see faces, the faces of the damned. Then figures of men and women and beasts. And once it starts you can’t get this stuff out of your head!

Click on the thumbnail above to see enlarged. Hover to see text.

After 2 to 3 miles of hiking underground in 56° 98% humidity, which was quite comfortable actually, we took the elevator to the surface. I would return if I could take advantage of some of the exclusive programs, just to see different parts of the cave. Every tour is by reservation only, BTW, but you can reserve online.

How did the Z7ii camera and 24-120 S lens perform? If I had to use one word, it would be outstandingly! The lighting in the caves was quite dim necessitating 6,400-10,000 ISO and I was a little worried about the auto-focus and image stabilization because I could not see well enough in the gloom despite my glasses. But the camera nailed focus perfectly; any softness was due to my aged contortions framing subjects on the cavern ceilings and my all around awkward body positions; no tripods allowed. Since I was shooting in the 1/10 to 1/30 sec range nearly wide open (f/5.6) and often at telephoto lengths (120 mm) I would say the image stabilization was beyond terrific; absolutely no complaints. Completely exceeded my expectations!

Technical details: I was shooting RAW and processed all files in DxO PureRaw, from which they were exported to Lightroom and finished in Photoshop. I used Tony Kuyper’s TK8 plugin to apply Topaz DeNoise to shadows, and a Smart Sharpen filter to highlights. Color variation was indeed present, but perhaps less dramatic than I have represented. One of the Rangers told me that each of the features of the caverns are lit by three LED spots, at cool, warm, and mid-range temperatures; sometimes one or two bulbs were out thus resulting in a color cast.

I’ve shown a few of my images here, but the entire gallery can be viewed below. I am still adding to it and anticipate a coffee table book of 30-40 images when I’m finished. I’d love to see your comments below.

To see the entire collection, click on this link. Currently (as of 082022 there are 32 images.