Nikon Z8: Complicated Multiple Exposure Support, but Simple Frame Averaging Missing
Related: dynamic range, exposure, frame averaging, Nikon, Nikon mirrorless, Nikon Z8, noise
re: Nikon Z8
Give me one (1) reason that a Nikon Z8 could be preferred over a Sony A7R V for landscape when Sony is 60MP with pixel shift and Nikon is 45MP without it? What was Nikon thinking in calling the Z8 a replacement for the D850 when there are no benefits relevant to landscape shooting vs the D850?
EVF convenience aside, for landscape the Z8 has nothing to offer over the venerable but aging Nikon D850 circa 2017. And the D850 image quality is probably better (no PDAF).
Industry plot to do stupid stuff?
That landscape shot with the noisy shadows? A frame averaging feature could deliver ultra-clean detail right into the deepest shadows on any camera. That’s why every camera offers it. Wait... no one has it?
Here in 2023 where gains in dynamic range and reductions in sensor noise level are measured in 1/20 stop increments, frame averaging does not exist as a feature.
Frame averaging cuts back noise dramatically — 1.4X lower with just 2 frames and better than that perceptually. Or 2X lower with 4 frames. Lower noise = superior dynamic range.
In two shots, you could have lower noise and better dynamic range than even the best high-end digital camera. But only one camera vendor offers it: PhaseOne!
We have exposure bracketing, focus bracketing, ISO bracketing, multiple exposures, etc, but not frame averaging. Huh?
You can do frame averaging manually, but it’s tedious:
- YOU have to take all N frames.
- All N frames have to stored on the camera card.
- All N frames have to stored on the computer and converted from RAW to TIF.
- YOU have to do the averaging in Photoshop, and averaging occurs after demosaicing, far from ideal.
- YOU have to decide whether 'eat' the space hit for all the raw files or discard them.
- No frame-averaged RAW file. Make a small change to white balance or some such? Do the whole computer-side process all over again.
Nikon 2023 less useful than Nikon 2017
I’m not just picking on Nikon here; Sony and Canon do just as badly—neither has frame averaging.
Reading through the Nikon Z8 user manual, I was struck by just how little it differs vs Sony or Canon or any other brand, other than falling short on features that ought to be there, like pixel shift and/or multi-shot high-res mode.
Perhaps more striking is offering features that almost no one uses, while not implementing a very practical feature lots of us could use to improve image quality— frame averaging.
Yet frame averaging is as trivial a feature to implement as can be.
- Set frame count to average eg 2...16 frames (even 2 frames offers major benefit).
- Single button press takes N frames as rapidly as possible (initial self-timer delay to avoid camera shake).
- Save averaged RAW file plus first shot of the series (in case the average does not work out due to motion).
Incredibly simple to implement, yet Nikon does not do it, nor Canon/Sony/Leica.
Such a feature need be no more than a shooting mode with a single setting: the frame count. No more complicated than exposure bracketing. So straightforward, why is it not there?
Even the Nikon D850 has a better feature set; at least one can average raw files right in the camera. Nikon seems to have eliminated that option from the Z8. That’s progress?
Strikingly, Nikon offers all the pieces of the frame averaging toolkit, but fails to 'assemble' them into a usable feature. Yet more complicated modes exist.
Here’s where it all goes awry:
- YOU must take the shots, and without jiggling the camera.
- JPEG output — no ability to produce a RAW file.
