Nikon Z8 Pixel Shift Shooting for Landscape Photography - How to Shoot & Merge - Real World Results

[@jbairdexp]

🎓 Learn how to setup your Nikon Z8 like a PRO with my FREE guide - julianbaird.com/blog/2024/2/8/nikon-z8-pro-settings-for-landscape-photography-free-download

[@timrosenburgh8597]

I enjoyed the video as usual Julian. I thought that you explained about this feature very well and will benefit a lot of people. Catch you on the next one mate.

[@jbairdexp]

Thanks mate, I always appreciate you stopping by to have a watch! :-)

[@m0nztam0nk]

Seems more useful then initially thought…im positively surprised…thanks for the demo!

[@jbairdexp]

Glad the video has proved useful. It's a feature worth exploring. Like I said in the video, you won't use it all the time, but it's a hand tool to have.

[@jhaydnreynolds]

Interesting video. Must tryout this feature.😀

[@jbairdexp]

Thanks for watching and glad it's inspired you to give it a try. :-)

[@davem3925]

Excellent Julian. Love your total ‘honest’ production here. It’s like sitting in the office!!! Not sure if this is something that would be of benefit for me personally. I got my hands on a Z8 today to play with. Very tempted. My upgrade is imminent- will let you know!!! Great video thank you

[@jbairdexp]

Thanks Dave, glad you liked the video. It's one of those features where it's good to know how to use it just in case. Not an "every shot" feature for sure. Have fun with the Z8! You know it's the right choice ;-)

[@boat_life]

Next week I am going to Grand Canyon and I just got my Z8. Definitely will try out this option. Thanks for the idea!

[@jbairdexp]

Have fun! :-)

[@mattmalyan6524]

Great video, thanks for all the work you put in. One benefit I can see is, say you are exposing for a bright sky and you wish to avoid blowing out highlights, clearly your landscape will darken. If you have used this feature you will have so much more flexibility with lightening the foreground with no noise. You can push it so much further without losing detail. Just my thoughts 👍🙂

[@jbairdexp]

Thank you for watching, glad you liked the video. I think I would always choose to shoot at ISO 64 where I could as using pixel shift in landscape photography does have limited use case scenarios, but it's an interesting idea! :-)

[@williamblaker2628]

Thanks for the field work & analysis, Julian. I'm pondering the utility of this pixel shift function, and my impression is that it could be theoretically useful in a situation where a higher ISO is needed, but that's not going to be a common situation because you need to use a tripod to make this work, anyway, so no need to crank up the ISO unless maybe you're in a cave 🤔. Another possible use is when a really large print size is needed, where the print will be viewed up close (not a billboard). But, I think the most likely case for using pixel shift is for academic, research, or forensic photography, in which the absolute maximum amount of clarity is desired, even if the additional details are minimal. In other words: scientific photography, not aesthetic photography.

[@jbairdexp]

Thanks for watching William. I could also see it being useful for product photography or when photographing art. :-)

[@Trish12303]

Thanks Julian, for the great information and honest review of the Pixel Shift shooting.

[@jbairdexp]

And thank you for watching! :-)

[@patrickmolloy6994]

good info and thanks for your landscape setup pdf. very useful

[@jbairdexp]

Thanks for watching and glad the PDF was useful :-)

[@davem3925]

Thanks

[@jbairdexp]

Dave, you are a legend!! Thanks so much! :-)

[@ArminHirmer]

very interesting, thank you

[@jbairdexp]

Thank you for watching. :-)

[@antonoat]

Great stuff, very interesting, cheers!

[@jbairdexp]

Thank you for watching! :-)

[@paulburwood8231]

Hi Jules. At the very beginning of this I thought wow, must upgrade my Z7ii to take advantage of this great sounding feature, but now not quite so sure having watched all the way through. Hope you're keeping well. Cheers. Paul

[@jbairdexp]

Hey Paul, all good thanks. Hope you are doing well. As for Pixel Shift, no point in sugar coating it. It's one of those features that's good to have, but you aren't going to use it all the time....especially in landscape photography. :-) IMHO..

[@johnmcnaughton6808]

Thanks Julian another informative video as always. With the focus shift you focus nearest to the camera, is that the same in pixel shift?

[@jbairdexp]

Hi John, glad you found it informative :-) Focus shift deals with focus stacking (i.e. the camera takes a series of photos at different focus points) where as Pixel Shift takes the same photograph multiple times (including the same focus point) but moves the sensor to improve image quality and resolution.

[@scottallen8174]

Question for you... Did you have the camera set up on Continues L? I only ask because those 32 shots were taken so fast!

[@jbairdexp]

No, the camera fires the entire sequence for you regardless of if you are in single shot or continuous. :-)

[@serverboyuk]

Wonder if you think the z8 pixel shifting with higher speed e shutter would do a better job than sony a7r?

[@jbairdexp]

A question for the lucky owner of both an A7r and a Z8! :-)

[@richardhurst1969]

Sony also has this feature, not something I've been able to use yet due to conditions at location

[@jbairdexp]

A few cameras have it but it sounds like no matter what camera you have, it's not something you use for every shot. Thanks for watching. :-)

[@richardhurst1969]

@@jbairdexp yes I think it’s mainly used for product and still life photography like you mentioned. The pano idea is good though, again if you have still condition

[@gunsentry8349]

Subscribed to newsletter and confirmed email but no PDF?

[@jbairdexp]

You have email :-)

[@gunsentry8349]

@@jbairdexp Thank you , very much appreciated.

[@loboptlu]

I do have a question to all pixelshifters , owner of a sony a7riii with pixelshift and also pentax k1ii and kf also with pixelshift ,k1 even with a mode where movement gets corrected up to a point. So my question is , do your cameras can do pixelshift with flash as my sony ? The pentax can’t,how is it for the other brands?

[@jbairdexp]

I believe the Nikon Pixelshift system does support flash. I don't use flash so I haven't tested it myself, but that product manual indicates flash can be used as you can add a gap between each frame (to allow a flash to recharge).

[@dionysusrex9183]

I think that the main point of pixel shift has been missed in the main, and by default of comparing two A3 photos you’ve inadvertently doomed your test to failure. I’d assert that the difference will be picked up printing really large. You do say that later, and good point on the panos.

[@jbairdexp]

I just made some points on how the feature worked in my exeperience and workflow. The test didn't fail, I just couldn't notice that much difference on the final output of A3 prints (which is the largest I can produce).

[@afalco54]

Something I don't understand. When shooting 32 images you got a NEFX which is 1652 x 11008 pixels, but in the comparison at 100% both the images are the same size and then you compare the details in them. Naturally there will not be any significant difference between them. What am I Missing?

[@jbairdexp]

Hi, thanks for your comment. Both images aren't at 100% though. Left and right images are at different magnifications. So left will normally be 100%, and the right at about 200%. So they look the same, but the magnification is the same. But, let me know the time stamp in the video I'll double check. :-)

[@RamblingTog]

its been in olympus cameras for years, not exactly new

[@jbairdexp]

New for Nikon...I don't think I claimed it was entirely a new thing. :-)

[@TerryD_100]

OM systems merges in-camera and offers hand held mode easy to use on my OM1, haven’t tried on my Z8 but merging seems a faff in comparison.

[@jbairdexp]

@@TerryD_100 The extra step of merging in post could be considered a faff, but it's fairly easy to do. Maybe Nikon chose to do the merge in post as utilising local compute power power and software yields better results. Just a thought.

[@TerryD_100]

@@jbairdexp I expect it’s due to the file sizes compared to m43

[@jbairdexp]

@@TerryD_100 A good point. 🙂