Learning curve for Z7/Z6

There are several related functions - reaction time, shutter delay, sleep wake up time, and power on time.

I came up with a way to do a rough test for my Z6 and D850.

I did a test using the news ticker on CNBC. They have a tiny peacock logo that separates information. It takes 8 seconds for that logo to cross my screen and the screen is about 64 characters wide so it moves at 8 characters per second. You could repeat the test pretty easily with any camera.

My reaction time to fire one frame for the Z6 showed 1-2 characters after the logo with the camera active which translates to 0.3 seconds. This is pretty fast and based on the idea that I am expecting the trigger. With my D850 I was using an optical viewfinder and my reaction time was about half of the first character - around 0.15 seconds or less.

In Sleep mode, the time to create a frame using the Z6 is about 6 characters or 0.75 seconds. With the D850 is was around 1-2 characters - much faster in comparison.

From Power Off to Power On and firing the first frame is 8-9 characters - about 0.9-1.0 seconds (my test - move the power switch to On and immediately press the shutter release). This is effectively "booting up" the camera and firing the shutter. This was about the same with the D850.

Shutter lag is 65 ms - vs DSLR at 45 ms. Both are almost instantaneous. The difference is 0.02 seconds - irrelevant when you are talking about reaction time that is much longer. For birds, that difference is about the time for one beat of a hummingbird's wings.

I was a little surprised at the measured difference between a DSLR and the Z6. This clearly says you need to keep your camera active and avoid sleep mode if you need a quick response. I would set my timer for a longer period so the Z cameras stayed out of Sleep mode. I would also turn off the LCD display and use the EVF only to save power (using the Display button to the left of the EVF).

One more thing - this kind of shooting can be pretty intense. The first frame or two I struggled to react, then I got a pretty good for a few frames, and then I started to tire of the effort and missed more often - 50% or so were misses without firing the shutter if you based it on the random logo appearance. I'm sure I would get better over time and with practice.