My box to replenish my supply of LensClens, better know as Pink Juice just arrived. I’ve been using “Pink Juice” since 1979 to clean lenses, bodies, computers, and a whole lot more (not the sensor)! If you know anything about the photo industry, anything that’s been around that long has to be great! I certainly do which is why I use it to clean EVERYTHING from the leatherette to glass elements and electronic contacts (except my sensor, never my sensor). You can see exactly how I use it here on KelbyOne. And I’m not the only one using Pink Juice, lots and lots of folks use it as well. I depend on it even more with all my aviation work! With this recommendation many head to the LensClens website wondering which of their product is “Pink Juice” (just look at the photo above) as it’s known in the industry and then see the warning and wig out despite my saying I’ve use it for decades. Well, here’s the reason behind the warning as stated by the folks at LensClens.

“Pink Juice” is in fact the same item as Lens Clens #1. Because Lens Clens #1 has chemicals that will attack plastic over time (12-24 hours or longer) we have to protect our self from liability with a cautionary statement because we don’t know how every customer will use it. Our primary business is with industrial based customers, where usage can involve hundreds and thousands of parts. If you take a hard plastic part and soak it in a beaker full of Lens Clens #1 overnight or longer; it will start to pit or corrode the surface of the plastic part just like a beaker full of most cola’s (that ordinary people drink without hesitation) would do. You can use Lens Clens #1 for your camera gear just like Moose Peterson recommends, and either wipe it dry, or let it air dry and you will not experience any problems. When it comes to cleaning and maintaining camera equipment with “Pink Juice” no one has more knowledge or experience than Moose Peterson period.

Lens Clens #1 or “Pink Juice” can be used on any hard non porous surface. If the surface is porous like a soft vinyl fabric covering a chair it will soak into the soft material and remove some of the color so when in doubt use with caution. Hopefully this answers your question and concern. I fully support and endorse anything that Moose Peterson has to say about using “Pink Juice” to keep your camera gear clean, and in the best long term condition possible. Moose is the #1 expert and authority on cleaning and mainlining camera gear in my opinion. Best regards.

So moral of the story, don’t soak your lenses or camera bodies in “Pink Juice” or cola! It’s for cleaning our gear and as far as I’m concerned, it’s the best!

It is only $55 with shipping! That blows my mind!! What blows it more is, I don’t need a special tool to attach it to the Z 8. Even more, the “screwdriver” that is part of the plate (pictured below) also removes the L portion of the plate (red arrow). Even more is, the screw stays with the L portion when it’s removed. I don’t have to carry special tools, don’t need to worry about loosing parts, it just works! I love that fact it just works so I can just work. For me SmallRig has done it again, the perfect L Plate for the Z 8!

I love the old classics and this is a great example of a Cessna 150. What I don’t like is the dull light, busy backgrounds and dead grass foreground. But that’s what life presented me on Saturday so how to make lemonade from the lemons? I fell back on the basics and in this case, the slowest possible shutter speed to blur the background while keeping the Cessna 150 tack sharp. In other words, what’s always in my bag, solid panning technique!

My video goes through the technique, hasn’t change from when it was taught to me forty some odd years ago. In this case, ISO100, 1/50 @f22 was the formula. One added plus to the effect was the proximity to the runway. Three Forks is a small field with one runway that one can stand really close to. How does the help? The closer to the subject, the faster the pan. The fast the pan the more blurred the background. The Cessna 150 on take off isn’t going very fast, about 55mph here. But with the fast pan and the slower shutter speed, it looks pretty fast. More importantly, the boring light, foreground and background start to melt away. That’s why I continually practie my panning, it’s always in the bag!

It was first found in the US in 1964 and ever since, one or two are found each year in southwestern Arizona. You read right, one or two! That puts the Beryline Hummingbird in the very rare category. I saw my first one back in the 90’s, again in the 2000’s and not until last week when I saw it for the third time was I able to make a click of it. And for the first opporutnity to photograph it, I’m darn happy with the photo I came back with. So what’s one of the most important tools that I carry in my camera bag that made this click possible? Knowledge!

I’m not talking about knowledge of the Z 9 or the applying of the Profoto A10, I’m talking about the knowledge, in this case, the possibility of seeing a rarity and that I didn’t have it in my files. Knowledge of the subject and my genre of photography, wildlife. There’s an old saying in business school that really applies to photography. “You can’t sell from an empty cart!”

The knowledge we obtain, grow, cultivate and draw upon about our subjects as photographers is one of our most powerful and important tools we have. When I think about my very successful friends, I’m always amazed and impressed by all the knowledge they have amased at their fingertips about their subjects. Whether it’s football or avaition, fashion or  insects, the list goes on and on as I think about the photographer and their genre and their vast knowledge bank. They use that knowledge to tell their visual story, to go out and find that story, and to find a home to sell that story. Yes, their skill behind the camera is an intrigal part of the equation but without that interesting subject in front of the the lens, the lens is useless!

As I sat there with all the hummers buzzin about, I listened for the Beryline’s call, a simple series of repeated three pattern of buzzy twitters, dzzzir or dzzzzrrt. The second day I heard it. The third and fourth day saw it and photographed it. I now have it in my library, the cart is not empty and that is because the camera rig I was using and my knowledge. Simple application of one of the most important tools!

Nikon’s brilliant firmware 4.0 for the Z 9 brought a treasure chest of truly cool tools for our photography! One new addition that captured lots of folks attention in the new Auto Capture (check out the IB For the 4.0 Firmware). In a nutshell, Auto Capture can make remote photography possible in its simplest form. Those old folks like myself, remember the days of camera traps, infrared beams with tons of gear to haul around working with remote photography. With 4.0 in the Z 9, you basically set it and leave it. I’ve spent a whole bunch of time with the Auto Capture now, or I should say, the camera has spent a whole bunch of time set up with Auto Capture active and this is what I’ve learned. It works, works really well but is not the end all for critters, yet.

I want to start by saying the majority of the issues in the beginning were user caused. I simply couldn’t wrap my mind around the set up process. Once it got through my thick skull, I was up and running. Keep in mind that I’m taking Auto Capture to the extreme using it to photograph hummers in mid air, couldn’t find a smaller target. That’s the first thing one needs to remember, the size of the subject and KNOWING where it’s going to be, predictably (essential for all remote photograph)! Nothing, nothing replaces an eye at the viewfinder and finger on the trigger. When there is just one of you and you need two camera coverage, you are simply wanting to see if there is activity somewhere, your presence scares off the critter, this is a killer system! If you think you can sit back with a beer and let the camera capture that award winning shot, yeah, it’s not there yet.

The Z 9 fires, that’s not the issue. But it doesn’t know anything about color, gesture or light. There were times the hummingbird feeder, what was bringing the hummers in, would sway into the frame. A hummer was there so it shot capturing the feeder. A lot of shots, a lot were of the back of the hummer as males came in to defend their feeder. And there were a lot of nothing frames, same thing I get when I’m pressing the button.

Remote photography has always been an important tool but challenging. Auto Capture has taken much of the guess work out of it and is a great tool to have in the quiver. I look forward to how Nikon evolves it along with the rest of the great tools in the Z 9, my favorite camera of all time!

This is impressive! Check it all out!!! And download it here!

My Updated Z 9 Settings Here

• • Camera Control Pro 2 version 2.36.0 or later, IPTC Preset Manager version 1.3.0 or later, NX Studio version 1.4.0 or later, NX MobileAir version 1.2 or later (Android edition), NX Field version 1.4 or later

Note: The changes listed below under “Still Photography”, “Video Recording”, “Playback”, “Controls”, “Displays”, and “Network (Also NX Field)” are detailed in the Supplementary Firmware Update Manual.

■ Still Photography

• • Added [Auto capture] to the photo shooting menu. Users can select capture criteria from [Motion] (the direction the subject is moving), [Distance] (how far the subject is from the camera), and [Subject detection] (whether or not a subject of a given type is detected), and the camera will take photographs automatically while it detects subjects that meet the selected criteria. Note that [Distance] is available with NIKKOR Z lenses and may not function as expected when used with other lenses.
• • The length of time the camera will continue to buffer frames before cancelling shooting during the Pre-Release Capture phase of high-speed frame capture has been increased from 30 to 300 seconds.
• • Added [Large] to the size options available for [Role played by card in Slot 2] > [JPEG Slot 1 – JPEG Slot 2] in the photo shooting menu.
• • Added new bracketing increments for use during auto bracketing with [AE & flash bracketing], [AE bracketing], or [Flash bracketing] selected for [Auto bracketing set]. This change also applies to [Interval timer shooting] > [Options] > [AE bracketing] > [Increment].

■ Video Recording

• • Added [Auto capture] to the video recording menu. Users can select capture criteria from [Motion] (the direction the subject is moving), [Distance] (how far the subject is from the camera), and [Subject detection] (whether or not a subject of a given type is detected), and the camera will record video automatically while it detects subjects that meet the selected criteria. Note that [Distance] is available with NIKKOR Z lenses and may not function as expected when used with other lenses.
• • Added low ISO sensitivity options to [ISO sensitivity settings] > [ISO sensitivity (mode M)] for use during N-Log video recording.
• • Changed the range of speeds available for Hi-Res Zoom.
• • Added slow-motion video recording.

■ Playback

• • Made changes to the [Select for upload to computer] and [Select for upload (FTP)] items in the playback “i” menu and added [Select for priority upload to computer] and [Select for priority upload (FTP)].

■ Controls

• • Added support for the power zoom feature on power zoom lenses.
• • Added an [Exposure delay mode] item to the [CUSTOM SETTINGS MENU] in position d6.
• • Added to the custom controls and roles assignable via the following items in the [CUSTOM SETTINGS MENU]. New reset options have also been added.
  • – f2[Custom controls (shooting)]
  • – f3[Custom controls (playback)]
  • – g2[Custom controls]
  •    Among the roles that can now be assigned via Custom Settings f2 [Custom controls (shooting)] and g2 [Custom controls] is [Switch eyes], which can be used to switch focus between the subject’s left and right eyes.
  •    A new [Frame advance zoom position] > [Prefer focus point] role for Custom Setting f3 [Custom controls (playback)] can be used during playback zoom to center the display on the active focus point for each picture when scrolling through pictures using a command dial.
• • Made updates to [Non-CPU lens data] in the [SETUP MENU].
• • Increased the character limit for “Category” entries in IPTC presets.
• • Restructured the [Camera sounds] item in the [SETUP MENU] with the addition of new options, including new sounds and volume level adjustment for the electronic shutter.

■ Displays

• • Added focus-distance information to the focus distance indicator displayed during manual focus.
• • The option selected for [Viewfinder display size] (formerly [Finder display size (photo Lv)]) in the [SETUP MENU] now also applies in video and playback modes.

■ Network (Also NX Field)

• • Made changes and additions to the [Connect to FTP server] item in the [NETWORK MENU].
• • Changed the procedure used when configuring the camera for synchronized release, increasing to twenty the number of groups that can be created, while the number of cameras in each group that can be controlled from the master camera has been increased to sixteen.
• • Added [Overwrite copyright info] under [Connect to other cameras] in the [NETWORK MENU].

■ App-Related Changes

With NX MobileAir:

• • the camera live view display for photo mode now shows NX MobileAir status, and
• • camera settings saved to a memory card using [Save/load menu settings] can now be downloaded to the smart device or copied from the smart device to the camera memory card using NX MobileAir.

■ Other Changes

• • Improved the accuracy of [3D-tracking] for small, fast-moving subjects when [Auto], [People], [Animal], or [Vehicle] is chosen for [AF subject detection options] and no subject of the selected type is detected.
• • Improved focus accuracy for dark, low-contrast subjects.
• • Improved focus lock-on with flicker detection in low-speed continuous release mode.
• • Made other improvements to the autofocus operation and its reliability.
• • Improved the performance of auto white balance during portrait photography.
• • Fixed an issue that sometimes resulted in the viewfinder darkening during playback when [Auto] was selected for [Viewfinder brightness].
• • It is now easier to obtain the correct exposure from the first shot during interval-timer photography in high-contrast settings or settings dark enough for starlight view.
• • The histogram display is no longer available when starlight view is enabled.
• • Changed the video low-capacity warning so that it is now displayed in white on a red background when there is less than one minute remaining. The warning is now also displayed when recording is not in progress.
• • Users now have more precise control when scrolling through videos during playback using the progress bar.
• • Fixed the following issues:
  • – The camera would sometimes stop responding if the standby timer was reactivated after having expired with [Prioritize viewfinder (1)] or [Prioritize viewfinder (2)] selected for [Limit monitor mode selection] and high-speed frame capture selected for [Release mode].
  • – The camera would sometimes stop responding if changes were made to Picture Control parameters during NEF (RAW) processing.
  • – The viewfinder would in rare instances fail to display the focus point correctly during burst photography.
  • – [Image size] could not be adjusted by holding the QUAL button and rotating the sub-command dial if a DX-format lens was attached with [ON] selected for [Image size settings] > [Enable DX image sizes].
  • – SB-800 flash units would sometimes stop responding after pictures were taken with the flash disabled.
  • – [Vignette control] would sometimes fail to correctly control vignetting when an option other than [Off] was selected.
  • – Users could no longer select the FX image area after choosing the DX image area in Camera Control Pro 2 with a 100p or 120p option selected for video frame rate.
  • – Focus could still be adjusted using the focus ring when [Disable] was selected for [Manual focus ring in AF mode] in the [CUSTOM SETTINGS MENU] if an option other than [Non-linear] was chosen for [Focus ring rotation range] in the [CUSTOM SETTINGS MENU].
  • – The battery would draw down more quickly while the camera was off if [ON] was selected for [Connect to smart device] > [Wi-Fi connection] in the [NETWORK MENU] even if [OFF] was selected for both [Bluetooth connection] and [Upload while off].
  • – The German and Korean menus and help text contained typos.