I’m in the midst of my year-end wrap and new-year planning. I’ve got a few questions for my customers:
- Should I write a Z30 book? And if so, should it be a Use-and-Configure book like the one I did for the Zfc, or should it be a Complete Guide like the one I did for the Z50?
- Can I delay the Z9 book update a bit? Nikon’s aggressive firmware update pattern so far is not one I can respond to with every release. There’s just too much to try to verify, and their timing usually interrupts something else I’m doing. For instance, the latest “minor” update says "Improved focus tracking in focus mode AF-C.” That’s vague, but I can see a definite change that I now need to test and understand, which has in turn delayed my release of a 3.xx version of the book. My current schedule says “wait until CP+” before locking down my 3.00 release of the book. That’s just in case they decide to unveil another firmware release prior to CP+.
- What type of article is missing on zsystemuser.com? Don’t say photo technique, that’s reserved for my bythom.com site. I’m specifically looking for things that are Z-specific that I’m not covering as well as you’d like.
- How many (and which) manual focus lenses should I review? 114 of the 155 lenses currently in the database are manual focus. I simply can’t review them all. I’m a little unsure of how many of you are relying upon them, and which ones. Eventually I’ll get around to polling zsystemuser.com readers with a deep survey, but in the meantime, I could use some help understanding how useful you find these manual focus lenses, and what you’re using them for. Note that I still have six autofocus lenses currently in the review queue, so be gentle ;~).
- How often do I need to update camera reviews to account for firmware updates? Should I? In some cases (Z6 and Z7 especially), significant firmware updates definitely changed how I might write about the camera, and thus might mean I should change review wording some.
- In line with the previous question, there will come a time—likely sooner rather than later—when I need to start stuffing things into archive folders and keep only current gear at the top level. Should I now do that with the original Z6 and Z7? You might have noticed that the top banner header image (the yellow one), looks a little different. I’ve pulled that down to just the current cameras, as I expect to have to add to it soon ;~). On both the dslrbodies and sansmirror sites I have folders for “current cameras” and “older cameras”, which probably should eventually happen here, too. The challenge is to keep the deep and broad content accessible without becoming too cluttered or end up with endless menu choices.
If you have some time before work weeks start again on the 2nd, feel free to drop me an email with your responses to the questions and comments.
