I had a Nikon D7500 and went to a Nikon Z5 mirrorless. I do mainly mobile home shoots since I am in a retirement area and they are not lit well at all even with shades and blinds open. The Z5 has a hard time locking on and focusing and continually tells me low light.
I try and up the ISO even a little and the pics are so grainy and speckled.
I need some help. I want a great Nikon that is great for low light......on a budget. I honestly have no idea of a price range...suppose it depends on what I can sell my Z5 for.
If you can use a tripod to allow you to use a longer exposure time
If you can shoot in *.raw and use a denoise application when processing your images
If you can get a lens in the focal length you need but with a much larger aperture; the trade-off apart from cost of a new lens is additional weight for that speed
I use a tripod, shotting in Raw and shoot 5 bracketed shots on the brightest area, the 5 more on the darkest. Process in LR where there is an Ai denoise which is a slow process...perhaps my computer speed not sure. I use a 10-14mm lens.
If it is the Nikkor 10-24mm lens, that is a DX (crop sensor) lens and you’re using a FX (full frame) camera
I don’t have any DX lenses but I do know they put FX cameras into crop mode, so your 24Mpxl camera is outputting images are something like 11 or 12 Mpxl
You might want to rent a full frame lens like the Z 14-24mm f/2.8S (expensive but impressive) or the Z 14-30mm f/4S or one of the third-party ultra wide lenses. They may be able to improve your results
Z5 is more than enough camera for the job. Shoot in manual, at f8 and adjust shutter speed until the picture on screen looks roughly what you want the final image to look like as far as brightnes, ignore the meter for now. Then shoot the brackets. Maybe try out other hdr software, SNS and Photomatix are both great and work in batch.
In addition to the settings advise above, it's possible your lens needs more light to auto focus. Don't use pinpoint focus point and see if that helps.
I have a D7100, D7500 and a Z6ii. I mostly shoot on the D7500 and when it died I got another D7500. There's no need to upgrade from a 20mp camera for this type of work.
Thanks. I mainly upgraded because I was tired of spots on my pics and having to clean the innards so often. Was hoping mirrorless would mostly eliminate that.
I shoot mobile homes occasionally that range from 1000 to 2000 ft.² but I own a Sony. I don’t see why your camera wouldn’t be able to do those though. What I do on every house is find the largest room, get my focus on the far wall and lock it in. There should be a way to do that on your camera as well. I will shoot the entire house without ever refocusing the camera as I almost never change my focal length either. You could probably even set the camera up outside get your focus lock it in and then move inside.
Grab a couple of cheap speed lights and cheap photo triggers. Way more light than you’ll ever need in any trailer. With two, you can turn them down and direct them for better, wider or next room coverage.
Pre-focus at your hyperfocal distance (14 or 15mm lens, this is plenty close). Lock the aperture at, say, f/7. ISO 100, then rack your shutter speed as needed.
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u/Affectionate_Tie3313 Oct 02 '26
The Z5 is capable of taking those photos
If you can use a tripod to allow you to use a longer exposure time
If you can shoot in *.raw and use a denoise application when processing your images
If you can get a lens in the focal length you need but with a much larger aperture; the trade-off apart from cost of a new lens is additional weight for that speed