Jan 5 & 6, 2019: Steve Simon's Nikon Z Series Mirrorless Mastery Bootcamp - Next Stop: New York City

Workshop Details

The NikonZ Mount Mirrorless System Cameras: Everything You Need to Know. Transformational Strategies To Simplify Your Process And Let Creativity Soar with Steve Simon.

 “I just spent the last two days with Steve Simon, what a wonderful experience, the best time spent in a workshop ever. Steve is a perfectionist, he cannot hide his journalistic background every single image tells a story. His technique is flawless his teaching patience unparalleled. I am eager to start a new chapter of my photography applying what Steve taught me in the last few days.”    Oscar Piñeyro

Dates Available:

2-Day Mastery & Advanced course at $499.

New York City Venue: 

Get your free Quick Start Guide in advance of the workshop. Available Dec 2018. Click on image below...

Workshop Itinerary

Day 1 - Mastery

The core of the Z6 & Z7 Mirrorless Cameras most important features will be covered on this day.

(All Images ©Steve Simon Shot with Nikon Z7 Mirrorless Body)

The Nikon Z Mount Mirrorless system is a major introduction for Nikon, it's entree into the full-frame mirrorless market and these cameras did not disappoint. 

The electronic viewfinder adopted for the Z 7 and Z 6 is comfortable and easy to get used to coming from the DSLR world, comparable to optical viewfinders. Both cameras are equipped with an approximately 3690k-dot OLED panel giving the electronic viewfinder 100% frame coverage. Menu can be displayed in the electronic viewfinder, letting you quickly adjust a variety of shooting settings, including ISO sensitivity, AF-area mode, and Picture Control, all while keeping your eye to the viewfinder.

The Z6's 273 and Z7's 493 af points will mean incredibly fast AF. My D850 and D5 set the standard and these new cameras promise even better AF performance. And the 90 per cent coverage area is something many expect to make a positive difference in their work. AF area modes will be a bit different from the Nikon DSLR experience so we will be going over how the various systems work in depth. 

As far as megapixels, the Z6 @ 24 and the Z7 @ 45 megapixels maintain amazing resolution in a very small footprint. The Z6 will  likely have a slight edge for higher ISO work and the Z7 allows you to make large resolute prints and or finding a five-star image within a larger capture that can be cropped and used with no real degradation of quality, something I have come to love about my D850. Frame rates are fast, up to 9fps with the Z7 and 12 fps with the Z6. Fast enough for most action shooters.

Some of the unique to mirrorless options I expect will be very practical, the in camera VR with a 5 stop range of compensation that brings VR to Nikon lenses that don't have it and allow future lenses to be made smaller without a VR mechanism.

The game-changing 3.2” touch tilt screen that lets you touch the area of the frame you want in focus and trigger the shutter at the same moment, silently-- letting you capture stealthy images never before possible.

Steve covers everything from shooting modes to Auto ISO, white balance, metering choices, histograms, exposure compensation, file formats, image review and other shortcuts to customizing your Nikon Z Mount mirrorless cameras to your own unique shooting style.

You will learn Steve’s “Big Six” transformational technical strategies and learn his minimalist philosophy when it comes to Nikon gear. This first day is designed to let you take control of your camera and speed up your response time so you don’t miss the moment.

(Photo: Van Tsciclas)

Day 2 - Advanced

In the advanced class on Day 2, Steve dives deeper into autofocus and personalizing your Nikon Mirrorless cameras by customizing buttons & dials to program function buttons, preview, AF-ON (for back button AF) and the sub-selector button.

We will then head out into the field and put some of your new-found techniques into practice. Steve wants to insure you fully understand these concepts and the  positive impact they will have on your process moving forward. 

You will learn about programming User Settings and set-up the very useful My Menu screen. Steve shows you the potential of the Multiple Exposure and Focus Shift features and touches on, time lapse (the Z7 does 4k in-camera and 8K Time Lapse with intervalometer) Video and AF fine-tune.

Everyone who attends get’s Steve’s Z7 User Settings for Street & Travel (U1) & Fast Action & Sports Photography (U2).

From shooting modes to white balance, histograms, file formats, image review and other shortcuts to customizing your Nikon for your own unique shooting style, this workshop is designed to let you take control of your camera and speed up your response time.

You will learn technical strategies for exposure and hear Steve’s minimalist philosophy when it comes to Nikon gear. Simplify is the mantra and with a few tweaks of your Nikon Z mirrorless body your process will be transformed and the camera won’t get in the way of great images. 

When technique fades to the background you can get on with the more important business of exploring the scene, finding just the right angle and following the light for maximum image impact. This class is filled with “Nikon Nuggets” that will change the way you shoot for the better. Master your gear, and your creativity will soar!

Everyone who attends at least one day gets Steve’s User Settings Suggestions for Street & Travel and Fast Action & Sports Photography.

Venues in each city: To Be Determined

What To Bring: Required

• Nikon Z7 Camera Body and at least one lens
• Two Fully charged camera batteries
• XQD card
• A strong desire to learn

What Is Provided:

• Free Instructional materials, pen & notebook
• Z7 Mirrorless Camera User Settings for different shooting scenarios

(Photo: Walt Custer)