Nikon Zfc, TTArtisan 25mm f2
Well I've been gone since October and the simple reason is that I shot pretty much nothing all winter, because I stayed cooped up at home for multiple reasons. Since I wasn't going far, I never carried the Z5ii or the Z7 due to size/weight/inconvenience and therefore took pretty much no pictures.
This did make clear to me that I needed a real light carry solution. I wasn't carrying around town largely because both of my bodies were too big, even with only the 40/2 or my M 35/5.6 mounted (my two smallest lens setups for them).
Light carry on Z is in a bit of an awkward position at best. The only smaller FX body is the ZR, and that costs more than a Zf, let alone a Z5ii. This makes it a poor choice for anyone other than a Z8/9 user unless light carry or cinema are their primary uses. Z DX is on life support and we're still waiting to see EXPEED7 updates of the Zfc and Z30, despite the first EXPEED8 body being expected this year (Z9II most likely), and Nikon's lens lineup for Z DX is only slightly less terrible than it has been historically (thanks to them finally dropping a 16-50 f2.8 normal zoom, the first in DX, F or Z, since the old 17-55 from 2003). 3rd party primes and a couple zooms from Tamron & Sigma carry all the load in Z DX, so you need to be willing to run 3rd party glass if you want to do anything serious as a DX shooter today.
I greatly prefer my light carry option to match both mount and format with my primary bodies. Cards I don't care about (since I don't really swap cards much anymore, a 64GB+ card is sufficient for my needs on most anything and cheap enough even at today's inflated prices that I can have enough for my bodies + a spare or two) and batteries are more a 'nice to have match' than anything else. I generally only need 1 larger or 2 smaller batteries for a day of shooting and they don't take up much space.
That said, since there were no viable options in Z FX, I had to compromise on either format + battery, mount + battery, or all three (since Nikon Z DX exclusively uses EN-EL25 series batteries instead of the larger EN-EL15's or EN-EL18's of the FX bodies).
Mount + battery would mean the Panasonic S9 for me. The A7c's have a dire viewfinder and an A7Cr or A7CII are too expensive for this use for me, the R8 doesn't adapt manual lenses well enough but would do in a pinch if I was willing to focus on native glass.
Format + battery is Z DX. Z30 lacks a viewfinder and is less pocketable than the Zfc due to the grip. It's EXPEED6. Zfc is a tad pricey for what it is (being EXPEED6), Z50ii has all the toys, but is the least pocketable and the best performer for the dollar.
The other alternatives (compromising on all 3) would be m43 or Fuji. m43 still suffers from the lack of really up to date lower-end bodies, and they're overpriced too (OM-5 series I'm looking at you). Fuji's a bit pricey and the AF-C is dire by modern standards, but the main complaint here is that every body is a different UI experience.
Eventually it came down to Fuji something vs the Zfc. Narrowing further would be the X-T30III vs the Zfc, similar price point, similar specs and both are very viable in this use case. The 3 big differences other than mount items (Fuji has way more lenses, Zfc can use all my current lenses and can get a Fuji X AF Adapter) are the EVF (same panel specs, Fuji's magnification is 0.62x vs 0.68x for the Zfc), the left control dial (film sim for Fuji, ISO for Nikon) and the screen (single axis tilt for Fuji, Flip/twist for Nikon). In all 3 cases the Zfc actually wins for my preferences.
Realistically, if I'd found a used X-T3 in this price range I would have snagged it, barring that the Zfc wins out (used X-T4 is too big/too expensive for light carry). Plus I really need a second FTZ so I can run two F mount AF lenses when running a 2 body setup (needed since the vast majority of my lenses are F mount) and Nikon was running the usual FTZ deal when paired with a new Z body with the Zfc qualifying.
So I grabbed the Zfc/28SE kit, and FTZ and ordered another TTArtisan 25/2 APS-C pancake and a Smallrig EN-EL25a compatible (with integrated USB-C charge) off Amazon. That gets me a compact wide for my FX bodies and completes my SE lens set (I have the 40/2 SE already), and even more compact MF prime for the Zfc and the spare battery it's definitely going to need. Why the 28SE kit? Well I can always grab a 16-50 used for super cheap, I had a real use for the 28SE on my FX bodies and the bare body was not in stock. I personally think Nikon should do a 24DX SE for the Zfc update, it makes more sense than the 28SE in a kit with a DX body (but the 24DX didn't exist when the Zfc was released). Would also give people a reason to actually buy the 24DX over the cheaper (and often better) 3rd party alternatives.
Short Zfc review - It's better than I'd expected. The build is light, but it's not the FM10-level build I'd initially thought. Viewfinder is adequate, ergonomics feel like an FM10 just with better materials. It's no secret I loved the FM10 as a light carry film body and the Zfc is a direct drop-in for that use, with improvements. I think I'll do just fine with it. My main complaint is the lack of support for Flexible Picture Controls, which would make it much more viable as a JPEG body, and it's the only body I own where I am really likely to shoot JPEG in the first place.
Regarding usage, this gives me a body well suited to pairing with cheap manual focus APS-C lenses, which is something I really loved during my last go around with Fuji (especially that 18/6.3 pancake on the X-T1 and the 12/2.8 on the X-T2). So I'll be building up a small collection of those and probably will end up doing a 'Nikon DX on the cheap' series like the one I did for Fuji on the Cheap some years ago.
