Just Shooting around the Red Light District 

Hard to beat! :)

“Give us your camera and your shoes” would have the icing on the cake 😉

@@wh0tube Haha. "I need you clothes, your shoes, and your motorcycle."

Thank you!! That is very high praise! Glad you love the lens!! :)

I hope you can come back some day!!

Glad you feel that way! :)

Axel does an amazing job! :)

Haha, true! :)

Thank you!! Glad you found it interesting! :)

Thank you! :)

Yeah!! That's a good example of just blasting it wide open. It creates such a beautiful softness. And in particular this 28mm has beautiful out of focus effects, both front and rear. It's one reason I love it so much despite the size and weight. :)

Haha, yeah, I would too. Or at least I'd have a more discreet camera. That's one of the time I will admit that a small camera is better. It's much less likely that someone will rip a Ricoh GR out of your hands rather than a Nikon with a big lens. I think Japan's level of safety is a major reason why photography is popular here. :)

Hehe, glad you enjoyed it! :)

Thank you!! :)

Thanks man! Glad to hear that! :)

It really is a magical place to shoot! :)

I love that! :)

Yeah! Same! :)

Is AlexXx Axel's alt acount haha??? I'm kidding. Axel has been leveling up his camera skills and there some great movements in this video. He keeps it super flowy and switching smoothly from shooting me to going 'over the shoulder' and showing what I'm shooting. It's like a video game! :)

Thanks for watching! :)

Thank you so much!! I try to share my passion through my stories. I'm glad it comes across as engaging! Glad to have you back to watch every time we post. I really appreciate the support! :)

Thank you so much! glad you enjoyed it! :)

Thank you so much!! Glad you enjoy this type of content! :)

@@EYExplore You are the best!

Awesome!! Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy the book! And I'm sure EYExplore and I will still be doing workshops in 2026, so I look forward to meeting you! :)

Thank you so much!! This kind of feedback is why we've been making them longer and longer. :)

@@EYExplore It really does work! Something I know myself and other people tend to find interesting is seeing people actually travel to the places they're making videos. I always enjoy the shots of train stations, etc and it can give a better sense of where a place is to people who aren't really familiar with the area. I love the little cultural bits you throw in like about Shinbashi station here too. Just overall, great work!

@@AlexSinclair Thanks for the great feedback! :)

Thank you so much! :)

Thank you so much for watching! :)

Our pleasure! Thanks for watching! :)

Thank you!! :)

You must! I've explore the area so much and believe me there is so much that I noticed only after the 100th time there. :)

Thanks!! Yeah, I love those ambient sounds too. Also for train crossings. The the most 'Japan' sound to me! :)

Thanks! :)

You do what works for you, but I find that process extremely tedious. The min shutter / max ISO takes care of all of that. I set a max ISO of 6400, but if that is too noisy, just set a lower max. If you think 800 is your max, just set that. Same for shutter speed: just set a minimum you are comfortable with. For me it's 1/250. Then all you can affect everything with the aperture. If I'm on f/5.6 and see the ISO is 1600, but I want the ISO to be 800, then I simply change to f/4 and the ISO will come down accordingly. If I change the aperture to f/2.8 the ISO will go to 400. So, with aperture you can control also ISO. Then you change exposure with EV which is a relative setting, making it more flexible for walking around in varying light conditions. Also, you should be aware that the Z6II has dual ISO, so anything from 100-800 is going to have the same amount of noise whether you set it in the camera or set it in post (using exposure in ACR/LR). Then from 800 ISO and up is the second of dual ISO modes. Same rules applies. Setting 800 and going +1 in post, or setting 1600 in camera, will yield almost indistinguishable results in terms of noise and DR.

Thank you!! That's really what I hope to share. I'm not preaching a style, just sharing an approach. :)

Thank you! :)

Thank you so much! :)

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)

Thanks! Yeah, I was thinking about that 35mm, but ultimately settled on 28mm. :)

Great! :)

Our pleasure! Yeah, I accept that some parts around the edges (closer to the camera) will be a bit soft. But also, shorter focal lengths (e.g. 28mm) and focusing far away results in pretty good DOF even at f/2. But you're right, than I generally accept that there will be some out of focus areas in the image. I am okay with that because I am most interested in capturing the mood and feel of a place rather than getting a technically precise image. Of course, I strive for technical prevision and try to achieve it where possible, but it's not the priority. :)

Thanks!! :)

Thank you so much!! :)

Thank you! :)

Thank you! Hopefully some day! :)

Haha, yeah, I gotta act cool and only raise my camera in the last moment. Luckily it's when they are coming out so they can't see me through the glass anyway. :)

Yeah! Totally agree! It's a trade-off. To me the price/weight/size is not a very big deal. I'd rather have the optical performance. :)

Ah, good idea about the hashtag! I will include on relevant videos from now on! :)

Thank you!! Actually, I have an old Yashica Electro 35mm and two rolls of Fuji 400 film haha. I've been putting off doing a video about it, but we should! :)

Thanks! :)

Thank you so much!! 6400 starts to get a bit noisy, but the images are perfectly usable for me. I'd say I can even go higher than that, so 6400 is a conservative cap. I usually do not do regular Noise Reduction, but I have a default setting of 25 for Color Noise Reduction. Sometimes, if a photo is already at high ISO and I push the exposure even higher, then I might kick up the NR to say 10 or 20, but almost never more than that. I care more about sharpness/detail than low noise. And NR tends to reduce sharpness. So really, I don't mess with NR for the most part. It's not a major part of my workflow. :)

@@EYExplore thanks for the reply! That’s awesome to hear 6400 is usable, I must push my cap up from 4000. That’s good to know! I know what you mean about NR making the image softer, it’s not good. But when I zoomed in on my raw images I was just surprised how much more grain there was in my raw photos compared to my JPEG’s. I guess grain is a better word to use here than noise because some of the photos were shot in daylight and low iso. But then I was going through my z6 settings a few weeks ago and realised my iso sensitivity was on 800. I’ve no idea when I changed it from 100 to 800 it must have been an accident. But I think it could have been like that for quite some time. Do you think that could have been adding to the issue? Cheers.

@@jimmyjazz95 You might have heard about dual ISO and someone recommended that you just shoot on 800. It's definitely more noisy at 100 than 800. But because of the dual ISO, it's probably less noisy at 1000 than it is at 720. It's one of the technical things I don't like about the Z6, but it's not a huge deal in practice. I definitely keep my minimum at 100 ISO.

The 24-120 is awesome. I used to have an F-mount one. Recently I got my hands on the Z-mount version and we shot a video with it. It should be out in a month or so. :)

Thanks! We will never add music. When you are out on the street taking photos there is no music playing. If the street is quiet, then it is quiet. If there is ambient noise, then you can hear that noise. BGM is lame, in my opinion. :)

Yeah, these are all over Tokyo! I like them too! :)

Thank you!! I'm so glad you enjoy the BTS aspect of our videos! As for lenses, if I only had 28mm I would be perfectly happy, but it's not for everyone. I regularly take only my GR3 (with 28mm equivalent lens) on trips, so yeah... I love 28mm! :)

Thanks for the response, appreciate it!

Yeah, I feel the same. I go back to places I haven't been to in a long time for this same reason! :)

Nice! :)

In my experience 28mm is the widest you can go without there being obvious visual effects due to the lens (technically due to the closer subject-to-camera distance). But some of my favorite photos are 24mm, and play on that effect. It all depends what you’re shooting, and what/who the end consumer of the photo is. If you’re doing news or photojournalism, for example, you probably don’t want to shoot wide and close… so 35mm or 50mm, which have no obvious optical effects.

In practice there is not a massive difference, but I would say that for the kind of photography that I like to do there are more drawbacks than benefits. I can make a portrait just barely work with a 28mm but with 24 it's getting too difficult, in my opinion. However, the differences are subtle, so if you all have is a 24mm, just use it! You can always crop a bit and get the same FOV as 28mm. :)

@@EYExplore Yeah that's true. I like shooting portraits so I use my 85mm for that. I was hoping maybe I could pull off some portraits with the 24 but it might be a tad bit too wide but I'll try it out and crop like you suggested. Thank you!

Thanks!! It seems lots of people agree with you, so, we will keep making these! :)

Yeah, and also the size/weight difference! The one I have is huge, especially with the adapter. I love it a lot but find myself using the 40mm f/2 much more since it's so tiny.

@@EYExplore so far I really like the lens even at f/2.8

@@allen.9 Awesome!

Thank you so much!! I didn't know about HK right now, is it really bad? I've been there once in 2015 and it was amazing. Wish I could go back! :)

@@EYExplore pursuing a zero covid policy but failing. I'll avoid the politics here also! It is still great for street photography however despite the removal of nearly all neon signs. Only a handful left now.

@@philipmurton3272 Yeah, I heard about the neon signs. And yeah, I don't wanna get into politics/issues either, but I hear ya. I'm of the mindset that we just have to live with it and get back to our lives. The goal of total eradication is impossible. Especially since, even if one area gets it down to zero, the rest of the world won't. So, what, they're gonna keep the borders closed forever?

@@EYExplore spot on. Well, when we can travel again I'll be booking in for some Tokyo tours with you guys. Did a few 5 years back. Keep up the great work guys. Videos are the best out there.

Hell yeah!! :)

Thank you! Yeah for the title I was going to call it 'Just Shooting' but added Red Light District as I was posting! Haha, I love how you describe the video though. Maybe I should have called it 'Getting Lucky in the Red Light District'. I think the grill might be different than a hibachi. I'm not sure though. I only ever heard these grill places referred to as 'robata', which is what the grill is called. But it might be another word for the same thing. And good eye on the human figure! I don't know the story, but it's a decoration or 'sign' for one of the bars there. It looks old so it probably dates back to the 60s or 70s. As for the tags... I just suck at youtube and social media in general haha. RU-vid does have a 'tags' section when uploading and I use them. I didn't realize hashtags in the description are also a thing. I will add some! :)

I think so too!

It's different shooting for sure, but there are some great streets photographers out of Australia. Jesse Marlowe and Trent Parke come to mind! :)

Haha, no worries! 28mm all the way! I've been using 28s for 5 or 6 years now and I think it's the perfect focal length for urban photography because you can do street but you can still do landscape and architecture well too! :)

Thank you so much! On a budget the old 28mm f/1.8G is still a good option. Long ago I used to own that lens. But, if you can spend a bit more I feel it's always better to go with native Z lenses because the AF is better, they are typically lighter, and shorter, especially without the FTZ adapter. :)

I always tailor things to the gear people bring, so I would never point out a shot that's not possible with a 28mm if that's all you had. I'd also bring my own 28mm in such a case. But in general, sure you always have the potential to 'miss' a shot with a prime lens of any focal length. That's just photography! So, in short, if you enjoy 28mm, enjoy it! And don't worry about missing out. With any lens or camera you can get plenty of out Tokyo and our workshops. :)

Thank you very much!! I ordered my 40mm back in November and it finally arrived a couple of weeks ago. We shot a video about it and it will be released within the next few weeks! But for now I can say that I LOVE the new 40mm. It's extremely good value for the price. The build quality does feel a little bit cheap (the plastic mount, and the overall texture of the housing) but man, it's sharp, great bokeh, no distortion whatsoever, and super portable. It's a must have for a full frame Nikon Z owner.

@@EYExplore thank you. I’m on the fence between the Z 28mm f2.8 and the 40mm f2, I will probably end up with both. Are you going get the Z 28mm ?

@@nancyk9475 Probably not because I already own the 28mm I used in this video, which an absolutely perfect lens, so no point to have redundancy. :)

We shoot all of these videos with the included 16-50mm kit lens. :)

@@EYExplore good to know I can achieve such good video quality on my z50 thanks guys

Thank you! Yes, I am from Poland, but we moved to the US when I was a kid and I grew up there. I speak Polish fluently though. :)

Haha, good idea! He might never come back out though lol. :)

These days 28mm is #1 for me. :)

I highly recommend watching this video where I talk about these kinds of things: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xFUgnHg2f98.html But long story short, you have to just go out and appreciate the world without prejudice. Things should not 'catch' your eyes as much as your eyes should be attracted to things. I know I'm just splitting hairs and it's just semantics, but what I'm trying to say is that you have to train yourself to see the beauty in the mundane. I'm lucky to live in Tokyo which is filled with cool things, but STILL I find myself photographing random things like pipes, walls, plants, etc. It's all about discovering your interests by simply being out there. It takes times and effort. Waiting for inspiration or something to catch your eye leads to discouragement for sure. Another way I've heard said: creativity and is the product of curiosity and rigor. Emphasize the rigor here, just gotta get out there and do it. :)

We used a Nikon Z50 for most of the videos on our channel. Prior to that we used a smart phone (not sure which one) and prior to THAT we hired a guy who used a Fuji (not sure which one).

Thank you so much Harry! :)

A lot of people ask me that, and I'm sure I would like it, but since I have this one I see no reason to change right now. I also have a Ricoh GR III which has a 28mm equivalent lens, so right now it's not in the cards to get yet another 28mm. :)

@@EYExplore I do understand. Maybe you could ask a local Nikon dealer to lend you one for a review. There are some RU-vidrs doing something of the sort. I’m not imposing in any way as this might not be your kind of thing but it would be interesting for us viewers to see what can be done with other Lenses in your genre.

​@@stephenspiteri_zunkus it seems my usual gear rental shop has it, so next time Axel and I have a shooting session we'll rent it if it's available. We do have about 7 videos already shot and in the production pipeline so it will be a while! :)

@@EYExplore maybe you could squeeze in a small video in. It would make sense to do so as it’s a very talked after product and just by mentioning it, it could bring more subscribers to your channel. Timing is key. The time is now ;)

@@stephenspiteri_zunkus Yeah, well we're not a really a channel about timing what's popular. As I often say in these videos, photography is not about gear. Gear matters to an extent, but mindfulness, rigor, curiosity, openness, comfort with the gear you have, and of course having fun; these things are what this channel is about. Frankly, I'm sure that Nikon Z 28mm is just fine and will not make a fundamental difference in how you take photos compared to any other 28mm because 28mm gives you the same FOV no matter what lens it is (unless it's on a smaller or bigger sensor). If you're wondering about sharpness and quality, I'm you can get that info from somewhere else. :)

The camera comes with image stabilization. But also, I'm trying my best to hold it steady, hold my breath, and take a few photos in a row to make sure I get a sharp one. :)

@@EYExplore skills right there! I have ibis on both cam and lens and I can’t get it to be sharp at 1/30

@@iKIMshuffle Just shoot a bunch in a row. It's a bit of a numbers game too! :)

Yeah, I know some photographers who have to shoot that way as a necessity, but I think it results in a great aesthetic! :)

I think I did, but didn't show those photos as it's more interesting to me with the train in motion. I guess I should have showed those as well! :)

Thanks! Yeah, for some reason I gravitate to this style. Silhouettes is another one. In general, I like being less-direct about the people in my shots these days.