Photographing an ultra trail race with the Z8 and Nikon’s trio of affordable f/2.8 zoom lenses

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All with the Nikon Z8 and the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

I was recently retained to provide event photography coverage of the 2025 Standhope Ultra Challenge near Sun Valley Idaho. It’s considered one of the highest trail races in the US Northwest with elevations reaching over 11K feet within the Pioneer mountains of Idaho.

The Standhope Ultra Challenge offers three rugged distances—100 Mile, 60K, and 30K—each promising high-altitude dventure and breathtaking scenery. This is not a course for the faint of heart!

First, I had to decide what camera to use. It’s between the Z5II and the Z8. For most professional assignments, I use the Z8 and that’s what I decided to use for this one also. For my lens selection, I decided to use Nikon’s trio of affordable f/2.8 zoom lenses:

• NIKKOR Z 17-28mm f/2.8

• NIKKOR Z 28-75mm f/2.8

• NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8

Most images were captured with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens at 180mm. I’m a tight shooter overall and this assignment was no different. I never used the wide angle NIKKOR Z 17-28mm f/2.8 lens.

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

Each morning started with a rendition of the our national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner. I have to admit that I have never heard it performed on a trombone before but it worked and always ended with a flair at the end, very impressive.

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

Once the races were started, it was time to start capturing the running action.

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

For this part of the race when everyone is just out of the gate and bunched together, I just spray and prey and usually get content that is not possible with a mobile device, no matter how much Apple tries to convince people that you don’t need a real camera these days. Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens performed great and as I shot right into the group of runners nearly head-on.

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

Now, let’s venture out onto the trail and get some context shots and show what these athletes were up against.

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 28-75mm f/2.8 lens

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

From the on trail locations I moved to the finish area to capture specimen shots of the runners approaching the finish line.

These are the bread and butter high volume shots that help boost the quantity that I deliver to my client, provide social media content for participants, and for me to use for social and website.

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

Well, you get the idea. Now, for a couple of off topic shots. While sitting and shooting the finish line approaches, I noticed a few wild flowers near by. They were mostly in shadow for most of the day but the sun hit them for a short period when I was able to get a few shots of them.

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens

And last but not least, someone at the race had a Nikon Nikkormat SLR camera and an old Vivitar auto focus F 28mm wide angle lens. She indicated that she really like the lens.

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 28-75mm f/2.8 lens

Nikon Z8 with the NIKKOR Z 28-75mm f/2.8 lens

All in all, the event went well with someone in the 100K setting a new course record. As for the Z8 and the Nikon cheap f/2.8 lenses, I was pleased how they performed and how the resulting images look.

As I have stated on here before, I mostly never use subject detection AF while on assignment. I have to get the shot for my client and it’s a little risky using anything other than the focus and recompose method. However, for this assignment, due to the high volume I was delivering to my client, I used human subject detection while using 3D tracking. For the most part, it worked well. The safety net was that I could monitor how it was performing and if I noticed that I was getting a lot of AF misses, I could go back to the standard AF-C mode and recompose as each runner approached. I ended up using the subject detection with 3D tracking for most of the end of the race.

As for the lenses in general, I thought they were sharp, had good contrast and the bokeh was very acceptable. I will be replacing my inexpensive Nikkor trio with the all time best professional Nikon pro zoom Z trio. Stay tune for a field review of those lenses.

If you are paying attention while reading this, you will notice there are no photos from the NIKKOR Z 17-28mm f/2.8 lens. As I have mentioned, I’m a close up shooter for the most part. I just didn’t have any need for the wide angle for this assignment.

Let me know if the comments below (no login required) what your thoughts are of the shots I took using Nikon’s trio of affordable f/2.8 zoom lenses.