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The Nikon Z is a big step for Nikon but they need to keep being brave

26 Aug

The Nikon Z is a brave and important step for Nikon and, while it might not have got everything right first time, it shows enough promise to encourage existing users to commit themselves to the system. However, to deliver the system’s full potential, Nikon needs to continue being brave.

A brave new lens mount…

It may sound odd but I think the most significant thing about the Nikon Z cameras isn’t that they’re mirrorless: it’s that they use a new lens mount. This may sound like the same thing, but I think it’s informative to separate the two ideas.

A mirrorless design lets the body be a bit smaller and allows a more consistent experience between stills and video shooting, but that’s not that radical. Casting off the existing limitations of your mount and looking to the future: that’s a big step.

Nikon is a company with a long history and a proud 100 year tradition of making excellent products. Whether it’s the Nikon F, F3, FM, D3, D500 or D850, it’s produced some genuinely superb cameras. And then, of course, there are the lenses: it’s 59 years since the company introduced the F-mount and the majority of those lenses can still be used, to various extents, on its latest models.

Moving to a new lens mount, even if you do everything you can to respect history by maintaining backwards compatibility, is a huge step. Canon’s reputation took a knock when it took the decision to abandon its existing FD lenses and move to the EF mount. It was a big move but one that’s been vindicated by how future-proof a large, all electronic mount has proven to be. Sony, conversely, made the decision to squeeze a full frame sensor into its E-mount, rather than try to add a third mount to its lineup.

Nikon showed a series of mockup lenses when it launched the 1 System, but the decision to spell-out its plans for the Z mount represents an unusual degree of candor for the company.

The move to mirrorless was, then, the perfect chance to design a new lens mount and Nikon has clearly gone out of its way to make something flexible. If you asked a team of engineers who’d spent their entire careers working with the restrictions of a narrow-throated, film-era mount to design something new, the vast, adaptable Z-mount is probably what they’d come up with.

And this is promising for the future: it provides plenty of scope for making a wide range of lenses without having to worry about sending light to the corners of the sensor at hard-to-capture oblique angles.

The Z mount compared to the F mount.

…a little shortsightedness?

But, while I commend Nikon for making a break with its past, I worry a little that it’s decided not to share the details of this mount with third party makers.

It’s understandable that, having sold 100 million lenses for your existing mount, you might feel you don’t need anyone else’s help. However, for photographers without any F-mount lenses, the initial lack of third-party support (in terms both of adaptors and native lenses) will look like a weak point.

The dimensions of Sony’s E mount may look somewhat restrictive when compared with the Nikon Z’s but even if you think solely in terms of full frame, it has a four and a half year headstart and native support from both Sigma and Tamron. This gives it a huge advantage in terms of native lens availability and one that it’s likely to maintain if Nikon won’t let anyone else play in its sandpit.

Wouldn’t it be better to open up the mount and make the whole system look more attractive to would-be buyers? After all, you shouldn’t have to artificially protect your own lens sales if you’re confident that yours are better quality or better value than those of third parties.

…and some opportunities missed

Beyond the lens mount, Nikon has struck a similar balance of respecting history and seizing new opportunities: copying much of its widely-admired ergonomics and UI directly across while also making much greater use of the touchscreen than would have made sense on a DSLR.

But the job’s not done. In designing the Z 7, Nikon seems to have used a continuation of its live view AF system (the one no one uses), rather than see the move to mirrorless as an opportunity to re-think how AF would be controlled, given a blank piece of paper.

Nikon has instead opted for a clumsier system adapted from its live view AF tracking system. This requires you to press ‘OK’ or tap on a subject before it’ll start tracking

Initially this will present a hurdle for Nikon DSLR users moving across but that in itself shouldn’t be the deal-breaking argument: these cameras need to attract new users, too. The more compelling argument for more closely mimicking its DSLRs’ through-the-viewfinder AF behavior is that it’s the best in the industry. And it should be: Nikon’s literally spent decades refining it, to the point it’s used by news, action and sports journalists the world over.

Nikon’s 3D Tracking system, where you position an AF point and it tracks whatever was under that point when you initiate AF is brilliant. No matter which system we’ve each come from, there’s consensus in the DPReview office that 3D Tracking represents best practice. There’s a reason why Sony’s mirrorless cameras seem to more closely copy its behavior with every generation (though if they could also take note of Nikon’s system working without the need for an infinite number of AF area modes, that’d be good, too).

Unfortunately, Nikon has instead opted for a clumsier system adapted from its live view AF tracking system. This requires you to press ‘OK’ or tap on a subject before it’ll start tracking, rather than simply tracking based on your pre-selected AF point. Worse still, it requires that you disengage tracking (either by pressing ‘OK’ again or by tapping onto a different subject), rather than simply reverting to your chosen point when you release the shutter button.

This might not sound like much of an inconvenience, but it’s the difference between being able to switch subjects in-the-moment, rather than having to stop shooting, make a change and start all over again. It’s a loss of precisely the immediacy and simplicity that makes 3D Tracking so good in the first place.

To be clear, I’m not criticizing the AF algorithms themselves: we’ve not fully tested it yet but the Z 7’s tracking seems incredibly sticky: my concern is solely about the user interface

Act now, before things become set in stone

As I say, Nikon’s through-the-viewfinder behavior is so good that it would be worth Nikon trying to mimic it in the Z system’s interface. And yes, there’ll be the added bonus that it’ll be behavior that existing users expect. But they need to do it now, before the new, less refined behavior becomes ossified as ‘the behavior our existing users expect.’

So, having made a break with the past to adopt a radical, future-proof lens mount, I call on Nikon to be brave again and redesign its AF behavior. And maybe have a think about whether third-party lenses are a threat or a benefit.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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DPReview TV: Nikon Z 7 hands-on first impressions

26 Aug

Join us behind the scenes for this special episode of DPReview TV as we go hands-on with the new Nikon Z 7 mirrorless camera. After a couple days of intense shooting, we’re ready to share our first impressions of this exciting new product.

Also, make sure to read our in-depth Nikon Z 7 First Impressions Review.

Read our in-depth Nikon Z 7 First Impressions Review

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get new episodes of DPReview TV every week.

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Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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What’s the Nikon Z like with adapted lenses?

25 Aug

How well does the Nikon Z work with adapted lenses?

When we polled our readers to find the things it was most important for Nikon to get right in its full frame mirrorless camera, full compatibility and performance with its F-mount lenses came out top.

This is no surprise: Nikon has sold over 100 million F-mount lenses, which has resulted in a large, loyal and, to a degree, locked-in user base. For Nikon to convert any significant proportion of those users into ‘Z’ mount shooters, they need not just to be able to mount their existing lenses, but to have them work well with the new system.

Based on our experiences so far, we don’t think they’ll be disappointed – and this is the first time that photographers using F-mount lenses will have autofocus coverage across almost the entire frame.

Nikon FTZ adapter

Backwards compatibility is provided through the optional Nikon FTZ adapter, which will sell for around $ 250 (though initially there’ll be a $ 100 discount if bought along with a Z series camera).

This F-mount to Z-mount adapter has full electronic connections between the camera and the lens. It also features a mechanical actuator to operate the aperture on the lens you mount to it. This means it will work with more than just the latest ‘E’ type lenses that have their own aperture actuators built-in.

This is something of a pleasant surprise; Nikon could certainly have made their lives easier by just supporting those newer electronic-aperture lenses, but we’re glad they’ve included even more backwards compatibility.

Full compatibility with AF-S lenses

That increased backward compatibility thanks to the aperture actuator means that AF-S and AF-I lenses are fully compatible with the Z system. Essentially, anything with its own focus motor will work and will be compatible with all the camera’s functions. There’s a greater risk of focus noise in video mode as Nikon lenses tend to have noisy focus motors, but that’s essentially the only limitation to using pretty much every lens launched in the past 18 years.

Partial compatibility with older lenses

The constant evolution of the F-mount means there have been many versions over the years. As you might expect, the degree of compatibility offered by the FTZ adapter drops as the lenses get older.

AF-D and AF Nikkor lenses without built-in AF motors will mount on the adapter and work with all metering modes, but will not autofocus. There’s no AI lever on the adapter, though, so anything from before the mid 1980s will mount but will have increasing restrictions over which metering modes are available.

As in previous high-end Nikons, it’s possible to record a list of non-CPU (AI and Pre-AI lenses) through the menus, so that the camera understands the focal length and maximum aperture of the attached lens. You can assign this function to one of the camera’s buttons if you’re regularly switching between lenses.

For more information on these oldest of Nikon lenses, check out our primer.

VR behavior

When working with adapted lenses, the camera’s in-body image stabilization system drops to offering correction in three axes: pitch, yaw and roll. This is optimized based either on the focal length data provided by the lens or from the focal length that’s been manually specified, if you’re working with non-CPU lenses.

Any lens with its own ‘Vibration Reduction’ mechanism built in should be more effectively stabilized. With VR lenses, responsibility for correcting pitch and yaw is passed to the lens, since in-lens stabilization can provide a greater degree of travel than the in-body system could provide on its own. The camera continues to provide roll correction that the lens can’t itself provide.

Performance with the AF-S NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G ED

During our time with a pre-production Nikon Z 7, we mounted the AF-S Nikkor 35mm F1.8 to the adapter and were impressed by the performance. In fact, we found it sometimes focused more reliably on moving subjects than the native (though pre-production) Z-mount 35mm F1.8.

All functions worked as expected and it focused quickly. Continuous autofocus performance was impressive, and is what we used to get this tack sharp shot of a toddler with this combo. During bursts though, our impression – albeit with beta firmware – was that the camera would sometimes back-focus trying to keep up with fast approaching subjects. This was not unique to this lens, and we hope final firmware provides improved performance.

The constant motor chatter would rule it out for video use though, unless you use an external mic away from the lens. And, of course, when used on the Z 7, the F-mount 35mm F1.8’s results are stabilized.

Performance: AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8E

The 70-200mm F2.8 is an essential part of many photographers’ kits and again we were impressed with how it performed on a pre-production Z 7. Focus was swift and generally snappy, just as we’d expect with the lens mounted on a Nikon DSLR. Subject tracking appeared to successfully stick to our subject as well, though becomes harder to engage as using the touchscreen or pressing the ‘OK’ button becomes more cumbersome with large lenses.

The camera was able to drive the lens to refocus on a moving subject quickly and decisively, giving us a very good hit rate of perfectly in-focus images in Single Drive. The only moments of doubt came when shooting high-speed bursts of images. As with most other lenses we tried on the pre-production Z 7, we experienced some back-focused shots as the focus system played catch-up on rapidly approaching subjects (you can see the results in our preliminary look at the camera’s AF performance).

We didn’t shoot with it enough to get a sense for whether the addition of roll-axis correction was significantly adding to our keeper rate, but the fact it comes in addition to the lens’s own VR can only be a bonus.

With manual focus lenses

In our limited time with the pre-production Z 7 and FTZ adapter, we unfortunately didn’t have a chance to give it a try with an older AI or AI-S manual focus lens. However, the Z 7 comes with effective focus peaking, and you can also assign a focus magnifier to a custom button, making it easy to quickly check critical focus.

We’re most curious as to whether the adapter has a provision for automatically magnifying the view if it can detect focus ring movement, and is something we’ll investigate when we have a production model in our offices.

Lack of third-party openness

However, while the FTZ adapter works very well, in the short term it’ll be the only adapter available. Despite the dimensions of the Z-mount being especially well-suited to adapting almost any lens you can think of, Nikon has – perhaps not surprisingly – decided not to share the mount’s electronic specifications for aspects such as focus and exposure with other manufacturers.

This has always been true of the older F-mount, where Tamron, Sigma and other companies have reverse-engineered it for years to offer their own lens alternatives. We would have liked to see Nikon be more open in this regard, particularly for those coming from different systems or wanting more video-centric lenses to take advantage of the new video-centric features on the Z 7 and Z 6.

The relatively open nature of the Micro Four Thirds mount and, to an increasing degree, Sony’s E-mount has really helped to flesh out those systems’ lens ecosystems. While doing this for the Z-mount may have meant fewer users buying Z-mount Nikkor S lenses in the near term, it would have given early adopters of the Z 6 and Z 7 the possibility of more lens options outside of those Nikon’s indicated on their roadmap.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Nikon Z 7: what you need to know about Nikon’s first mirrorless full-frame ILC

25 Aug

Nikon Z 7: what you need to know about Nikon’s first mirrorless full-frame ILC

The Nikon Z 7 is a full-frame mirrorless interchangeable lens camera built around a 46MP full-frame sensor – likely very similar to the sensor inside the D850. In fact, despite a 26% weight difference, the Z 7 and the D850 have quite a lot in common.

But the differences run deeper that the removal of the mirror. The Z 7 is a camera designed from the ground-up to always work in live view mode. So what does that mean for the camera as a whole?

Body and design

Nikon will probably hate me saying this, but the Z 7 looks a lot like the Sony a9, with the grip from a D850 glued onto the side of it. And that’s not a bad thing, to be honest. The Z 7 is very comfortable to hold, and generally speaking it works in much the same way as the D850 from its twin control dials down to its near-identical menu system.

Nikon claims that the Z 7 offers the same durability as the D850, which should reassure its loyal user-base, and while we don’t have specific details we’d expect it to be sealed against dust and moisture incursion at all major seams and control points. The Z 7 certainly feels well-built, and while more angular than Nikon’s current DSLRs, it should feel pretty familiar to any seasoned Nikon DSLR user. The Z 7 even has a nice high-contrast OLED top-plate information display.

Unfamiliar to some Nikon DSLR users will be the Z 7’s card format. Nikon is breaking from the past and only including a single XQD card slot in the Z 7, with support for next-generation CF Express media (which shares the same form factor) coming later, via a firmware update.

Body and design

It is clear that Nikon has made every effort not to alienate its existing DSLR userbase with the Z 7, even down to the battery that the new camera uses. The Z 7 ships with an EN-EL15b battery, which is the same basic shape as the EN-EL15a that’s used in the D850 and D7500. As such, the same batteries can be swapped between all three cameras (and any other EN-EL15-compatible DSLR) although in-camera USB charging is only available with the new EN-EL15b.

To make it easier to tell between the batteries, the ‘b’ version is more angular than the previous versions. The general rule is that the ‘a’ and ‘b’ versions, with grey cases will work well in the the recent cameras, but the original version in the black case may not.

The Z 7’s CIPA rating is a middling 330 shots per charge, but as usual this is likely to prove extremely conservative in normal use. On a recent video shoot, we managed more than 1600 images and several 4K video clips on the Z 7 with a single EN-EL15b before the battery started blinking red, so it’ll depend to a large extent on how you shoot.

Sensor

At the heart of the Z 7 is a 45.7MP BSI-CMOS sensor, based on the sensor used in Nikon’s popular D850. As such, it’s most likely fabricated by Sony Semiconductor from a Nikon design. ISO sensitivities range from 64-25,600 and at ISO 64 we’re expecting the Z 7 to offer the same class-leading detail and dynamic range as its DSLR cousin. For JPEG shooters, the Z 7 offers a grand total of six sharpening levels for fine-tuning sharpness, plus a new ‘mid-range sharpening’ setting for even finer control.

One major difference between the Z 7 and D850’s sensors is of course the addition of on-sensor phase-detection autofocus pixels in the mirrorless camera. These give the camera an understanding of subject distance that a DSLR would gain from its dedicated autofocus module. They underpin the camera’s ability to assess distance changes and also allow it to drive adapted F-mount lenses in the same manner as a DSLR would.

Autofocus

The Z 7 offers 493 PDAF points, which cover a total of 90% of the frame both horizontally and vertically. Outside of this area (and for added precision within it), contrast-detection autofocus comes into play. With F2 and faster lenses, the Z 7’s autofocus system is rated down to -3EV, provided that you’re shooting wide open (more on that in a minute).

In briefings with DPReview, Nikon representatives have told us that autofocus performance should be broadly comparable to the D850. A direct comparison is impossible given that the Z 7 is launching wth only three native lenses, but it’s certainly true that with fast-aperture F mount lens attached via the FTZ adapter, autofocus response is impressive.

When it comes to keeping your subjects in focus, the Z 7 offers highly effective face-detection, and very ‘sticky’ object tracking. It’s a shame though that the vocabulary of the Z 7’s various AF modes is different to what we’re used to in Nikon’s DSLRs. The functionality of subject tracking is different too – unlike the 3D AF Tracking systems in Nikon’s DSLRs, the Z 7 doesn’t provide as easy a method for initiating tracking on a subject, nor changing subjects to track. There’s also no easy way to instantly activate any of the company’s other AF modes with a single button press.

The Z 7 does not offer an equivalent of the excellent Eye-AF modes that we’ve come to appreciate in Sony and Olympus ILCs

Sadly, the Z 7 does not offer an equivalent of the excellent Eye-AF modes that we’ve come to appreciate in Sony and Olympus ILCs. And like Sony’s a7-series and a9 cameras, the Z 7 follows Nikon’s old DSLR live view logic, by stopping down the lens to your shooting aperture (or F5.6 – whichever is wider) all the time. This has the advantage of always offering an accurate preview of depth of field during shooting (at least down to F5.6) but it also starves the camera’s autofocus system of light.

While perhaps not a particularly common use-case, this means that if you’re shooting stopped-down in dull conditions, you will see AF performance drop compared shooting wide-open. We’re really hoping that this is fixed in firmware, to allow the Z 7’s autofocus system to take advantage of the maximum amount of light coming through the lens, before stopping down at the point of exposure. Compounding this issue is the lack of the red-grid autofocus assist when using the company’s own on-camera flashes. The only option is a bright green LED on the front of the Z 7 itself.

In-body stabilization

In a first for Nikon, the Z 7 features in-body image stabilization, which is effective up to a claimed 5EV. With Z-mount lenses, the camera can compensate for movement in five axes (rotation in three dimensions and translational movement up/down and left/right).

With adapted lenses, this drops to three axes, with only rotational movement: pitch, yaw and roll being corrected. When a VR-equipped F-mount lens is attached via the optional FTZ adapter, the 3-axis system hands off pitch and yaw correction to the lens, with the body dealing with roll. As such, a VR-equipped F-mount lens should offer superior stabilization on the Z 7 compared to a DSLR (where roll cannot be corrected).

Our initial impressions of VR performance are very positive with the native Z lenses, in both stills and video shooting. We’ll be thoroughly testing this feature as soon as we get hold of a reviewable camera.

Viewfinder

In on and off-record conversations with Nikon over the years, one thing has always been clear – the company did not feel comfortable replacing optical viewfinders with electronic versions until it could guarantee a truly comparable shooting experience.

It’s reassuring, then, that the Z 7 offers one of the best electronic viewfinders we’ve ever seen. A Quad VGA (3.6m-dot) OLED display and 0.8X magnification (compared to 0.75X in the D850) is augmented with a complex optical assembly within the finder (which includes aspherical elements and fluorine coating). The result is a bright, crisp and extremely detailed viewfinder image, even when shooting in low light.

Unlike the other cameras we’ve seen using comparable viewfinder panels, there’s no difference in perceived resolution when in preview and playback modes or during burst shooting and focusing, suggesting the Z 7 is making better use of its display by always displaying the sensor’s full resolution.

Touch-sensitive rear LCD

Like the D850, the Z 7 has a touch-sensitive rear screen, but the Z7 makes much more extensive use of touch control than any Nikon DSLR, with AF point positioning and all menus now touch sensitive. This includes a revised and now customizable version of the camera’s ‘i‘ menu. The touch panel can also be used in playback mode to zoom in, navigate around and scroll between images.

What’s missing, though, is the ability to use the rear screen as a touchpad to position the AF point when the camera’s held to your eye. This might not sound like a big deal, since the Z7 has the same AF point joystick as the D850 but its absence becomes an issue because of the way the Z 7 handles AF tracking.

The screen itself is lower resolution: with 2.1M dots rather than the 2.36M dots of its predecessor, but that doesn’t quite tell the whole story. The Z 7’s screen is 3:2, rather than the taller 4:3 aspect ratio. This allows the camera to be smaller but is also a match for the camera’s sensor. This means the Z 7 ends up giving the same 1024 x 680 pixel resolution for its live view display as the D850, it just overlays the settings on top of the preview, rather than having a stripe of settings taking up the bottom of the screen.

High-speed shooting

The Z7 isn’t being marketed as a sports and action camera, and it can’t compete with the likes of the Sony a9 for pure speed, but at a maximum burst rate of 9fps (12-bit Raw, with AE locked after the first shot) it offers decent high-speed performance.

Drop to 5.5fps and autoexposure will update between frames, and you’ll get a live preview in between shots, but the buffer depth only allows for around 23 compressed 12-bit Raw files. This isn’t terrible, but don’t go selling your D5s quite yet.

4K video

Nikon’s 4K-equipped DSLRs have a small but quite loyal fanbase among enthusiast videographers, but the Z 7 is Nikon’s first really convincing video camera. Full-width 4K video is possible at up to 30p, and in the DX crop mode (roughly equivalent to Super 35mm in filmmaking terms) full-pixel readout should offer optimal 4K quality. The ‘FX’ mode footage is produced by line-skipping, so will have a resolution and noise cost.

Unlike the D850, the Z 7 can offer focus peaking in 4K mode; we’re hopeful that this can be used at the same time as highlight warnings, but we were unable to test this on our pre-production loaner. As well as 4K, HD video capture is also an option, at up to 120fps.

In video mode, the Z 7’s in-body VR system is augmented by electronic VR, to help further smooth out vibration in hand-held footage.

Perhaps the biggest news for committed videographers is the camera’s 10-bit 4:2:2 ‘N-Log’ output over HDMI. This higher bit depth greatly increases the processing flexibility of Log footage and is a feature matched only by Panasonic’s GH5 models. This and the addition of timecode suggests Nikon is taking video pretty seriously.

Connectivity

The Z 7 comes with Nikon’s latest iteration of its SnapBridge suite of wireless features. These include 802.11ac + Bluetooth, and there’s now an option to Wi-Fi transfer images direct to a PC instead of just a smart device. The WT-7 wireless adapter can still be used.

Nikon Z 7: what you need to know about Nikon’s first mirrorless full-frame ILC

The Nikon Z 7 will be available at the end of September, body-only or in a kit with the new 24-70mm F4, for $ 3299 and $ 3999, respectively. As always, let us know what you think in the comments.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Nikon Z 7 pre-production sample gallery

25 Aug

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The Nikon Z 7 is here and we had the chance to shoot around with a pre-production model here in Seattle – you can read all about our first impressions here. Take a look through the gallery above to see JPEG samples representative of much of the camera’s ISO range. We’ll update with full production samples and Raw files as soon as we get out hands on a final unit.

See our Nikon Z7 sample gallery

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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The Nikon Z system: What we think, where it should go

25 Aug

Introduction

By the time you read this article, you’ll surely have absorbed most of the news, specifications and in-depth analysis related to Nikon’s new full-frame mirrorless cameras, the Z 6 and Z 7. And there’s been quite a bit of coverage, to be sure. After all, this is Nikon’s first new full-frame lens mount since 1959*.

But here in this piece, we’re hoping to convey some of our reflections of the new system; how it feels in the hand, how it responds when you’re out shooting. Not just what the customizations are, but how useful we find them. We weren’t able to perform any of our standard tests on our pre-production Z 7, but we came away with plenty of thoughts and hopes for the future. Let’s dive in.

Hits

We all agreed that the Z 7 feels great in the hand.

The build quality and hand-feel of the Z 7 were met with universal praise from the staff. Editor Dan Bracaglia, who’s been shooting with Nikon DSLRs for over a decade, said everything on the exterior of the Z 7 – grip, buttons, switches – feels built to the same level as a D850. I’m inclined to agree; the grip matches the comfort of the D850, and despite weighing less than a D750 (the lightest full-frame DSLR on the market), it feels even more solid than that camera. And your fingers don’t run off the bottom of the grip like some other mirrorless options. The top plate OLED is also much crisper and easier to read than the older LCD panels on DSLRs.

The viewfinder was likewise met with enthusiasm. The Quad VGA panel is bright and contrasty with a high refresh rate. Our Editorial Manager Wenmei Hill said that, in her opinion, it’s the closest you can currently get to an optical finder. Senior Editor Barney Britton mentioned that he started to find the viewfinder in the D850 a bit fuzzy and cool in comparison. It was important for their existing DSLR users that Nikon got this right, and it looks like they have. Unlike many competitors, the viewfinder also doesn’t drop in resolution during continuous focusing or burst shooting. That makes it a great viewfinder experience for anyone, not just users of optical viewfinders.

The viewfinder doesn’t drop in resolution during focusing or burst shooting

The touchscreen interface, even on our pre-production model, was extremely polished and responsive. That you can interact with every aspect of the camera via its touchscreen – including the customizable ‘i’ menu – is encouraging, and genuinely useful.

One rift between DSLRs and mirrorless cameras that persists even today simply concerns the cameras’ startup times. DSLRs are still nigh instantaneous; when you flip the on switch and mash the shutter, the camera will fire a shot right then and there. The Z 7 doesn’t get to quite that level of responsiveness, but it also doesn’t make you wait an age either. We’d say it’s on par with the likes of an Olympus E-M1 II or Panasonic G9, while some of Sony’s a7-series of cameras still takes noticeably longer to power on and and take an image.

Power-on time is an area where mirrorless cameras, including the Z 7, continue to lag behind DSLRs.

Lastly, we were disappointed by the CIPA rating of 330 images for the EN-EL15b battery that powers the Z 7. It’s not a woefully bad score, but it’s around the rating of Sony’s 1st and 2nd gen a7-series cameras for which we regularly recommended carrying a second battery, while Sony’s latest Z-series battery is rated for around 700 shots. All that said, Barney’s actual experience with the Z 7 put him at ease; over the course of a 12-hour shoot, he recorded 1500+ images and several 4K video clips before the battery warning kicked in at 10% remaining. He wouldn’t be opposed to venturing out for a full day in a new city with one battery for the Z 7. Not too shabby, but definitely something we’ll be looking at in detail when we get a reviewable camera.

Misses

As a team, we also agreed on a few aspects – particularly regarding autofocus – of the Z 7 that struck us as less-than-polished. And we should stress, the model we used was pre-production using non-final firmware, and there’s always a chance that some of these can be addressed via firmware updates later on.

Single point

Dynamic

Wide S

Wide L
The AF area modes (excluding pinpoint) that the Z 7 and Z 6 offer. One thing we really liked was how bright, red and visible the AF points were in all area modes.

The first is a lack of any form of touchpad AF, which we found strange considering how otherwise impressive the touchscreen interface is. Sure, there’s a joystick to move your AF area around, but we’d prefer Nikon give users the option to choose which method they prefer (plus, it’s already incorporated on the D5600 for that camera’s viewfinder autofocus system).

Continuing on the autofocus theme, we’re all puzzled regarding the new autofocus implementation. Considering the relatively seamless transition from, say, the D850 to the Z 7 in terms of menus and most of the direct controls, the AF system is less familiar. It’s closer to the autofocus implementation in their DSLRs’ Live View, rather than the much more familiar system through the optical viewfinder.

Barney said that he adapted to the new autofocus system quickly for his style of shooting

The autofocus tracking implementation is more cumbersome, and there’s no provision to change your AF mode with a single button press (AF Area Mode + AF-On) as there is on Nikon’s D5, D500 and D850 cameras. As our Science Editor Rishi Sanyal explains, this can make it difficult to adapt to fast-changing scenarios, like moving from a bouquet toss at a wedding to a candid portrait moments later.

Barney, on the other hand, said that he adapted to the new autofocus system quickly for his style of shooting (which didn’t include fast action), but he was a little more concerned about stop-down focusing. The pre-production Z 7 we used stops the lens down to the shooting aperture (down to a limit of F5.6) to give the user a live depth-of-field preview, but this also gives the autofocus system less light (and less phase separation) for the on-sensor PDAF system to work with. If you’re shooting in dim conditions but don’t want a paper-thin depth-of-field, you may experience slower autofocus or more hunting than you expect.

Just because you can shoot at F1.8 doesn’t mean you’ll always want to, even if the conditions are a bit dim.

In terms of handling, we miss the ease of the autofocus mode and area selector switch near the lens barrel on Nikon DSLRs, which is missing on the Z 6 and Z 7. And while we appreciate the Fn1 and Fn2 buttons between the grip and the lens mount, we do find them a bit difficult to press without shifting your hand uncomfortably.

Mixed blessings

There are also some aspects of the new Z 7 that we appreciate – with some caveats.

The first is the completely silent shutter; this is incredibly valuable in quiet or sensitive settings, and being able to fire at full burst speed in silent shutter is a welcome addition. But due to the sensor’s somewhat limited readout speed, rolling shutter is likely to be an issue, as is banding under artificial light.

While we like the move to XQD cards for the speed they offer, there’s no denying they’re more expensive and harder to find than good ‘ol SD cards.

Likewise, when shooting 4K video, Nikon’s added digital stabilization as an other method of reducing camera shake on top of in-body and lens stabilization. Unfortunately, while you might be tempted to turn it on for, say, walking while recording, it doesn’t deal well with more jarring movements. It results in soft or blurred footage during the steps themselves, and we find it less distracting to have less stabilization with the IBIS system alone.

Lastly, the Z 6 and Z 7 are only offered with single XQD cards, which promise incredible read and write speeds as well as better durability when compared to conventional SD cards. But some users will likely be turned off by the lack of dual card slots, and we found the buffer on our pre-production Z 7 to clear more slowly than we’d expect (it clears almost instantly on a D5 or D500 once you stop shooting). Additionally, XQD readers just aren’t as ubiquitous as SD, and the cards themselves are more expensive.

Looking ahead

In looking toward the future of the new Z system, we have to say we’re pleased by the lens roadmap that Nikon put out – more than one editor was hoping for a native 70-200mm lens sooner rather than later.

The combination of high resolution, expansive dynamic range, compact size, comfortable handling and great 4K video is hard to dismiss.

And most of the concerns we have – the lack of Touchpad AF, for example – we’re hoping can be addressed in firmware, or at the very least, in the next Z-camera. We’re curious whether Nikon has any plans for a D500-level APS-C interpretation for Z-mount, though the team has predicted that there’s likely going to be a D5-level mirrorless coming around in time for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Overall, the combination of high resolution, expansive dynamic range, compact size, comfortable handling and great 4K video with intuitive and decisive autofocus is hard to dismiss. We’re confident in saying that, as of now, the Z 7 is Nikon’s most well-rounded camera they’ve ever produced.

*This excludes the Nikonos mount on Nikon’s early waterproof film cameras and an F-mount variation with the Nikonos R-UW mount.

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Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Nikon announces 64GB and 120GB XQD memory cards

25 Aug

Nikon made quite a splash in the digital imaging world this week with the announcement of its new Z 6 and Z 7 mirrorless cameras. In a much more quiet fashion the company also launched two new XQD memory cards on its Japanese website.

As you would expect, the cards can be used with the new Z-series camera models and with a lot of buzz around the new camera models Nikon is likely hoping to leverage the opportunity and get its foot into the memory card market.

Nikon offers a 64GB and 120GB card and both variants boast a maximum read speed of 440MB/s and a maximum write speed of 400MB/s. At this point there is no pricing information on the Nikon website but the Japanese camera rumor site Nokishita reported a price of ¥17,820 (approximately $ 160) for the 64GB card and ¥29,160 (approximately $ 262) for the 120GB version.

Nikon says both cards will be released in late September 2018, so hopefully more information on pricing outside Japan will be available soon.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Nikon Z 7 sample videos

24 Aug

Nikon’s new Z 7 mirrorless camera promises to be useful for video work as well as still photography, and includes features such as 4:2:2 10-bit video over HDMI, usable autofocus in video, and improved video processing.

We’ve put together a series of video clips from the Nikon launch event in New York to show what video looks like straight out of the camera, including clips recorded in 10-bit 4:2:2 color using an Atomos Ninja, as well as some 1080/120p footage for slow motion. All shots marked as captured with the Atomos Ninja were mounted on a DJI Ronin M gimbal.

What do you think of the video quality so far? Let us know in the comments.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Nikon Z 7 First Impressions Review

24 Aug

Nikon Z 7 First Impressions Review

The Nikon Z 7 is the company’s first full-frame mirrorless camera: a 46MP, 4K-capable machine built around a variant of the D850’s BSI CMOS chip, but with the addition of on-sensor phase detection. It’s designed to offer an experience familiar to existing Nikon DSLR shooters in a smaller, lighter camera. The Z 7 is based around the all-new Nikon Z-mount but an adapter is available for use with existing Nikkor F-mount lenses.

We were lucky enough to get our hands on a pre-production camera before launch and we’re impressed, despite the model we used running very early firmware. The build quality is great and the interface is responsive, while JPEG images show pleasing color and good detail. From our initial impressions of image quality it also seems that the camera balances noise and detail retention well as light levels drop.

We have a few reservations regarding the autofocus interface on our pre-production camera (though its accuracy was quite good), but overall, the Z 7 we used felt very polished. This is all the more impressive given that the Z 7 is Nikon’s first entrant in the full-frame mirrorless space and the company is clearly aiming it at the higher-end of the market.

Key features:

  • 45.7MP BSI-CMOS sensor with on-sensor phase detection
  • In-body 5-axis stabilization (rated to 5EV)
  • 493 PDAF points with 90% horizontal and vertical coverage
  • ISO 64-25,600 (expandable to 102,400)
  • Up to 9 fps shooting (JPEG and 12-bit Raw)
  • 3.69M-dot OLED viewfinder
  • 2.1M-dot tilting touch LCD
  • OLED top plate display
  • Single XQD card slot
  • UHD 4K capture up to 30p
  • 10-bit 4:2:2 N-Log output over HDMI
  • Up to 100Mbps H.264 8-bit internal video capture
  • SnapBridge Wi-Fi system with Bluetooth, including to-PC transfer
Pre-production sample JPEG.
ISO 64 | 1/500 sec | F7.1 | Shot using the the Nikon Z 24-70mm F4 S lens at 51mm
Photo by Wenmei Hill

We see the Z 7 as not only a ‘D850 without a mirror’, but also (perhaps more) ‘a D850 with a more consistent stills/video experience and greatly improved video AF.’ And straight out of the gate, that makes it a pretty well-rounded do-everything camera.

Three ‘Z-mount’ lenses will be available initially: a 35mm F1.8, a 50mm F1.8 and a 24-70mm F4. Nikon has also announced it is developing a 58mm F0.95 ‘Noct’ lens and has published a roadmap to show how it plans to expand the system. A battery grip will also be available at some point, but a release date hasn’t yet been set.

Three Nikkor S (for ‘silver’) lenses will be available for the Z-mount initially: a 50mm F1.8, a 24-70mm F4 and a 35mm F1.8

Nikon has also released an F-to-Z mount adapter (formally known as the FTZ adapter) that will allow the use of F-mount lenses on the new cameras. This has a mechanical aperture lever built in, allowing full use of AF-S and AF-I lenses. Older AF-D lenses will offer auto exposure and AI lenses will have full metering. There’s no aperture tab for use with ‘AI’ or older lenses, though.

What’s new and how it compares

The Z 7 isn’t just a D850 without a mirror: we look at the key additions and what the Z 7 offers…

Read more

Body and handling

How the Z 7 feels in the hand may be crucial to its acceptance. We have a look at the camera and the control points it offers.

Read more

Operation and controls

The Z 7’s user interface will be very familiar to existing Nikon shooters. Up to a point, that is.

Read more

Z 7 Autofocus behavior

The Z 7 offers impressive autofocus performance, but there’s some adjustments to be made.

Read more

Video

Nikon has done a lot to enhance the Z 7’s video, even if that’s not immediately obvious from the specs.

Read more

Thoughts so far

What does the Z 7 say about Nikon’s direction, who its trying to appeal to and what does it mean for F-mount users?

Read more

Sample gallery

We’ve had time with a pre-production Nikon Z 7 in the field, and have preliminary JPEG images that look quite impressive.

Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Using the Nikon Z 7 vs. Nikon’s DSLRs

24 Aug

Nikon tells us it put a lot of thought into creating a consistent user experience between its new mirrorless cameras and its DSLRs, as well as how to maintain compatibility with existing lenses. In this short video, we take a look at a few examples of where Nikon has done exactly this – and at least one place where the experience is quite different.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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