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.
. dpreview.com2018-8-23 08:01
