The Nikon Z7 is the corporation's most up-to-date camera to date: it's as well ventilated would and appropriate for movie capture as it is for stills, along with the standard of both is striking. The Z7's design provides an adventure that will be familiar to existing Nikon DSLR shooters, but at a smaller, lighter body, constructed round the all-new Nikon Z-mount.
That is Nikon's first full-frame mirrorless camerausing a 4K-capable machine which features a variant of the D850's 46MP BSI CMOS sensor, but with the accession of on-sensor phase detection AF pixels and mechanical stabilization. In our testing the sole area where the Z7 comes up a little short is autofocus reliability and usability - something where Nikon's DSLRs have excelled.
Nikon Z7 specification Key features:
45.7MP full-frame BSI-CMOS sensor with on-sensor phase detection
In-body 5-axis image stabilization (rated to 5EV)
493 PDAF points with 90% horizontal and vertical coverage of the frame
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
45.7MP full-frame BSI-CMOS sensor with on-sensor phase detection
In-body 5-axis image stabilization (rated to 5EV)
493 PDAF points with 90% horizontal and vertical coverage of the frame
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
Nikon Z7 price body only
The Nikon Z7 is available today for a body-only price of $3400. It is also available kitted with the 24-70mm F4 S lens for $4000 (many retailers are providing additional kits with the'F to Z port' for about $150 more).
The Nikon Z7 is available today for a body-only price of $3400. It is also available kitted with the 24-70mm F4 S lens for $4000 (many retailers are providing additional kits with the'F to Z port' for about $150 more).
A large part of the story of the camera is how similar the Z7 is into the D850. Naturally thoughthere are significant regions where the two disagree. Nikon has said that a good deal of work went into creating the Z7 familiar to existing Nikon users, however the company has also been occupied with little refinements beneath the surface.
This is a much shallower, much broader mount than the older F-mount, the dimensions of which have been laid down from the 1950s. The Z7's short, 16mm flange-back space between the mount and the sensor usually means that virtually any lens needs to be accommodated onto the camera.
Meanwhile, the mix of the short depth and a 55mm mount diameter (25% wider than the present F-mount) provides the designers plenty of space to direct light to the corners of their detectors without being constrained by the bracket's throat. Nikon claims that this will allow it to make lenses with apertures as broad as F0.95 and, indeed, it's already working on one.
Nikon also released an F-to-Z mount adapter that permits the use of F-mount lenses to the new cameras. This has a mechanical tether lever built in, allowing full utilization of AF-S along with AF-I lenses. Older AF-D lenses may offer automobile exposure (but no autofocus) and AI lenses will have complete metering. There's no aperture tab for use with'AI' or old lenses, though, or so the camera won't record an aperture value. On the other hand, elderly pre-Ai lenses will mount perfectly well and operate in stopped-down aperture manner.
Regrettably Nikon states that it won't be discussing the technical aspects of the mount with third-parties, preferring for now (such as Canon) to shield revenue of its own lenses. Therefore, unlike Micro Four Thirds and Sony E-Mount, third party manufacturers might need to reverse-engineer the mount.
New sensor
Behind the mount is a new,"Nikon designed" BSI CMOS detector. It's clearly closely related to the chip in the D850, which appeared to incorporate a mix of Nikon and Sony-developed technologies. The vital thing is that the processor still supplies a complete ISO 64 manner but today advantages on-sensor phase detection animations. The only drawback is the 493 AF points lead to some very slight sensor striping/banding, which restricts usable dynamic selection.
Behind the mount is a new,"Nikon designed" BSI CMOS detector. It's clearly closely related to the chip in the D850, which appeared to incorporate a mix of Nikon and Sony-developed technologies. The vital thing is that the processor still supplies a complete ISO 64 manner but today advantages on-sensor phase detection animations. The only drawback is the 493 AF points lead to some very slight sensor striping/banding, which restricts usable dynamic selection.
Nikon states that the on-sensor AF process is graded to -1EV with an F2 lens attached. This puts it well behind its own full-frame DSLRs and almost all of its mirrorless peers. Our testing does indeed confirm the AF system begins to search markedly around 0 or -1EV when shooting AF-S, and becoming worse if you stop the lens .
The Z7 can encourage continuous shooting at up to 5.5 frames per second if you need updated live view between shots, though that live view experience is less than ideal. This mode enables complete autofocus but locks the exposure settings after taking the initial image. High+ shoots at 8 fps at 14-bit Raw or 9fps if you drop to 12-bit style.
It may shoot just 25 fine high quality JPEGs, 23 12-bit Raws or even 18 14-bit Raws at its top burst speed. The usage of rapid XQD media signifies the buffer clears reasonably quickly but you'll certainly notice when you hit its limit and also the shooting speed drops dramatically. By comparison, the D850 is able to write to a XQD card almost as quickly as photos have been shot, providing an almost infinite buffer depth.