Nikon Launches Ultimate Mirrorless System

2018.08.24

Today is the day everyone has been waiting for! Nikon just announced their hotly-anticipated Full-Frame mirrorless system with two of the most advanced models produced to date. In contrast with the Nikon 1 system which aimed to take the low-end of the mirrorless market, the all-new Nikon Z system is aiming near the top by introducing two professional level digital cameras.

The Nikon Z platform is built around a completely new all-electronic lens mount with ultra-short 16mm flange-distance and wide 55mm throat. This makes it the shortest and widest mirrorless lens mount. Together this allows ultra-bright lenses such as the in-development Z-Noct 58mm F/0.95 to perform better and nearly every other lens mount to be adapted. Nikon, of course, is providing a F-mount adapter with support for over 90 lenses. The adapter is also fully weatherproof to maintain the whole system weatherproof when both camera and lens are too.

Nikon is introducing the Nikkor Z 24-70mm F/4S, Nikkor Z 35mm F/1.8S and Nikkor Z 50mm F/1.8S at the time of the launch. They also showed a roadmap listing planned lens launches until 2020. As always, Neocamera maintains a database of all current lenses and Z mount lenses are listed here. By next year, the S series will cover a 14-200mm range. Two constant F/4 zoom lenses making their appearance means Nikon is aiming to make the system relatively light.

The most highly-anticipated news of course are the two new cameras. The Nikon Z7 and Z6 are identical except for their sensors. The flagship Z7 is built around a 46 megapixels BSI-CMOS sensor with standard ISO 64-25600 sensitivity range. This expands to ISO 32-102400. At this resolution an impressive 9 FPS is achievable. The Z6 offers a 24 megapixels BSI-CMOS sensor with standard ISO 100-51200 sensitivity range, expandable to 50-204800, making it more sensitive and suitable for low-light photographer. The lower resolution allows for continuous shooting at 12 FPS. Both camera sensor offer built-in Phase-Detect AF with the Z7 offering a whopping 493-Point system while the Z6 has an still-impressive 273-Point one.

The Z7 and Z6 mirrorless cameras are quite compact for full-frame cameras and even smaller than some APS-C mirrorless from other manufacturers. Despite being this size, Nikon has emphasized ergonomics with these cameras by giving them a deep hand-grip, dual control-dials, a traditional mode-dial, an 8-way joystick, a 4-way controller and a high number of controls.

One of the most crucial part of a digital camera is its viewfinder. This pair of mirrorless cameras sport a top-notch 3.7 megapixels EVF with huge 0.8X magnification, 100% coverage and an essential Eye-Start Sensor. The back of the camera also sports an ultra-sharp 2.1 megapixels 3.2" LCD with 3: 2 aspect-ratio. A OLED status display provides information at a glance from the top of the camera.

A Nikon first and key feature for versatility of these cameras is a 5-axis image-stabilization system. This corrects for shifts in X and Y directions plus rotational movement around 3 axis. This system is effective to 5 stops, putting it just shy of the best-in-class systems currently available. Built-in stabilization makes every lens stabilized, including adapted lenses. When connected to a stabilized lens, both lenses combine to keep the total of 5 axis of image stabilization. This makes it possible to stabilize bright prime lenses and fisheye ones which are almost never stabilized by themselves.

These new mirrorless cameras are incredibly feature-rich. They all support 4K Ultra-HD video at 30 FPS or Full 1080p HD video at 120 FPS. Both are equipped with Time-Lapse Video, Interval Timer, Multiple Exposure, HDR and Extensive Bracketing features. 8K Time-Lapse are possible on the Z7 since it has sufficient resolution, although the video itself must be assembled on a computer. There are 5 metering modes on these cameras, just like on high-end Nikon DSLRs: Matrix (Multi-Segment), Average, Center-Weighed, Spot and Highlight-Weighed.

As one expects from high-end digital cameras, the Z7 and Z6 are weatherproof. Neither are freezeproof though but are said to be built to the same standard as the excellent Nikon D850 reviewed here. Unusual for professional models, these cameras sport a single memory-card slot. The slot currently supports XQD memory cards and will be upgraded later via firmware for CF Express.

These two amazing full-frame mirrorless cameras are expected as early as next month! The flagship Nikon Z7 has a suggested price of $3400 USD, while the Nikon Z6 will sell around $2000 USD. Pre-orders are already accepted:

Nikon Z7: Adorama - B&H Photo

Nikon Z6: Adorama - B&H Photo

Order yours today as these are expected to be in short supply. As always, you only get charged when your camera ships out.

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