Nikon Z* mirrorless

But if you are prepared to accept grey, and need a camera now, you can get a brand new Z9 from Panamoz for £4149. So with the Z8 currently sat at £3999, unless you need the smaller size of the Z8, you can beat the queues so to speak for almost the same price.
Or a refurb Z9 from Nikon for even cheaper.

I guess it all depends on what you want size wise. Personally, a Z9 would be way too big for my needs, but a Z8 would be plenty big enough.

Maybe I’ll look at a Z8 when they bring out a 700-200 f4 Z mount :ROFLMAO:
 
One of the top performers and a real bargain is the Delkin Power 128GB... it's what I'm using in the Z9. Too small for any real 8k video work, but I've never come close to filling one shooting photos.
The larger Delkin Power cards do not perform to the same level...

The ProMaster Velocity Cine cards (also by Delkin) are also high performance bargains.


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Thanks Steven.
Over here the Delkin Power 128GB is the same price as the Delkin Black 150GB

Will it make any difference for a non-video shooter?
 
But if you are prepared to accept grey, and need a camera now, you can get a brand new Z9 from Panamoz for £4149. So with the Z8 currently sat at £3999, unless you need the smaller size of the Z8, you can beat the queues so to speak for almost the same price.
So are Panamoz a reliable company to buy from and what about warranty
 
So are Panamoz a reliable company to buy from and what about warranty

Yes without doubt the best company I've dealt with, communication is spot on, delivery time is quick when you consider where it's coming from, I think my last one was about 4 days, and of course you have a 3 year warranty that's transferable, so what's not to like ;)
 
Very clever for those who want a smaller Z9 body that's cheaper
But from Nikons business point of view they have just lost thousands of sales on the Z9's.

To my mind this Z8 should have been a crop sensor 32MB camera with dual card slots the same, not different why SD and CFE/XQD.! crazy to me.

What a lost opportunity to introduce a really great crop sensor camera for sports and wildlife, how great a light crop sensor camera the same specs as a Z9 would be with the very light Z 400mm f2.8 with converter. Wow! a winner all the way.
 
To be fair whilst your idea sounds perfect for a sports / wildlife camera, to get a 32mp in DX sized sensor, you would need a sensor with a FF density of approx. 75-80mp. AFAIK, only Fuji has something like that at present ? I think that Nikon just don't have access to that type of sensor at the moment (maybe in the not too distant future). I would love a spiritual successor to the fantastic D500.

I think the Z8 was a reaction from it's userbase for a smaller and lighter Z9 so they just reused as many parts from the Z9 parts bin as possible to keep R&D costs and sales prices as low as possible, and ready to market quickly.
 
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That crop sensor sports camera opportunity isn't lost, just further down the road.
As for killing off Z9 sales, yes it will in all but the professional users. But many that bought the Z9 only bought it because it was as good as it was, without any other alternative from Nikon.
Now those Z9 purchasers are looking at the Z8 as well as others who wanted a Z9 but couldn't afford it or was too big (me)
Then we have the situation were people will buy the Z8 because it's got the Z9 internals(mostly) in a smaller lighter and cheaper package.
On top of all that, there's people wanting a better Nikon camera than what they have (Z6/Z7 users), but again no alternative so will buy the Z8.

It's like Nikon has rinsed everyone with the Z9 and now moving down slightly and doing it again with the Z8.
Both are fantastic cameras, at an extremely competitive price point. So the end user is paying more than they'd like or need too, but getting a very capable camera for the money.

The different memory cards allow users to start shooting with practically any cheapo SD card, also if you ever forget a memory card, chances are you could purchase one quite easily and cheaply compared to cfexpress. It will hamper speeds when shooting to both cards for backup reasons, so either use it as an over flow or only use the cfexpress if speed is the main priority.

In either the Z9 or Z8 you get a fantastic crop shooting camera of approx 20mp in DX mode, so rather than having two cameras, like I used to before the D850 came along, one body can cover both FX and DX bases.
 
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To be fair whilst your idea sounds perfect for a sports / wildlife camera, to get a 32mp in DX sized sensor, you would need a sensor with a FF density of approx. 75-80mp. AFAIK, only Fuji has something like that at present ?

40mp APSC - great in theory - but what lens will get to the point of resolving on that sensor.
 
To be fair whilst your idea sounds perfect for a sports / wildlife camera, to get a 32mp in DX sized sensor, you would need a sensor with a FF density of approx. 75-80mp. AFAIK, only Fuji has something like that at present ? I think that Nikon just don't have access to that type of sensor at the moment (maybe in the not too distant future). I would love a spiritual successor to the fantastic D500.

I think the Z8 was a reaction from it's userbase for a smaller and lighter Z9 so they just reused as many parts from the Z9 parts bin as possible to keep R&D costs and sales prices as low as possible, and ready to market quickly.

Been on sale for quite a while now. 32.5 Mp And that sensor is slightly smaller than a Nikon crop. 1.6 v 1.5.

 
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But from Nikons business point of view they have just lost thousands of sales on the Z9's.

To my mind this Z8 should have been a crop sensor 32MB camera with dual card slots.
I doubt Nikon will lose to much from sales of the Z9. The Z8 was always going to be a FF camera, as it's what D850 owners have been waiting for, and the D850 was primarily a landscape camera. As regards dual slots, for the life of me I don't see why landscape/cityscape shooters need fast cards, so SDs would of been fine, having said that it appears CF express are the future, so there was always going to be one in there. I think a mirrorless version of the D500 with 2 CF express slots won't be to far behind though, to compliment the long Z lenses.
 
I doubt Nikon will lose to much from sales of the Z9. The Z8 was always going to be a FF camera, as it's what D850 owners have been waiting for, and the D850 was primarily a landscape camera. As regards dual slots, for the life of me I don't see why landscape/cityscape shooters need fast cards, so SDs would of been fine, having said that it appears CF express are the future, so there was always going to be one in there. I think a mirrorless version of the D500 with 2 CF express slots won't be to far behind though, to compliment the long Z lenses.

We don't. I have XQDs in the D850 and would have been happy with dual SDs, cheaper cards.

I love my D850s, it would take a lot to get me out of them.
 
Will it make any difference for a non-video shooter?
Nope...

And unless you do LONG bursts at 20fps at the largest raw file size almost any compatible card will do. You can record over 40 lossless compressed images (2+ sec) with an XQD card and the slowest CFE-B. And I record HE*; don't see any benefit from lossless compressed.
 
So just got off the phone to Grays and they've given me a superb deal to sell them my Z9. Waiting eagerly for the Z8 to start shipping now as it was painful shooting an event at the weekend with the Z6 AF.

Now to try and decide if I keep both my 50mm 1.8s and the 1.2s or sell one of them to help fund a second Z8.
 
So just got off the phone to Grays and they've given me a superb deal to sell them my Z9. Waiting eagerly for the Z8 to start shipping now as it was painful shooting an event at the weekend with the Z6 AF.

Now to try and decide if I keep both my 50mm 1.8s and the 1.2s or sell one of them to help fund a second Z8.
I'm glad you got a price you are happy with. It's hard to stomach losing so much on kit but unfortunately it's just the way, especially when they release a new camera.
Myself personally, I'd hold on to the 50mm f1.8. It's a stellar lens and on those days when f1.2 and it's weight isn't needed/wanted the f1.8 will come in handy.
I have the 24-70 f4 for this exact reason.
Not to mention that they don't get great money selling them for how good they are.
 
I'm glad you got a price you are happy with. It's hard to stomach losing so much on kit but unfortunately it's just the way, especially when they release a new camera.
Myself personally, I'd hold on to the 50mm f1.8. It's a stellar lens and on those days when f1.2 and it's weight isn't needed/wanted the f1.8 will come in handy.
I have the 24-70 f4 for this exact reason.
Not to mention that they don't get great money selling them for how good they are.

Very happy with the price I got since it wasn't far off what I wanted and more than the new import cost.

As for the 50mm. That's kind of why I still have it, I have used it a few times along with the 28mm as a compact travel setup. I just don't do that very often :)
 
It does seem that they're going to maximise on mass demand from the word go.
Maybe this is a sign of things to come, announcement and delivery within a very short time frame.
Nikon did flood youtubers with the camera, now retailers are having demo days already with it and a release in a weeks time. Smart approach.
 
Very happy with my 4-year old Z6, so no need to be looking for a new camera, but was interested in seeing what the new Z8 would be like. Very impressive, but also very expensive. Closer to £3000 would make it a lot more attractive to me. Plus; I used to use an old D600 with a battery grip, and the Z8 + grip combo is quite ugly imo, and makes it larger than the Z9! For what that combo would cost, I'd rather stump up the extra and get a Z9, personally. Academic, because I'm not likely to be buying a new camera for a while yet anyway. And when I do, it'll be more likely to be whatever the Z6 equivalent is by then. The one big mistake Nikon made with the Z6/7, is the lack of a proper control grip (like they subsequently conceded the Z6/7ii versions needed). So a camera of that size, with a control grip, would be preferable to me, than a Z8.
 
If you are going to have a grip on the Z8 for most of the time it makes far more sense to get the Z9 instead. But if you don't need the grip the Z8 is a no brainer unless you shoot a lot of video.
 
Further to my posts #8,508 & #8,516, my Z6ii and goodies arrived at 9 am on Monday. Took about 8 day deliver.
This is the first Mirrorless camera that I have seen/handled.
Some of the controls are a tad small for my 80 year old hands; but I will manage OK.
My old Corel PaintshopPro X7 refuses to handle the raw files, so may look elsewhere. I don't want to pay monthly to PhotoShop etc.
Are there any decent photo editing software bundles out there? I don't mind up to £200 for a one-off payment
Any advice much appreciated.
Below is a cropped photo, The original is too large to download
00cropped.jpg
 
Further to my posts #8,508 & #8,516, my Z6ii and goodies arrived at 9 am on Monday. Took about 8 day deliver.
This is the first Mirrorless camera that I have seen/handled.
Some of the controls are a tad small for my 80 year old hands; but I will manage OK.
My old Corel PaintshopPro X7 refuses to handle the raw files, so may look elsewhere. I don't want to pay monthly to PhotoShop etc.
Are there any decent photo editing software bundles out there? I don't mind up to £200 for a one-off payment
Any advice much appreciated.
Below is a cropped photo, The original is too large to download
View attachment 389591
DXO photolab 6. On1 RAW. Both come with 30 day free trials.
 
If you are going to have a grip on the Z8 for most of the time it makes far more sense to get the Z9 instead. But if you don't need the grip the Z8 is a no brainer unless you shoot a lot of video.
I've handled a Z9, and whilst it's pretty big, it's still not too bad. One of the cons of the Z6 is that it doesn't handle well with bigger lenses; the D600 with grip was far better ergonomically. I found I left the grip on the D600 because it handled so well with it. The Z6 is very nice when a small camera is preferable, especially for travelling. Much less tiring to lug about. The Z9 is somewhat smaller than the D6, which in turn is actually slightly smaller than a D600 with grip, or indeed any of the D7xx or D8xx range, plus respective grips. So, considering I used to happily travel with a D600 and grip, the Z9 wouldn't be so bad really. The Z8 doesn't appeal to me so much. It's like when I bought a F100 to be a smaller version of my F5; yes, it was 90% of all the F5 was really, but it just wasn't as good. I found myself suffering the extra size and weight of the F5, because I preferred it.
 
So just got off the phone to Grays and they've given me a superb deal to sell them my Z9. Waiting eagerly for the Z8 to start shipping now as it was painful shooting an event at the weekend with the Z6 AF.

Now to try and decide if I keep both my 50mm 1.8s and the 1.2s or sell one of them to help fund a second Z8.
A perfect example of what I said in an earlier post not only will Nikon lose thousands of sales on the Z9, we even have people selling their Z9's to buy Z8's.

I think there could be a touch of GAS here though.
 
A perfect example of what I said in an earlier post not only will Nikon lose thousands of sales on the Z9, we even have people selling their Z9's to buy Z8's.

I think there could be a touch of GAS here though.
No gas. It’s needing a lighter weight setup that’s caused me to move from the Z9 to the Z8. And since it’s a straight swap for it I’m happy with that.

I’m not sure Nikon are bothered about a few less Z9 sales. The Z9 i suspect was selling in higher numbers than would normally be expect due to having no other option. Now they do. I wouldn’t have bought a Z9 as I don’t want the extra size and weight, but had no option until now.
 
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it was painful shooting an event at the weekend with the Z6 AF.
Can I ask how it was 'painful'? I understand that the AF on the Z6 isn't the absolute best ever, but to me, it's bloody incredible. Of corse we all have out own way of working, but a lot of what I shoot is 'events', very often in less than ideal light, so I'm interested in how the Z6AF system is in any way inadequate.
 
I've never had real success with the AF on the Z6/7 models, it's significantly better than it was, and the Zii's aren't really much better if at all and I find it extremely frustrating to use at events where things are moving fast and the AF just can't keep up. The Z9 may still have subject detection issues at times but in single point it's like a focus ninja, you don't have to question it. The Z6 just misses a lot in my experience. Not helped by shooting shallow DOF which slows it down even more.
 
I've never had real success with the AF on the Z6/7 models, it's significantly better than it was, and the Zii's aren't really much better if at all and I find it extremely frustrating to use at events where things are moving fast and the AF just can't keep up. The Z9 may still have subject detection issues at times but in single point it's like a focus ninja, you don't have to question it. The Z6 just misses a lot in my experience. Not helped by shooting shallow DOF which slows it down even more.
I have to say I've never had any major issues with the focussing system in my Z6; I will use the system best suited to the kind of situation I'm shooting in, and I find that the 'self selecting' mode isn't always reliable, because it can't possibly know what I want to focus on if there's multiple objects in a scene. But I wouldn't expect it to be. I prefer to use my own intuition and skill to anticipate where to focus, and use the little toggle thingy to move the focus selection point around. I have to say I use that a lot less since the introduction of eye AF; that to me is just incredible. But for context; I'm coming more from a background of manual focussing, and very basic single point AF, So I'm used to having to anticipate focussing. I find that discipline serves me quite well, and together with the camera's AF systems, have a much higher success rate these days. I'll never rely on a machine to do things 100% to what I want. Perhaps you're expecting too much from it?

Just out of interest; what sort of events are you shooting, that the AF can't keep up?
 
Morning,


Sorry have done a quick search but could not find the answer or a recent post.

So at present
1. What is a good card to get for the z6ii - QXD or CF Express?
2. Looking for a about 64gb as do not want one for video at present and do not shot sports, which one to get to get going?
3.Which card reader to get, ideally one that does QXD, CF Express and SD?
4. I have a number of Nikon and 3rd party batteries for my D750, can I use these with the Z6ii (I know I cannot charge in camera)?

Sorry for asking so many questions.

Thank you
 
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Morning,


Sorry have done a quick search but could not find the answer or a recent post.

So at present
1. What is a good card to get for the z6ii - QXD or CF Express?
2. Looking for a about 64gb as do not want one for video at present and do not shot sports, which one to get to get going?
3.Which card reader to get, ideally one that does QXD, CF Express and SD?
4. I have a number of Nikon and 3rd party batteries for my D750, can I use these with the Z6ii (I know I cannot charge in camera)?

Sorry for asking so many questions.

Thank you
1. I’m using XQD cards as I had some from my D4. I don’t need the extra speed of the CF Express, you may find it beneficial depending on how / what you shoot.
2. I use Sony ones, again because it’s what I already had but I’ve also bought a couple of larger Sony ones from MPB because they seem to have lots of Sony cards.
3. Take your pick, I’m not sure any one is better than any other!
4. I tried my Hahnel batteries from my old D810 and none were recognised by either my Z6ii / Z7ii, but the Nikon ones were so the Hahnel ones were sold with the D810. I’ve picked up a few EN-EL15C’s from MPB as well, but their prices aren’t much lower than new at the moment if you shop around.
 
The Z6ii comes with an SD card slot, no? I wish my Z6 had. Unless you need the speed of XQD/CF-E, then SD will be absolutely fine. And a LOT cheaper. I had a 120Gb XQD card fail on me just out of warranty. Expensive. :mad: I'd far rather have a few SD cards. So, as said, unless you need the speed/are doing video etc, then SD will be fine.
 
Thank you both. Don’t need the speed but the preference is on having 2 cards, in for RAW and the other for Jpeg.
 
I've been using the Integral 128GB CFexpress Memory Card Type B for a couple of years now in my Z6 and Z7. I now have 3 of them and (touchwood) they've been rock solid for me. Fair bit less expensive than some other brands. £89.95 for 128gb from Amazon.
 
Thank you both. Don’t need the speed but the preference is on having 2 cards, in for RAW and the other for Jpeg.
Yes; I did that with my D600 with dual SD card slots. The single XQD slot in the Z6 is it's biggest weakness, I think. That, and the fact it can't take a control grip, is annoying. Would have been nice if Nikon had got the Z6/7 'right' from the beginning, really. But neither are all that big a deal for me in real world usage.
 
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I had a play with a Z8 today at my local WEX.
I've one ordered but wanted to feel it in my hand. I've quite large hands and my little finger never made it on to my Z7II body even with a extension bracket.
I'm glad to say the Z8 allows it to make contact with it, but I may end up with an extension bracket on it as well.
It also dispelled any worry about battery life, taking over 2K images using only 6% of the battery. This was in 20fps bursts so not really a great indicator but shows I could get 1K easily shooting normally.
I used the 85mm f1.2 and it's a dream teamed with the Z8, as was the 400mm f2.8 with 1.4TC.
Eye and subject tracking wasn't flawless but certainly very very very good.
It's the improvement that'll give me confidence again that was lacking since moving from the D850 to Z6 then Z7II, to capture sports and wildlife.
I was going to sell my Z7II privately, but I don't think I'd even get the price I got quoted for trade-in against the Z8.

The rep did say the following but I'd maybe be a little sceptical.
He said Z7II was getting a firmware update soon.
Plenty of Z8 stockpiled for release and I should get day one.
Z9 to get anything Z8 has that it doesn't via firmware soon.
All lenses on the roadmap to be released this year, naming the 35mm f1.2 and 200-600mm specifically.
 
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