NINE LIVES

NIKON’S ANNOUNCEMENT THAT a professional-level Z mount full frame mirrorless camera – the Z 9 – is on the way is significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, getting in early is obviously designed to send a message to any of its high-end DSLR users who might be getting itchy feet looking at Sony’s Alpha 1 and the ever-expanding FE mount lens system. Nikon is also promising Z mount 400mm and 600mm supertelephoto primes sometime between now and the middle of 2022. In fact, Nikon says it plans to have a system of 30 Nikkor Z mount lenses by then, which is impressive.

A pro Z mount camera is also a confirmation of Nikon’s commitment to mirrorless (as, of course, is 30 Z mount lenses), which is a bigger statement when you consider the company’s heritage with the single lens reflex. Nikon pioneered the professional 35mm SLR system when it launched the legendary F back in 1959 and there’s been a string of important cameras right up to the current D6… although the real highlights would probably be the F2, F4 (with a nod to the F3AF), F5, D1 series, D2X, D3 and D3X, and the D5. Although Nikon is – and has been – in lots of other camera categories, somehow the brand always seem synonymous with tough-as-nails, highperformance SLRs. The Z 9 sends the message that a new era of Nikon pro cameras is about to dawn so… well, get ready for it. It’s been clear for a while that the future in interchangeable lens cameras is mirrorless, but somehow the announcement of the Nikon Z 9 adds the emphatic full stop. It says; if Nikon, champion of the pro SLR, is now building a mirrorless equivalent then it really is happening and it’s farewell to the reflex camera. No surprise really, but the Z 9 looks like the final nail in the coffin.

And it could well happen quicker than we think if production resources need to be redeployed to make mirrorless cameras rather than DSLRs. Nikon, like most of the major camera makers, has been forced to rationalise falling camera sales over the last couple of years so it really can’t be criticised for concentrating on the future rather than the past. I think it’s fair to expect a gradual wind-down of DSLR body and lens production – it will be the same at Canon – over the next couple of years as models come to the end of their life cycles and simply aren’t replaced.

Of course, there are already quite a number of mirrorless cameras on the market that can be considered pro-level from Fujifilm, Leica, Olympus, Panasonic and Sony, but Nikon and Canon have basically had a stranglehold on this market for decades which is why what they do here is so significant. Given a great many professional photographers are still using Canon or Nikon DSLRs, it’s not surprising that Sony is trying to seduce them with the Alpha 1 or Fujifilm with the medium format GFX 100S. They will – and undoubtedly already have – made some converts, but brand loyalty runs deep, which is why it’s the Z 9 and the likely ‘EOS R1’ that spell the end for the pro DSLR rather than the mirrorless configuration per se.