NIKON Z 50
A new baby for the Z system that’s particularly ideal for travel
Detail is very well rendered, with accurate, well-balanced exposures
Nikon has already proved its worth in the mirrorless market, with its fantastic fullframe Z 7 and Z 6 cameras introduced in 2018.
The natural next step was to bring out a more consumer-friendly mass market option, which now appears in the form of the smaller sensor (APS-C) Z 50.
A 20.9-megapixel sensor is at the heart of this camera, which essentially distils everything we liked about its full-frame siblings, but puts it in a smaller and lighter body. Importantly, it has the same lens mount as the Z 6 and the Z 7, so you can share lenses between the cameras. Handy if you want to pick this up to use as a backup or travel camera to your full-frame ‘main camera’. Alternatively if you later decide to upgrade to a full-frame Z series model, you’ll be able to take along any glass you’ve accumulated along the way.
As well as shrinking the body, the price has also been dramatically reduced - good news if you’re putting your cash towards your travels.
Despite its small size, the Z 50 still handles well, with a useful number of dials and buttons across its diminutive body. A small section of the screen is blocked off for virtual touchscreen options too, so that helps with the feeling of it being uncramped.
All three of the cameras in this round-up have completely different screens. The Z 50’s 3.2-inch LCD is touch-sensitive but it only tilts up and down. This is great for quickly adjusting for awkward framing, but it’s not so handy for portrait-format images. On the plus side, it tilts all the way down to face forward - useful for selfies.
When not using the screen, you’ll probably want to work with the 0.39-inch, 2360k-dot electronic viewfinder. It’s not quite as bright and clear as the Fujifilm X-Pro3’s, but it’s still very useable nonetheless.
Other useful features of the Z 50 include a micro-USB charging port, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for using the camera with the free Snapbridge app, and a single SD card slot (Nikon has ditched the more expensive and harder to find XQD cards for its cheaper model).
Despite the smaller sensor than its full-frame siblings, the Z 50 is still very capable of producing excellent imagery. Detail is very well rendered, with accurate, well-balanced exposures and vibrant colours.
It isn’t the world’s best camera for action sequences (none of these cameras is), but it’s more than enough for capturing relatively easy-to-follow subjects, such as pets, kids and sedate sports. For static subjects, autofocusing in general is quick and accurate in most scenarios.