Professional opinions on the Z 9
Paul Wilkinson Portrait photographer
The first thing I noticed about the Nikon Z 9 is how it felt: it is not a lightweight camera by any means – just a 100g slimmer than my beloved D5 – but it balances beautifully against the Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S (my current go-to lens). The camera feels natural in my hands; every button, dial and joystick is located where it should be. Given there is no mirror, no prism, no shutter and a completely new flip-screen, it is remarkable how this camera feels more like my Nikon D5 than my Z 7II. And that is a good thing. The speed of this thing is, frankly, addictive: the immediacy of the release and the AF is pretty much instant. With a 20fps continuous shutter rate, things can get quite lively (and with no mechanical shutter, they can also be incredibly quiet). It can sometimes feel like you’re shooting video: except that you are slamming 20 massive Raw files into those memory cards every single second! The electronic viewfinder (EVF) and the articulating screen are bright and clear, though having shot with SLRS all my life I am still acclimatizing to using the EVF. That said, being able to flip it out completely, in portrait and landscape modes, is useful – it certainly saves having dirty knees to get those low-angle shots! I have to mention the Ai-driven focusing at this point. It is addictive. As a portrait photographer, I love being able to use my Z 85mm f/1.8 S lens wide open, knowing that the eyes will be pin-sharp shot after shot after shot. If your subject is further away, the focus changes to the whole face and, eventually, the whole body. It’s unnervingly accurate.
Andrew Mason Wildlife photographer
With the Z 9, the improved AF meant it was time to go mirrorless. I have changed my Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70200mm f/2.8 F-mount lenses for the new Z-mount equivalents. I have kept my Nikon F-mount 600mm FL f/4mm and 180-400mm f/4mm TC1.4 lenses, and have found the autofocus of the Z 9 with the FTZ II adapter on these two F-mount lenses is as fast as – if not faster than – my D5 and the D850. Photographing birds in flight is a great real-world test of AF. I photographed short-eared owls backlit, shooting towards the setting sun late in the afternoon, which is even more demanding for AF. I used AF-C with Wide-area AF (Large) and Animal subject detection selected. The Z 9 found and locked onto the owls’ eyes – it really works! I also could move the focus area out to the peripheries. The increased burst speed of up to 20fps for Raw images makes it easier to catch the critical moment. As the Z 9 has no mechanical shutter, it makes virtually no noise, which is a real advantage when photographing sensitive wildlife. Image quality is on par with – if not better than – the D850. The Z 9’s high resolution allows cropping for wildlife to tweak compositions, and also allows images to be downsized, which has the effect of reducing image noise; this is useful when shooting wildlife in low light using high ISO. But as the Z 9 has no mirror or shutter there is no mechanical vibration when shooting and, together with the in-body stabilization, the Z 9 will allow me to use a slower shutter speed than with the D850 resulting in lower ISO and cleaner images.