Amateur Photographer

Nikon Z 50

Despite the full-frame hype, APS- C still has a lot to offer

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FOR ALL the hoopla around Nikon’s new full-frame mirrorless system, there’s one important point that’s barely been discussed. The most ‘affordable’ of its new cameras is the Nikon Z 6, which will set you back £2,100 for the body alone, before you even think about buying a native lens or two. If mirrorless really is the future, and SLRs are on the way out, that’s never going to be within reach of photograph­ers making the first step up from shooting with a smartphone. But without appealing to such people, how can the company attract the new blood it’ll always need?

The answer is pretty obvious: by producing a much cheaper offering with an APS- C (or in Nikon-speak, DX) sensor. After all, Sony has its Alpha 6000-series models and Canon has its EOS M range. Surely Nikon has to produce something along the same lines, and do so sooner rather than later?

This brings us to another of the lessercons­idered points of the Z system. Nikon claims that its large 55mm mount diameter facilitate­s the design of faster lenses. But Sony has countered this by saying that its E-mount can easily cater for f/1.4 primes, whereas Nikon’s Z mount limits the prospects for small camera designs. Who is right? I suspect it’s six of one, half-a- dozen of the other; Nikon should be capable of making just as small a camera as the Canon EOS 200D, with its 54mm- diameter EF mount.

DX mirrorless

I’d like to see Nikon make a Z-mount APS- C model to go head-to-head with the likes of the Fujifilm X-T20 and Olympus OM- D E- M10 III, which I consider to be the most attractive models of their type. It needs to be compact and tactile, with twin control dials, a decent viewfinder and a tilting touchscree­n, but ideally hit a price around £700 complete with a basic kit zoom. This would bring Nikon mirrorless within reach of the kind of budding enthusiast­s who could well go on to become lifelong customers.

 ??  ?? Might there be a more affordable APS-C version of the Nikon Z?
Might there be a more affordable APS-C version of the Nikon Z?

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