Nikon Z 5 review
Is Nikon’s rst entry-level full-frame mirrorless camera a success? Michael Topham got out and about with the Z 5 to form his expert opinion
After the release of Nikon’s rst APS-C mirrorless camera, it was suspected a more affordable entry-level model might emerge. Instead of releasing a simpli ed model to sit below the Z 50, Nikon decided to revisit its full-frame line-up and introduce an affordable mirrorless offering to compete against other rival sub-£2,000 full-frame cameras.
Positioned below the company’s high-resolution Z 7 and its general-purpose Z 6, the new Z 5 inherits technology from both cameras while introducing a few enticing features not offered by its peers. Priced at £1,449 (body only) at launch, it works out just £100 less than what you’d pay for the Nikon Z 6 body (£1549). So what ultimately, makes the better buy for those ready to step up into the world of full-frame?
Features
Like the Z 6 and Z 7, the Z 5 shares the same large-diameter, short back-focus lens mount that has a ange distance of 16mm from lens to sensor. To keep existing Nikon users happy, the Z5 can happily be paired and used with F mount (FX) lenses via Nikon’s FTZ adapter (£269).
Though the pixel count is similar to the Z 6, the Z 5’s sensor is different. The Z 5’s 24.3-million-pixel sensor is a conventional CMOS chip, whereas the Z 6’s has a back-illuminated structure, which should see it deliver a slightly better performance in low light. More on this later. The chip features an anti-aliasing lter like the Z 6 and shoots across the same native ISO sensitivity range of ISO 100-51,200, however it doesn’t permit shooting as high as ISO
204,800. Enter the extended ISO settings and it shoots between ISO 50 and 102,400.
Whereas the Z 6 can re off a burst at a brisk 12fps, the Z 5 shoots continuously at a rather more pedestrian 4.5fps. This is somewhat suprising considering it uses the EXPEED 6 image processor like the Z 6. The silent shooting mode is invaluable for shooting inconspicuously and automatically engages the electronic shutter. One peculiarity that we observed on the Z 6 and Z 7, whereby the highest shutter speed is restricted when using the electronic rst-curtain option, is the same on the Z 5. While it’s handy being able to enable the electronic rst-curtain to eradicate blurring caused by shutter shock, you’ll need to disable if you’d like to shoot faster than 1/2000sec.
To counteract shaky handheld movements, the Z 5 inherits the same 5-axis in-body stabilisation system as used previously within the Z 6 and Z 7. This is great to see on a camera at this level and gives it an advantage over rivals that rely entirely on optical stabilisation built into the lens. The IBIS system promises to let users shoot sharp shots up to 5 stops slower than is otherwise possible. Compared to the usual pitch and yaw correction that’s provided by in-lens optical stabilisation, IBIS additionally corrects for rotation around the lens axis, which helps when shooting handheld video or attempting shots using slow shutter speeds. In addition, it corrects left-right and up-down movements, which can have a signi cant impact when shooting subjects and details from close distances. Pairing the Z 5 with an F mount (FX) lens with vibration reduction (VR) built in via Nikon’s FTZ adapter sees the in-body and in-lens systems work together. Pitch and yaw is corrected by the lens, with IBIS compensating for rotation around the lens axis.
The Z 5’s hybrid autofocus system is similar to the Z 6’s. It arranges 273 phase detection AF points across 90% of the frame area and you get the option to select every other point for faster AF point positioning across the frame. The detection range isn’t as extensive as the Z 6’s though. It covers -3EV to 19EV when low-light mode is enabled from the autofocus custom setting menu and -2EV to +19EV when it’s turned off. Elsewhere, users get a ne selection of AF-area modes, including single-point AF, the choice of two wide-area AF modes and an auto AF mode that combines with face detection and subject tracking.
Video is available in 4K (UHD) resolution at up to 30p, but unlike the Z 6 that records 4K (UHD) footage using the full width of the sensor, the Z 5 enforces a 1.7x crop. This means you’re unable to shoot 4K video wider than 41mm equivalent using the 24-50mm kit lens, which may not be wide enough. Switching to Full HD 1080p lets you record movies without a crop at frame rates up to 60p, but again the Z 6 has an advantage here in the way it’s better suited to slow motion recording with frame rates up to 120fps. Microphone and headphone sockets are provided and are located one above the other to the side of the HDMI, USB-C and remote ports.
For power, the Z 5 accepts
Nikon’s EN-EL15c battery. It is compatible with older EN-EL15 batteries too, but users won’t get the same number of shots per charge (470 with the LCD and 390 shots with the EVF) as they will with the EN-EL15c. The Z 5 supports USB power delivery too. This serves as a useful way of topping up the battery between shooting, with the option to power the Z 5 when it’s turned on during operation.
Build & handling
So-called ‘entry-level’ cameras get a bit of a bad reputation when it comes to build quality. By using cheaper materials, manufacturers can cut costs in production and offer cameras for considerably less than top-of-the-line models. The good news is that Nikon hasn’t cut any corners with the Z 5. My rst impression handling the camera out of the box was that the build quality upholds a similar feel and same level of robustness as the Z 6 and Z 7. Despite its positioning at the lower-end of the Z-series, it’s weather sealed just like its peers. Anyone who shoots regularly in the portrait orientation or would like to increase shooting stamina will appreciate that the MB-N10 battery grip provides exactly the same level of dust-and dripresistance as the body.
It’s hard to spot differences between the Z 6/Z 7 and the Z 5 when they’re all viewed from the front. It has a similar rubberised grip and pair of customisable function buttons beside the lens mount. The dimensions of the body are virtually identical too, with the biggest difference on the top plate being the position of the mode dial. It doesn’t require you to hold a centre button to rotate it and positively locates at each mode setting. Meanwhile, the
positioning of the movie-rec, ISO and exposure compensation buttons are unchanged. They’re positioned behind the shutter button that’s surrounded by the On/Off switch for intuitive start-up with your index nger.
After the criticisms Nikon received for releasing the Z 6 and Z 7 with a single XQD card slot, it’s good to see the Z 5 equipped with two SD card slots, both of which support UHS-II memory cards. The role played by slot 2 that is staggered below slot 1 can be set to over ow, backup or to record JPEGs when raw les are being recorded to slot 1.
At the rear the Z 5’s layout of buttons and controls is a carbon copy of the Z 6 and Z 7. This is good for anyone contemplating the Z 5 as a backup body and means you can transition between all of Nikon’s full-frame mirrorless models without giving operation a second thought. You get all the dedicated buttons you need, including an excellent ‘i’ button that can be customised to instantly pull up your most frequently used settings.
Like we said when we reviewed the Z 6 and Z 7, the Z 5 provides a sensational handling experience that makes it comfortable to operate with smaller and larger lenses alike. It’s hard to think of a way that Nikon could improve the handling characteristics of the camera. With its weather sealing, metal chassis and high-quality construction, the Z 5 is much more robustly made than its entry-level status implies.
View nder and screen
Another likeness between the Z 5 and Nikon’s Z 6 and Z 7 is the electronic view nder it uses. The Z 5’s 3.6m-dot EVF with 0.8x magni cation doesn’t match the resolution offered by some of the 5.76-million-dot EVFs we’ve tested of late, yet it’s a good example that faithfully displays exposure adjustments, white balance and colour in the preview image. As well as providing a high level of sharpness in normal viewing and at magni ed settings, it’s ideal for reviewing images when bright sunlight plays havoc with re ections on the rear screen. The brightness and colour balance of the view nder can be manually adjusted from the setup menu, but I found no reason to deviate from their default settings during my testing. The EVF has a refresh rate of 60fps and switches between monitor and view nder displays quickly when the camera is raised or pulled away from the eye. The latter can be changed from the monitor mode selection button if you’d prefer to only use the EVF or screen rather than let it switch automatically.
Complementing the view nder is a 3.2in, 1,040k-dot touchscreen that can be tilted down by 45° for overhead shots and upwards by 90°
to aid with low-level shooting. It displays a clear and detailed preview in live view and playback modes and the sensitivity of the touch panel can’t be faulted either. It lets you navigate your way through the main menu precisely with very light taps and isn’t affected by rain droplets on its surface.
Autofocus
It is quite easy to lose track of the AF point on the rear screen when the AF area mode is set to pinpoint AF or single-point AF and you’re working in bright conditions outdoors. I put this down to the boundary lines of the AF target being fairly thin. To reacquaint myself with its position I ended up nudging the AF point around the frame on a few occasions. The AF target can be shifted diagonally across the frame as well as up/down and left/right. With all AF points active it takes 2.3secs to shift the AF point from one side of the frame to the other compared to 1.6secs when every other point is selected.
Face and eye detection is useful when shooting portraits, though this is one of the few things that cannot be added to a function button and has to be accessed via the AF settings from the custom setting menu. Users get the option to select which eye they’d like the camera to focus on from a ick of the joystick and it’s the same when the camera is set to animal detection. Nikon still isn’t as advanced as Sony though in offering eye detection when recording movies, so it’s disabled when you enter video mode.
Performance
The Z 5 behaves like the Z 6 and Z 7 in the way it’s quick to start up and responds instantaneously to button presses. At no time during general use did the camera interrupt my shooting, or prevent me capturing the shots I wanted. Nikon DSLR users tempted by the Z 5 as an upgrade to their existing camera will immediately feel at home navigating the menu. For those unfamiliar with Nikon, the Z 5 isn’t a daunting camera to pick up and use. Auto mode returns good results in the hands of novices who’d like to simply point and shoot and there is everything you could want at your ngertips to take manual control as your ability and experience grows.
The Z 5’s matrix metering rarely misjudges scenes and exposes well for dim and bright conditions alike. There were only a few cases where I opted to dial down the exposure by -0.7EV in order to preserve highlight detail.
Loaded with a pair of SDXC II 64GB memory cards facilitating 280MB/s read and 250MB/s write speeds, the Z 5 could record just shy of 100 raw les in its continuous high (4.5fps) shooting mode. I expected it to shoot for longer with image quality set to JPEG (Fine) only, but again the buffer had to be given a few seconds to clear after 99 frames before more could be taken.
Pairing the Z 5 with a mobile device and setting it up to automatically send shots across via Bluetooth is straightforward and entirely reliable. It’ll even continue to send images across one by one after the camera is switched off and it took around 20 seconds between ring the shutter and the image appearing in the app and the camera roll.
Testing the Z 5 with a variety of Z-mount lenses showed that the 5-axis in-body stabilisation system does a commendable job of counteracting shake associated with handheld photography. It plays an important role in ruling out jittery handheld movements when shooting video from stationary positions too and I was impressed by how well it compensated for shake when zooming and panning. With the 24-50mm kit lens, which isn’t stabilised, I was able to shoot sharp shots as slow as 1/2sec at the wide end and 1/5sec at 50mm. Meanwhile, with the Z 70-200mm f2.8 VR S I managed a high hit rate of sharp shots at as slow as 1/10sec at 200mm.
Image quality
Intrigued to nd out if there’s any difference between the images the Z 5 outputs from its 24.3MP CMOS sensor and those from the Z 6’s backside-illuminated (BSI) 24.5MP sensor, I conducted several comparisons before examining them side-by-side. Though the cameras resolve nigh-on identical levels of detail, low-light testing between ISO 6400 to ISO 102,400 revealed the back-illuminated structure of the Z 6’s sensor, which allows more light to be collected at pixel level by shifting metal wiring behind the light-receiving surface, exhibits slightly less noise and delivers marginally better detail in its images at high ISO. This was most apparent when comparing shadowed regions of the same scene at high magni cation. To be critical, and having scrutinised both cameras’ ISO performances meticulously, I’d say the Z 6’s BSI sensor contributes to a low-light performance that’s around a stop better than the Z 5’s.