Nikon Z 7
Has Nikon done enough to stem the tide of photographers moving to Sony? We test its first full-frame mirrorless camera to find out
Until now Sony has been the main player in the full-frame mirrorless camera market, but a recent flurry of activity has changed the situation dramatically. The first of the big new announcements to hit our testbench is the Nikon Z 7, the 45.7MP sibling to the 24.5MP Nikon Z 6. It’s a direct competitor to the Sony a7R III.
Nikon has used a similar BSI (backside illuminated) sensor to the one in the D850, so we’re off to a good start with the Z 7. However, the two chips aren’t identical as the Z 7’s sensor has phase detection pixels embedded in it. That’s good news, because the D850’s Live View focusing is not up to full-time use. It also means the Z 7 has an all-new autofocus (AF) system and its 493 points cover 90% of the imaging area. While its tracking capability might not be quite up to the standard of the Sony a7R III’s, the continuous focusing does a great job of keeping moving subjects sharp.
Nikon has paired the Z 7’s sensor with its Expeed 6 processing engine. This enables a maximum shooting rate of 9fps (with AF) and a standard sensitivity range of ISO 64-25,600. If you need to, that sensitivity range can be expanded to the equivalent of ISO 32-102,400.
One of the reasons some photographers have held off from switching to a mirrorless camera is because they don’t like electronic viewfinders (EVF). However, EVFs have improved enormously over the last couple of years, and the 0.5-inch, 3,690,000-dot OLED
“The 0.5-inch 3,690,000-dot OLED finder
in the Z 7 is one of the best around”
finder in the Z 7 is one of the best around. It shows plenty of detail and has a high refresh rate so you can keep up with moving subjects. There are also aspherical glass elements and coatings to keep flare, reflections and dirt at bay. The only fly in the ointment is that the delay between taking a shot and it appearing in the viewfinder is just a fraction too long. It’s quite annoying if you want to shoot in short bursts, so we mostly kept the auto review mode off and pressed the playback button to check the odd image.
Speaking of short bursts, because of the high pixel count, we found we could only shoot for around three seconds at a time at 9fps, so we tended to stick to the Continuous High setting (5.5fps) rather than the Continuous High Extended.
Nikon has opted for a 3.2-inch, 2,100,000dot screen on the back of the Z 7. This can be tilted for easier viewing of landscape orientation images and video. It’s also touchsensitive, and unlike Sony, Nikon has gone the whole hog with the touch control, which
means you can select settings in the menu, set the AF point and swipe through or zoom in to images with your finger on the screen. This touch-control also extends to the information menu that’s accessed by pressing the i button.
In a change from its DSLRs, Nikon has made the information menu customisable. What’s more, you can customise two versions of it – one for stills shooting and the other for video. That’s quite an improvement. In addition, there’s a status screen that is visible after pressing the Display button to toggle through the options, which allows you to adjust exposure by tapping the screen.
While it’s significantly smaller than the Nikon D850, the Z 7 is very comfortable to hold. That’s because there’s a deep grip on the relatively thin body. And because it has a weatherproof magnesium alloy construction, it feels solid. So while it might not look the natural partner for a beefy F-mount lens like a 70-200mm f2.8 or an 80400mm f4.5-5.6, it doesn’t feel a mismatch when you’re shooting.
We also tested the Z 7’s weatherproofing while shooting a football match in persistent rain and it survived the ordeal.
The combination of the ergonomic design, sensible button layout, excellent interface, extensive customisation and the large, detailed viewfinder makes the Z 7 a very enjoyable camera to use. This usability is strongly backed up by a solid performance on the image quality stakes.
Noise is controlled extremely well up to around ISO 3200, and low sensitivity images have a high level of detail. Pushing beyond ISO 3200 doesn’t result in lots of noise, but it gradually creeps in and JPEGs have a little smudging in some out-of-focus fine details – but that’s only really visible if you hunt for it at 100% on-screen.
Thanks to its electronic viewfinder you can spot if the Z 7 is going to get the exposure wrong. However, this isn’t often, as the Matrix metering system does a good job in a wide range of lighting conditions.
In a departure for Nikon, the Z 7 has stabilisation built in. This can work in harmony with the VR systems in Nikon’s F-mount lenses. With the Nikkor Z 24-70mm f4 S mounted, however, we found we gained around 3.5EV on the shutter speed when the camera’s VR system was activated.
“The detailed
viewfinder makes the Z 7 a very enjoyable camera to use”