Nikon Z quirks: only 22 frames buffer, does 5.5fps with no grip, 330 shots battery life…


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Let’s recap what we learned the last 24 hours about the new Nikon Z system…

Before I move to this a short statement:

1) Yes the Nikon Z cameras are nice and have some superior aspects like handling, weathersealing, clearer EVF… For Sony this is a “dangerous” camera because it will convince most of the current Nikon shooters to not switch over to Sony. It means Sony has to convince them with rock solid and unique features from now on.
2) Nikon copied and pasted Sony tech without to risk to add anything new. Contrary to their slogan “mirrorless reinvented” the Z series is a factual statement that they are NOT willing to give you (customer) anything more than they are forced to. Without Sony, Olympus, Fuji and Panasonic on the market there would be no Z cameras today, they would not add 5axis stabilization, or good 4K recording. We still would have the same reiteration of DSLR cameras with small incremental updates. If everyone would buy Canon and Nikon cameras only…the earth would stop spinning and stand still :)

Now that people is testing the new Nikon Z7 and Z6 cameras some quirks are being discovered by Dpreview, Gordon Laing, Thom Hogan, Dan Watson and others:

1) Both the Nikon Z7 and Z6 have blackout screen when you take a shot.
2) The Z7 shoots 9fps with battery grip only(!!!) and with locked exposure. Without tbattery grip and no locked exposure and with live feedback on it shoots 5.5fps (similar for Z6).
3) Z7 has max 2.5 seconds buffer at 12 bit compressed RAW. That means around 22 shots (similar for Z6).
4) Buffer clears very slow like the 5 year old Sony A7 cameras :)
5) 330 shots according to CIPA (Son7 A7III is rated 650 shots at CIPA)
6) Nikon confirmed that they will NOT share the lens mount information to third parties as Sony does. This means Sigma, Tamron and Tokina will have to do reverse engineering and autofocus should be therefore slower.
7) One card slot. It’s not a deal breaker for me personally but it might be for PRO’s working on the field that don’t wanna risk their money. Not only because of possible (although very rare) electronic failure. If you have a backup card you can separate the card after the shooting by putting one card in one bag and the other one in another bag.
8) XQD. They are as good or better than the best SD cards. But good luck finding them for cheap if you don’t need all that speed.
9) no exposure compensation dial (which I do use a lot)
10) No Eye AF  and missing focus control buttons
11) No f/1.4 primes on roadmap, no macro on roadmap and ridiculous f/0,95 hype ($6,000, huge lens and manual focus only).

What Sony has to learn from the Nikon Z:

1) handling matters, please improve grip control and menu system on the next generation A7-A9 cameras
2) We need true weathersealing
3) Use all space on the camera to add controls (like on Sony A9) or a top screen.
4) We need APP support back in camera. Please open the system for third-party developers…this would be huge!
5) And where is our Timelapse functionality gone? Hello?

Comment this post with your suggestions for the next generation A7-A9 cameras!

This is Nikon’s new 58mm f/0,95 lens for $6,000+

All that hype for that new Nikon clickbait 58mm f/0,95 lens and than we get this:

– Huge lens
– Manual focus…only!
– rumored to cost around $6,000 (via Nikoneye.com).

Don’t get me wrong: I am sure optically this lens will be superb. But will you pay $6,000 (or more???) for that? I love manual focus but how can I focus this lens while trying to keep it in balance? I prefer the much more compact [shoplink 55088 ebay]Leica Noctilux[/shoplink] (granted it’s expensive) or this much cheaper [shoplink 55085 ebay]Canon 50mm f/0,95 lens[/shoplink]:

UPDATE: Here is the size comparison with the Nocturnus lens (listed at BH):

 

Nikon officially announces the Z7-Z6 cameras

Nikon finally announced the Nikon Z7 (specs here) and Nikon Z6 (specs here). You can see a full review and new coverage on MirrorlessRumors.com.

It says a lot about this company that they basically match the Sony camera performance without adding any ulterior new features. The goal was clearly to keep their own Nikon DSLR base to not buy Sony. And I think they will achieve this. But it’s disappointing to see that the goal was NOT to innovate. The Z7-Z6 really look like a Sony camera with Nikon design. Some might be happy with that (and I appreciate good ergonomic). But it also confirms that in future innovation will come as usual from Sony with Nikon improving their cameras 1-2 year after Sony.

What’s good on the new Nikon Z:
– Well rounded products (ergonomic and usability)
– True weathersealing
– Has Intervalometer
– 4k 2:2:2 (external)
– the 0,95 autofocus lens (but it’s manual focus only!).
– Nice 50mm f/1.2 autofocus lens coming in 2020

What’s not so good on the new Nikon Z:
– Z7 costs $400 more than the Sony A7rIII
– By end of 2020 Nikon will have 15 Z lenses. Sony currently has 29 lenses in the range (I am not counting in the Zeiss-Tamron-Sigma-Samyang lenses).
– No Eye AF
– Nikon Z6 (310 shots) has nearly half the battery life of the A7III
– Sony A7III and A7rIII have dual card slots (Nikon has 1 XQD slot).
– 18/23 shot buffer (at 12 bit compressed RAW)
– Only 5.5 FPS with auto exposure
– they made a huge mount to accomodate larger, expensive and manual focus only f/0,95 lens.
– Only fast autofocus prime is coming in 2020 (50mm f/1.2). And no fast portrait lens on roadmap yet.

Here is the hands-on video by DpreviewTV:

The Nikon lens roadmap:

This is the 58mm f/0,95 manual focusing lens:

Good news: Sony A7III and Tamron zoom will be in Stock tomorrow. Bad news: Sigma 105mm shipment delayed.

Both the Sony A7III (Click here) and the Tamron 28-75mm FE (Click here) will be in Stock tomorrow at BHphoto.

And now the bad news: Sigma US said the Sigma 105mm f/1.4 FE lens will ship in October and not in August :(

Reminder: You save up to $400 on Sony cameras, lenses and accessories at BHphoto, Adorama and other US stores:

Cameras:
$400 off on the Sony A9 superkit at Bhphoto.

Sony FE lenses:
$100 off on the 12-24mm f/4.0 lens at Bhphoto, Adorama, BestBuy, Focus and Amazon.
$100 off on the 16-35mm f/4.0 Zeiss lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
$100 off on the 24-240mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$50 off on the Sony 28mm FE lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
$100 off on the 28-135mm PZ lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto
$50 off on the Sony 50mm FE f/1.8 lens at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon, Focuscamera.
$50 off on the Sony 50mm macro at BHphoto, Adorama and Amazon.
$100 off on the 70-200mm G lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$100 off on the 70-300mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$50 off on the Sony 85mm f/1.8 FE at Buydig, BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama and Focuscamera.

Sony APS-C lenses:
$100 off on the 10-18mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$100 off on the 16-70mm Zeiss lens at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama.
$50 off on the 18-105mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$100 off on the Sony E PZ 18-110mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
$100 off on the 18-135mm lens at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon, FocusCamera and BestBuy.
$100 off on the 18-200mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$100 off on the Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$25 off on the Sony 30mm macro at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$50 off on the 35mm f/1.8 lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$50 off on the 50mm f/1.8 lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto

 

Sony now has 40% of the US Full Frame market share!

Image courtesy SonyMirrorlessPro. Source: The NPD Group, Inc., U.S. Retail Tracking Service, Detachable Lens Camera, Sensor Size: Full Frame, Based on Dollars Share, Jan.- Jun. 2018.

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SonyMirrorlessPro added an additional detail about the Sony Full Frame market share in firts half 2018. The NPD group market anlysis shows Sony owns 40% of the market while Canon follows with 33% and Nikon with 26%.

They also added this interesting note about Nikon:

It’s also important because—well look at that market share position over Nikon. That’s 14% more dollar share than Nikon in a year when Nikon has delivered their highest-demand product in years, the Nikon D850.

This helps put the new Nikon mirrorless camera into context as well. Nikon owns 26% of the market share, so to move up to the number two spot they’d need to capture eight percent more of the share going forwardsfrom the other two companieswho are both competing against Nikon.

So, if Nikon only sells their mirrorless camera to existing Nikon customers, they’ll be competing against their own market share. That’s called “market cannibalization” which is the effect that a new product has on existing product sales. They’d simply be trading the sales of DSLRs for the sales of mirrorless cameras. As it stands now, Sony need only pull away more Nikon customers that are dissatisfied with the new mirrorless ecosystem than Nikon pulls away Sony customers, and that gap is going to be impossible to bridge.