Nikon Z 9 £5299/$5499 (body only)
Nikon famously arrived late to the full-frame mirrorless party, but the company maintains that what some might see as tardiness enabled it to really take advantage of the benefits that a mirrorless design allows. And the resultant Z mount – with its enlarged aperture and reduced flange distance – has indeed resulted in lenses that offer unparalleled sharpness and overall image quality.
The first Z-system cameras were aimed at the advanced-enthusiasts, with the Z 7 roughly equivalent to the D850 DSLR and the lower-resolution Z 6 a close match to the D750, and we’ve since seen some lower end (though hardly ‘entry level’) cameras in the guise of the Z 5, Z 50 and Z fc. And now, arriving fashionably terribly late, we have Nikon’s new flagship, the Z 9.
Flagship cameras have traditionally been aimed at sports, wildlife and wedding photographers, where overall shooting speed, low-light performance and advanced autofocus have been of prime importance at the expense of outright megapixel count, which often seems somewhat paltry when compared to enthusiast bodies. As such, they haven’t been the best choice for the majority of photographers. But the Z 9 offers the best of all worlds, marrying speed and resolution, making it the ultimate Nikon, whatever you shoot. And not just when it comes to stills; its video credentials are astounding too.
Key features
Let’s start with a couple of those convention-defying headline specs: quickly, so any movement is imperceptible. All the more astonishing considering that this is a 45.7 megapixel sensor, so that’s a of data to process, but this is handled by a new processor, Nikon’s custom-built EXPEED 7, its fastest, most advanced imaging chip to date.
