Fast And Glorious NIKON Z 9

There’s a lot riding on Nikon’s Z 9. This is the mirrorless camera tasked with converting all the photographers still using the D4, D5 or D6 and, more than likely, still also very happy with them. While Nikon (unlike Canon) hasn’t said as much, the pro-level DSLR has had its day and it’s extremely unlikely there will be a D7. There are some very good reasons for adopting the mirrorless configuration and the Z 9 is a good advertisement for all of them, but there are always risks when asking a photographer to change systems. True, the mount adapters can help buy time when it comes to lenses but, ultimately, to take full advantages of mirrorless’s benefits, you have to go all the way. So, why not see what else is on offer?

That said, Nikon’s full-steam-ahead approach to growing the Z-mount lens line-up and – let’s get it out there right now – the sheer brilliance of the Z 9, is very likely to deter any defections… and Nikon has been pretty clever in making its mirrorless flagship hard to dislike. In fact, if anything, you could be tempted away from another brand, because the Z 9 is another of those ‘big bangs’ that Nikon has been known to deliver since it essentially invented this category back in 1959 with the original F… think F4, F5, D3 and D5.

Compared with its arch rival, Nikon has tended to err of the side of conservatism with its pro cameras, but ever so often it breaks out and surprises us all. While the Z 9 may look fairly familiar on the outside – especially if you’re a Nikon DSLR user – it’s a different story on the inside. There is significant thinking outside the box in terms of both the Z 9’s stills and video capabilities, but with professional photography now a very different animal to what it was not so very long ago, Nikon is right to make some bold decisions.

At the top of the list is the elimination of the traditional mechanical shutter, which is really something you’d have expected from Sony. Purists, take a deep breath… but, like the reflex mirror, the focal plane shutter is now really a mechanical hindrance. It’s noisy, creates vibrations and can’t work accurately at ultra-fast shutter speeds. The development of the stacked sensor architecture, which enables extremely fast read-outs, has prompted Nikon to go all the way, since the Z 9’s all-new BSI CMOS imager deals with the key issues of rolling distortion and very low flash sync speeds. It also allows for a blackout-free viewfinder during high-speed shooting. Minus any moving parts, it isn’t subject to any physical wear and, of course, it’s completely silent – a simulated shutter noise is available if you want it – and there’s nothing to generate vibrations. All this is obviously very appealing if you’re a sports or wildlife photographer often using very long lenses… as is the top shutter speed of 1/32,000 second and, while we’re at it, continuous shooting at 30fps for a burst of over 1,000 JPEGs with full AF/AE adjustment. This is at the sensor’s effective resolution of 45.7MP, but the JPEG quality is set to Normal with image size priority (rather than image quality priority). However, if you don’t need such big images, then at 11MP you can shoot at 120fps, which is essentially slow-mo 4K video… again with full AF/AE adjustment. By the way, while this sensor’s effective resolution is the same as that of the Z 7II’s, the total count is actually quite a lot higher – 52.4MP versus 46.9MP – and we’re not really sure what the extra 5.5 million pixels are doing.

How Fast?

While Canon has all but confirmed a higher-res EOS R1 model is in the pipeline, the Z 9 is Z-mount mirrorless flagship full as far as Nikon is concerned… so it delivers both high res and high speed. The 120fps mode pragmatically recognises that sports photographers often don’t require big files even for print applications (and certainly don’t shoot in RAW), but they do want as much speed as possible,