Without doubt, the Z8 has been Nikon’s most anticipated camera in well over a decade. Yes, fans were excited when Nikon eventually launched their first full-frame mirrorless cameras back in 2018 (five years after Sony’s first full-frame mirrorless) but while the sensors on the Nikon Z6 and Z7 were excellent, the autofocus was mediocre.
Then, in late 2021 Nikon released their first professional mirrorless camera, the Z9, but at $9000 it was beyond the reach of most budgets.
In the back of many minds though, was the knowledge that Nikon occasionally release an enthusiast’s camera that shares some, but not all the best features of their pro cameras - the F100 shared the Nikon F5’s AF system and the D700 shared the Nikon D3’s full-frame sensor, although neither could outperform the pro cameras when it came to frames-per-second (fps).
So behold, the Nikon Z8 that not only shares the same 45.7-Megapixel CMOS sensor and autofocus as the Z9, but it also has exactly the same capture capabilities; the Z8 can capture 45.7MP RAW files at up to 20-fps (up to a
