Hands-on Nikon Z9 review: power tool

Premature Verdict

The Nikon Z9 sees Nikon's mirrorless cameras take an palatial jump presumptuous to match flagship rivals from Canon and Sony. The Z9 feels look-alike an indestructible DSLR, but inside are innovative features like advanced AF tracking, 20fps painful burst shooting, 8K video and an lepton-only shutter. We also like its new ii-way tilting screen. It's a shame some video features won't Be available until a firmware update in 2022 and we need to turn over the Z9 some real-earthly concern testing, merely IT has the voltage to embody a modern-twenty-four hour period Nikon classic.

For

Stacked 45.7MP sensor
Powerful AF trailing
Shoots protracted 8K video clips
Rugged build tone
Dual-axis disputation-screen

Against

Any features need firmware update
A bit bulky for non-pros

TechRadar Verdict

The Nikon Z9 sees Nikon's mirrorless cameras take an impressive jump forward to match flagship rivals from Canon and Sony. The Z9 feels equivalent an indestructible DSLR, but inside are innovative features like ripe AF tracking, 20fps raw burst shooting, 8K video recording and an physical science-lone shutter. We besides comparable its new deuce-way tilting screen. It's a shame some video features won't equal available until a microcode update in 2022 and we pauperism to give the Z9 whatever real-world testing, but it has the potential to comprise a modern-day Nikon classic.

Pros

+ Stacked 45.7MP sensor
+ Omnipotent AF tracking
+ Shoots lengthy 8K TV clips
+ Strong form quality
+ Dual-Axis disceptation-screen

Cons

- Any features deman firmware update
- A bit bulky for non-pros

The Nikon Z9 is the landmark mirrorless Nikon camera that professional wildlife and sports photographers have been waiting for. A full-frame flagship that takes the baton from the Nikon D6 – and marks the end of pro Nikon DSLRs – the Z9 sees Nikon's mirrorless tech take a big leap forward and match the advances ready-made by Canyon and Sony.

Significantly, the Nikon Z9 is the first professional camera to arrive without a mechanical shutter. That's right, there's no physical mantle moving up-and-down in front of the sensing element when you take a shot.

This agency the Z9 relies completely on its electronic shutter, a reckless statement of intent that shows Nikon's confidence in its new built 45.7MP full-frame CMOS sensor and Expeed 7 central processor. Together, these 2 things return what Nikon claims is the "world's fastest sensing element scan rate", which has repercussions for both video and stills.

The Nikon Z9 camera sitting on a table — (Image reference: Hereafter)

The solution is an incredibly powerful hybrid camera that sits somewhere in between the Canyon Eos R3 (which has a 24.1MP BSI stacked CMOS detector) and the Sony A1 (a 50.1MP full-frame powerhouse). The Z9's DSLR styling will be comfortably familiar to those upgrading from the likes of the Nikon D5 or Nikon D850, but hidden inside are some truly modern features including Nikon's best ever autofocus organization.

With the ability to shoot 8K/30p video (and an 8K/60p mode nut itinerary), the Nikon Z9 also joins a select aggroup of mirrorless cameras that are capable of transcription therein lofty resolution. Filmmakers also get features comparable Eye AF tracking when shooting, which means the Z9 is a far topping video puppet to the likes of the Nikon D6.

But what is the Nikon Z9 like in the figure and is it really the coordinate of Canon and Sony when it comes to pro mirrorless technical school? We had a short play with one at London's Toss Garden to se.

Nikon Z9 price and unfreeze date

The Nikon Z9 bequeath be available to buy for $5,499 / £5,299 / AU$8,999 when gross revenue start in December.

This price is a little lower than expected, particularly As the Nikon Z9 is path more civilised than the Nikon D6 – a camera that cost US $6,496 / £6,299 / Astronomical Unit $10,378 at launch (body only) when information technology arrived last year.

The Nikon Z9 camera on a table — (Image credit: Future)

Information technology's also a pretty aggressive price compared to its closest rivals. The Canon EOS R3 recently arrived for a body-only price $5,999 / £5,879 / AU$8,599, while the Sony A1 remains way out in in advance with its $6,500 / £6,499 / Gold$10,499 price tag.

The Nikon Z9 isn't a cheap photographic camera, naturally, costing more than some medium format cameras. Merely that terms tag could charm some owners of older DSLRs same the Nikon D850 and Nikon D810 that now is a blast to upgrade.

Design

Like the Canyon EOS R3, the Nikon Z9 is a traditional-looking mirrorless camera that's designed to charm to those making the switch from a DSLR.

In the hand, it feels like a flagship Nikon camera should – rock-solid and ergonomically refined. It's an old-school design, simply the Z9's body is 20% smaller than the beefy Nikon D6, and the sound, comfortable grip is ideal for both naiant and vertical shooting. In the spirit of bulldozers like the Nikon F4 from the 1980s, it's also built like a cooler, with a magnesium alloy body that's fully weather-sealed. Only the Canyon EOS R3 can lay claim to offer up this rather ruggedness in the mirrorless world.

Too approach from Nikon's DSLRs is an AF mode release for quickly switching between manual and autofocus. And round the back is a Handy feature that we enjoyed during our short play – a two-fold-axis monitor that tilts 90-degrees in both swimming and fastigiate directions.

The Nikon Z9's tilting screen — (Image credit: Future)

We've seen something similar earlier connected cameras like the Fujifilm X-T3 and Panasonic S1H, and the Nikon Z9's monitor doesn't flip approximately to boldness the breast like the latter's display. But given the Z9 is predominantly for photographers, this is verisimilar fine for almost buyers – and the power to see what you'atomic number 75 shooting from low angles in portrait or landscape painting orientations is a real bonus. Particularly for the pros who are increasingly being asked to deliver stills and video in portrait format to suit phones and tablets.

The Nikon Z9's info display also hands down rotates when you turn it into portrayal musical mode, which helps you avoid craning your neck. And the i-menu seen happening the Nikon Z6 II and Z7 II likewise returns here, giving you ready peerless-button access to 12 customizable functions suchlike ISO, white balance and flipping betwixt naked and JPEG.

The top plate of the Nikon Z9 camera on a table — (Image credit: Future)

One of the main projecting points for DSLR users who've been considering switching to mirrorless is the electronic viewfinder. A if to confirm that it's killing off the DSLR, Nikon claims the Z9's EVF has absolutely no meanwhile or dimout, giving you a continuous real-time view that's akin to an optical viewfinder. This EVF is also a super-bright, 3,000-nit panel that certainly looked crisp and clear in our short time with information technology.

One of the downsides of the Nikon Z9 lacking a mechanical shutter is that its sensor no more has that intrinsic protection from dust. Thusly Nikon has added a unexampled sensor screen, which drops down when you remove the genus Lens. Like the Nikon D6, the Z9's rear buttons are as wel illuminated to assistance you find them in the cheerless, although this put up follow overturned off if you're looking to remain a little more inconspicuous.

Autofocus and break shooting

The crucial areas of autofocus and burst shooting are ones that deman wads of real-world examination. But on paper, the Nikon Z9 has jumped forward in some areas to posture at the mirrorless top table occupied aside the Canon Eos R3 and Sony A1.

While cameras like the Nikon Z6 Cardinal offer good autofocus, they've e'er lacked the sophistication of rivals when it comes to tracking faces, eyes and animals. Well, the Nikon Z9 catches up here – not only does IT track hoi polloi (including faces, eyes, heads and high bodies), animals (bodies, eyes and heads) and vehicles (cars, motorbikes, planes and trains), it claims to offer course of instruction-leading cooccurring branch of knowledg recognition.

This means the Nikon Z9 can agnise up to ten different types of topic in a unmarried frame and cut through them all individually. We'll deman to test this in the field to see if it lives capable those claims, only this could follow a useful tool for pros shooting tied up scenes with mixed subjects.

The rear screen of the Nikon Z9 camera — (Visualise credit: Future)

In terms of autofocusing power, the Nikon Z9 is a big leap forward from the Nikon Z7 II, offering five multiplication as many auto-area AF points as that camera – these are the AF points that lav automatically detect a theme in the frame and acquire focus. And Nikon says that it offers better subject-tracking across the frame than the previous flagship Nikon D6. Again, we'll need to execute few real-world tests to confirm this.

Just how about that other crucial specification for sports and wildlife shooters, burst shooting? Here the Nikon Z9 is impressive, even if it doesn't quite an hit the headline top speeds of the Canyon Eos R3 and Sony A1. The latter put up both bump off an impressive 30fps when shooting inexperient photos, though this is in very specific circumstances (victimisation a CFexpress identity card with particular lenses in saintly conditions).

The Nikon Z9, meanwhile, can shoot full-resolution raw at 20fps, and Nikon's big claim is that you can do this for finished 1,000 frames. Over again, this is when using ProGrade Digital Atomic number 27 CFexpress cards, just the promise of a near-infinite buffer when shot at those speeds bequeath light risen the eyes of sports, news and wildlife snappers.

If that's not rather fast enough, the Z9 does also offer a cropped salvo mode that can hit 120fps. Given this only when shoots 11MP JPEGs, information technology's likely to be a slightly niche, emergency mode for affirmative photographers – though the fact that it can behave this with full AF/AE tracking is formidable. In other words, these aren't just video recording frames. Nikon also says that, when you factor in its FTZ adaptor for climb experienced F-mount lenses, this mode is available for over 100 lenses.

Nikon's conclusion to dispatch the mechanistic shutter from the Z9 is a courageous one. In almost cameras, the physics shutter is a backup option offering slower burst-shooting rates for those World Health Organization are concerned active the long-standing drawbacks of electronic shutters, namely rolling shutter. This is caused by the read-out speeds of a sensor being unable to keep pace with the cause of a scene, sequent in effects like crooked golf clubs.

Nikon says the Z9's early built sensor has the world's fastest sensor scan rates, which agency its electronic-lonesome shutter keeps straight fast-moving lines straight. But the slenderly concerning caveat is that Nikon claims the Z9 exclusively "virtually does away with rolling-shutter torture", which means it's inactive possible in some situations. What those are we'll have to discover during testing, simply pro photographers will desire that's only in identical rare circumstances or when shooting video.

Specs and features

The Nikon Z9's shapely 45.7 MP full-frame CMOS sensor effectively makes it a super-powered version of the Nikon Z7 Cardinal, which also offers a 45.7MP resoluteness merely without the stacked chip for speedy learn-dead speeds.

This resolution gives you importantly more cropping potential than the 24MP Canon EOS R3. The drawback is slightly slower maximum burst speeds than the Eos R3 or EOS R5, which can come to 30fps when shooting raw photos.

Shut up, the Z9 does junction the select few mirrorless cameras that can shoot up 8K video. According to Nikon, it can 8K/30p video continuously for up to 125 transactions, which fairly puts the smaller Canon Eos R5's overheating limitations to dishonor. The weak downside, though, is that some of the Z9's more than exotic video modes are only going to personify usable via a firmware update sometime in 2022.

The Nikon Z9's CFexpress card slot — (Image credit: Subsequent)

The modes unavailable at establish including the power to shoot in the 10-act ProRes 422 HQ format internally, along with 12-bit in-camera ProRes Raw Military headquarters transcription. Impressively, that microcode update bequeath also take into account the Nikon Z9 to dart raw 8K/60p TV internally.

This would be a low gear for a mirrorless camera, although it's not clear exactly when the firmware update will arrive next year, or how eight-day you'll be able to record for in that 8K/60p mode. Still, for straight off you ass shoot 8K in 24/30p and get full Eye-detection AF support in entirely video modes. The Z9 also shoots 4K using the full width of its sensor, and includes a 4K/120p mode for slow-mo scenes.

The side of the Nikon Z9 camera on a table — (Image credit: Future)

Naturally, you'll need a big, speedy notice to whole lot with all this data, so the Nikon Z9 has cardinal CFexpress character B slots. The Type B version of CFexpress, adoptive by both Canon and Nikon, is larger than the Type A cards ill-used by some Sony cameras like the new Sony A7 Quartet, but does offer faster 1700MB/s top speeds. This supports the too large cushion capacity that Nikon claims will keep the Z9 going for over 1,000 raws in a burst.

Pro photographers, particularly those agencies or newspapers, likewise need fast transportation speeds, so the Nikon Z9 has an ethernet embrasure for FTP transfers and too has an in-camera Wisconsin-Fi-to-FTP transfer that you can use without a separate transmitter. Lastly, you can also hook high the Z9 to a 5G smartphone via its USB-C port.

Image and video quality

We were unfortunately just healthy to take a couple of photos with the Nikon Z9 in a meeting room rather than out in the field, and so it's took early to nominate any conclusions some that radical sensor's image and video quality.

On paper, though, on that point's certainly lots of potential, with a native ISO range of 64-25600 and options to extend these down to ISO32 and up to ISO102,400. Nikon says the Z9 has new algorithms to help process out noise in dimly-lit situations.

The Nikon Z9's new Expeed 7 processor has also apparently brought improvements to Patrick Victor Martindale White balance, enabling it to Sir Thomas More dead on target regurgitate skin tones or product colors that'll average inferior tweaking in post-production. This will be welcomed by both sports and commercial photographers, especially as these algorithms also bear upon exposure when using flashbulb.

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Photo of some canapes taken on the Nikon Z9 — (Icon reference: Future)

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Photo of a man taken on the Nikon Z9 — (Image credit: Future)

Visualize 3 of 4

Photo of some flowers taken on the Nikon Z9 — (Image credit: Future)

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Photo of London skyline taken on the Nikon Z9 — (Image credit: Future)

Perhaps recognizing that even professionals wear't have unlimited funds to splash out on treble CFexpress cards or external storage, Nikon has also introduced a newfangled high-efficiency raw format on the Nikon Z9.

This isn't a new concept, as previous Nikon cameras have offered 'small' and 'medium' raw formats that take less storage. But this new format replaces both of those and lets you deliver 45.7MP photos but with a a lot smaller file cabinet sized. While a plangent-resolution image from the Nikon Z9 will personify about 50MB, it says this new format will grind that down to 10-15MB with no noticeable loss in image quality.

We'Ra looking forward to testing those claims, and the Nikon Z9's stills and video tone, in a full review soon.

Early finding of fact

Occasionally, a photographic camera manages to make a technological leap forward that makes its stablemates suddenly look a little dated – and on first impressions, that's what the Nikon Z9 appears to have done. It effectively combines the Nikon D6 and Nikon D850 and takes them to a new mirrorless level, creating a comprehensive-powered Nikon Z7 II in the process.

For owners of older Nikon DSLRs like the Nikon D850 or Nikon D810 who've been patiently waiting for the camera large to go all-out on a line mirrorless body, the Nikon Z9 looks like a no-brainer. It's dearly-won, course, but also a lot cheaper than the Nikon D6 was at launch – and the aggressive price tag ($5,499 / £5,299 / AU$8,999) could even invite those who had been considering the Canyon EOS R3 or Sony A1.

It's a shame that some of the telecasting features, including support for popular codecs wish 10-bit ProRes 422 HQ and that 8K/60p mode, won't be available until a microcode update arrives sometime in 2022. We also need to test many a of the Nikon Z9's claims in areas like autofocus to see whether it really does leapfrog, or merely run charge with, its rivals from Canon and Sony.

But there's to be sure that Nikon Z9 feels care a flagship Nikon DSLR, only with much sensational mirrorless power nether the bonnet. And that's a combination that many pro photographers have been waiting to see for a long meter.

These are the primo cameras for picture taking in the world right nowadays

Mark is the Cameras Editor at TechRadar. Having worked in tech journalism for a ludicrous 17 years, Mark is now attempting to break the world immortalis for the identification number of camera bags hoarded by one person. He was previously Cameras Editor at Trusted Reviews, Playacting editor on Stuff.tv, as well A Features editor and Reviews editor on Stuff magazine. As a freelancer, he's contributed to titles including The Sunday Times, FourFourTwo and Arena. And in a former life, He also won the Daily Telegraph's Young Sports writer of the Year. But that was before He discovered the strange joys of acquiring up at 4am for a photo shoot in London's Guileless Mile.

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