Let me start by saying this is not designed to be a technical review of the Z9’s awesomeness (or not) - I will not be evaluating how well the autofocus performs at midnight within a dark coal mine or how many tracking points it can handle when a bird flies across the frame. All this has been covered by many other professionals across hundreds of reviews, each focusing on different aspect under different conditions and there is nothing I have experienced to negate those. No, this review - if you can call it that - is how it feels to use the Z9 (and in fact, the new Z-lens trinity) on assignment at 4700m under arid conditions, with and without flash.
First things first, this is the kit I will be evaluating:
- Nikon Z9 and Nikon Z7 II (as a second body)
- Z 24-70/2.8
- Z 70-200/2.8
- Z 14-30/4
Or at least this is the equipment I had with me throughout this latest assignment. In reality what happened was I used mostly the Z9 (the much higher megapixel count allowed me, for the first time, to use one body for action as well as staged shots with strobes where I would traditionally switch to the D850) with the Z7 II relegated as a backup body (and which honestly, saw very little action, so do not expect a huge review of that here). The configuration of the bodies in my bag was as follows:
- Z9 with the 24-70/2.8 (which stayed on 85% of the time)
- Z7II with the 14-30/4
The 70-200 and the F mount 85/1.2 were also in the bag but only the 85mm saw some use, mainly in portraits.
First things first, body ergonomics:
- the Z9 behaves pretty much like any other Nikon professional body. It’s solid, fits well in my hand (which is usually a problem with small bodies for me as I have large hands) and the main buttons are where they used to be so the transition is a smooth and easy one (more on this below however!).
- however, there is some genius at Nikon (and I use the term very loosely here) who thought that moving the Play button to a place which requires your thumb to bend in 6 places to reach it who should be taken out and shot. I dont usually chimp when I shoot, but using strobes does require me to do so every now and then and the new position of the Play button is a nightmare. What’s the point, really? (and yes, I know you can repurpose the buttons through the menus, but then you end up with a situation where the Zoom button means Play, the Play button means AF etc etc. Useful? Maybe but then, you need to now remember 10 different replacements - seriously?)
- another thing which drove me up the wall - and is critical for travel photography where sometimes you take the camera out of the bag 15 times an hour and put it back in another 15 - is the fact that the aperture and speed dials are sensitive enough that the slightest friction with the bag actually changes your settings. The amount of times I pulled the camera out, remembering I had it set to 4.5 only to find the setting at 7 or 2.8 soon became a serious problem for me. Having to constantly check the settings when you’re trying to get the shot is not fun. Hell, the settings would sometimes change with the camera hanging from my shoulder and simply brushing against my side! With all these customisation capabilities, there should be some way to dial down the sensitivity of the dials!
- Another recommendation to all you travel photographers out there would be to deactivate the focus point change capability from the touch-screen. Yes, it can be awesome for video or when using the articulated screen, but it also means your focus point changes about 50 times while shooting and this is definitely not fun. Add the setting to your custom menu if you find yourself switching between stills and video.
- a lot has been written about the memory card port and I can confirm that it’s a pain. There was no bloody reason to change that from the previous way and the new one is a nightmare (apart from Nikon needed the real estate to move the Play button). I was able to get “around” it by loading the camera with two 128GB cards, but I have to say I still hated the damned port.
Second, overall camera use feel:
- I don’t think I will ever get used to the silent operation. The camera provides absolutely no feedback when silent mode is on, which means that once you switch it on AND you try to shoot rapid fire, you never know whether you’ve shot 1 or 10 frames. This is a problem - sometimes a significant one. And turning the sound on, while helpful, in noisy situations it is simply not loud enough either. I hope Nikon addresses the issue of sound in the future update. At the same time, I have to say, if you’re content to constantly be aware to how the camera shoots (and you do get some feedback through the view finder), in some situations (think buddhist ceremony or meditation chamber) the complete silence is really helpful.
- Autofocus is very fast and very responsive - however there’s a huge difference between point and pinpoint. Simply put, point focus is not as good as point focus used to be and I think this is because it was supplanted/replaced by pinpoint AF. But you get the point, right? Pinpoint AF requires you to be very, very accurate and a slight movement means you may miss focus. It’s the old Spiderman adage: with great power comes great responsibility, but for the travel photographer who may need to make critical decisions every minute, this adds yet another thing to pay attention to. The whole point of technology is to make our lives easier, not more complicated.
- For the first time I loaded the custom menu with items - because of the many settings you need to change very frequently, your custom menu ends up pretty big pretty fast. I am absolutely sure all these settings help create unparalleled experience and functionality for content creators, but for photographers under pressure to capture moments in remote parts of the world, sometimes simplicity matters.
- white balance. While the D5 and D6 would absolutely nail the Auto White Balance, I found the Z9 to “err” on the side of coolness. Shots are decidedly cooler and a lot of them required adjustment in post to reflect reality. This, by the way, is not a personal preference - this is just reality. Next time I will most likely switch to either a sunny white balance or a custom one, simply based on experience from this assignment.
Moving onto the lenses now:
- extremely sharp and very fast, silent and literally as advertised. No complaints whatsoever - even though I’d like to know why the 70-200/2.8 is bigger than the F-mount one. Beats me… I even loved the simplicity, size and sharpness of the 14-30/4 - don’t know how it compares with the new 14-24/2.8, but I would easily compare it with the older 14-24/2.8!
- cannot, for the life of me, understand why Nikon added soft black velvet on the inside of the lens hoods. I mean, it looks luxurious (for those who spend their time caressing the insides of their lens hoods - or whatever) and I’m sure it probably sucks light like nobody’s business, BUT it also attracts dust and grime at a level I literally cannot accurately describe - the slightest breath of wind WILL cause dust and other particles to migrate and adhere to the inside of the lens hood (and they do not leave easily, let me tell you!) Also, because they are made of soft material, they do suffer from wear and tear. The simple act of reversing the hood for storage causes wear and I’m 100% certain the material will be destroyed within 6 months. Remember, a travel assignment means rough conditions and you need sturdy, hard-to-destroy equipment, not luxurious stuff. I wonder how long it’ll be before there are third party hoods in the market!
- Filters. Oh, this was, by far, the biggest disappointment for me. You see, you literally cannot attach a screw-on filter on ANY lens without removing the lens hood completely (either forward-facing OR, which is worse, reverse!!!!). This means that to use a filter you must somehow store the hood elsewhere adding more hassle and one more thing which can go wrong (hood falling down and getting stepped on, being forgotten on-site and so on). This is completely stupid, wrong ergonomically and offers literally no benefit to anyone whatsoever. If the lens hoods were just 2mm wider at the lens-end, this would not have been an issue. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
- the 14-30/4. Very practical and a very good performer. Small annoyance: you need to “unlock” it by rotating the barrel. While I get the rationale behind this idea, it does make the lens less usable as can never be ready to shoot without this additional step. It’s a bit of a pain the in neck and it did cost me quite a few moments.
I have to say that video with both the Z9 and the Z7II is a dream - easy to work with, excellent autofocus and light management and the articulated screens make life much, much easier. I have to say however that the sheer weight of the Z9 and a lens makes handholding it and using it in any practical way quite a challenge. This is not a light camera and I dont even want to think what the overall weight and heft of it would be once you add a gimbal and a monitor and all the other bits and pieces.
Overall:
- the Z9 (and the Z system in general) works very well in terms of the sheer technicalities of image creation. The files are superb, noise and dynamic range handling are better than the D5 and D6. Processing an image in CaptureOne is a pleasure and while I generally do not create images which required a lot of processing, the images literally popped out of the screen almost immediately.
- there are a few ergonomic and usability elements however which make the Z9 less of a pleasure to work with than, for example, the D5. The camera makes you work a LOT harder to set it up and manage the various options and sometimes the sheer joy of shooting gets marred by the complexity of the equipment. Just as an example, while experimenting with settings on three separate occasions I ended up either turning my screen into Cthulhu-level shades of blackness I could not recover from or changed something in the autofocus settings which resulted in dozens of out-of-focus shots (and half a day in wasted effort). Complexity and features are all well and good but you should not need a PhD in computer science to configure and use a camera…
Some final thoughts:
I cannot yet tell whether the move to mirrorless was a good idea or not. Certainly I now have a lighter setup (and my shoulders thank me for it) and my main body is also my “studio” body and I no longer have to “choose” between speed and large files (to allow cropping). The sharpness of the new lenses is also superb. Were these benefits enough to justify the spend (because it was quite a spend - even if it came years after my last upgrade) is something which I’ll still have to evaluate.
