Z 8

WOW!!! A compact, light-weight mirrorless with a sophisticated focusing system, speedy frame rate and spectacular sensor - when coupled with a Nikkor telephoto, it just might be the perfect camera for wildlife!

No doubt about it. This is a lovely camera, does everything I need a Camera to do! Except one thing, this would be at grand slam camera if I could hook it up on my DJI Gimbal using the Bluetooth.Because of this, I always grab my Sony for gimbal work.

While waiting for the Z8 to come off backorder status I made the mistake of buying a Canon eos R7. The pure horror of "rolling shutter" effect nearly stopped me from buying the Z8. I'm happy it didn't. The R7 is just a bad camera for wildlife photography. Afterall, BIF (birds in flight) is what I'm after. Not BSSOB (birds sitting still on branchs). I actually thought about shooting some of those BSSOBs at Canon. The Z8 has completely rested all my concerns about action shooting with a mirrorless camera with electronic shutter. My photos are sharp, color balanced and a delight to review. The auto focus and tracking are not perfect, but far superior to what I was using. Its nice to pick up a camera you enjoy using, but the Z8 is now the camera I hate to put down.

The Z8 is the new D850. Which is to say the Z8 is the best general purpose 35mm full frame mirrorless camera currently extant on planet Earth. When I first picked it up, the Z8 immediately reminded me of first time I picked up a D850 - in slid into my hand and I did not want to let go. When I started shooting the Z8, it quickly became clear that the shortcomings of the original version the Z7 have been completely overcome. AF is fast and accurate and the camera is dead quiet even if you leave the shutter sound ON at the minimum setting. The ergonomics, always Nikon strong point, are wonderful. You can set this camera up to be easily switchable between Action, Landscape, etc and you can keep your favorite controls the way you like them, all of which add up to making this the best general purpose camera anywhere. Menu navigation is intuitive. And price-wise, compared to high priced competitors with crappy ergos, the Z8 is a steal. Lastly, there is Nikon glass. All of the Z glass that I have personally experienced, including the often maligned 24-200 f/4-6.3, are absolutely at the top in their respective classes. My current favorites are the 24-70 f/2.8, are bag-o-primes, and the 400 f/4.5, which I love using hand held in low light - because I can. I could go on, but my Z8 has the 24-120 f/4 mounted, and I need to go out and shoot.

I am in withdrawl right now. I sent mine in for the recall, it will have been gone two weeks before i get it back. That aside, i love it. I came from a D4S and I primarily photographed race cars for several years and I loved it. Recently the wife and I have been hiking and I am trying to do more Milky Way Photography. I found the D4S really heavy for long hiked and thought the Z8 would lighten the load a bit and improve the quality of my shots. I was not disappointed, it has done both. I have a lot of learning to do to try and get more use of the capabilities of this camera. The only drawback I have encountered is the shorter battery life.

So far so great after transitioning from a d850. The autofocus and raw files have been a pleasure to work with in the field and office respectively. The only two problems I’ve noted so far:The multi-selector is too small and hard to work with at any kind of speed. I shoot a lot of action sports and I’ve found it difficult to work with that little dial if I have gloves on. It’s fine in warmer seasons but I can see it being a problem in the winter while I stand around in hip deep snow freezing my digits waiting for a cloud to shift.Secondly, with multiple exposures, I prefer having a raw file to work with in Lightroom. It’s a limiting factor in delivering the highest quality image to clients and would love to see this in a firmware update.

Overall, a very good camera. Fantastic image quality at iso 64 and 500 and up, in between a bit of a drop. Still getting used to the nuances of auto focus since it is different than DSLR. Eye detection on people is generally fantastic, for wildlife it can be really good to it just doesn’t find the eyes. At times it can lock on to the background. Viewfinder is excellent, body size is good (wish it was a little bigger), very customizable controls. One complaint is that you can’t put auto ISO on my menu and change the shutter speed. Overall very happy with the Z8.

I am really happy with my Z8. I love my d750 and the Z8 finally gave me the mirrorless specs I was looking for to justify the upgrade. I have taken this on two shoots so far and love every minute of it. The new button layout took all of five minutes to get comfortable with. Spend some time, learn the menus, and migrate over your custom settings and you will never look back.

I bought this model for bird photography . I was using the Z7 . The focusing system of the Z7 just wasn’t doing what I needed it to do. Track a moving subject. It is hard enough to find a bird in your view finder , let along focus in on it . The Z8 does a much better job than the Z7. I know if it is that I have to learn the camera settings, but the camera still searches for the subject with a delay In focusing on the subject. The Z8 is much better than the Z7 in this aspect. I like the door that protects the image sensor when changing lenses in the field. The focusing system is great during landscape photography. The camera works much better with staying focused while shooting videos. Especially when zooming in on the subject. It would be nice if Nikon would make the 28-300mm f5.6 lens for the mirrorless camera line up .