I had this camera for about a year now. I have been using Nikon gear for 2 decades and yes D850 was or still is the absolute best camera for stills. But now after a year and photographing mostly landscapes and wildlife in the real-world scenario of Costa Rican jungles and extremely high humidity where both Canon and Sony have failed over and over on my face Z9 has never glick or ruined the moment. Many of the negative comments I read were about focus. Gladly I know how to fix that with the tip of my fingers. Many also complained about the weight, if you are so concerned about it get an iPhone. Capturing Quetzals of flight frozen on the perfect moment with a lizard on its beak, for a Z9 is no problem at all, red-eyed leaf frogs in the rainforest with macro lenses piece of cake. Capturing lighting and the milky or a hungry wild river otters eating a fish is another easy job. As I said earlier been there and done pretty much from northern Canada to African deserts and of course my birthplace Costa Rica. Z9 has accomplished every single task. I just updated its new firmware I can't wait to see what it does. Randall Ortega Chaves-Costa Rica

It's a solid camera, but has a few things I don't particularly care for. First the memory card slot isn't designed very well and easily opened - I liked the D4 design better. The D4 also has better imagery under lower light in my opinion. The files from the D4 are simply beautiful. The Z9 can create a nice smooth file as well but under a lower ISO. I almost feel that the single shot D4 autofocus is more accurate on most shots than the Z9. The EVF should be higher resolution - not sure why it isn't...Okay, what I do like about the Z9 is that the autofocus (3D) is more in tune with faster moving subjects even though my D4 and the Z6 seemed to work quite well for most subjects. I do like the fine-tuning you can achieve with color balance presets better with the Z9. I also like the starlight feature for studio work. I think the Z9 is wonderful in many aspects but it needs some firmware to make it the camera it should be. I do like the battery life as well. The D4 just felt better in my hands but the Z9 is getting there. I'm just glad that I held onto the D4, but I really miss the Z6 - and will probably pick another one up eventually.

I have been a Nikon shooter since I first purchased a Nikon FG. I have and still use a D70, D300, D500, and a D850. I decided to go mirrorless and did not want to go backwards with the other Z's. So, I went out and bought the Z9. Have not been disappointed. Fantastic camera. Will admit that there is a learning curve. But it does everything that it's supposed to do. I took 45 pictures of my granddaughter running in my backyard using the eye detection with the 3D focusing. And got 45 usable pictures. All in focus. Can't wait to use this at my grandson's football games. Nikon has a hit on its hands with this camera.

I got an early Z9, and have had zero failure type concerns. I've enjoyed it's growing better with each firmware update. The camera is fantastic, so so happy I have it. I used the D5 and D6 (several others) before grabbing my Z9. One concern that drives me crazy, is it will not respond to focus when shooting a stationary subject - I can se the bird on the wire, the camera does not.. That D6 will snap on right now, while this camera will do nothing. I have to turn the manual ring on the lens to get it going, or point to the grass, tree leaves or so on. This is my only concern, but a serious one. And I know this will be worked out. I really love the camera and am so pleased to own it. I save NEF to card one and JPG to card two. The out of camera jpg's are really awesome, just a tad to no editing is required - seriously. I use the video some, but not to excited about that tech.Recently I bought the Z8 to be the Z9's best buddy. I've sold off the older DSLR's and am committed to Z flagships (I had not bought a Z until I bought the Z9). Get it, you will like it too.

What a great camera. I went from a D500 to the D850 and finally to the Z9. Each step of the way the performance has gotten better. The Z9 is simply the best Nikon I’ve ever used. Paired with my 500 PF ED it makes an unparalleled wildlife setup. Birds in flight has never been easier. Eye tracking is crazy good. Focus is super fast and the tracking is simply amazing. I would have given it 5 stars but for two issues. Wake up time, while extremely fast, still creates sufficient lag to miss some quick shots. Second, the autofocus has some trouble with vertical line such as trying to shoot birds in tall grass.

I am a sport photographer with 5 years experience now. primarily for high school and occasional collegiate game. Previous to purchasing the Z9, I used a D5 which was fine for my use case however I wanted the Z9 so I bought it. Its a wonderful camera and truly enables me to capture shots that weren't possible with the D5. Recently while shooting a baseball game at the Mets Training field in florida, the camera suffered a accidental fall to the concrete flooring of the stadium, it still worked when reattached to lens however I sent to nikon for a checkup, they said all is working as it should. Amazing tough camera body!! 5 feet to concrete floor/steps, ouch.... Truly pro grade toughness. Love it..!!

I've owned Nikons since the film days and transitioned to digital with the D1H and upgraded throughout the years. I really thought my D6 would be my last camera and completely loved that camera for sports and wildlife work especially in low light conditions. But the Z9 really does open up doors and change the way I shoot for the better. It's subject and eye detection AF modes really work as advertised and coupled with high frame rate easily capture images that used to be very, very difficult. The pro series form factor with integrated vertical shooting grip just feels great in the hand and balances equally well handheld with a 500mm PF or tripod mounted with a 600mm f/4. Battery life is great and the EVF is as close to an optical viewfinder as I've ever seen and makes it a cinch to nail exposure in the field. The only thing I'd like to see for this camera is increased options to customize controls especially toggle style functions. The Recall Shooting Function is great but there's only one of those and there are many things that could be assigned to quickly toggle a feature such as Subect/Eye Detect on and off if the camera's programming supported it. That said Nikon made some great advances in this area such as the ability to toggle an adjustment feature (Button Hold option) such as a single press of exposure compensation and release it while the adjustment is made then hit it again or half press the shutter release to toggle out of that setting mode.This really is an amazing camera and though not my first mirrorless it's just in an entirely different class than previous mirrorless like my Z6 II.

I’ve owned many Nikon cameras over the years, and still own quite a few. Each has its own personality in my opinion, and requires my commitment to learning how to make it part of my sensory system. I’ve kept my D850 but sadly admit it’s only been out a couple of times since the Z9 arrived. That is because the Z9 really is a game-changer in my photography.I took the time to work through all of the settings with some help from YouTube. What a project! But I’ve learned that different cameras have a different balance of complexity/features. The correctly implemented user profiles are useful; that is the first time I can say that for a Nikon body.For me, largely using the Z9 for wildlife (birds in flight quite often), the Z9 is the best I’ve ever seen. It amazes me. Yes, of course I miss shots. That’s down to me. I’ve never had it miss a shot that I was set up for correctly. And sometimes it rescues shots that would have had no chance with an SLR.Yes, it’s heavy. The tradeoff is amazing battery life and vertical grip. Now there’s the Z8 if you don’t want to choose that combination. I already have the Z8 and it’s truly a Z9-light.It was hard to swallow a new lens mount, but making my F-mount lenses still work almost seamlessly with the adapter was a huge and important accomplishment.Nikon, I think you’ve outdone yourselves with the Z9 and now the Z8. You’ve got me as a customer for the rest of this life.

I love the Z9, it is the best camera that Nikon has ever made in my opinion. As much as I love my D850, I think I will be trading it to get a second Z9 body. Nikon really hit it out of the park!