I love my Nikon Z6 (I had it for about 24 months now) and wanted to spend more time before my review, and it does some simply excellent low-light work! It took some study time to harness the system and its settings (more on that later), but I feel that this newer body mounting is more extensive, and the lens setting is much closer to the sensor...
Collects more light from a lens that costs less by not having to be, say, one of a lower aperture, thus say, on an F4 or higher lens on this system, it will capture light on shots that in the past, one would be looking to buy a lens that would need to be much lower in aperture and naturally, much more expensive... Here is a good video that explains this concept versus the older and long-proven (basically based on the past film camera bodies using the same F Mount lens) as compared to the Z body:
Another one with a deeper dive into the design improvements here:
Now, you can pretty much eject what you might have heard over the years about the early Nikon Mirrorless systems... And even YouTube reviews and some information past, say a year old now...
Those, in many cases now, hold little water.
Nikon has gone to great efforts to update and keep current, better, and faster AF (Auto Focus) options and response times! Nikon has also now released several new native lenses for the Z mount compared to its 1st release offerings. As such, and from my research and actual findings... Unless you have a special photography use case and need, say, dual memory card slots or some other option. One would be hard-pressed to need anything past say, a newer Z5 or even the Mk1 Z6 body for advanced personal work.
Even the little and smaller sensor Nikon Z50 will return some great shots with the correct lens and settings combo due to this design. This makes for an awesome little entry point into the Nikon Z Mirrorless Ecosystem since the Z Lens Mountings are all identical. One can at the time of this writing, pick up a Z50 Body and two lens kit for around $1100.00 and cover pretty much the majority of your personal shooting needs including closer Wildlife and typical Landscape work.
Here are some reviews (below) that I feel are more in keeping with the current system level as long as you run the latest firmware on yours. And even if you find one that is used (which is not easy these days as I am looking for a used Z7 body now) make sure it is running the latest and greatest version posted on the Nikon Support site before using it. You can find those firmware updates for all Nikon gear starting here: https://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/index.html
Now onto some educational videos on them!
As for myself, I have snagged some photos already taken on my Z6 that my past equipment would be hard-pressed to get like this...
I have more to edit and will add those to this review here soon. I also have some more photography projects for product reviews slated that will be taken on my Nikon Z that I am looking forward to knowing; the quality of those pictures, as compared to before, is what I would classify as Magazine quality now. It has truly improved my game and work output for sure.... It has a ton of pictures for articles and other content (see below), all taken with the Z6!
So, if you are in the market for a new camera, or looking to get into Outdoor Photography well past the quality and reach that your Smartphone or typical Point and Shoot camera will stumble in getting in quality. Then you might want to look at the Nikon Z Camera system! Even the entry-level smaller sensor-sized will impress you once you program this little computer with a lens attached to it for your needs! What I now shoot:
Nikon Z6 body along with... NIKKOR Z 24-70 F/4 S telephoto lens. It is a really flexible lens to have and is a shock to me, for it gets some great shots even in low light! The trick is setting the camera while running on aperture mode, and using a tripod with a remote trigger or a timed delay for the shutter release when needed.
NIKKOR Z 14-30mm F/4 S wide angle lens which pretty much lives now on my Z6 and gets some just awesome shots once you frame them for that use case for it has little reach naturally... Same basic settings and (if needed) like above, using a tripod helps. More important, though, is framing the shot with more foreground in the picture for proper depth and appearance. This lens though has come in very handy for product review work for sure!
And along these lines, a good little video on how to set up one of the Z bodies for better picture taking, and to help reduce the learning curve on these little PC's with a lens mounted on it...
Now you can order your own to try these lenses and have it shipped right to your location, simply by clicking on any of the product pictures seen above...
In the meantime,
We invite you to take in a few Flats Nation Podcast Episodes to help "Scratch that Fishing Itch" when working or traveling and you cannot hitch up the Skiff and go, on these links:
Our main podcast page works well for your mobile devices since it will stream (or download) right on your phone/tablet. It can be found by clicking Here.
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Many Blessings and Good Shooting!
