Nikon recently announced its new Z system, a high-end consumer mirrorless camera system. I haven’t read through any of the many on-line commentaries in depth, but I’ll comment on a few things in the announcement that stood out in my mind.
The Z system is a “full-frame, Nikon FX format” system, so it will have the same sensor size as Nikon’s FX series of digital SLR bodies. This means ‘high-end consumer’ and up, in terms of price and target market. Full-frame digital cameras are still expensive pieces of equipment.
The Z system will have “a new, larger-diameter mount.” This will presumably mean larger and heavier lenses, which will likely mean higher cost, but also better optical quality. Lenses tend to perform the best near their centres, so if a system uses less of the peripheral image (e.g., DX cameras using FX lenses), image quality will tend to be better. A larger diameter mount doesn’t seem to make sense unless Nikon is planning for its new lenses to produce larger images (of which only the central area is then used). This could be one aspect of the Z system to keep an eye on, and aligns with something later on in the announcement: “At the heart of the new Z mount system is the new, larger-diameter mount, which unlocks further possibilities of lens design, increasing greater capabilities in optical performance.”
Nikon also mentions that it will be introducing the optically fastest lens in the company’s history—an f/0.95 lens. Most consumer lenses are in the f/3.5 to f/5.6 range in terms of maximum aperture. Professional zoom lenses typically go to f/2.8. Specialist lenses go to f/1.2 or f/1.4. In that context, f/0.95 is something special, but which focal length are we talking about here? My guess is that it will be a wide-angle lens. Large aperture telephoto lenses are large, heavy, and expensive—compare the Nikkor AF-S 200 mm f/2 lens to the old Nikkor AF 35 mm f/2 lens, for example.
There will initially be two bodies—the 45.7 megapixel Z 7 and the 24.5 megapixel Z 6. It’s clear that the Z 7 will be the choice for landscapes and other types of high-detail photographs, while the Z 6 will be the choice for news and action photographs. In addition to the sensor resolutions, the ISO ranges and frame rates are consistent with this intended usage; the Z 6 can go up to ISO 51200 and 12 fps.
On paper, the electronic viewfinder (apparently the same one for both the Z 6 and the Z 7) should be excellent, but we’ll have to see how it turns out in practice. Frame coverage of 100% and magnification of 0.8x should make for a very pleasant shooting experience. Refresh rate and dynamic range aren’t mentioned in the announcement, but reviewers will no doubt have tested these by now.
One of the biggest features is the in-body image stabilisation. No high-end Nikon camera has had this feature before; Nikon has stayed strictly with in-lens image stabilisation in its SLR system since Day 1, as far as I’m aware. Pentax and Sony opted for in-body stabilisation with their SLR systems, which has meant that all lenses in those systems are effectively image-stabilised lenses. It’s interesting to see Nikon going this route now.
What I’m seeing so far is, in a way, nothing particularly remarkable. Advances in sensor technology are only to be expected. In-body image stabilisation is a significant change in policy, but is in itself nothing new. Probably the most significant point in the announcement, to me, was the mention of the larger-diameter mount. If this signals what I’m thinking it signals, Nikon would seem to be going all out for superior optical performance, even if this means larger, heavier, and more expensive lenses. The f/0.95 point also seems to signal this. Watch this space …