Here follows a few useful links to the few reliable and useful sources.
In the first of a series on the Z9, Ricci Chera clears up a few misunderstandings and worse. These videos are likely to remain a primary, and rationale, reference on the internet. The reason being is has been testing the camera for 3 months
The only other reliable assessment of the Z9 is not surprisingly:
On the sensor (no anti aliasing layer),
"..In conjunction with the new image sensor, we also get a change in the filter layer that sits just above it. It appears the dual-coating Nikon is referring to is mostly to suppress dust buildup. One of the layers is a new anti-static material, the other is a fluorine-based coating on the top of the layer..."
And in the same commentary, Thom's explanation of the EVF:
"Meanwhile the EVF has changed on the Z9, as well. While still having 3.69m dots, it also is live, allowing for blackout free reproduction at 20 fps, and far brighter than any previous mirrorless camera EVF. Nikon keeps referring to the EVF as "live," implying some sort of Genlock capability. In their initial documentation they point to a dual stream directly from the image sensor, one to the EVF, one to the EXPEED processor. Plus, the EVF has a new Starlight View mode (to -9.5EV with f/1.2 lens)."
chambeshi wrote:
On the sensor (no anti aliasing layer),
"..In conjunction with the new image sensor, we also get a change in the filter layer that sits just above it. It appears the dual-coating Nikon is referring to is mostly to suppress dust buildup. One of the layers is a new anti-static material, the other is a fluorine-based coating on the top of the layer..."
This is something I discussed well before the Z9 release, along with many other specifications and features that proved to be 100% accurate. I think this is a very valuable feature for a mirrorless camera. Mirrorless cameras are very prone to sensor contamination for a variety of reasons. This feature deserves much more attention than it is getting. No one else has anything like it.
A nice review below:
500 PF owners are going to be super happy. He shows a sequence of in flight shots of an osprey using the 500pf+1.4tc at 700mm...
He also shows a handheld video shot with 500pf and 2x tc at 2300 mm, at 4k 120p with a 2.3x crop!...these are impressive.
Thanks for this summary of video footage etc which Nikon has put out in different regions. Their marketing department has not minced words why the Z9 is one leapfrogging camera! Judged on tye state of leading-edge industry technology, the opposition has been kicked deep into touch.... Some of us anticipated this from not just the rumours but more particularly registered patents and measured commentary on the industry.
On the practical reality, the Z9 packs in far more top end features than almost all of us require for wildlife photography. With all the adapted G and E Nikkors and even more excellent Z optics, one's skill set and travelling budget become the overriding. No finer time in the history of photography to buy into the Nikon Ecosystem if you're not ensconced already 😃😃
It has always been a big mistake to understand the capabilities of Nikon engineering and hopefully the mgmt run hard with this great leap forward. Besides forthcoming Z Nikkors, when will we hear about a more affordable Z90 and Z8, availing key features in the Z9? Exciting times ahead.
bs kite wrote:
Another vid I ran into on NikonUsa. It has *many* graphic moments that are new to me. I hope the same for you all.
gannis wrote:
A nice review below:
500 PF owners are going to be super happy. He shows a sequence of in flight shots of an osprey using the 500pf+1.4tc at 700mm...
He also shows a handheld video shot with 500pf and 2x tc at 2300 mm, at 4k 120p with a 2.3x crop!...these are impressive.
Hot DAMN! Salivating!!! That right there shows me I may never need to go to a Native Z Lens from my 500PF!
Absolutely, never in my dreams did I think the f mount lenses will start working so seemlessly on the Z9, considering all the performance limitations we had with the previous gen Zs. I envied canon on how amazing their adapted glass work but I think nikon is in the same ballpark now. That's quite amazing because we always thought Nikon lenses were not fully electronic, built for DSLR AF n bla bla bla...and overnight all of this seems to have virtually disappeared.
Good to see. Encouraging. I had excellent images with 500 PF on a Z7 with TC14 III and even TC17 II. Although slow... this example with the Z9 points to what many suspected - the bottleneck is the Z7 AF not the FTZ adapter
More examples of wildlife in Kenya - from ~0:55 ?t=59
how typical of Nikon to downplay the abilities of this feature in the lead up to the Z9 launch
gannis wrote:
A nice review below:
500 PF owners are going to be super happy. He shows a sequence of in flight shots of an osprey using the 500pf+1.4tc at 700mm...
He also shows a handheld video shot with 500pf and 2x tc at 2300 mm, at 4k 120p with a 2.3x crop!...these are impressive.
It is only as expectad that Nikon would make a similar leap with the Z7 to the Z9 as Canon did with the original R to the R5. In both cases the first camera was built on dslr designed hardware, and the second on generic mirtorless hardware.
Eric214 wrote:
Hot DAMN! Salivating!!! That right there shows me I may never need to go to a Native Z Lens from my 500PF!
The 500PF has the great advantage of being as light as it is, meaning you have a lót of overhead to use a heavy body before you cannot handhold comfortably anymore. And the Z9 is a heavy body for sure.
Reading some comments from very experienced photographers here I am surprised by their reliance on spec sheet items to compare the performance of cameras.
Having owned and shot extensively with Sony a7rIV, Sony a9II, Fuji GFX100 and Nikon Z6II/Z7II I clearly prefer the EVF experience of the Nikon ZII despite their lower res. Experience has taught me that there is more to a camera than specs. I have also used the a1 in 120 fps viewfinder mode and wasn’t particularly impressed by the experience. It clearly felt more EVfesque than the Z6II I had used seconds before. Not that this had any impact on its ability to manage action. It did a great job.
Obviously the EVF of the ZII suffer from some lag and blackout but these aspects seem to be completely fixed on the Z9. Add to that significantly increased brightness and the experience should be special. I have not shot with the camera yet so these are nothing but reasonably educated guesses.
Whether the refresh rate of the EVF is sufficient to handle very quickly and randomly moving objects will have to be tested but I think Nikon deserves some credit when they claim that the Z9 is superior to the D6 for action with a strong focus on BIF.
It would be very surprising to design the fastest sensor on the planet, the fastest refreshing AF (equal to that of the a1), a super low lag EVF that is completely blackout free and overlook the refresh rate aspect wouldn’t it?
ChrisMak wrote:
The 500PF has the great advantage of being as light as it is, meaning you have a lót of overhead to use a heavy body before you cannot handhold comfortably anymore. And the Z9 is a heavy body for sure.
I am one of the real oldies here, and I couldn't manage another 0.5kg attached to my 500PF. You younger or stronger ones go ahead and make the most of this marvellous new body.
personally its a little different looking through the eyepiece and shooting and not getting said blackout. the addition of the available "hey you took a shot indicators" is a plus for me. especially in the either "quite zone" or "so loud my ear protection is just barely working" areas. sight and controllable sound output indication.
2 separate visual data paths.
Refreshing assessment by a mature industry journalist, and he and Nasim Mansurov know what efforts are required for a robust and in depth review of a product, a camera especially
"Even in a pandemic year, Nikon has managed to release a camera that is unprecedented on today’s market and undeniably their most advanced camera ever. They’ve marched through their lens roadmap steadily and with a few nice surprises along the way (like the longer maximum focal length on the 24-120mm f/4). And despite fierce competition against Canon and Sony, they’ve held their own and released some of the best cameras and lenses available today – both at a given price and just in general."
This is one of the panel discussions that was shown on day one. Well worth the watch as it goes into everything including from the engineers info to bird stuff. Very good! Sorry if it was posted already didn’t see it though.
I agree. At this stage of the Z9 release, all we know is official specifications including the Nikon Z9 Brochure. This is the usual case...watch for reviews by Photography Life, Steve Perry, Brad Hill, and Thom Hogan..... In the interim, we can expect some further technical explanations in promised videos by Ricci Chera of Nikon UK.
As for bullying post above of speedmaster20d. It is huge mistake to take a swipe in an ad hominem attack on the personal credibility of Ilkka Nissilä. He is in fact a professional photographer in Finland, and he regularly shares his stunning images of high speed skaters and also wildlife demonstrating his capabilities to fine tune the D5 and D6 and a combination of high end fast Nikkor telephotos. He posts these frequently in NikonGear eg https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=9257.msg164574#msg164574
His posts are often long and delightfully rich in technical detail, because there are few long term members of this Nikon Forum who are as knowledgeable about the history of Nikon's Pro cameras extending back into the film era. I know this well, having been corrected on several of the more arcane details :-)
He and I agree we have both had more than enough of Sony posters not respecting this is a Nikon forum - they repeatedly inject comments and links to inflammatory media eg notorious youtubers to stir up brand wars. These frequent attacks have exhausted the patience of many of us here, such that we have zero tolerance for the bullying and posts inciting brand wars. We do not go Sony nor Canon to taunt nor demean its photographers.
The reality is Nikon is alive and well. Its DSLRs have always held a prime position in the action genres, keeping professionals in their jobs shooting sports, fashion, wildlife etc. There has never been a better time in history to be invested in the Greater Nikon Ecosystem, and yes I know several here in this forum and elsewhere who will continue to shoot a hybrid system of DSLRs and Z MILCs.
Lance B wrote:
But isn't the a1's 240hz refresh at lower EVF resolution when shooting in burst modes? In reality, you do not need a higher resolution in burst modes as you are just following action rather than critically needing to know the frames are in focus - there would be now way to see that anyway.
Also, rather than us all jumping to conclusions about which cam is better, wouldn't it be better for us all to wait until the rela reviews come out? There are many making claims that we have no way of knowing whether they are fact or speculation regarding AF performance, EVF refresh rates and in reality how much of a benefit it is for fast action etc, espeically when you consider there is no black out due to no shutter etc. I have a Nikon brochure that shows that the camera will shoot at over 2 hours in 8K....Show more →
George DeCamp wrote:
This is one of the panel discussions that was shown on day one. Well worth the watch as it goes into everything including from the engineers info to bird stuff. Very good! Sorry if it was posted already didn’t see it though.
Thanks for highlighting this, which I also enjoyed :-) I took some notes, which I will share for all here
~10:00 - technical feedback from Mark Cruz, Nikon USA about write rates etc.
~16:00 >He goes on to discuss how the Autofocus of the Z9 overlays object detection in categorised subject-tracking and 3D. The AI algorithms of the subject-detection "box" apparently change shape to match the subject.
~43:30 > LCD and no blackout EVF
53:00 > New Compression algorithm of 45mp RAW 14bit images is highly efficient. We can get to 1/3 file size, yet kept in full 14bit
Quotable Quote 50:00 > "Old School meets New Technology...This camera is a beautiful combination of everything we've learned with the highest technology available." - Joe McNally
All the panel participants emphasize the refined haptics, and the values in how the LCD tilts in both axes. AND, last but not least, Mark Cruz underscored the fact that the Z9 is Nikon's most weatherproofed flagship ever built...
The Z9 is indeed looking more and more to be the repeat of the D3 Impact, but on the emerging mirrorless market, as PL also noted https://photographylife.com/takeaways-from-nikons-big-mirrorless-announcements-today
chambeshi wrote:
I agree. At this stage of the Z9 release, all we know is official specifications including the Nikon Z9 Brochure. This is the usual case...watch for reviews by Photography Life, Steve Perry, Brad Hill, and Thom Hogan..... In the interim, we can expect some further technical explanations in promised videos by Ricci Chera of Nikon UK.
As for bullying post above of speedmaster20d. It is huge mistake to take a swipe in an ad hominem attack on the personal credibility of Ilkka Nissilä. He is in fact a professional photographer in Finland, and he regularly shares his stunning images of high speed skaters and also wildlife demonstrating his capabilities to fine tune the D5 and D6 and a combination of high end fast Nikkor telephotos. He posts these frequently in NikonGear eg https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=9257.msg164574#msg164574
His posts are often long and delightfully rich in technical detail, because there are few long term members of this Nikon Forum who are as knowledgeable about the history of Nikon's Pro cameras extending back into the film era. I know this well, having been corrected on several of the more arcane details :-)
He and I agree we have both had more than enough of Sony posters not respecting this is a Nikon forum - they repeatedly inject comments and links to inflammatory media eg notorious youtubers to stir up brand wars. These frequent attacks have exhausted the patience of many of us here, such that we have zero tolerance for the bullying and posts inciting brand wars. We do not go Sony nor Canon to taunt nor demean its photographers.
The reality is Nikon is alive and well. Its DSLRs have always held a prime position in the action genres, keeping professionals in their jobs shooting sports, fashion, wildlife etc. There has never been a better time in history to be invested in the Greater Nikon Ecosystem, and yes I know several here in this forum and elsewhere who will continue to shoot a hybrid system of DSLRs and Z MILCs.
I have a feeling the Z9 EVF is going to be a better experience than the A1 despite the spec sheet comparison.
Sony EVFs have always been unimpressive to me even with the 5M and 9M dot specs.
I was reading the Z9 PDF brochure and Nikon is making claims about their EVF being the first to not skip frames. If they are correct then I wouldn’t doubt Sony is only showing 60 unique frames in a second even with 120HZ refresh. Nikon showing ever single frame of the 60/s may be just as good.
Time will tell. But I think the better brightness and DR of the Z9’s EVF may be a winner no matter the resolution.
