Elsewhere on this forum people have reported emails from Nikon promising the next shipment will be in mid-January and that all NPS orders will be filled by then. Who knows when the next shipment after that will come, but it seem October is unlikely. I give very little credence to this rumor.
Nikon will never give you a baby Z9. Instead they'll release Z6.3 and S7.3 with some Z9 godliness features trickled down but not entirely for sure. Personally, I don't want to buy a camera that only writes to XQD/CFExpress cards. Don't need bulk and weight of integrated gripe either.
Jemini wrote:
And please make it th size of D700/D850. Not the size of Z series
I think a Z8 the size of the D850 would be a disaster. I'm sure that would attract some of the Nikon DSLR base but you'd lose a huge percentage of the potential buyers of the Z8. Nikon could probably get away with a camera slightly larger than the Z7II but a Z8 the size of the D850 would be a huge mistake in my opinion.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking anyone's personal preference for a body that size, I just don't think it would be in the best interest of Nikon to do it.
Dec 26, 2021 at 02:36 PM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
atnpro wrote:
Nikon will never give you a baby Z9. Instead they'll release Z6.3 and S7.3 with some Z9 godliness features trickled down but not entirely for sure. Personally, I don't want to buy a camera that only writes to XQD/CFExpress cards. Don't need bulk and weight of integrated gripe either.
Never is a very long time. I don't think it is a matter of if Nikon delivers a smaller camera with a stacked sensor. I think it is a matter of when.
atnpro wrote:
Nikon will never give you a baby Z9. Instead they'll release Z6.3 and S7.3 with some Z9 godliness features trickled down but not entirely for sure. Personally, I don't want to buy a camera that only writes to XQD/CFExpress cards. Don't need bulk and weight of integrated gripe either.
And I don't want to buy camera that doesn't write to XQD/CFExpress cards. So much faster and more robust than SD, I don't want to go back.
I think it is quite likely that Nikon will release something that is a direct competitor to The Canon R5 (similar size, frame rates and AF performance). I could see them using the Z9 sensor as one way to achieve the required performance benchmarks and avoid development costs of a new sensor. They could save manufacturing costs by eliminating the mechanical shutter and blow Canon out of the water on price (My guess $3499).
PB_James wrote:
And I don't want to buy camera that doesn't write to XQD/CFExpress cards. So much faster and more robust than SD, I don't want to go back.
Of course, it's always horses for courses. First, I ain't a machine-gunner for what I shoot. Second, external video recording to a 2TB SSD is far better than internal recoding to a 2TB XQD/Cfexpress card for various reasons. Besides, the cost of the SSD is a just tiny fraction of that of the XQD/Cfexpress.
Dec 26, 2021 at 04:31 PM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
atnpro wrote:
Of course, it's always horses for courses. First, I ain't a machine-gunner for what I shoot. Second, external video recording to a 2TB SSD is far better than internal recoding to a 2TB XQD/Cfexpress card for various reasons. Besides, the cost of the SSD is a just tiny fraction of that of the XQD/Cfexpress.
They are both on sale at the moment, but the CF express is $100 off the normal price and the SD card is $50 off the normal price, but this is just an example of how the prices aren't that far apart if you are comparing high level SD cards to CF express card. Now there are cheaper slower SD cards with a lot lower specs and that is an advantage of SD cards, but let's be clear it is the greater variety of cards that is the advantage of SD and not that they are inherently that much cheaper.
They are both on sale at the moment, but the CF express is $100 off the normal price and the SD card is $50 off the normal price, but this is just an example of how the prices aren't that far apart if you are comparing high level SD cards to CF express card. Now there are cheaper slower SD cards with a lot lower specs and that is an advantage of SD cards, but let's be clear it is the greater variety of cards that is the advantage of SD and not that they are inherently that much cheaper....Show more →
Currently at B&H, a SanDisk 256Gb Extreme UHS-I SDXC SD card is at $37 bucks a pop ,which is more than enough for my needs at the moment. Why? First, my Z6.2 can't record 8K video so anything above Class 3 (U3) / Class 30 (V30) is a pure waste of money. Even if you have paid Nikon to enable your Z6.2 for raw video output, you still can't record raw video internally to memory cards, can you?. Why waste money there? Any U3 V30 SD card at max 30MB/s write speed can easily handle 4K 60 to 120 fps 8-bit video by design. When using an external recorder to record raw video, a 1TB SSD with 1000MB write speed costs you no more than $130 a pop, which is capable of recording 8K raw video output from camera. Again why waste your money on anything above U3 V30 UHS standard? Unless you're one of those ultra highspeed machine-gunners shooting 14-bit uncompressed raw nonstop all the time, it just doesn't make sense. Years working in photography has taught me a thing or two. The big lesson for me is always "The Less is More". That's my pennies.
Dec 26, 2021 at 10:08 PM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
atnpro wrote:
Currently at B&H, a SanDisk 256Gb Extreme UHS-I SDXC SD card is at $37 bucks a pop ,which is more than enough for my needs at the moment. Why? First, my Z6.2 can't record 8K video so anything above Class 3 (U3) / Class 30 (V30) is a pure waste of money. Even if you have paid Nikon to enable your Z6.2 for raw video output, you still can't record raw video internally to memory cards, can you?. Why waste money there? Any U3 V30 SD card at max 30MB/s write speed can easily handle 4K 60 to 120 fps 8-bit video by design. When using an external recorder to record raw video, a 1TB SSD with 1000MB write speed costs you no more than $130 a pop, which is capable of recording 8K raw video output from camera. Again why waste your money on anything above U3 V30 UHS standard? Unless you're one of those ultra highspeed machine-gunners shooting 14-bit uncompressed raw nonstop all the time, it just doesn't make sense. Years working in photography has taught me a thing or two. The big lesson for me is always "The Less is More". That's my pennies. ...Show more →
Yeah, as I said the advantage of SD cards is that you can go with cheaper slower cards if that serves your purpose. CF express cards are not expensive for what they are. Similar spec'd SD cards are similar in price. It is just there are not low spec'd CF express cards. Whether you need a faster card depends on your usage. Video is not the only use for high speed cards. High speed cards clear the buffer faster. High speed cards allow faster file transfers and if you shoot a lot of files that can matter. Some may also buy faster cards for future proofing with cameras to come, which is reasonable for some. I am glad that you have found cheap cards that work for you, but that won't be the solution for everyone.
As several have said, we and Nikon need a mirrorless replacement for the D850 with similar size and weight (or slightly less), the same MP resolution, better / top performance AF tracking, blackout free viewfinder, the same or slightly better image quality, and nearly the same price. Nikon needs this model as soon as possible within 2022 to maintain and hopefully grow market share. The D850 is known as the highest quality all-around DSLR. Its successor should achieve the same standard in mirrorless. The Z9 is a major advance in Nikon's state-of-the-art, which is urgently needed by the D850 successor. Considering existing full-frame sensor technology, the resolution sweet-spot may be 45 MP, with higher resolutions sacrificing image quality due to increased noise (just not enough photo-electrons per pixel). The R&D for a mirrorless D850 is just a stripped down, cost reduced Z9. The Z7II is not a replacement for the D850 and would be redundant with a fully functional, mirrorless, D850 successor.
Given how cheap the Z9 is relative to it's closest competition (and Nikon's own DSLR flagships), I think that will still remain the entry point for a high MP stacked sensor in Nikon's lineup at least for the near future. I don't think they will have two cameras $500-1000 apart assuming near identical specs other than the grip.
This is what I think (hope?) they will do:
Z50ii - mild update to the most entry level APS-C Z body, sub $1000 price
Z500 - high performance APS-C body like the D500, Expeed 7, hopefully with ~24MP stacked sensor. ~$2000
Z5ii - mild update to the most entry level FF Z body, ~$1500
Z6iii - same 24MP non-stacked sensor but add Expeed 7 and Z9 AF algorithms + FPS bump, ~$2500
Z7iii - same 45MP non-stacked sensor but add Expeed 7 and Z9 AF algorithms + FPS bump, ~$3500
Z8 (if they make one) - higher MP (60+) non-stacked sensor like the A7R4 *OR* stacked sensor ~24MP like the A9II, ~$4500. Otherwise too similar to Z7iii.
Z9 - Probably no update for 2-4 years.
With MILC performance being so dependent on sensor readout speed, that's where things get more complicated compared to the DSLR world where historically they could put the exact same AF in the D500/D850/D5 for example. The only way to get top tier AF is with a stacked sensor and the only way to get a blackout-free viewfinder is with a stacked sensor, and currently Nikon is the only manufacturer who has even been able to achieve that so far. I'm guessing we won't see those things in a ~$3500 body (like D850 level) in the next iteration but I would absolutely love to be wrong.
Z8
- No video features
- No integrated grip
- 6 Million dot EVF with 120 Hz refresh rate by default
- 33 MP (to avoid competing with Z9 sales)
- 15 fps and 60 fps (11 Megapixel jpg)
- Nikon special sauce
- $4000
saaketham wrote:
Z8
- No video features
- No integrated grip
- 6 Million dot EVF with 120 Hz refresh rate by default
- 33 MP (to avoid competing with Z9 sales)
- 15 fps and 60 fps (11 Megapixel jpg)
- Nikon special sauce
- $4000
My guess is No video will never happen.
No integrated Grip....check
6 million dot EVF....nope...same as Z9
33MP...maybe...I'd guess it will have same sensor as Z9 (needs to be stacked otherwise just buy a Z7II(III))
FPS sounds like a good compromise to not compete with Z9 too closely
NSS...sure, never experienced that but must be tasty
$4000 sounds reasonable.
