Background (A bit about me)
Before I jump into a review of the Z8, if you will allow me, I wanted to provide some context and history of my time with digital photography. If you want to jump ahead to the review part, please click on the Z8 link in the TOC above. If you want to know more about me and what I do with my cameras, read on!
In October of 2010 I decided that I needed a change of hobbies and remembered that, back in high school, I loved doing photography. I have always had a camera with me in one form or another, but due to budget limitations, that camera was usually something cheap and low quality. I was constantly frustrated with how my photos looked on the cheap gear, so I made the decision to finally get a DSLR. Using a ring that was left to me by my grandmother (and permission to pawn it from my family), I found a shop that had a Nikon D3000 entry level camera with an attached 35mm f/1.8 prime lens. My (modern) first jump into something that resembled a real camera started there.
Side note: I am starting this story with my first DSLR, instead of going way back to my time as a photographer in high school because it’s really the start of my time using more up to date gear. In HS I had an old Mamiya/Sekor 35mm film camera and a lingering smell of stop bath on everything I owned. This post isn’t about that experience.
D3000 (Lil Steve’s first DSLR)
Armed with my new (to me) D3000, I set out to re-learn my photography skills and very quickly found all of the limitations that an entry level camera experiences. The photos looked great, and while I was a little rusty, I was picking things up and getting better fast. I picked up a new Tamron Super zoom, to give me a little more room to move instead of being tied to a prime as a starter lens and it was going great… until I hit a wall of capabilities. The D3000 was designed to be entry level, and after brushing off the dust of my skills, I wasn’t entry level anymore.
D5100 (Stepping up)
Roughly a year later, I broke through that wall and bought a Nikon D5100. It was brand new at the time and the photos it took were stunning (for 2011, that is). More lenses and equipment let me stretch my wings and the D5100 had everything I could ask for. 2011 was also the first year I sailed on the JoCo Cruise and started really diving into taking photos for other people. I met some great photographers and traded tips and stories about gear. I was advised that if I really wanted to get serious, moving from DX to FX (Crop sensor to Full Frame) was the way to do it.
In 2013 I thought that doing Project365 was a clever idea to branch out into other aspects. Looking back, I still love so many of the photos I took during that project, even if it was incredibly stressful. Halfway through that year, I was working on a contract that had me in Kuwait. I was finally making enough that I could afford some nicer equipment, so I set my sights on the Nikon D600.
D600 (The Dark Times)
Boy was that a mistake. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the switch to full frame and many of my lenses were compatible. The camera itself was a good push for me on the professional side, but the D600 was plagued with problems. Mostly in the sensor and its seal that allowed dust to come in on a regular basis. This was such an issue that Nikon quickly released the D610 that fixed the issue, but wouldn’t replace any existing D600’s.
I adapted by doing a lot of extra post processing… for six years. I sent the camera back to Nikon three times for cleaning (at their expense because it was their issue) but eventually I just couldn’t take it anymore.
D850 (Playing with the big boys)
By this point I was fully invested in a full frame with multiple lenses. So in 2019 I upgraded to the Nikon D850. The big new name of the Nikon Professional DSLR’s. I love this camera. It has become my main body and among all the photo work I do, professionally and fun, it’s amazing.
But it’s big. Real big.
It was slightly larger than my D600, and WAY larger than my D5100. Traveling around with it became cumbersome. In the last few years, I started leaving it at home when I was out and about, opting to use my Pixel 6 pro instead. The camera on my Pixel was amazing, it fit in my pocket, and, in very select instances, it would sometimes take better photos than my D850.
I started to get discouraged. I wanted to get out more and take photos that weren’t the usual gigs that I do, but carrying around the D850 was too much of a hassle.
Mirrorless (A whole new world)
Enter the world of Mirrorless. (And probably the reason you are even here reading this).
Nikon has a series of mirrorless cameras that I have been watching for a while. Having a number of friends who also use mirrorless cameras, and sing their praises on the regular, I was paying close attention to the offerings that Nikon had. The problem was that Nikon had a huge gap in their listings.
At one end was the Z9, which was huge, expensive, and way more than I needed. Below that was the Z7, and Z7II, which would be downgrades in capability from the D850. It just wasn’t worth it to switch at the time because I didn’t want to lose what I had just for a smaller body.
I would also need to pick up an adapter since the mirrorless camera’s use a Z-mount for their lenses and all my existing lenses (seven of them) are on the DSLR F-mount. Nikon makes the FTZ and FTZII for this purpose.
Then a miracle happened. Nikon made the announcement for the Nikon Z8. The perfect balance of everything the Z9 had, but in a smaller body. It was priced below its big brother and little sister, the Z7II, and matched the budget of what I was looking for. Needless to say, I was all over it. I did a lot of research of the capabilities and even did a deep dive into the early reviews. Eventually I made up my mind and placed my pre-order (with Amazon, since Nikons fulfillment department has some issues) for the Z8 that was scheduled to be released on May 25th.
Z8 (The reason you are probably here)
The Z8 arrived at my house on May 30th. I ran into a minor snag in that the FTZII adapter that I ordered wasn’t scheduled to arrive until June 6th-10th, and the Z mount lens that I bought wouldn’t arrive until the 31st. This left me with a camera body that I could do nothing with except poke at menus and play that wonderful weight game of “which is heavier.”
Knowing that I didn’t want to rely on the FTZII adapter for everything, I ordered the NIKKOR Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 Compact Telephoto Zoom Lens. It’s a decent lens for just general usage and it is close to the NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR that I use as an “all-around” lens on the D850. Thankfully both the new lens and the FTZII arrived the next day.
I am not going to fill this post with specifications and tables since there are a hundred sites out there with those statistics (I did provide some links though). Please click through to those if you need to see specifics.
First Impressions (I pushed some buttons!)
Since I had a full day of menu exploring, I had already set most of the general settings in the camera and I was ready to go as soon as the boxes were opened. I sat on the couch and took photos of various things in my living room as I played with the differences between the Z8 and the D850. After a while of that, my wife and I went out for a hike near Red Rock Canyon to really do a test. Here are a few of the things I noticed right off the bat. (Pun intended)
Shhhh (Listen… do you smell something?)
It’s so quiet… Seriously. Until I found the setting that allowed me to have a “shutter noise” I had taken about ten photos without even realizing it. I’d been so used to the sound of an SLR camera that I was blown away. I remember being at an event once taking photos with my D850 in a room that was really quiet, and a friend asked me if my camera was always that loud. I hadn’t noticed it before, but yeah, DSLR’s can be loud. There is a distinctive ker-chunk-whir that happens when you take a shot. The Z8 has none of that. If the viewfinder didn’t have a subtle flash of the border, I wouldn’t know I was taking a photo at all.
Zoom (not that kind)
It’s fast. I switched to continuous shooting and pressed the button for all of about 3 seconds and had over 60 photos. The D850 does a fantastic job of bursting photos for tough situations, but it has a lag of processing and file transfers that has bogged me down occasionally. The Z8 fired off those 60 shots and looked back at me with a “Is that it?” I do miss the wheel selector for changing the capture rate that’s present on the D850. This has been replaced with a button that you use the shutter and aperture wheels to manipulate.
Weight (This isn’t heavy Doc)
It’s much more portable than the D850. The size comparison puts the D850 at 146 x 124 x 79 mm and 1005 g, where the Z8 is 144 x 119 x 83 mm and 910 g. That may not seem like much, but the look and feel is night and day. I had no issues walking around on our hike and not feeling like I was lugging around a brick or needing a backpack to offload to when I wasn’t shooting. Because of this, I had the camera in my hand and was able to capture shots in an instant, instead of pausing and digging it out of a bag only to miss a shot.
Quality… (and quantity)
The verdict is still out on this one (for me). The sensor differences are both significant and minimal at the same time. The Z8 has a Stacked CMOS as opposed to the D850’s BSI-CMOS. The resolution is nearly the same for both. When I tried to do a direct comparison with a staged indoor shot, it was hard to tell the difference. But hey, I have only been using it for a few days and only one major outing with the new hardware..
As you can tell from the above images, even getting down to the ISO and grain levels, it’s tough to tell them apart. Does that mean that I wasted a fair amount of money for no real upgrade? Heck no. There are a lot of areas that the Z8 surpasses the D850 in. The fact that the image quality is so close is actually a boon in my opinion. This means that I can rely on both cameras in any given situation to give me a quality photo. I can be one of those “multi-body” photographers. Honestly, I have never been much for that as switching lenses is second nature for me now. But hey, a guy can change.
FTZ Adapter (The Dongle of the camera world)
I wasn’t sure what to think about the adapter that would allow me to use my regular DX lenses. It seems like a hassle to have to have an extra attachment point on the camera. Well after using it I can say… It is. It’s one of the necessary evils that if you don’t want to sell all of that fancy glass and buy new Z-mount lenses, you are just going to have to get used to it. I don’t like that it adds an extra inch to the length of the lens, BUT I love my existing lenses and don’t see myself getting rid of them any time soon. Having the ability to choose from F or Z mounts is nice.
I opted for the FTZII over the regular FTZ adapter as I wasn’t worried about the tripod mount on the ring. The lenses I have that are heavy enough to need the rebalance have tripod mounts that attach to them (my 70-200 f2.8). Everything I have read about the adapters hint that there is no difference between the two except for that.
Batteries (I’ve got the power!)
This is an all-digital camera, so I expected the battery to discharge quickly. The major difference between the Z9 and the Z8 is the loss of that huge battery grip. You can still buy a fancy add on battery grip for the Z8, but at that point, why didn’t you just buy the Z9? Using my D850 while shooting the JoCo Cruise, I could go a solid 2 days of about 1000+ photos per day on a single battery charge. I don’t see that happening with the Z8. In my testing I managed to go through a day of shooting, and I was at the end of the EN-EL15C’s charge.
On the plus side, the D850 also uses the EL15 so most of my batteries are interchangeable. On the minus side, Nikon added a bit of software to detect “Off brand” batteries and the two non-Nikon EL15’s I have were deemed unacceptable but the Z8 (yet work fine in the D850.) There is also an issue with the alphabet soup of the EL15’s in that there are 4 different models of that battery. The Base, A, B, and C versions.
In Nikon branding I have 2 base models, 1 A model and 1 C. The A and C work fine in the Z8 but the base versions look like they are dead when loaded in the camera, despite being fully charged and working fine in the D850. This is a pain in the butt, but at least I have two functional batteries for the Z8. (And 4 working ones for the D850.) I highly suggest having at least two batteries for the Z8 so you are never in a situation where your battery is dying.
Complaints (More of a mild annoyance)
Almost all of the grumpy points I have about the Z8 are minor. The menu is a maze of settings that trying to find what you want almost requires an index. Sure, there is a manual, but the printed manual that comes with the camera doesn’t describe all of the settings and what they do. There are a number of buttons that I miss from the D850, but that’s made up by additional function buttons that I can program.
One thing that drove me batty was the missing LV button to display the live view on the back screen. After 30 min of searching both the camera and the internet, I randomly pulled the pivot screen out and the live view started. There is also a setting buried deep in the menu for prioritizing the back screen, but it’s not a simple on/off.
*Note: Literally as I was writing this section I looked over and saw a button on the side of the viewfinder (you can see it in the side view photo above) that can switch the view from the viewfinder to back screen! It’s not quite a LV button (and not even labeled as such) but it’s closer.
Final Thoughts
I know it’s only been a few days working with the Z8 but so far, I am really happy with it. I have two major gigs coming up and I will no doubt be bouncing back and forth between the Z8 and my trusty but rusty D850. (don’t tell the 850 that I called it rusty please). The Z8 is the perfect balance of quality, portability, and ease of use. If you are pondering the switch to mirrorless and have the money to spend on a high-end camera, the Z8 is pretty damn good.
Untested (Saving the radio-star)
I am a photographer, not a videographer. The D850 has the capability to do some amazing videos at 4k and I think I have used that ability a grand total of four times since I have owned the camera. My Pixel 6 Pro has always been my go-to for those times where I needed to take a quick video of something. That said, the Z8 specs show that it can do some pretty stellar things with video, but I haven’t had the time, inclination, or opportunity to really test it. I mean, it says it can do 8k 60FPS which is… well, why would you need that? I know the answer is “future proofing” but yeah, I shoot photos. Perhaps knowing that I have that ability I will play with it soon.
For a side-by-side comparison of all of the camera’s listed here (that I have owned) click this link.