Nikon Z6 review

Is the Nikon Z6 the best price for those who can't afford the Z7?

The Nikon Z6 is one of only two full-frame mirrorless cameras introduced by Nikon in August 2018. It is very similar to its older brother, the Z7, with the main differences being the sensor (24MP vs. 46MP) and the decrease in the resolution that comes along with that. The Z6 also has fewer phase detection autofocus points (273 vs. 493) due to the low resolution sensor. Otherwise, you'll get the same sturdy body, the same (mostly) familiar controls, and access to a small collection of Z-mount lenses, but that will soon grow.

Specifications aside, the Z6 is for a very different audience than the Z7. The latter is for those looking for ultra-high resolution and would also consider cameras like the Sony a7R III and the Nikon D850. The Z6, on the other hand, is meant to be more attractive to those looking to upgrade with previous-generation full-frame DSLR or crop sensor cameras.

The Z6 will finally be compared to its DSLR brother, the D750 (which has been running for years, but is still very capable). Although the two cameras have different designs, they work similarly, with autofocus and video modes being the most significant differences.

Key specs:

• 24.5MP full-frame BSI-CMOS sensor

• Hybrid autofocus system with 273 phase detection points

• Burst shooting at up to 12 fps (plain + JPEG)

• OLED viewer of 3.69 million points

• Tilting 2.1M-dot touch LCD

• OLED top plate display

• Simple XQD card slot

• UHD 4K capture up to 30p

• 10-bit 4: 2: 2 N-Log output via HDMI

• Internal 8-bit H.264 video capture up to 100Mbps

• SnapBridge Wi-Fi System with Bluetooth

Construction and handling

If the Z7 is like the mirrorless version of the Nikon D850 DSLR, then the Z6 is the mirrorless alternative to the Nikon D750. It's smaller and thinner than Nikon's enthusiastic-level full-frame DSLR, but slightly larger than Sony's competing A7 series.

Actually, that is not a bad thing. The Z6's body is slightly easier to grip than the Sony A7 variants, especially with larger lenses, though you may want to think about the optional Nikon Nikon MB-N10 grip if you're going to be spending a lot of time shooting with telephones. That will also help extend battery life, by the way, which is 310 pretty modest shots.

Nikon has been pretty smart with its Z-mount lenses. Where Sony and Canon make mirrorless lenses as big and heavy as their DSLR equivalents, although that can leave the camera unbalanced, Nikon's first three lenses are much slimmer. The 24-70mm f / 4 is particularly neat, with a simple retraction mechanism to shorten the barrel when not in use, and a cylindrical design that still allows the camera to lie flat when lowered.

The smaller body (compared to a DSLR) means you don't get an external unit mode dial, metering mode, or AF mode control, though there is an AF-ON button (a favorite feature of sports photographers) and a 'joystick' for moving the focus point around the image area.

Otherwise, it will depend on an interactive "i" screen for many daily camera settings, such as white balance and ISO, although this is not a great difficulty since the touch control works very well and the design of the icons and the controls are very clear.

The rear display is really very good. It's a shame that it only has a vertical tilt mechanism instead of a full variable-angle display like the EOS R or the side-tilt of the Fujifilm X-T3, but that's fine for landscape shots while the 2,100 panel k points is really smooth and sharp.

This is the electronic viewfinder. It doesn't have the clarity to the naked eye and lag-free of a DSLR optical viewfinder, but it comes pretty close. Sometimes the details can look a bit sharp and contrasting in the viewfinder as you compose the shots. Comparing images in playback mode with the viewfinder to those of a good computer monitor shows almost no color difference or contrast, so it seems that the live viewfinder stream is slightly thicker than the image captured by the camera But we 're splitting hairs here.

The ability to set the focus point and release the shutter by tapping the screen is really useful when the camera is used at a low angle or on a tripod. However, just like with the Z7 and many other cameras with touch focus modes, the downside is that you can often unintentionally change the focus point while operating the camera and have to lose a second or so by returning it to a proper position. .

This is just one of the handling differences you have to adjust to with cameras that offer touchscreen control, and it's not a specific issue for the Z6 or Z7.

Key conclusions:

• Menus are familiar to Nikon DSLR owners

• The touch screen is widely used, but there is no AF touch panel option

• i Menu now touch-sensitive and customizable

• The buttons are highly customizable, but the dedicated AF mode button is absent

• Still images / separate movie customization

Touch screen

The touchscreen is used for several things: setting the AF point, interacting with both the main menu and the customizable 'i' menu (more on that later on this page) and for zooming and navigating images in reproduction.

One notable omission is that the screen can't be used as a touchpad when the camera is kept in view, some are found in more and more cameras these days, including Nikon's own D5600. Existing high-end Nikons shooters don't need to worry about themselves - there's an AF point joystick in place, but it seems like a strange feature to skip on a touchscreen camera, especially considering how many focus points need to be traversed to reach from one side of the screen to the other. At the very least, there is a provision to skip each alternative point, if you prefer faster operation rather than higher precision.

The Z6's menus will be immediately familiar to anyone who has used a newer Nikon D200 or DSLR. Not only does it follow the same tab structure with the custom color-coded setup menu divided into logical subsections, but it also offers a set of options almost identical to those of the D850.

This color coding and 'index' screen shown above make this the easiest menu system to navigate when it comes to complex, enthusiastic, high-end cameras.

i Menu

One of the main changes to the 'Z' cameras is the change to a customizable touch-sensitive version of the 'i' menu, which is used for quick configuration changes. This is essentially a simplified version of the system developed in Nikon's mass market cameras.

Unlike the D750, which had an 'Info' button to display a configuration screen and an 'i' button that displayed a list of options, the Z6 sees the two concepts combined. There is still a full screen information screen, which is now accessed by pressing the 'DISP' button, but the twelve options at the bottom of this panel are now customizable and interactive.

These twelve options also appear as an overlay in live view mode, if you press the 'i' button. You can then navigate through them using the four-way controller and the 'OK' button or by tapping the screen. Cannot navigate with the camera joystick - a slight annoyance.

Button Customization in Still Image Mode

The two main Fn buttons (placed between the lens mount and the grip) can be used for a number of functions, either to have a temporary effect while pressing or, together with command dials, to cycle through the options available for a function.

A subset of these functions can be assigned to a joystick press and, with the sole exception of 'Protect', single press options can also be assigned to the L-Fn buttons that may exist on some Z-mount lenses.

Movie button [Rec]

Since the Record Movie button is not used in still image mode and the button settings can be configured separately for video capture, it essentially becomes a third Fn button.

AF-On

The AF-On button can only be used for a limited number of AF and AE related functions.

Interestingly, Nikon has omitted the 'AF Area Mode' and 'AF Area Mode + AF-On' options, which exist in its high-end DSLR and allow you to temporarily switch to a different AF mode or, better yet, switch modes and start focusing. We found that these could be very useful in rapid fire and we are disappointed to see them disappear.

Button customization in video mode

The buttons on the camera can be configured separately for video capture mode, and the camera offers a much wider range of options than the D850. It is also possible to configure the 'i' menu to provide access to a different set of functions for capturing video than those you have chosen for capturing still images.

In video mode, the Fn1, Fn2, Joystick Press and AF-On buttons can be customized. The power aperture and exposure compensation options are designed to be assigned in pairs, so Fn1 and Fn2 offer opposite functions.

An absence to consider compared to Nikon DSLRs is the 'Access top item in MY menu' option. Too bad, as it can be a really useful way to access a function you want to access.

AF-On and Joystick

The AF-On button can only be used for a limited number of AF and AE related functions. Note the option to start video recording with the AF-On button.

Other customization options

The camera allows you to choose whether you want to use the shutter button to take photos (which you can do at 8MP without interrupting 4K capture) or start video recording.

As in still image mode, the lens ring can be reused. Again, by default it is used for manual focus or to correct autofocus, but can also be assigned to power aperture, exposure compensation, or no function, to prevent accidental operation.

Finally, you can reconfigure the 'OK' button function in the center of the four-way controller. This can be configured in 'Select center focus point', 'Enable / disable zoom', 'Record movies' or have no function. This means that, in general, you can start shooting movies with the dedicated button, with the shutter button, with AF-On, pressing the joystick or using the 'OK' button.

Automatic ISO

The Z6 continues Nikon's excellent and current Auto ISO implementation. This allows you to specify an upper limit and a shutter speed threshold at which the camera will increase the ISO setting. This threshold can be configured to relate to the current focal length, with options for tilting toward shutter speeds faster or slower than 1 / focal length. As usual for Nikon, if you specify an ISO setting while in auto mode, this becomes the minimum setting the camera will use.

Auto ISO can be used in manual exposure mode (for both still images and video) and retains exposure compensation to allow you to specify the clarity of the lens the camera will attempt to maintain.

Image quality

Our test scene is designed to simulate a variety of textures, colors, and types of detail you'll find in the real world. It also has two lighting modes to see the effect of different lighting conditions.

Key conclusions:

• Image quality is essentially class-leading, with high levels of detail and good high ISO performance

• Dynamic range is good on paper, but like the Z7, it can reveal a banding pattern if you try to use the deeper shadow regions. The probability of seeing the bands in the real world is small.

We filmed the Z6 using Nikon's new Z 50mm F1.8 S lens, as the improved optics is one of the main promises the company has made for its mirrorless system. JPEG files were shot with minimized lens corrections as much as possible. Adobe Camera Raw has demanded lens distortion and chromatic aberration corrections, even though we disabled that option on the camera.

The Nikon Z6 will always be overshadowed by the more powerful and higher-resolution Z7, but it's actually a much more versatile camera, as well as being much more affordable! On paper, it might seem a little boring but worthy; In practice, its finesse, performance and image quality are simply stunning. Each camera has flaws and weaknesses, but the Z6 almost squeezes them out.

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