The throat/width architecture of the Z Mount is highly strategic. The design space has been taken to its limits in the 16mm throat, as tolerances are very tight to fit the shutter and protective screening(s), and minimize damage when lenses are changed. The very tight tolerances of the Z mount have probably taken the dimensions of the ILC lens mount to the absolute minimum. One outcome is it is impossible to adapt a Z lens to work on a rival mount.
This video is the latest in accumulating evidence that Nikon thought out the Z system with great care for the long term.
shared by an industry engineer in Tokyo on nikongear
https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?action=post;quote=177194;topic=10206.90;last_msg=177274
Re: Z9 Release Thread
« Reply #103 on: October 31, 2021, 19:13:34 »
Quote
"This Japanese YouTuber is an retired engineer who apparently had worked for Panasonic until fairly recently. He whole-heartedly admires the Nikon managers and engineers for having developed technologies incorporated int
(His narration is Japanese.)
He suspects that the sensor was made by Tower Semiconductor which originally was part of Panasonic.
Http:towersemi.com
The follow up post in the same NG thread by the technical expert in Japan, who shared this video, has kindly translated the key points of the video:
"...Here are the comments in the video I consider essential.
He suspects that the sensor was developed by Tower Semiconductor (formerly called Tower Jazz) based on the technology they had established when they developed their 1” stack BSI sensor.
He calculates that the electronic shutter “curtain” should run only slightly slower than a mechanical 1/8000 shutter unit, which at the same time keeps its rolling shutter effect at almost the same level as that caused by a mechanical 1/8000 shutter.
And the 1/32,000 sec. exposure time is enabled thanks to the fact that an electronic shutter is free from the mechanical instability which makes it difficult to keep the extremely narrow slit for the 1/32,000 sec.
He was impressed by the fact that the brave decision to eliminate the mechanical shutter altogether was made neither by Canon or Sony but by Nikon! He also points out that the development of a mechanical shutter of this level would have cost extremely high, and its manufacturing process would be extremely complicated, which would raise the production cost even more. (I think this is part of the reason for the relatively low price of Z9 for a flagship model packed with the game-changing new technology).
He also suspects that the engineers could concentrate on the development of other technologies like the image stabilization because they didn’t need to worry about the development of a new shutter unit.
He also assesses the Expeed 7 processor to be at least comparable to the image processor of Canon’ R3, enabling 8k video, fast read-out of the sensor data and Ai-enforced AF. The Expeed 7 can take full advantage of the blindingly fast sensor.
The resolution of EVF is 3.69MP which is relatively low, compared to those of the higher-end models of other manufacturers. He thinks that the resolution could be the highest data rate possible to enable the “dual streaming processing”.
In the video, he doesn’t make an elaborate comparison to Canon R3, the potential direct rival of Z9, because Z9 is worldly different from R3!
Based on his own experience of developing sensors and image processing engines (probably at Panasonic), he believes that the vision of the planning and the designing of Z9 is extremely well focused. And he highly admires that the cooperation between the managers and the engineers have worked very well.
It is funny that he goes so far as to say that Panasonic should have been the first camera manufacturer ever to develop the technology of eliminating the mechanical shutter, because it was the first company to offer the interchangeable lens mirrorless camera. He says he would have been happy if only his bosses are like the ones of Nikon.
In the previous videos assessing Z6 and Z7, he pointed out that a flange back of 16mm could be very challenging for the engineers to pack the mechanical shutter unit, UV/IR-cut filter and the IBIS mechanism, compared to Canon and Sony whose flange backs are around 22mm. But now he admires the decision on the short 16mm flange back, if Nikon envisioned the omission of the shutter unit.
He considers that Z9 is a great proof of Nikon’s solid fundamental technology. Apparently, He almost compares Nikon having endured severe situation of being left behind Sony and Canon to La Comte de Monte-Cristo.
He also says that such a ground-breaking camera may suffer from the unbalanced performance caused by the unbalanced developing level of technology for each function of the camera. But he would choose to admire the challenging aspect of Z9 rather than nit-picking the unbalanced performance."
