Nikon Z7 Review

You can have the best engine in a car, but if you don't have all the other components on point you won't be the best.

And thanks for reinforcing the fact that professional photographers pick the system that gives them the best results. Professional reviewers pick the best gadget. The technicalities important to professional reviewers are not the game changers that you so often make them sound to be.

@NexLupus @jkokich (re: sports shooting) and neither would the Sony A7 be the camera for you. You're looking at least at an investment in the A9 and at that price your dropping D5 and 1D money.

@BluBomber
Yes, scoring is skewed towards image quality.
It is, however, completely disingenuous for you to say that that was the main reason for the score and the Silver award; especially when the opening statement in the review says that “The Nikon Z7 is the company’s most well rounded camera to date. “
That encompasses a lot more than just image quality!!!!

I tried the camera and the AF is not on par with the D850 in any shape or form.
I haven't heard anybody contest that as yet!!
All people say is; they know it doesn't function as well as D850, but they still like it, which is personal choice that I respect, but doesn't make it as good a camera as the D850.

@Bob Jameson
Tony and Chelsea seem to me quite expert in using and testing new gear. I rarely seen them so not convinced with any new competitive cameras, always looking at pros and cons. Tony even has a comparison between the Eos R and the A7III stating 'not clear winner" definitely valuing some of the strengths of the Eos R even if on paper is trashed by the A7III. I was quite surprise to see them not to really on board with the performance of the new Z from Nikon. To me that is a pretty big flag.

the problem is the price

It's better than most people think. It's has several features better than the A7R III more than the A7R III has features better than the Z7. Real photographers say it is a very good camera even edging the best all around DSLR in D850 is most cases:

https://diglloyd.com/blog/2018/20181107_1145-ReaderComment-mirrorless-systems.html

http://blog.michaelclarkphoto.com/?p=7395

http://www.naturalart.ca/voice/blog.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNAziALpnXc&t

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xup0euGZS3Q&t

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGdOIj71aXY

Only Sony fanboys will say this is a bad camera so that they can justify their purchase. I will say to Sony fanboys, buy another Sony A7 body while they are on sale. Get a second copy, enjoy it, and don't look back. Buy them ASAP because Sony just lost over 30% market share on full frame MILC. What a better way to help your company by buying a second body!

"even edging the best all around DSLR in D850 is most cases"

Debatable.

@Bob Jameson

"Only Sony fanboys will say this is a bad camera"
I feel this is the defensive interpretation of some supporters of the Z series. I do not think many actually are meaning that. Z6 and Z7 are really good cameras however they do not exist in a vacuum. It is hard to recommend them at their price point when you have cameras like D850, D750, A7RIII, A7II. They feel almost a generation behind in some core features, no bad for a first but facing a tough competition.

Thematic you made yourself look like a troll.

You admit there is nothing wrong with adapters. Which means Nikon has over 90 lenses on day one.

And the Nikon adapter isn't like the Sony crap adapters that block light and massively restrict usuabliity (2.5 FPS, etc).

So one day one the Nikon Z cameras have lenses like the the 400/2,8 and the superb and compact 300/4 and many other lenses that other systems can only dream about.

@Oskar P
"Canon learned long ago. There is no need to have the latest most expensive technologies".
That is what Canon do with a massive market share and a mature system. That will not work as a strategy for someone that wants to succeed in competing with Canon at this time. Sony in my opinion is doing many things right, the main of them calling the opposite strategy that Canon offers drawing to them people unsatisfied with Canon marketing strategy, successfully. Canon will offer you a BMW will a Corolla engine? Sony offers you a Corolla with a BMW engine. Complementary works. It is also great that Sony can work quite well with Canon glass. That is also why I own both systems, yet for my own preference I shoot 99% Sony and 1% Canon, hanging there hoping that Canon will drop a decent engine in one of their future models. It has not happened in a while.

Sony is failing. They are down to 13% market share globally.
Canon APSC mirrorless (just a couple bodies) out sold Sony mirrorless, FF APSC, and SLTs combined in places like Japan...and not just for 1 year. For 3 years and each year increasing that dominance.

Now we see Sony has lost 33% market share in the past month alone. Ouch.

@Oskar P
"Now we see Sony has lost 33% market share in the past month alone. Ouch."
Going from 100% to 65% does not mean much at this time. It is really simplistic and naive making trends or drawing conclusions based on these numbers (i.e. are Sony Sales declining or MILC FF expanding? No new Sony model while Nikon Canon debut, etc).
Sony has had their A7SIII ready for debut for sometime, and they postponed the launch as they saw no real threat from current Canikon offerings :-) so clearly Sony has a different view from yours on the happening.
Let's pick up this conversation in a couple of years.

SLT's set the ground work for everything great in mirrorless cameras. Once minolta was out of the market some needed to step in and innovate. Nikon and Canon cernity wasn't going to. If you love your full frame mirrorless camera (any brand) you need to thank Sony. It was their out of the box thinking that got us here.

@Oskar P
If Sony did not work on FF mirrorless you can be sure that neither Canon or Nikon would be offering a FF mirrorless right now. That is pretty much a fact.
"SLTs had nothing to do with mirrorless. They were a massive failure."
SLTs are not a massive failure, Sony made the brave move to go all the way mirrorless sacrificing SLTs future, just like Nikon and Canon will follow suit with DSLRs. And again Sony is the overarching reason for which such process is happening much faster than Nikon and Canon would have liked to.
Panasonic and Olympus might have pioneered mirrorless, but Sony and just lately Fuji created the first truly competitive mirrorless to compete with DSLRs marking with this past year with the release of the A9, A7RIII, A7III, and XT3 the beginning of the end of DSLRs. Sure it is not because of the micro 4/3 systems.
But I doubt you get it Mr. Oskar who joined this forum 2 months ago and I know it all.

Again. NOT the IBIS in use today.
Olympus pioneered the 5 axis IBIS Sony later copied. It is completely different and far superior.
Sony still hasn't been able to come close to Olympus but their version is better than the inferior IBIS used in most SLTs (A99ii finally uses the superior IS).

Hmm, did you learn vocabulary from a certain orange politician in the White House? Massive, shocking, serious. Good power words that often mean very little.

😂 Only if you're dumb enough to not translate them to whatever words might make sense in your own head, or to not Google them if they're beyond you.

@kodachromeguy???
I think most people below would agree with PPierre. Since its first unveiling the Z7 was considered by many an A7RII competitor more than the A7RIII which indeed makes it a great camera yet now not cutting edge and the A7RII was cheaper than the Z7 even at its first release. I think, included myself, many are annoyed by the biased overall score. I do not think anyone is questioning that Nikon did a great job for a first.

It's easy to generalize and claim the Z7 is an A7rII competitor because of some aspects of the Z7 AF system but when you consider things like the Z7 better battery life, better EVF, better rear LCD, top LCD, much better weather sealing, better grip, and overall better build quality you can see that it is a lot more than the A7rII especially if these are things that you consider to be important for your needs.

@Clayton1985
comparisons are often done at performance level. Considering that right now you get an A7RII for almost half the price of a Z7, well I do not know if the advantages you are talking about buy the difference. Note that the Z7 battery is rated only 10% better than the A7RII and the Sony still has eye AF which is a really good feature and Sony offers a REAL battery grip too. So when you look at value for the money I am not so sure which one is better.

The Z7 battery is significantly better in the real world vs the A7rII. It isn't really close in my experience. I agree about the value to performance, that really depends on your own needs. For me, the better EVF, better rear LCD, top LCD, better battery life, base ISO 64, built in intervalometer, better weather sealing and my expectations for the soon to be released 14-30 f4 lens were the primary reasons I decided to replace my A7rII with the Z7. It was a difficult decision and I could have easily gone with the A7rIII and been happy too. They are all really excellent cameras.

Yes they will

I hefted the Z7 at Glazer's today. Well, 'hefted' isn't the right word since it felt nicely balanced and not too heavy. It also felt quick and responsive and the EVF was fantastic. I don't have any XQD cards or reader so sadly I couldn't bring the pics home for a pixel peep :-( but the camera playback looked great.

I've tried them both now, and I think I like the Nikon a little better than the Canon. Probably the control layout of the Nikon is a little closer to the Fuji and Olympus that I'm used to-the twin dial shutter speed and aperture control (versus on the lens aperture ring) felt very Olympus.

If I had the money I'd rent one to play with it in the real world.

@armandino
"In order to achieve top rating should have something truly special to offset the shortcomings"

yeah! like Image quality and ergonomics maybe?

"I do not see anything truly special about this camera"

that's because you are still focused only on the spec sheet instead of looking at the photos that come out of this camera nor did you use the Z7 in real live!!!

these reviews are for people who plan to buy the camera in question.
If the camera doesn't suit you, that's ok.
But WHY do you need to try to convince other people, that they shouldn't invest in that system?
Jealousy?
Or do you need to vent your post-purchase rationalization?

All these problems or drawbacks are already in the review .. so people need to read the review and not rely on the score, which is shown to be very mathematically biased, invalid and showing external unreliability. It is not testing what it should test, and it is shown to be unreliable in comparing cameras. This is a matter for DPR to re-visit, and perhaps get a good statistician to advise. They are doing a good job testing, but using dubious measures and methods, which produce a completely invalid and un-reliable score. So, don't waste your time and get a good mathematician/statistician.

For potential buyers, go out to the shows and shops and try it out for yourself and make that decision out for yourselves .. yay or nay

And from DPR themselves

AF system hunts in low light, due to limited sensitivity
Face detect less reliable than competition
AF Tracking less reliable than competition
AF Tracking cumbersome to engage/disengage
Touchscreen cannot be used for touchpad AF when using the EVF
Limited AF button customization
Significant rolling shutter in full-frame 4K footage
No live feed at 9fps
Live feed at 5.5fps suffers from significant drop in EVF refresh rate
Very limited buffer
Inconsistent metering, heavily weighted to AF point
On-sensor AF causes banding, slightly limiting usable dynamic range
Aggressive noise reduction at high ISO
Electronic first curtain shutter (EFCS) needed to avoid potential shutter shock (yet is off by default)
EFCS limits shutter speed to 1/2000
Two-Button-Reset and Quick Format actions missing
No linear response option for video shooters wishing to manual focus
Battery life on the short side
Single card slot
No flip-around screen for vlogging

@Mared and @Satyaa, remove your blinders and look at what the Z7 has over AR7 III and D850 and you will understand. You focused too much on the negatives that you entirely missed the big picture and that is Z7's advantages over other cameras.

DPreview got it right. In fact, the score could have been higher if not for the auto area AF. Don't worry that Sony lost 30% market share on MILC full frame the last 2 months. Good for you, they are on sale now. You can get your 2nd body cheap. Deal with it. Sleep well at night knowing your Sony can still make great pictures tomorrow.

I am not sure how/why you interpreted my message but I wasn't talking about Z7 or A7 cameras at all. You don't have to feel the need to defend any camera from me. I'm neither buying a Z7 or A7.

My response was only to the questions about why a score of 89 does not result in a Gold award. I was pointing out that the score and award are not directly related.

Go back and look at my comments on the Z forum. I agreed with DPR's conclusions.

Bob Jameson - You're full of cr*p. First - Sony hasn't lost 30% market share. That was for for one store sales in Japan only - nothing like conflation and lying. Also - if you looked at that data, Z7 sales were miniscule - all of the dent in Sonys dominance was a temporary spike in EOS R sales. Z7 sales were flat-lined/dead :).

As for DPRs PROS/CONS if you look at DPRs positives, the Z7s are a joke in a large part. Examples: - "No need to micro-adjust lenses" No Kidding, it's Mirrorless!!!! and "Headphone and microphone socket" You think!?!? for a $3,400.00 camera!!! "Menus familiar to Nikon DSLR users" Well that's nice for Canon, Fuji, Sony, etc Users!!! "First full-frame Nikon with a usable silent shutter mode" Who cares, everyone else (Sony, Fuji & Canon) has had this forever!!!!

What a silly list of positives - DPR staff was really reaching

It is great to see actual results where the AF is so much better than initial quick reviews.

The rest of the camera is mostly superior to the current FF mirrorless cameras (that have poor ergonomics and no weather resistance and lack lenses). 90 Nikon lenses function superbly...and there are more from several 3rd parties. And no 2.5 FPS restrictions!!

@Beshkno
Ahh, yet another Sony shill, with an account just 6 days old...welcome to the forum, or do you already have multiple accounts, so no need to welcome you?

@NextLupus, My friend, Im here only because Im recovering from the effects of 2 years of chemo treatments. I have little left right now but my opinion which I will post at my discretion and without your juvenile permission. When your mother finds out how much time you spend here she'll pull the plug on you. Now go do your chores and be good little boy.

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/61903133

If at all possible, rent before you buy. Noone's opinion beats your own

Thom Hogan says Z7 is good in AF-C but not as good as D850. I tend to agree with his findings.

Nikon ambassadors

So it's good focusing a static subject, hmmm.... I can do.th
at in manual.focus. Ok, your turn.

@Bob Jameson
I agree with you that AF-C performance is not the be all and end all of a camera. After all, landscape and portrait shooters, etc. don't need good AF-C performance.

However, DPreview have repeatedly made a point how important AF-C is for them, e.g., by rating the Pentax K-1 at 84% only, despite the camera costing less than half of a Z7 and being the only DSLR with in-body image stabilisation with a host of tricks up its sleeves.

Consistency in evaluating features would go a long way of making reviews useful.

@Class A, The problem Ive seen with the reviews here is they seem to compare performance with less expensive cameras to ones costing 2, 3 or more times the cost. Its like comparing a Ferrari to a Ford Fiesta.
The rating must factor price point otherwise the process is seriously flawed.

I read at least 3 AF problems. General reliability for tracking moving subjects (that's a big one), face tracking losing focus more than competitors and AF in very low light 2 to 3 stops less sensitive than competition (lotd of hunting).

There's something to be concerned about for a large portion of the potential userbase. Only if you solely shoot static subjects or predictable motion in good light, there's no reason for concern. But that's where practically all cameras currently do fine. Even the first mirrorless Panasonic 10 years ago. For reference, some cameras released a few years ago were met with criticism for similar AF performance.

@Bob Jameson - Something to clear out - BCN covers just over 50% of Japanese market and has a long history of "tweaked" reports. So this 22% of Japanese market, not world FF MILC market, could be right but could be also very wrong. We are living in the world of fake news...

They could have just as easily slaughtered Sony for their poor ergonomics and build quality. Speaking as a Sony user there is a real delusion amongst a group of Sony users that their cameras are perfect .When in fact every camera on the market has its pros and cons. The A9 the Sony camera with the best AF is now on its third firmware update that improves AF

I think they have click baited every issue with the Nikon Z cameras in the manner that you would expect from the usual youtube shills. "Oh my god if you under expose by 4,5 or 6 stops and push it back you can get banding " etc

I am interested to see what happens with the Canon Eos R which a has longer list of gotchas than the Nikon, old sensor, no IBIS, one sd card , poorer build quality and so on. Maybe the drunken junket that Canon organised to Hawaii will pay dividends come review time lol

Because our scoring system is heavily weighted towards image quality and doesn't give much (enough?) weight to AF, which is the camera's biggest shortcoming. Even then, the Z7 is good at some aspects of AF while being poor in others - a subtlety it's difficult to perfectly capture in our current scoring system.

@!James Stirling

"When in fact every camera on the market has its pros and cons. The A9 the Sony camera with the best AF is now on its third firmware update that improves AF"

It's not that the AF was bad from the start. On the original firmware, the A9 was right with the D5 and 1DX II in AF performance, despite having a faster continuous drive and uninterrupted view of the action. Things will only get better with improved firmware. Wonder if it's to the point that it would surpass the D5 by now...

"I think they have click baited every issue with the Nikon Z cameras in the manner that you would expect from the usual youtube shills. "

You seem to have missed all the bashing Sony cameras receive in and out of their own articles. ;)

@Richard Butler
How did the D5 get its high rating then? It is all about AF and nothing about IQ

@Richard Butler
If your scoring system is heavily weighted towards image quality, why didn't the Pentax K-1 receive a higher score at the time?

In your own words "And, while single shot image quality is extremely good, it becomes absolutely outstanding in circumstances where you can use the Pixel Shift mode."

The K-1 used one of the best Sony sensors available at the time and doesn't suffer from banding/striping artefacts. At the time you only identified two cameras that you thought had very slightly better IQ, both of them were/are significantly more expensive than the K-1. The Z7 does not offer Pixel Shift so that's another big plus for the K-1 whenever Pixel Shift is applicable.

Yet, the K-1 only received 84% from a scoring system that is heavily weighted towards image quality?

@James Stirling
"C-AF is not as good though lets face it if C-AF and tracking are vital to what you shoot you would be better off with DSLR"
I do not think so, no DSLR has a decent eye AF and near 100% frame AF tracking. Current best mirrorless easily match DLSRs AF, exception made for Nikon latest 3D tracking, but again Nikon has no eye AF and I prefer that over 3D tracking anyway.

@Stirling: ??? An A9 is easily able to compete with D5 and 1dxii. So your "lets face it if C-AF and tracking are vital to what you shoot you would be better off with DSLR's" is a bit weird. Even my A7riii and A7iii work great at weddings when tracking stuff, much better than all dslrs I used in the past (d5 is the exception).

Specialists cameras are never high volume products. Nikons d5 and Canons 1dxii aren't either (but they profit from a larger user base). Additionally, many wildlife/sports shooters are invested in expensive glass. Not something one trades lightly. Nevertheless, in Germany at least I know quite a few having switched to the A9, quite successful here.
Although weddings don't press the AF as hard as sports events, all my previous dslrs had a hard time tracking the eye in dim light at f1.4 to f2 esp. with outer focus points. Low hit rate. It is interesting when talking to our fellow photographer friends or when giving workshops, this is something people complain about often. Easy with the A9. The wildlife guys at FM forum are very happy with the A9 focus capabilities, too. Quite a few are thinking of selling their 400/2.8 for the GM and A9.

1% for the missing IBIS in the XT3 :-P

That's because the X-T3 is in a different category. This score is relative only to other 'Semi-professional Full Frame Cameras' while the X-T3 is in the 'Semi Professional' category.

"All scores are relative to the other products in the same category, at the time the review was published. Scores for products in different categories are not directly comparable."

I am not saying that I agree with this approach, but that is the way they do it.

Better ergonomics is BS , usability ? , as to not having the user base of Canon or Nikon .Fuji does not have the user base of Pentax

Fuji should never be compared to any FF camera because is APS-C, just like you shouldnt compare small city car with limusine. For the same reason you should not compare FF to Fuji GFX.

If Amazon has anything to say about it, things aren't looking up. The EOS R is staying way ahead.

Sales was not my target, Are you DPR?

Shure!

@JPatrick

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/4416254604/camera-scores-ratings-explained

Lmao 😂 @ JPatrik

I referenced only the well designed top twin dials on the OMD, how well they work, how good the placement of the Fn buttons are compared with a poorly designed Nikon.

To your Segway, there is no way you can shoot 80-840mm hand held with ANY FF system without spending 2X the money, carrying 2X the size weight & net more than a one stop improvement. To do better you have to carry a bazooka & spend as you do on a car.

If you go to a camera EXPO you will find its the DSLR that is dead. DSLR owners I know say they bought the last one. They are waiting for V2 Z & R, & replacement for flagship DSLRs.

They line up three deep in the mirrorless camera booths at Camera Expos while Canon fills their booth by giving away prints & Nikon reps have nobody to talk to. Z6 may help.

Next year OLY will bring a blizzard of new products & people who claim the system is dead will look foolish. You can't beat it for telephoto unless you have a Sherpa to carry the gear & a giant budget.

NextButt:

No, you didn't see the opposite. And you don't read what Panasonic and OLY say or you don't want to know it. Panasonic is adding a format, not replacing one. They are expanding the business not replacing a format. They brought out a lot of new M43 products this year. Because they can't sell them? Because they are quitting the format?

The store manager tells me he saw a light switch thrown this year from which DSLR, to which mirrorless. There will always be a market for the crop sensor and if not I can't find anything better so I'm happy to use the gear I have. If the market dies I'll stock up with spares on the cheap.

I will never spend $20K for a couple of stops of light and carry a 12lb camera and lens when the images don't look any different when you shoot in the envelope.

Sorry nexlupus, you’ll probably parish before the oly system.

Nexputz knows. He just likes bashing, not to be taken seriously.

Sure Nexputx, good enough for National Geographic but not good enough for you....

Feel free to carry 2-4X the weight and spend 2-4X the money.

https://www.jaydickman.net/

BIF with M43 but no Nikon DSLR 3-D AF

No problem

https://scottbourne.myportfolio.com/

M43 dead? Why?

„MFT is dead!“ is the new „But the Canon colors!“. ;-)

Exactly. It's relative to "the time period" of the review.

Why do people like Mared insist on Dpreview owning a time machine to time travel around - past and future - and change reviews?

It isn't difficult to understand.