Nikon Z9 Review

The historic Japanese brand 株式会社ニコン Kabushiki-gaisha Nikon has introduced this mirrorless, heir to the D6, with performance superior to flagship DSLRs (even from competitors), returning to the market as a top leader in the field. It has definitively proven its technological maturity, which it had initially lost with the advent of digital sensors, and then began to recover again starting with the production of the D3s. For many years the market had lacked a product with the WOW effect, and the arrival of the Z9 seems the prelude to a new era. The new flagship has a rugged, weather-sealed body, with excellent ergonomics and finely customizable controls. The sensor is a 45.7-megapixel stacked CMOS mounted on a stabilized support. It seems to be Sony-made. The Expeed 7 processor can deliver bursts up to 20 fps in Raw and 120 shots per second at lower resolutions, 8K video and advanced 3D tracking autofocus.

PRO

1. At night the buttons are easy to identify thanks to the backlight, and the display mode for shooting in dark environments is excellent.  Both features are useful for astrophotography (but see the cons).
2. Starlight mode activates ultra-high-sensitivity autofocus too, enabling AF on stars. It’s slow and works best with lenses faster than f/2.8 (and it seems with native Nikon Z lenses), but it works. This option is useful for framing very dark scenes such as those in nightscape astrophotography. For the record, I often use Starlight mode even in daylight, because it has the effect of boosting shadows and midtones in the live view image. This option helps a lot when composing images with strong contrast. In fact, I use Starlight mode so often that I assigned it to the Fn2 button on the front of the Z9. (See the cons).
3. The “Warm display colors” option (d11) turns the rear LCD red like in astronomy software; there are two usage options to choose from. I prefer Mode 2, which I quickly recall via the INFO menu.
4. The blackout-free viewfinder is customizable and you won’t miss the pentaprism. Its brightness when shooting the starry sky is very useful and lets you easily see the main stars of almost all constellations.
5. The built-in interval timer is very complete and useful to eliminate the remote release.
6. AF sensitivity (-8.5) is impressive and is especially useful for night scenes.
7. Excellent battery: after 110 shots of 60 seconds each, plus 1h of heavy menu use at an air temperature of about 25C, the battery charge dropped to 66%.
8. Internal heat sink useful for video and long exposures.
9. Weather-sealed build for intensive, professional use in any weather conditions.
10. The “play” button is well away from the “delete” one; on the Eos 1 they are placed too close (but see the cons).
11. The button for autofocus management is located at the lower left, i.e., in the optimal position.
12. The 4 customizable shooting menus are very useful.
13. Ergonomics and handling like a premium DSLR. Immediate feel even for those who, like me,  come from Canon. The grip is substantial and its texture is the best among the flagships of the various brands. Excellent weight balance.
14. Tilting monitor that stays aligned both in portrait mode and in landscape mode (but see cons).
15. Incredible range of shutter speeds usable without an external intervalometer: from 1/32,000 to 900 seconds, plus B and T.
16. 45-megapixel stabilized sensor to pair with VR stabilization.
17. Electronic shutter, so you no longer have to worry about curtain wear and vibrations. The shot is silent or with an adjustable digital sound.
18. No “rolling shutter” effect.
19. Thanks to the electronic shutter, new creative possibilities open up with flash use. There is no longer first/second curtain sync.
20. Memory buffer that allows recording up to 1000 consecutive RAWs.
21. Autofocus and video department with benchmark performance. It doesn’t fear comparison with the very fast Eos.
22. Compatibility with F lenses while keeping autofocus without slowdowns.
23. Excellent dynamic range, even if not the absolute best among sensors of the same format.
24. Customizable shutter in front of the sensor that protects it when changing lenses.
25. FTZ II adapter works well.
26. Customization of many buttons. On the rear there are as many as 19 buttons.
27. Complete software.
28. The “focus mode” selector is perfectly positioned on the camera body and allows fast, quick and intuitive control. You must be careful if you buy the L-bracket with Arca-Swiss mount because some (for example the first Kirk model) cover this button.
29. No banding: when the shutter speed is faster than the frequency of the photographed light (neon, bulbs that flicker) dark bands are recorded on the frame. The Z9 does not have this defect.
30. There is no loss of quality when shooting bursts: the single-shot file is identical to those shot at 20fps. Shooting at 30fps you start to see quality loss because you shoot only in .jpg; at 120fps quality drops further because only 11-megapixel files are generated and therefore not at full resolution.
31. Presence of a USB-C cable useful both for charging and for file transfer. You can also shoot with the mirrorless while charging.
32. Presence of the Kensington slot, typical of some notebooks, useful as an anti-theft device.
33. In-camera timelapse mode.
34. Built-in GPS, GLONASS and QZSS.

Backlit keys

​CONS

1. Buttons all too small, especially “OK” with its ring.
2. The “interval shooting” setting is cumbersome and not intuitive. When it’s active, the top display lacks the countdown for the timing of each single shot; only the countdown for the number of shots is shown.
3. The viewfinder has an overabundance of distracting information, but you can choose to display only some desired info.
4. I find the multifunction dial awkward and not very practical. I would have preferred separate buttons on the top plate.
5. The Play button is placed awkwardly, but I worked around it by assigning its function to the Fn4 button. (see the pros of the Play button).
6. The “Starlight view” option makes the rear monitor/LCD too bright (almost blinding) when trying to frame the sky for deep-sky shots. I recommend using this option with “Warm display colors” (d11)
7. Quality loss above 12800 ISO (dynamic range). The Canon R3 seems to have more dynamic range, but it only has 24 megapixels (according to some independent tests).
8. The ON/OFF power switch is awkward and can be touched accidentally when using the front dial. Coming from the Canon system, I accidentally turned the camera off while moving my finger from the shutter button to the dial.
9. The useful ISO button is unfortunately not backlit. At night it’s often used to change the scene and therefore must be easy to find.
10. High weight and bulk, almost like a flagship DSLR; it’s boxy 149mmx149.5mmx90mm and weighs 1340g. The D6 weighs 1440 g. Such a weight can also damage telescope focusers.
11. Monitor not fully articulating like on the Canon R3, so it can’t be flipped to protect the screen or turned forward (but see the pros).
12. Expensive memory cards, but necessary to handle the incredible burst speed.
13. Understated design; I would have expected a more innovative design product like they did with the bodies designed by Giugiaro (from the F3 to the D4 and D800). To truly break the market they could have relied again on a top-tier design. Personally I don’t like the edges, the little red moustache and the too boxy viewfinder. For example they could have put a small (red) Z on the viewfinder to pay homage to the Nikon Photomic FTN F. The sober, bare design reminds me of 1970s Audi cars and I personally would have preferred the more sinuous profile of an Alfa Romeo Spider.
14. Small top LCD. It’s not possible to adjust its brightness. Same for the backlight.
15. Given the price, I would have liked the FTZ II adapter included.
16. FTZ II without internal filter-holder slot.
17. Lack of an option similar to the “6Iso” of Sigma mirrorless cameras
18. The Astrotracer function found on some Pentax models would have been welcome (with the O-GPS1 accessory, they can do long sky exposures by compensating for Earth’s rotation with a three-axis in-phase movement of the sensor).
19. The mechanism to open the memory-card compartment seems not very sturdy and slow. I would have preferred a latch similar to the Canon 1DXMK2.
20. Missing optical diffraction indicator, which would be useful in the process of maximizing final file quality even though the option “difraction compensation” is present.

21. The Manual is available only in English and is not always clear: for example, to understand how “interval time setting” works (p. 547) I had to do some tests.

22. New it’s almost impossible to find and waiting times for non-professionals can exceed six months.

23. Missing live indication of overexposure in the white areas of the photo in the viewfinder (zebra), at the moment it’s available only after taking the photo.

24. Missing eye-controlled AF (the Canon R3 has it); it may seem like a small thing, but when I shot with analog Canon I found it handy.

25. Missing 1/64,000 exposure time. It may seem useless, but when I photograph the solar disk it could come in handy (the Canon R3 has it).

26. It would be convenient if, in the viewfinder or on the LCD, the battery charge could be shown with a numeric percentage value.

Test on sensor thermal noise

Screenshot of a RAW of the Milky Way shot on a Minitrack LX3 star tracker.

Shooting data:  Nikon Z9+ NikonZ 24-70/2.8 @/3.2, 48mm. Metadata in the photo.

Processing with Pixinsight of 9 files (like the RAW above), 9 Bias and 9 Dark

The sky over San Gimignano: 1h startrail with 20” second shots each at 160 ISO, Nikon 8-15/4 fisheye stopped down to f/5.6.. Processing with AstroPanel and Ps.

Sunset shot with Nikon AF-S 300mm f/2.8 G VR  

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this Nikon is a true milestone for the Japanese brand and will hold its value on the used market for a long time. It is undoubtedly the “camera that was missing”. It’s an all‑round tool designed for the most demanding professionals, yet it surely meets needs in every single photographic field. To get the most out of it I recommend the highest‑performance memory cards and lenses that don’t show diffraction issues with the 45mpx sensor: namely the new Nikon S series (not all, because for example the f/1.8 primes suffer from coma), some Sigma Art, the Voigtlander Apo-Lanthar and the Zeiss Otus. Currently (mid 2022) it has no rivals on the market, as it’s a camera suited to everything: the Canon R3 offers fewer features and has almost half the resolution. In terms of features it’s the leader, while in final file quality it trails Fuji medium format and matches Sony’s top‑tier sensors. Among DSLRs, the EOS1DXMK3 and the D6/D5 are less geared to landscape and studio work. It marked the end of professional DSLRs; the amateur ones had already ended (18 August 2022).

The Nikon Z9 is EISA Award 2022-2023 as "Camera Of The Year".

PS. I didn't evaluate video features and autofocus because I don't shoot video and I don't cover sports events or birdlife.

About focus acquisition I can only say that during a month of tests it missed two locks on slow subjects  placed at infinity, stopping focus slightly front-focused (with Nikon 300 AF-S f/2.8G  VR and AF-S focusing on the central point); the subject was backlit and very low-contrast.