When the Nikon Z9 was first announced, it was obviously a game-changer. One of the first mirrorless cameras to be “full-body” flagship size, it stood out from the crowd by a huge margin. It offered virtually everything that a serious professional photographer could want, besides the built-in vertical grip: It gave both speed AND resolution. Plus, of course, the legendary Nikon 3-D Autofocus system that DSLR users had trusted for over a decade. With that in mind, I’m incredibly excited to finally create our Nikon Z8 review!
The Nikon Z8 is, quite simply, as much Z9 as Nikon could possibly pack into a sub-$4K camera. Mind you, it’s not quite as simple as, “they took the Z9 and chopped off the vertical grip.” There are a few subtle differences in the overall power, performance, and features.
Still, it is clear that the Nikon Z8 is our new reigning champion in terms of value for flagship pro cameras. Simply put, the competitors within its price range lack either the speed or the resolution of the Z8, whereas the competitors that do offer both, cost hundreds or thousands of dollars more.
With that said, let’s dive into this long-awaited review!
Nikon Z8 Specifications
- SENSOR: 45.7 megapixel Stacked CMOS (FX full-frame)
- LENS MOUNT: Nikon Z-mount (full-frame)
- STILL IMAGES: 8256×5504 pixels (full-frame, raw/jpg)
- VIDEO:
- ISO:
- AUTOFOCUS:
- SHOOTING SPEED (FPS):
20 FPS (full-resolution, RAW/JPG)
30 FPS (full-resolution, JPG only)
60 FPS (19 MP DX crop, JPG only)
120 FPS (11 MP, FX, JPG only) - SHUTTER SPEEDS: up to 1/32000 sec, as slow as 900 sec built-in, plus “Bulb” & “Timer”
- STABILIZATION: Yes, sensor-based, rated up to 6 EVs
- VIEWFINDER: 3.69M dot OLED, 0.8x magnification, 60Hz refresh rate
- LCD: 3.2” touchscreen, 2.1M dot
- CONNECTIVITY: USB-C X2 (one PD-type Power Delivery, one data) WiFi 802.111 ac, Bluetooth 5.0, HDMI (full-size), Nikon 10-pin remote control connector
- STORAGE: CFExpress (type B), (compatible with XQD and CFe) …one SD UHS-II
- BATTERY: EN-EL15C
- BODY CONSTRUCTION: Magnesium alloy, fully weather-sealed, sensor protecting curtain
- SIZE: 5.7 x 4.7 x 3.3 in. (144 x 118.5 x 83 mm)
- WEIGHT: 2.0 lb (910 g) (w/ battery & memory card)
- PRICE: $3,69
(B&H | Adorama | Amazon)
Nikon Z8 Review | Who Should Buy It?
With such a well-rounded camera at such an incredible price, (as far as flagships go, at least) It’s easy for me to say that the Nikon Z8 will appeal to almost all types of photographers, both professional and serious hobbyists.
Having said that, The Z8 is a lot of camera. If you aren’t looking for BOTH speed and resolution, the almost immediately we can see how either the Nikon Z6 III, or a Nikon Z7 II, (or maybe a Z7 III this year?) …would be a wiser investment. But, we’ll leave that reasoning to be discussed later.
Portrait Photography
First and foremost, let’s talk about our own in-house specialty here at the studio; portrait photography. (We’ll get to weddings next!) Simply put, the Nikon Z8 is a highly professional tool, with enough resolution to satisfy any serious portrait photographer. It’s not just about the sheer megapixels, of course; the image quality itself, including the dynamic range, noise levels, and color profiles, are all a delight to work with.
I could argue that if your line of portraiture is relatively static, involving a lot of “holding still” poses, then a Z8 might be a bit excessive compared to a Z7 II. However, the longer you’re in business as a high-end professional, the more likely you are to encounter work environments where you deeply appreciate the Z8’s speed, and/or its impressive autofocus performance.
Wedding Photography / Video
Compared to portrait photography, weddings are a little more likely to be extremely demanding of a camera’s AF system, while not necessarily benefiting from very high resolution for every single image.
Personally? As a wedding photographer, I prefer to have two cameras at my disposal anyways. I may not always use them simultaneously, although I know that is a popular method especially among prime lens users. But I would love to be able to switch back and forth between a Nikon Z8 and a Nikon Z6 III, throughout the course of a wedding day. At the very least, a wedding photographer needs a backup camera, and these two cameras complement each other very well.
Fashion, Commercial & Editorial Photography
For those who do a little bit more demanding professional work, the overall robust qualities of the Z8 might play a bigger role. In my opinion, in this day and age it is less likely that you’ll appreciate features such as the proprietary Nikon 10-pin remote port, but it is very nice to have the various other dedicated buttons and dials such as the AF system control button, and the other dedicated buttons that offer a slight advantage over Nikon’s Z6-series and Z7-series bodies.
Plus, once again, the image quality is unmatched, with the unique base ISO of 64, and impressive results all the way up as high as ISO 6400 or 12800.
Action Sports Photography
With its all-electronic shutter, the Nikon Z8 takes after its bigger sibling the Z9, and offers all three things that action sports photographers demand: Speed, AF accuracy, and in some cases, resolution.
Indeed, 20 FPS is likely to be more than most action sports photographers will require. Also, Nikon’s 3-D autofocus tracking is truly impressive, consistently tracking subjects even in some pretty demanding action sequences.
Lastly, another thing to keep in mind is that resolution can be a substitute for “reach”, as well. With 45 megapixels at your disposal, a press of a button can turn your 300mm f/2.8 lens into a (sort of) 450mm f/2.8 lens. That is, as long as you’re okay with ~19 megapixel images.
Wildlife Photography
The above discussion applies just as equally, and maybe even at a higher level that puts more demands on a camera body. With wildlife photography, you don’t always have the ample lighting of a stadium; you might often find yourself working in dim light before sunrise, or well after sunset.
In this case, you’ll be putting even more demands on your camera’s AF system, and also the high ISO image results.
Furthermore, a wildlife photographer must often travel very far to reach the area where their subjects are found. Compared to the walk from a parking lot to a stadium or field, the weight savings of the Z8 versus a Z9 will be greatly appreciated.
Lastly, I suspect that on average, a wildlife photographer is going to be a little more likely to make very big prints of their work, compared to action sports photographers whose highest accomplishments might often be no bigger than a magazine cover. (Of course, there are always exceptions to this generalization!)
With all of that in mind, I’d say that the Nikon Z8 is one of the best wildlife photography cameras on the market.
Landscape & Wilderness Adventure Photography
With its incredibly robust, durable body, the Nikon Z8 is ready for any rough adventure. I generally don’t encourage photographers or videographers to recklessly go out in a torrential downpour, dust storm, or other such nasty weather, but if you absolutely must, the Nikon Z8 is a camera that won’t let you down. I particularly appreciate the “shutter” that is just a simple sensor cover, for keeping dust or raindrops off the sensor when changing lenses.
Other than that, the Nikon Z8 has almost everything that an adventurous landscape or any type of travel photographer would want; the image quality is amazing, the performance is extremely versatile, and the various lenses you can pair with this camera give it a unique advantage over other options. On a very strict budget for both price and weight/size? The Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 is one of the tiniest landscape photography lenes on the market that reaches 14mm and still accepts 82mm filters. Want a truly impressive, flawlessly sharp astro-landscape photography lens? The Nikkor Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S is the lightest, most compact lens in the (now packed) category of ultra-wide zooms that reach 14mm and f/2.8.
Nightscape & Astrophotography
While the Z8 sensor is definitely optimized for speed and versatility, it is also an impressive performer even in extremely specialized conditions. You might be better off with a Nikon Z7 II strictly for landscape photography, if all your images are captured at ISO 64. Or, you might prefer a Z6-series, if all your images are captured at ISO 6400.
However, if you’re looking for a camera that can do almost everything as an outdoor adventure photographer, from landscapes and nightscapes to wildlife or extreme sports, …the Nikon Z8 is your “one camera to rule them all”.
One of the really awesome things that I love about almost all of the latest Nikon cameras, by the way, is the ability to program in up to 900-second exposures. This feature makes it incredibly easy to capture star trail images of 900 seconds, or longer!
One of my favorite things about the Nikon Z8 as an adventure camera is the ability to capture time-lapse video, (8K!) as well as long exposures such as star trails, without any need for an external timer/trigger.
Nikon Z8 Review | In-Depth Analysis
Image Quality
First and foremost, a professional camera needs to deliver images that make zero compromises. From the technical aspects such as dynamic range and noise levels, to the subtle nuances such as the color “science” of skin tones, green foliage, etc, …it’s all about the images.
The Nikon Z8’s sensor is a relatively known factor, thanks to what we’ve seen from the Z9, and it’s mostly good news. To start off, Nikon offers something unique that virtually no other mirrorless camera offers: A base ISO of 64 instead of 100. Not only does this afford the Z8 sensor incredible dynamic range to be able to go so low, natively, but it also offers a nice little advantage for various shooting conditions such as managing exposures in extremely bright conditions, and/or creative landscape photography situations such as ultra-long exposures.
Then, as your ISO setting climbs higher, the Z8 doesn’t really skip a beat, offering excellent dynamic range all the way up within its range of “ISO invariance”. Also, the noise levels are impressively low, especially for such a high-speed sensor, with so much resolution, let alone with such great image quality at lower ISOs!
Simply put, the Z8 contains one of the best all-around, no-compromises sensors on the market today, and virtually all types of professionals will find that it meets their needs.
Build Quality / Durability
One thing that Nikon has a legendary reputation for is, making cameras that are generally “indestructible”. This is not an excuse to abuse your professional flagship camera, of course. It’s merely a promise that in the long run, year after year, you’ll have a strong, trustworthy camera that you can rely on.
In this regard, the lack of a mechanical shutter is likely a huge bonus, since at least in the DSLR days when a camera might last you 5-10 years and hundreds of thousands of clicks, …it was almost always the shutter that “died” first.
Obviouly, I try to refrain from truly torture-testing the cameras I review, although I do put them through some relatively tough conditions at times. So, in this regard I often turn to the folks who actually take apart and even repair these cameras, such as the folks at LensRentals. The consensus seems to be that Nikon makes some of the most robust, durable cameras possible. One common point of weakness for mirrorless cameras, the IBIS (in-body image stabilization) unit, is very robust on Nikons, including the Z8. Of course as I mentioned the mechanical shutter is totally absent, however, Nikon was also thoughtful enough to include a sensor “curtain” that closes when the camera is turned off, to minimize dust on the sensor.
Autofocus Performance
Not necessarily in order of importance, indeed likely of equal value to most serious pro photographers and videographers, is autofocus performance and reliability. Simply put, if you’re not pushing the envelope of what is possible when it comes to precisely nailing focus on either fast subjects and/or any subject in dim light, then you may not fully appreciate the Nikon Z8’s prowess.
Indeed, one of the biggest leaps forward in technology that Nikon has delivered in recent years is their 3-D Tracing AF system. The interface itself is familiar to me after a decade-plus of using it on Nikon DSLRs, (starting with the D3/D300!) …and the results are better than ever.
Here are the technical details of how I judge a camera’s autofocus:
- It’s incredibly fast, responsive, snappy. Even when using big, heavy glass such as the Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 Plena, the Z8 “whips” subjects into focus quickly.
- It’s extremely precise. Of course, speed is irrelevant without accuracy. Thankfully, the Z8’s AF system delivers tack-sharp subjects, even in low light, even at ultra-fast apertures.
- Lastly, it’s consistent. Obviously neither speed nor accuracy are worth much if the camera doesn’t deliver on those promises with a very high percentage of “keepers”. Although cameras these days have soaring FPS which can result in a mis-focused shot here and there, the Z8 has allowed me to work without having to worry about checking the sharpness of every single important photo I take. Simply put, I trust the camera, and it doesn’t let me down.
Speed & Overall Performance
This is where things get a little complicated, especially when comparing different high-speed flagship cameras. Nikon opted to do something a bit controversial in terms of its various speed capabilities. That is, the Frames Per Second top out at 20 FPS for raw stills. If you want to go faster, you can achieve up to a blazing-fast 120 FPS, but only if you accept JPG output and an 11-megapixel DX crop. The sensor can output full-resolution JPG stills at up to 30 FPS.
Honestly, considering how much memory card space is consumed by shooting at such high burst rates, I’m okay with being constrained by the JPG image format, and even the loss of resolution, when I want such “absurd” FPS. I’ve edited plenty of JPG photos in my day; I know how to capture them correctly to optimize the baked-in dynamic range and noise reduction, etc.
Having said that, it’s definitely a potential drawback for those high-speed photographers who need raw capture at the highest FPS. Personally, even for the fastest action sequences, I am more than happy with 20 FPS when it comes to raw stills.
Features & Customizations
Nikon’s highest-end cameras can be a bit intimidating to fully master at first. There are a few extra buttons, and a lot more customizability, compared to the entry-level and prosumer Nikon Z-mount cameras. (This is a good thing for a working pro, of course.)
In my opinion, the Z8 offers an excellent balance between being easy to use right out of the box, and being highly customizable.
I will admit that after spending so many years customizing all different brands of cameras, of all different classes from beginner to professional, there are always a couple little quirks that I dislike about any given camera. Nikon, Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Fujifilm, Sigma… none of them offers absolute perfection.
In the case of the Nikon Z8, here is my main quibble with the functionality and customization: I decided that I prefer to control my autofocus settings with my right-hand fingers, and the Z8’s dedicated AF button can be a bit annoying in its position on the lower front corner of the camera, where my left hand/fingers can accidentally bump it. I have to make a conscious effort to hold the camera a certain way. This isn’t a very big deal once the muscle memory kicks in, but for those who are coming from a Z6-series or Z7-series, it’s something to put a few hours into before you dive right into your next high-paying gig.
Ergonomics & Portability
Ergonomically, the Nikon Z8 is a real pro’s camera. It offers Nikon’s full array of control buttons/dials, aside from a select few that can only fit on the vertical grip design of the Z9 of course.
As I mentioned above, this makes the Z8 a bit daunting to get familiar with at first, however, once accomplished, it feels like an extension of your hands. This is one area where Nikon always seemed to win me over, in the DSLR days at least. They faltered a bit with the oldest Z-series mirrorless cameras, while they figured out where to put certain new buttons that best suited the mirrorless body design, but the Z8 really has arrived at excellence, ergonomically speaking.
It is, however, quite a bit bigger and heavier than, say, a Nikon Z6 III or Z5. You’ll notice the difference visually right away, and you’ll feel it after holding the camera for a few hours.
In some cases, this is a good thing; many pros prefer a camera with a bit more heft to it. (This can help you steady your image framing and avoid camera shake, although that’s less
Value
At a price tag under $4K, (at least during the times when the $300 savings is available) …indeed the Nikon Z8 is in a league of its own in terms of value. I’ve already covered these talking points already, or I’ll dive deeper in the next section about your alternatives, but suffice it to say this: $3969 is truly unprecedented for a camera of this caliber, and you won’t find a better overall value anywhere else.
This extends to Nikon’s whole lineup, both camera bodies and lenses, by the way. If getting the most value for your dollar is a priority for you, then you’ll almost always do best with Nikon as a system. I’ve given many examples already, such as pairing the Z8 with a Z6 III or a Z7 II, depending on the type of professional work you do. The Nikkor lenses, also, offer unprecedented value across a wide range of performance needs.
In other words, with Nikon as a system, you can get started on an extremely tight budget, (Z5, Z6 series) …and then transition smoothly up in terms of mid-range and even exotic cameras & lenses. (Oppositely, with other brands you may find that there are large gaps in performance and price/value, making the leap from beginner to “pro” to be either impossible or at least very painful.)
Nikon Z8 Review | Compared To The Competition
For this comparison, I’d like to go back to the structure of discussing your options based on the type of photography you shoot. I already mentioned that if you’re looking at alternatives in the same price range, you’ll likely forfeit either resolution or speed. Or, if you look for alternatives that do offer both of those things, you’ll likely pay a lot more.
So, let’s talk about photography subjects, and video as well of course.
First, the subject for which the Nikon Z8 is best suited: Wildlife and wilderness adventures, landscapes, etc. In this regard, the only direct competitors are the Canon EOS R5 II, and the Sony A1. Both cameras are a bit more expensive than the Z8, and both cameras have various differences that might tempt you to one of them. Both the Canon R5 and the Sony A1 offer a bit faster FPS when shooting RAW. All three cameras offer various implementations of 8K RAW video, depending on the output device you’re recording to. So, honestly, if budget is not a problem, it’s likely best to just rent all three and see which one makes the most sense in your hands. However, if you’re on any sort of budget, then both the Nikon Z8 and its available Nikkor lenses do tend to offer the best value, overall.
Alternatively, there are a few interesting other notes to mention: For those telephoto action/wildlife photographers on an extremely tight budget, here are a few suggestions: For the price of a Z8 body alone, you could get both a Nikon Z6 III and the incredible Nikkor Z 180-600m VR lens.Or, for the outdoor adventure landscape photographer on a tight budget, a Z7 II paired with almost any of Nikon’s wide-angle lenses would still come in under the price tag of a Z8 alone.
The point here is, the Z8 is a lot of camera, so, make sure you need all of it for what you do. Otherwise there are better ways to spend your hard-earned money!
Nikon Z8 Review | Conclusion
Over the two-plus decades that I have owned Nikon digital cameras, they have always impressed me in two particular ways more than any other brand: their incredible value, and their intuitive use. The Nikon Z8 is another milestone in that legendary timeline of cameras; offering flagship performance on an unprecedented budget.
If you need all of what it offers, in terms of speed, resolution, and autofocus, then it’s one of the best choices available. Even if your budget might stretch to include the Nikon Z9, you could prefer the Z8 for its portability. I know I sure appreciate the Z8 when I’m on a remote wilderness adventure!
All in all, in can conclude this Nikon Z8 review by saying that it is, in fact, my new favorite professional camera, and I highly recommend it to almost all types of pro photographers and videographers.
Check Pricing & Availability
The Nikon Z8 is usually available for around $4,000, but is currently on sale for $3,696. There are quite a few lens kits available as well, including the 24-70mm f/2.8, 24-120mm f/4, 14-24mm f/2.8, and the 50mm f/1.4. Alternatively, there are kits available with the FTZ mount adapter for Nikon F-mount DSLR lenses, as well as various kits for different types of content creation such as filmmaking, etc.
