The Holy Trinity of cameras will remain Canon, Nikon, and Sony. Try hard as some other brands may, the success formula of these brands has taken years of listening to photographers and tailoring cameras and lenses to those needs and for Nikon shooters. Christmas came early as the company earlier this week finally unveiled its flagship mirrorless camera; the Nikon Z9.
The Z9 was rumored to be in development in late 2020 with the company confirming the rumors and offering a fall 2021 release date and here we are. Built for top professionals, the new Nikon Z9 features a 45 Megapixel stacked full-frame CMOS sensor that is capable of 8K/30fps video resolution and incredible 30 fps photo burst mode (and an incredible 120 fps photo burst if shooting cropped sensor at 11 megapixels) all made possible with Nikon’s new EXPEED 7 image processor which the company claims is “the most powerful Nikon processing engine ever. 10x faster than previous generations.”
The Z9 comes at the heels of the recently released Canon R3 and gives that camera a run for its money as it features stunning AF features (which is a win for Nikon as the company has struggled in that department in previous iterations of its mirrorless cameras,) and utilizing a new algorithm and deep learning technology. The automatic Subject Detection can now recognize nine distinct subject types, ranging from humans to animals to airplanes to bicycles. The Z9 also joins the flagship ranks of the Sony Alpha 1 due to its ability to shoot 8K video without overheating. Due to its stacked sensor nature, the Z9 is the first camera to completely go a mechanical shutter onboard. On the plus side, this means that shutter wears out will not be a problem on the Z9 and there’ll be no shutter sound-you can turn on a feature that electronically produces a sound whenever you click the shutter-but the downside was the electronic drag created by electronic shutters but Nikon claims to have solved this issue. The camera is capable of shutters up to 1/32,000. HSS functions and a regular flash sync of 1/200 even without a mechanical shutter (which honestly is very impressive).
Here are some photos of the new Z9;
The Nikon Z9 is currently available for pre-order and will be available in December for the retail cost of $5,496. Compared to the Sony a1 which cost $6,498 and the Canon R3 which cost $5,999 (body alone), the Z9 is the least expensive flagship option and if you already own a couple of Z lenses, and are looking to upgrade, the Z9 might just be for you. Click here to find out all the official details about the Z9 on the Nikon website and click below to watch a complete preview hands-on breakdown video by Jared Polin (FroKnowsPhoto).
