Nikon has up to date its four-year-old Z50 with the Z50 II. The mini-DSLR-style successor comes with the identical 20.9MP APS-C sensor, however packs Nikon’s newest Expeed 7 processor, which delivers a raft of performance-based enhancements.
Nikon says the Z50 II has the identical topic detection autofocus choices as its skilled Z8 and Z9 mirrorless cameras, with 9 topic varieties to select from, 3D monitoring, custom-size autofocus areas, plus a wiser AF-A choice (autofocus auto). It additionally debuts a Product Assessment mode, which simply switches focus between individuals and objects, very like Sony’s Product Showcase autofocus mode.
Burst capturing now comes with one second pre-capture for a 15fps or 30fps Excessive-speed Body Seize+ mode (JPEG solely), whereas 4K video as much as 30fps is now oversampled from 5.6K, which suggests it needs to be good and sharp.
After the Z6 III, the Z50 II is Nikon’s second digicam that works with Nikon Cloud. Along with on-line picture add and storage companies, customers can add {custom} colour profiles on to the Z50 II from the Nikon Cloud neighborhood (Nikon calls them Image Profiles), in the same approach to the brand new Panasonic Lumix S9, full with a brand new Image Profile button for fast entry. Neat.
Then there are the enhancements to the dealing with of the Z50 II. It has an up to date EVF with twice the brightness of the Z50, a bigger 3.2-inch vari-angle touchscreen with a brand new hinge for twist and rotate actions, a bigger hand grip, whereas it is a part of Nikon’s solely collection of mirrorless cameras to function a built-in flash.
The Z50 II prices £849 physique solely, £999 with the 16-50mm lens, or £1,199 for a twin lens equipment that provides the 50-250mm lens (US and Australia pricing to comply with). Gross sales begin on the finish of November.
The Z50 II seems like an honest newbie mirrorless digicam for photographers, however Nikon is billing the digicam for content material creators, so does it hit the mark for them?
A digicam with an id disaster?
Nikon is closely advertising its new Z50 II for content material creators, however in my ebook it is the least apparent mannequin of all its mirrorless cameras with APS-C sensor for such functions.
The Z50 II seems like a pleasant digicam to shoot with for photographers, because of its mini-DSLR kind issue with an improved grip and brighter viewfinder. However for content material creators who worth a digicam’s seems and depend on its video flexibility? The cheaper Z30 or the retro-styled Z fc make extra sense, as do rival fashions such because the Fujifilm X-M5 and Sony ZV-E10 II.
That is not to remove from the Z50 II. It turns into Nikon’s most succesful mirrorless digicam with APS-C sensor as a result of it makes use of Nikon’s newest processor, which delivers an all-round speedier efficiency, together with a sooner start-up time, says Nikon.
It additionally has improved video options, reminiscent of 4K 10-bit video as much as 30fps from oversampled 5.6K, plus Nikon’s N-Log colour profile. It is also Nikon’s first digicam that may livestream by way of USB-C, not requiring Nikon’s Webcam Utility software program.
Nonetheless, there aren’t any vertical video modes for social such as you get within the X-M5, a digicam that options larger decision 6.2K video (which makes vertical video potential), plus multi-directional inner mics that may be remoted or used collectively. That digicam feels extra purpose-made for content material creators; it is smaller, it seems the half, and it has Fujifilm’s Movie Simulation modes on faucet.
It seems like Nikon has created a extremely succesful hobbyist digicam within the Z50 II – one that we are going to full an in-depth evaluate of quickly. I simply suppose it isn’t the content material creator’s digicam that Nikon’s advertising suggests it’s. A successor to the Z30 appears like a extra apparent match.
