[Music] Greetings again everyone now all the way Back in May this year I got the chance To go to the London launch of the nickon Z8 got to handle it get some pictures With it at some special workshops for Journalists which was all a real blast Well now I've had a few weeks to Actually test the thing properly and That has been really exciting depending On your perspective the Z8 is Essentially either a miniaturized nickon Zed99 which makes it possibly one of the Most exciting cameras ever made or just A competitor to the Canon eosr 5 but a Few years late it's 45 megapix Full-frame sensor 8K and 4K 120p video Recording abilities and topof the range Autofocus system all combined to make it One of the best hybrid cameras in the World today and that's obvious no matter What your preferred camera manufacturer Happens to be but still let's really put This thing through its Paces I'd like to Thank Nick on UK for learning me this Camera for a few weeks for testing as Well as some of their latest telephoto Lenses but as usual this is a totally Independent review it's regular price is $4,000 or about £4,000 here in the UK so About the same as the Canon osr 5 but a Considerable saving over the bigger neon Zed99 the first thing you notice upon Handling the Z8 is that it is Big And
Chunky and feels so wellb built that It'll probably still be here and working Long after to the Apes take over the Planet and it's also very well weather Sealed throughout it resultantly fits Very nicely into your hand with a lovely Grip and the buttons are plentiful and Not too fiddly to manipulate some of Them even light up a little when you Push back the onoff dial which is great For shooting in the dark just like the Useful top screen at the top left come Hold down buttons for changing your Shooting mode white balance drive mode And bracket shooting options useful and Around the onoff off switch come the iso And exposure compensation buttons Typically practical for a big nickon Camera once you've got used to that Button placement they make professional Shooting a quick experience there's also A rear afon button and autofocus Point Joystick of course and other Customizable buttons throughout the Camera's body the camera screen is top Of the line here it's very high Resolution bright has touchscreen Functionality and can quickly tilt up And down but can also be tilted left and Right a little bit although it's a Slightly awkward mechanism to get used To and the screen can't be fully folded Out for self shooting Something video Makers might be annoyed by the
Viewfinder is the same found on a more Expensive z9 which is actually not the Highest resolution available today but It has amazingly low lag probably due to The sensor's fast readout speed and that Makes the camera much easier to use when Shooting sports or wildlife and to my Mind that's much more more important the Z8 uses Nikon's smaller el15 C battery And I found it got through them quite Quickly too giving me around 400 shots Per charge which is a little Disappointing but not surprising Considering the camera's power so anyone Doing strenuous photography work will Need to bring at least one spare battery With them but some good news is that the Camera has card slots for both cfx press Type B and SD cards a combination I Absolutely love SD for affordability and Compatibility CF Express for raw speed On the other side of the camera we get Microphone and headphone sockets as well As a full-sized HDMI output thank you Neon and unusually two USBC Port one Specially intended for power delivery Charging oh and on the front there's Also a protruding 10 pin port for other Accessories too the camera has no Mechanical shutter but as I found when Testing the Z 9 that doesn't really Matter too much as the sensor's readout Is just so fast much faster than normal The camera can shoot raw bursts at up to
20 frames per second and jpeg at 30 Frames per second and the buffer is Absolutely huge with space for at least 1,000 pictures there are rumors that a Firmware update is coming soon which Could get frame rate even faster than This we'll have to wait and see the Volume of the sound you're hearing can Be adjusted in the menus or turned off Altogether the camera offers all the Shooting modes you'd expect at this Level including heif 10bit HDR images Using the hlg curve as well as lossless Compressed raw files a pre-burst option For capturing up to a seconds worth of Shots before you press the shutter Button and all kinds of neat color Profiles it's got everything basically This camera inherits the autofocus System of the Nikon z9 which is Generally out of this world it's very Fast very sticky once you found your Subject and 99% of the time highly Accurate there's really very little Difference between this and Canon and Sony's top tier offerings it's Particularly excellent for Sports Photography although like it's Competitors you're still not getting Perfect results every time my only real Complaint is that the camera had some Mild issues trying to shoot Birds even In animal detection mode its AI would Take a while to find a bird that was
Obviously in the scene and focus on its Eyes most of the time it worked okay Though and apparently nickon will bring A special bird subject detection option To the camera early next year the camera Has excellent in body stabilization and A sensor protector that can be set to Come down automatically when you turn The camera off overall the Z8 is a bit Of a monster of a camera that feels Virtually indestructible full of Well-positioned buttons for fantastic Control ability and with great Connectivity too longtime Nikon users Will feel very at home using it and its Electronic functionality and shooting Features are all Second To None exactly What you expect for a camera at this Price point okay well image quality First of all when we look at the raw Files we see the camera's 45 map sensor Offering a bucket load of fine detail Jpeg images are just a little bit softer Here not much if we look to the wooden Wall behind the singers on the left we Can see the jpeg engines noise reduction At work even at ISO 64 and it's just a Touch more aggressive than I like to see But still those jpegs are still yielding Great resolution okay let's take a look At high ISO image quality now ISO 100 to 800 looks perfect 1,600 still looks Great although if you look at the Rocks Behind the Walkers there the fine
Details are getting a little smudgy ISO 3200 is still looking looking very nice But at 6400 that noise reduction is Smudging fine details quite a lot which Gets worse at ISO 12,800 you can stop down further than That if you want and actually at a pinch I'd say that 25,600 is still usable but don't take it Any further than that overall though I Was really pleased with this image Quality the Z8 jpeg engine has a very Well-balanced combination of eliminating Noise while retaining good detail in my Opinion it's a nice medium between Canon's smooth but not so detailed jpegs And Sony's Ultra sharp but somewhat Noisy ones it's definitely my favorite Nickon picture quality that I've come Across so far oh and something else Nickon cameras are famous for is high Dynamic range and if you shoot in Roar You can quite massively boost your Shadows or rescue highlights as you can See here that's some of the best dynamic Range I've found in any camera I've Tested so far okay video quality the Neon Z8 like the zed99 has a dizzying And Wess array of video codecs he can Shoot in including raw Pro res raw and Pro res 422 h265 in 10 or 8bit and h264 In 8bit it's a dream come true really And much better than a Canon EOS R5 Although your resolution and frame rate
Varies a lot according to the codec you Choose you can shoot almost anywhere From 1080p to 6K to 4K at 12 20 frames Per second to 8K at 60 frames per second Although my memory card limited me to Only 8K 30 for some reason and all the Time while you're shooting that Excellent autofocus system stays hard at Work at regular 4K we are seeing Excellent sharpness and detail at lower Isos and up to ISO 800 at ISO 1600 the Imag is getting just a little bit washed Out here at even higher isos than this We're still getting good amounts of Detail but noise is really beginning to Look a bit ugly especially from about ISO 6400 so that's a better than average Performance for detail but just average For noise let's crank up the frame rate To 120 frames per second and in 4k uh-oh The image looks very different now as it Appears detail has been cut in half the Canon EOS R5 has this exact same problem At 120p 4K and it's a huge shame noise Level remain the same ISO 1600 gets a Bit noisy and 3200 and Beyond start Getting pretty ugly okay let's see about 8K now as expected the amount of detail You can see is quite astonishing at 8K And interestingly noise seems to be well Under control even up to about ISO 1600 Even ISO 3200 is still usable just about But go up to 6,400 and Beyond and the Image begins to fall apart by the way
Unlike my Canon EOS R5 I wasn't able to Get the camera to overheat while Recording at any codec or resolution and It's maximum recording time is a Fantastic 2 hours and 5 minutes I also Found that rolling shutter was lower on The Z8 than any other camera I've tested At 4K although it is still there Interestingly at 4K 120p it's actually Lower than at 25p at 8K again it's there But a bit lower than you'd usually Expect to see overall then it's obvious From all these test results that the Z8 Is basically a flagship Masterpiece Camera from nickon jam-packed with their Best technology a complete joy for any Professional to use although of course It would offer a steep learning curve For a beginner almost every feature That's still or video Shooters could Possibly want is crammed in here and the Lack of a mechanical shutter is easily Made up for by the sensor's very fast Readout speed criticisms well although It's basically a miniaturized zed99 the Z8 is still fairly big and heavy and its Battery life is definitely a bit Disappointing I've spoken to one or two Professional photographers about it and They've said that they still prefer to Keep their z9s as the batteries on nose Can last just about forever and Landscape photographers might prefer the Smaller size and lower cost of the z7
Mark 2 instead but if you're happy to Carry a spare battery around with you or Two then the Z 8 has a lovely little Spot for itself on a professional Market It handles a bit better than Sony Cameras it feels bigger and better in Your hands with slightly nicer colors Although Sony's cameras might beat it on Resolution and autofocus speed and the Z8 is more refined than its much older Canon competitor the R5 especially with Better video recording options even at $4,000 the Z8 is good value for the Amazing camera you're getting here it's Going to become a legendary model so it Comes highly [Music] Recommended okay thanks for watching Everyone two things firstly there are a Bunch of new playlists on my channel Specially designed to help you get to Lens reviews that work on your camera And second a special thank you to my Patreon supporters of course advertising Revenues are not fantastic on YouTube And reviewing cameras especially takes a Lot of time so every bit of support Makes a big difference and supporters Also get all kinds of exclusive bonus Content I love posting things on patreon Check it out in the description below And ciao for now everyone
