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Nikon has officially announced its new Nikon Z6 II and Z7 II mirrorless cameras. Marking what is essentially the second generation of Nikon’s adventure in mirrorless cameras, they update the Nikon Z6 and Z7 cameras with some highly-demanded features, although they remain largely incremental rather than revolutionary updates.
Like their predecessors, the Z6 II and Z7 II contain the same 24.5 megapixel and 45.7 megapixel BSI CMOS sensors as the Z6 and Z7 respectively, although the new cameras come with the new Dual Expeed 6 processing engine. from Nikon, which offers more speed and better autofocus. and buffer performance. The new cameras also have dual card slots.
This increase in processing power means that the Z6II can shoot up to 14 fps, increasing by 2 shots per second over its predecessor and Nikon claims it can do so continuously for 200 jpg shots or 112 raw shots (if 12 bits, 14 bits is less). The Z7 II shoots up to 10 fps, up from 9 fps for its predecessor. Nikon also says that the new dual processors allow the cameras to now focus down to -4.5EV, which is pretty dark!
The Nikon Z6 II will now be able to shoot 4K60p too, though not at launch. The Z6 could shoot 4K at 30fps, and that’s what the Z6 II will do for a while as well, although firmware will come to improve it in the future. The Z7 II, on the other hand, gets 4K60p from day one. Although, with the Z7 II, you are not using the full width of the sensor. It is a 4K60p cropped. Exactly how much of a crop is something I haven’t been able to figure out yet, but I’ll update this post once I do.
Unfortunately for video recorders, RAW over HDMI is not provided by default. Both cameras say they’re “eligible for an optional ProRes RAW upgrade,” suggesting it’s still the same paid upgrade offer as the original Z6, even if the Atomos side is free. But it works with 10-bit HDMI out of the box with N-Log or HLG modes.
The great news for those who depend on their cameras to take pictures for a living is that they now have the redundancy that they had with their DSLRs, as the Z6 II and Z7 II have dual card slots. It still has the XQD / CFexpress from the original, but it also has a UHS-II SD card slot in there. Not that fast, but it should be sufficient for most shooters. However, if you are into sports, wildlife, or anything else where you are taking a lot of images in quick succession and need the buffer to clear quickly, stick to XQD / CFexpress.
I was hoping Nikon would swap out the LCD for a voluptuous one, but no, the Z6 II and Z7 II still have the same first-gen tilting touchscreen LCD.
For fans of long exposure, you can now shoot timed exposures of up to 900 seconds … Yes, fifteen minutes! instead of the usual 30-second limit for most cameras. And you can do it without the need for an external remote control. You can do it all on camera. So, it’s time to get those great ND filters out. The USB Type-C socket also allows for continuous external power (or charging) when taking many long exposures that would drain the internal battery fairly quickly.
The Nikon Z6 II is available to pre-order now for $ 1,996.95 and you can pre-order the Z7 II for $ 2,696.95. They are expected to ship in “winter 2020” so I wouldn’t expect them until around Christmas.
As a side note, since the announcement the two predecessors appear to have gone on sale, the Nikon Z6 is down to $ 1,796.95 and the Z7 is now priced at $ 2,596.95. I expect these prices to drop significantly more as we get closer to the shipping date for the Mark II models.
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