Nikon has announced the launch of the Nikon Z8, and it’s essentially the Nikon Z9 with a 30% smaller body. Like the Z9, the Z8 features a 45.7MP stacked BSI CMOS sensor, the EXPEED 7 image processor, 493-Point Phase-Detection AF and 8k60p video capabilities. With the Z8, Nikon offers their flagship Z9 camera at a more affordable price point.
Flagship Sensor and Processing
The Nikon Z8’s 45.7MP stacked BSI CMOS sensor offers fast readout speeds, minimal noise, and excellent clarity. Its innovative stacked sensor design contributes to exceptional performance by reducing rolling shutter, ensuring distortion-free images.
Photographers can leverage the Z8’s electronic shutter-only design, allowing recording speeds of up to 1/32000 of a second. This feature significantly reduces motion distortion, ensuring fantastic clarity even with fast-moving subjects. The camera’s continuous shooting speeds can reach 20fps in Raw and 30fps in JPEG, all while maintaining full AF/AE performance.
In addition to its speed and accuracy, the Z8 allows photographers to save their images in HEIF file format, which means 1 billion more colours than JPEG while maintaining a compact file size. With HEIF, you can preserve the rich nuances and details of your images, delivering an enhanced visual experience to viewers.
Fast and Intelligent AF
The Nikon Z8 features Nikon’s flagship 493-point phase-detection AF system. Thanks to the high operating speed of the Z8, photographers can expect accurate autofocus readings to occur at up to 120fps.
The camera’s focusing system is well suited to difficult lighting conditions thanks to its Starlight Mode, which enables focusing down to -9EV. 3D Tracking AF can also be found in the Z8, making it easy for the camera to lock onto fast-moving subjects.
The Z8’s subject detection with deep learning technology means the camera can automatically detect and track a broad range of subjects, including people, dogs, cats, birds, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, trains and planes, in stills and video. When shooting portraits, the Z8’s eye-detection mode detects and tracks human and animal eyes and tracks them across the frame for improved accuracy.
Video Capabilities
With the Nikon Z8, videographers can harness the power of both 8K/60p and 4K/120p video.
Both 8k and 4k are also available in the cinematic 24p, empowering videographers to capture breathtaking cinematic videos with brilliance and precision. Using the 8K area, the Nikon Z8 allows for oversampled UHD 4K recording at a remarkable frame rate of up to 60p. This enhances the level of sharpness and detail in your videos, delivering an incredible visual experience.
Design
The main difference between the Nikon Z9 and Z8 is its design. Considered the successor of the Nikon D850, the Z8 is 30% smaller than the Z9 and 15% smaller than the D850. The Z8 is missing the Z9’s built-in battery grip; however, photographers can add the Nikon MB-N12 multi-battery vertical grip for additional power and a more comfortable grip.
The Nikon Z8 also features an advanced EVF utilising a 3.69m-dot OLED panel, a four-axis tilting touchscreen LCD, two built-in USB-C ports, built-in Bluetooth and Wifi.
