As you might have heard from my recent post. I accidentally smashed my DSLR camera while traveling in Madeira, a week ago. I had plans to upgrade my camera anyway but not just yet. The plan had to go into effect since being without a camera is not really an option for me. I decided to do a big upgrade and go into the pro territory. I got a Nikon Z6 II. The Z6 II is an upgraded version of the base model Z6.
Photo of the new camera.
This is not a comparison post of my old Nikon D5600 vs Z6 II. Obviously, these are these two are totally different and Z6 II is miles ahead. D5600 is considered an entry-level camera and Z6 II is a pro camera, but it's not a flagship. I just want to give my impressions of the new one.
Also, you might ask that am I going to miss something about DSLR cameras. The answer is, no I'm not. After testing the mirrorless for 2 days, there is nothing I miss on my old one. The only downside is that mirrorless cameras generally have slightly lower battery life because of the electronic viewfinder but in my opinion, the electronic screen inside the viewfinder gives so much more opportunities. For example, I can see my photos inside the viewfinder, zoom them in and so on. If I want I can also change settings there and see all the menus. Possibly the biggest pro is that I can accurately see what my photo will look like before I have taken the shot.
I went for a walk today and did a first outdoor test with it at the same time. Here you see photos taken with my new camera.
The prices differ from country to country but I bought it for 2980EUR in Estonia, this also includes the 24-70mm f4 lens. At first, I was a bit worried that maybe I should buy a camera body only and buy an f2.8 lens that is otherwise the same as my f4. After comparing these two lenses the difference is absolutely minimal. There is only a very slight increase in detail of f2.8 and when the aperture is wide open. This is seen when heavily cropping in the image. In the real world, there is no difference really except for the light capability of 2.8. That didn't justify a price difference of 1300Eur between these 2 lenses. The price difference is not that huge when buying these lenses separately, I got the f4 with my camera.
Really fast I was impressed by the detail of the photos, especially when compared to my old camera. My old one had a crop sensor 24.2MPx sensor. Z6 II has a full frame 24.5MPx sensor. There is only a very slight increase when comparing these two but the detail difference is a day and night.
I do need to buy an adapter for the camera because I can't use my Tamron 70-200mm lens on this camera. You can use the original Nikon 70-200 Z lens too on this camera but it costs 3000Eur, not worth it. My Tamron is basically the same and costs 1400EUR. With the adapter, there is no loss of any quality and all the controls work.
Yes, I could have also bought a Sony or Canon Mirrorless camera but when I use Sony then I can't attach my Tamron telephoto lens to it. There is some adapter but then the lens is fully manual all the time, so no go for me. I am kind of a fan of Nikon so I don't choose Canon over it. Nikon cameras generally have great bodies and a simple menu system. No other camera maker also offers menu and button customization as Nikon does.
Nikon Z6 II has a weather-sealed body so no need to worry about rain or snow. The overall build quality feels really good, you can really feel that you are holding an expensive camera not some soap box.
The Autofocus system feels awesome so far. I haven't been testing it in fast action or on humans that much yet but so far it's insanely fast and accurate. During the research, I saw some people complaining but these complaints got fixed in a firmware update. Camera can also lock focus really well in very low light situations.
The camera also has in-body 5-axis sensor stabilization. That is pretty interesting and works really well. No problems with taking low shutter speed handheld pictures.
Oh and this camera has two memory card slots. One is for the CFexpress card. These cards are very expensive but insanely fast and durable. The other slot is for a regular SD card. You can also choose to back up pictures on both cards, that's great actually when one fails. I don't have the CF express card yet but I plan to buy one in the future but 128gb card can cost around 300Eur.
This camera does not have a flash built-in. No problem because I wouldn't use it anyway, I got an external one which sits on the top when I need it.
Many people tell that this camera is very light and perfect for traveling and so on. Yeah, it is pretty light but still a bit heavier than my last one. Overall the dimensions are pretty much the same.
The screen on the camera comes out of its place and you can tilt it up and down, good for taking low shots. The only thing is that you cant rotate it facing the other direction so it's not such a selfie camera. This is too maybe one thing I will miss on my D5600 because with this I was able to take selfies too, not that I take these very often 😅.
Video capabilities are also extremely good. You can take 120fps 1080p videos and 60fps 4K videos too with it. I don't have a memory card that is large or fast enough for 60fps 4K. When I try to start the video, it cancels the footage immediately. Also, it takes a huge amount of memory. With 32GB SD card I can only shoot 4min and 30 seconds of 60fps 4K footage, that's insanity.
What I can do right now is shoot 30fps 4K, which my SD card can handle. I have tested it and the quality is absolutely gorgeous. Also, the autofocus does a really good job. Of course, you have many focus modes on this camera. I cant playback the 4k videos really good on the camera because again, the SD card read speed is too low for this, the footage lags. On PC it's fine. For 4K you sure need a CFexpress card or the fastest SD cards at least.
OH MY GOD, the best part I think is the ISO/grain tolerance. This camera has an ISO range of 50 - 204 800. I have tested it and it's crazy good. With my old camera, I was always getting frustrated by the noise. With Z6 II this is not a problem. Basically, you only start to see grain from 7000 ISO before that you really have to look for it to see it. I have also tested the 204 800 ISO and of course, its bad 😀 but believe it or not, it's the same as the max ISO of 25 400 on my old camera.
The camera does an extremely good job with grain. This is a photo I took yesterday of my cat in low light. The ISO here is 11 400, looks good, doesn't it? All the detail is still there. From the full screen, you can see some, quite small grain but it's not disgusting at all. My old camera would have produced a totally unusable photo with this ISO setting.
Yeah, I dont know what to dive into more here. I don't want to get very technical and I don't really need to. Also, this post is already getting very long.
Here are some more photos I took today.
Oh, this is mention worthy too. This camera is able to burst shots of 14fps, which is pretty good. That of course is on single-point AF mode only. If you still want to use a wide-frame AF with many focus points then the number goes down to a 12fps burst shot, which is still remarkable IMO. This camera has 2 processors to handle this load and fast AF.
On self-timer, you can also shoot several shots in one row. Up to 9 pictures and you can choose how much time is in between the pictures. I did a test. It can take a shot of a minimum every 0.5seconds on self-timer. I wish I could shoot even faster in timer mode but eh doesn't matter too much.
Jumping off a hay bale.
Yep, that's it. To summarise, I am extremely pleased with this Nikon Z6 II mirrorless. It's an insane upgrade from my old camera. If you want to upgrade to mirrorless too and are looking more towards a PRO category then this is definitely something I would recommend to you, really worth the price tag IMO. There is also Z5 but Z6 overall is much more powerful. If you want you can also go for Z7 or Z8 or the Z9 flagship but then be prepared to pay ridiculous amounts of money too. For an above-the-average enthusiast that chases quality Z6 II is totally enough.
If you want to know anything else about this camera or something I didn't explain enough then ask away in the comments!
Sorry for the very long post but I wasn't able to keep it shorter 😁.
