I too am curious what Nikon will do with a Z6 III. The most obvious upgrades would involve some of the technology from the Z9, but that would need a new sensor.
They could still use the Expeed 7 from the Z9 and subject-recognition algorithms even with the current Z6 II sensor. It would likely improve focusing. However, for fast-moving subjects, photographing silently, and for video when panning or photographing a subject with fast motion, one would benefit from a stacked sensor. The issue with that is how much it would cost? I don't think it's possible to include a stacked full-frame sensor in a 2k€ price class camera at the present time, but of course at a later time in development of manufacturing technology, maybe it would be.
I am also curious how a Z8 would fit between the Z7 II and the Z9. Another new sensor? Is there room for both a Z7 and a Z8? I suppose there would be if the Z8 had even more megapixels than the Z9. Do we need more?
At least when using the 500 PF at f/5.6, EFCS and proper tripod, I find that moire on bird textures (passerines etc.) is commonplace and this is a little annoying. A higher-resolution sensor would allow clean rendering of the correct colours when using high-resolution lenses (which are becoming more and more common as lenses improve).
However, for hand-held use with sloppy technique, perhaps this is not as much of a priority. I have not seen moire in images taken with the 45 MP sensor in hand-held use, but did see it with 36MP. I think 60 MP or 80 MP would make these occurrences less likely and thus this would improve accuracy. However, if such a sensor would have slow read times then people would get distorted bird-in-flight images where the shapes are all warped-up as they would no doubt try to use the electronic shutter due to its silence.
