Z9 Release Thread

[chambeshi]

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[John Geerts]

That's a pretty detailed review from Mr Hogan, I believe.  Didn't a see an author name on the first link.

[Birna Rørslett]

As usual, some pertinent comments and a lot of nitpicking.

[Tom Hook]

As usual, some pertinent comments and a lot of nitpicking.

Couldn’t provide a better synopsis than yours Birna.

[Birna Rørslett]

Making capitalisation "errors" a big grievance in the report of a camera is rather hilarious. That is, if the intention is to make photographs. Besides, inconsistent capitalisation is so frequently seen even in writings from native English users, that the point must be as moot as it gets. Any reviewer hung up on this topic never will have spare time to do any reviewing

[John Geerts]

I am happy that Nikon did not force the 'Built-in' Lens Profiles for the Z9, as they did with the Z6-Z7.    Now you can decide whether to use a lens profile or not, in Adobe Camera Raw / Photoshop 2022.

[chambeshi]

n/a

[chambeshi]

I've been shooting my Z9 every day for over 3 weeks - wildlife mostly but 'general' photos too. Just a superb instrument with the 24-120 f4S, and adapted F-Nikkors, including 70-200 f2.8E, 180-400 f4E TC, 500 PF, 400 f2.8E). Its AF brings new life to Teleconverters, especially the 500 PF+TC14 III.
Nonetheless, I have also listed closing on 30 fixes to firmware, which can only improve what is already an excellent camera. Most of these overlap with Thom's Firmware  list in his Z9 Africa Blog, and Brad Hill's List, which is collaborative: pooling contributions from several wildlife photographers.
Expansion of fps and the AF (10+ AF options) - let alone 8K video - are overwhelming for the external controls the Z9 has inherited from Pro DSLRs. Exposure is seriously wanting in Custom options: to enable speedy changes especially.. Thus IME, besides awaited firmware fixes, the Z9 is missing physical Controls - AE-L would help immensely by assign 1 more AF Area mode+AF-On Custom setting for a toggling Hybrid-Button-Shooting (Next to AF-On used for BBAF). Besides Nikon removing any option to toggle Exposure modes (Spot-mode especially) a dedicated Exposure button will be a great help.

[Birna Rørslett]

Overloading the provided information with irrelevant details (for examole, capitalisation "errors") is not what consititutes a good reviewer in my book. Of course, that is just my opinion and everyone is entitled to think differently.

I believe most photographers intent on making photos will be able to do so quite easily with the Z9.

[David H. Hartman]

The Z9 is a Pro camera. It must hold true to Nikon's standards in striving for excellence. Typos in menus ?! It is pedantic to list them all but Nikon can do better surely.

I have observed not only typos but also technical errors in Nikon documentation at least since the Nikon F3. There were serious errors in documentation for metering with the Nikon F4.

Nikon doesn't understand the "Proofreader principle."

Dave

[Jack Dahlgren]

Overloading the provided information with irrelevant details (for examole, capitalisation "errors") is not what consititutes a good reviewer in my book. Of course, that is just my opinion and everyone is entitled to think differently.

I believe most photographers intent on making photos will be able to do so quite easily with the Z9.

It is filled with the usual sort of thing about how incompetent Nikon Marketing is and how no one proofreads the menus:

the more things I find that I have to explain that Nikon marketing glossed over or skipped.
 
I yelled so loud when Nikon moved the Exposure compensation button on the N80 that they put it back on the next camera and have never moved it since.
 
great, but wouldn't it be better if...
Technically, if you're going to put a . at the end of Rec. to indicate abbreviation, you have the problem of what to do with Cntrl. It, too, is an abbreviation and should get a period. Note that neither are "normal" abbreviations in English. Function could just be called HDMI Recording Control ;~). Cntrl is used as an abbreviation elsewhere, too.
 
The fact that I can describe this but Nikon marketing cannot (or will not) should be embarrassing to them. Moreover, it has the consequence, once discovered by the potential customer, to make that customer doubt all the other claims Nikon makes. Thing is, Nikon has done better than Canon and Sony with the Z9 real-time EVF for most situations, in my judgement, but then is taking their claims too far. That will come back to haunt them.
 
But if you think the Z9 is now effectively just a "point and shoot" camera, you'd be wrong, and you're likely to be eventually disappointed.

To be honest I'm shocked and disappointed that my Z9 is not a "point and shoot" after all I paid for it! I shudder to think what other horrors lurk in his 1500 page user manual. :-)

[Birna Rørslett]

More important than a few "errors" in capitalisation of items in the menus is the sometimes wildly inaccurate GPS record. The position can be off by several km and the altitude by literally thousands of m.

Strangely, this is an issue the detailed reviews don't mention at all?

[Ilkka Nissilä]

More important than a few "errors" in capitalisation of items in the menus is the sometimes wildly inaccurate GPS record. The position can be off by several km and the altitude by literally thousands of m.

Strangely, this is an issue the detailed reviews don't mention at all?

I guess accuracy may be dependent on the location and thus some reviewers wouldn't notice it?

D6 GPS accuracy has been good in my use but I have mostly used it in a fairly small region.

I do agree Hogan spends too much time on complaining about minor details which seem of no practical significance.

I think his autofocus commentary seems plausible and some of the things he mentions are familiar to users of the previous generation (e.g. including my Z6 II). When the Z6 II sees multiple people, it can seemingly choose the subject to focus on arbitrarily, even though the manual says the closest subjects are prioritized. The custom group-level AF of the D6 handles this much better in many situations. I shot the D6 and Z6 II at a wedding 1.5 weeks ago and I can say that while the latter gave very high quality images (both the sensor and the Z 24-70/2.8 performed admirably), the focus didn't inspire confidence - quite often I had to work hard to get the camera to focus on the intended subject. The D6 seemed dead accurate and reliable in the same environment (though with a different lens). I realize theory (that mirrorless cameras are more accurate in focusing) should suggest the opposite but it seems closest subject priority is hard to do in a mirrorless camera.

[Jack Dahlgren]

3rd party manual writers and youtubers depend on confused and fearful customers to purchase their products and view their work. This may play into the way they make things seem complicated, broken, and difficult.

[ColinM]

The two things I took from Thoms review
 

• The meaning of TL;DR
  
• "the Z9 is the best Z System camera, by far, and arguably one of the two or three best cameras you can buy"
  

I've read lots of Thoms articles over the years and have a fair idea of the bugbears he always goes back to
e.g. "..its good, but if only they'd done 'X'"

The rest was useful and unless I inherit one somehow, I doubt i'll ever get to actually use a Z9
But I can see that would be another reason to go on a Nikongear trip like the Scotland one