Nikon’s Z8 is a Phenomenal Mirrorless Camera for Its Price

Nikon is arguably the best-known camera brand in the world, but with the decline of DSLRs it is lagging behind Canon and Sony. In 2022, the company launched the Z9, a flagship mirrorless camera that finally rivaled the competition, but the $5,500 price tag made it unaffordable for most. To appeal to a wider audience, Nikon introduced the Z8 last year with the same sensor and almost the same specs as the Z9 for $1,700 less.

With a 45-megapixel stacked sensor and the latest Expeed 7 image processor, the Z8 is suitable for everything from sports to wildlife to landscape photography. It’s also a powerful video camera that offers internal 8K RAW recording at up to 60 frames per second.

The only other model that can really compete in terms of speed, resolution and video is the Sony A1, but it costs a whopping $2,200 more. To find out how the Z8 compares to this and other models, I rented a Z8 and took photos with my cousin, a photographer, in Vancouver, Canada.

Body and handling

In terms of design, you can imagine the Z8 like the Z9 with the battery grip cut off. However, it’s still a chunky camera at 910 grams (2 pounds), compared to 737 grams for the Sony A1. This may be suitable for professionals or those who prefer a larger camera body, but the size and weight are not ideal for travel. By the way, a $346 battery grip (the MB-N12) with secondary controls is available for the Z8, effectively turning it into a Z9 for far less money.

The Z8 has a nice big grip and all the controls you’d expect, including a joystick, a D-pad style menu control, a camera/video settings switch, and front and rear dials. Nikon users will appreciate the layout, as it’s largely similar to previous models, but everything is just different enough that it might seem awkward for users of other brands.

Unlike the A1, the Z8 has a display on the top that shows important settings such as shutter, aperture and battery life. Although it takes up space that could be used for buttons or dials, it’s a handy way to see everything at a glance and I now miss it on models that don’t have it. If you have to dive into the menus, it takes a little getting used to, but works well once you get past the learning curve.

One of the biggest negatives is the lack of a fully moving display. Instead, the rear 3.2-inch screen with 2.36 million pixels can only be tilted up and down and to the left or right. That’s a shame, because the Z8 could be a powerful vlogging camera and a fold-out display is a must for this type of work (especially because it makes solo shooting easier).

The 3.69 million-dot electronic viewfinder is a bit low-resolution for a camera in this price range, especially compared to the Sony A1’s 9.4 million-dot display. Even Canon’s cheaper R5 has a 5.76 million dot display, which makes controlling focus much easier.

According to the CIPA rating, battery life is rather weak at 420 shots (one to two hours of video recording depending on resolution), compared to 490 shots on the Canon R5 and 530 on the A1. But here too you can achieve almost twice as much with the battery grip. Other notable features include UHS-II and CFexpress B memory card slots, a full-size HDMI port for external recording, and two separate USB-C ports for power and data.

Performance

With the fastest high-resolution stacked sensor on the market, the Z8 is incredibly fast for a 45-megapixel camera. You can shoot RAW photos at 20fps, which is slightly slower than the A1’s 30fps RAW mode, but the Z8 can shoot 30fps in JPEG mode. It can handle 40 uncompressed RAW images before the buffer is full, but can store more compressed images if you have a fast CFexpress card.

The hybrid phase detection autofocus is Nikon’s best yet due to the improved image processor, stacking sensor and large number of AF tracking points. It offers reliable subject tracking and facial, eye and animal detection is also fast and accurate. In fact, the company said that as of the latest firmware it was almost identical to the far more expensive Z9.

However, the Z8’s AF isn’t quite as reliable as the Sony A1’s when shooting at the highest speeds. It occasionally had trouble tracking subjects, particularly those moving toward the camera, resulting in some blurry shots. The Z8 (and Z9) are very sensitive to setup, so it’s best to tweak the AF settings until they’re to your liking.

There’s no mechanical shutter, but the Z8’s sensor is fast enough that rolling shutter isn’t a problem even on fast-moving objects like airplane propellers. The 5-axis stabilization in the body reduces shake by six stops, enough to get up to a quarter of a second of sharp photos. This is superior to the A1, but far below the 8 stops of the EOS R5.

picture quality

The Z8 has the same excellent sensor as the Z9, so of course the image quality is identical in every way. At 45.7 megapixels, it delivers sharp photos on par with the 50-megapixel A1 and is second only to Sony’s 60-megapixel A7R V in the full-frame range. The dynamic range is also excellent, probably a little better than the A1.

JPEG images are bright and punchy straight out of the camera, with best color results achieved using the Natural Light white balance setting. Colors are accurate, although skin tones aren’t quite as warm as on the Canon R3 or R5.