After building hype throughout these past couple of months, Nikon has finally launched its new full-frame flagship mirrorless camera, the Nikon Z9. It is revealed to be the brand’s first camera to feature a stacked sensor with built-in memory for fast readout speeds and, as previously teased, also comes with a multi-direction rear LCD screen.
The Z9 arrives with a 45.7MP stacked sensor, paired with Nikon’s latest EXPEED 7 image processor, an ISO range of 64 to 25600, and an electronic shutter. Together, these enable the new camera to shoot max resolution photos in JPEG at 30fps and RAW at 20fps, whereas lowering the megapixel count will let it capture images up to 120fps. Nikon highlights the Z9’s electronic shutter to offer “the world’s most minimal rolling-shutter distortion,” thus making it ideal for motion-focused photography such as sports or action.
Also new is the camera’s built-in AI-enhanced autofocus (AF) system, which can track a wide range of subjects including eyes, faces, torsos, different types of animals and much more. On that note, the Nikon Z9 offers several AF-based modes: 3D tracking, wide-area AF (S) and (L), auto-area AF, phase detection, subject-tracking AF, eye-detection AF, and hybrid contrast.
With speed being one of its primary focus, it’s only natural for Nikon to include an improved in-body image and lens stabilisation system for the Z9. For video, the camera is able to capture 8K at 30p footage, oversampled 4K at 30p, and standard 4K at up to 120fps. Nikon says it will release a firmware update for the device in the near future which will enable it to support 12-bit 8K 60fps video recordings in the new proprietary N-RAW format, as well as oversampled 4K 60fps footage in Apple’s ProRes RAW HQ format.
It is certain that most of us are aware of the Nikon Z9’s pro-style integrated grip body, which allows photographers to shoot both portrait and landscape images with ease. Further complementing this is the 3.69 million dot OLED 60fps electronic viewfinder on its back, and the previously mentioned rear multi-directional TFT LCD touchscreen monitor. While its onboard cooling system isn’t detailed, Nikon claims you’ll be able to capture oversampled 4K 30p videos over two hours at “normal” temperature. Other than that, the Z9 comes with dual CFexpress Type B card slots with XQD backward compatibility, USB-C and HDMI ports, 3.5mm jacks for input and output, as well as WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity.
The Nikon Z9 is expected to arrive by the end of the year in the US and is set to retail at US$5,500 (~RM22,780) for body only. The company has yet to announce the camera’s availability in Malaysia.
(Source: Nikon [Newsroom] [Official product page])
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