The Nikon Z8 is being called the true successor to the D850 and a ‚baby Z9‘, packing most of the features of its larger sibling but costing less.
The Nikon Z8 has officially been announced, with the Japanese camera maker calling it the true successor to the Nikon D850 and a ‚baby Z9‘ – the new camera packs virtually all of the features as its larger sibling, but costs over 25% less, with a £3,999 list price in the UK and a launch date of May 25 (we don’t currently have US or Australia pricing).
That’s exciting stuff. The Nikon Z9 won our 2022 camera of the year award, and that was before Nikon lavished two major firmware updates that introduced significant improvements across the board – and the Z8 effectively picks up where the Z9 is now, on firmware version 3.0.
So it’s a smaller, lower-cost, improved version of the Z9, and everything points to the new Nikon Z8 being one of the best mirrorless cameras in 2023. So why am I not more excited about it? Z9 heritage and more
The Nikon Z8’s feature list makes for impressive reading – it is a baby Z9 after all.
Photographers can enjoy the 45.7MP full-frame stacked sensor, with the fastest sensor readout speeds that virtually eliminate the effects of rolling shutter, and make it possible for Nikon to do away with the mechanical shutter altogether. There’s a 20fps continuous drive mode with auto exposure and focusing and a 1,000-shot (raw) buffer, plus a blisteringly fast 120fps option, and the full complement of in-camera shooting modes like intervalometer and focus stacking.
Nikon has also implemented HEIF image format, which offers superior quality to JPEG without an increase in file size. It’s like the difference between 10-bit and 8-bit video, and you get lots more color information with HEIF.
