Three Months of Experience Shooting with the Nikon Z8 Camera as a Pro Photographer
The Nikon Z8 is Nikon’s latest offering in its lineup of professional and reliable mirrorless cameras. It’s since been approximately 3 months after its release, and the Nikon Z8 has been an integral part of wedding photography, corporate event photography and landscape photography toolkit. I’m happy to report my findings on this fantastic piece of hardware.
Weight and Handling
Comparing it to previous models, the Z8 is noticeably larger and heavier, weighing at approximately 910g while the Z7ii clocks in at about 694g, both including battery. The difference can certainly be felt during those long wedding shoots, though I prefer how my hands wrap around the Z8’s more hefty frame. For storage, the Nikon Z8 has 2 card slots, slot 1 is a CFexpress B/XQD slot while slot 2 fits your regular SD cards. I’m happy to use one slot for raw and the other for jpgs, captured simultaneously.
Articulating LCD Screen
The Z8 was touted as a “mini-Z9”, so one of features I really hoped would trickle down from the flagship was the same articulating LCD screen. Nikon did not disappoint in this regard! The 8cm long LCD screen is horizontally and vertically tilting for 170° viewing and has a delightfully sensitive touchscreen in glorious 2100 k-dot resolution. No more twisting your head to compose those vertical shots. Being spoiled by how fast and smooth the touchscreen and menu controls are on the Z8, the Z7ii seems almost slow to react to inputs in comparison.
Auto-Focus Performance
The Z8 auto focusing is quick, sticky and snappy. Even in dimly lit ballrooms where weddings or trade conferences frequently take place, I find that face and eye detection works like a dream. I was particularly impressed with the autofocus system, paired with eye detection mode, and I loved how customisable everything was in the autofocus, being able to switch between modes of focus very quickly and easily thanks to Nikon’s customisable FN buttons. In challenging situations, it miraculously knew where to focus even though the people’s faces were dark, giving a 100% hit rate with the worst possible AF conditions.
Image Quality and Technical Specifications
The quality of the shot was incredible on the powerful 45.7 megapixel stacked CMOS sensor. I was also blown away by the cameras dynamic range, and how much I could push the tones in post production, paying careful attention to getting the right histogram during image capture. I also experimented with the ISO performance at higher ISO settings, such as 6400 and it stood up against what I’ve seen from the fierce competition.
To summarize the core specifications of the camera body:
| Feature | Nikon Z8 Specification |
| Sensor | 45.7 megapixel stacked CMOS sensor |
| Weight | Approximately 910g (including battery) |
| LCD Screen | 8cm, horizontally and vertically tilting, 2100 k-dot |
| Card Slots | 1x CFexpress B/XQD, 1x SD card |
Lens Compatibility and Firmware Updates
While I used various lenses, the 50mm Z f1.2 and 85mm Z f1.2, with their extraordinary bokeh and sharpness were magnificent to work with. Performance has also been improved through software; specifically, Firmware V3.00 has corrected my issues with the camera. Now it does look for focus with max aperture of the lens and stops it down when taking the photo, which has helped immensely with focus in low light environments.