On this Friday, I set my alarm for the initial hours to capture the peak of bird activity. I believe, I was also very curious to see that Nikon camera would perform the newest member of the family – Z5 II – region. I still need to test many things before I can give perfectly purposeful opinion, but it will take a little more time. In this article, I would like to share my new first impression of Nikon Z5 II.
Thanks to Nikon’s Czech office, I got the opportunity to try Nikon Z5 II, which came to Chechia on the first day. Although I originally went to the office for Z5 II, I left with Z6 II in my backpack. Only for comparison. This is because the Z5 II can be close to the retro-style Zf in terms of glasses, but the Z6 III feels more like in the context of ergonomics. But will the performance of Z5 II be sufficient for motion-oriented styles, such as Z6 III definitely? let’s take a closer look.
Focus performance
The first important feature that I wanted to test: autofocus. From 2020, the original Z5 had begun to feel a bit dated in that department, and I would not have recommended it for wildlife photographers. Picture of birds, especially with that first-round air force system, had more exercise in disappointment than photography. (For the price, the Z50 II would have received my wildlife recommendation instead.)
I am happy to say that autofocus is an area where the second generation has seen a dramatic change. Nikon Z5 II can detect all general suspects: people, vehicles, airplanes. But I found especially pleasing that within options to detect the subject of the camera, there is an option to choose between the winged organisms and other – birds and animals.
For comparison, Z6 III takes all organisms to a large basket. This does not distinguish the camera menu whether you are aiming for deer or a wrain. Fortunately, it still manages to tell them very well in practice. But the additional level of control allows me to choose “birds” and knows that the camera and I are on the same page, even when the bird created an unusual posture.
And in fact, I had enabled bird detection to Z5 II in the morning, and the camera performed very well. The Z9 still feels a little further in the region, but let’s not compare apples with oranges. If we stick to the abilities of detecting the subject of Z5 II and Z6 III, I would say that both cameras perform very equally. And even though the Z5 II is only on its first firmware version, AF had enough “glue” from the beginning of the points. Even in a sharp range, it did not fall from the bird’s eye that I was photographed. (You may remember that I did not feel the same in my first impression of Nikon Z6 III, although Nikon thanked it with his initial firmware update.)
Overall, AF on Nikon Z5 II felt staggering and responsible, and in comparison to side-by-side with Z6 III, I could not detect a speed difference. He said, I still need to test more on birds in flight, so stay for our complete review.
Buffer test
Another major metric buffer is depth for motion-oriented cameras. So, I conducted a classic buffer test: I dropped a rock and counted the second until I heard splash. Ok, not really. I used a high quality Sony UHS-II SD card in Nikon Z5 II. I put the camera on a tripod, set the shutter speed at F/4 at 1/1000s, stopped stabilization, and set AF on AF-S. I shot in blamed compressed raw. I tested both constant high speed and constant high speed (extended) mode.
The maximum number of shots per burst can be set to 200 on Nikon Z5 II, while the Z6 III has no such hat. In practice, this limit is unlikely to bother anyone – unless you are particularly testing the depth of the buffer or the speed of writing cards. I kept the Z6 III settings equal for my comparison.
So, how did the cameras do?
The results were really quite interesting:
- Nikon z5 II, constant high speed: 200 shots in 28.5 seconds (representing 7 FPS). No recession was seen.
- Nikon z6 III, continuous high speed: 200 shots in 24.5 seconds (representing 8.2 FPS). No recession was seen.
- Nikon Z5 II, continuous high speed (extended): 145 shots in 13 seconds (representation of 11.2 FPS) before the recession begins.
- Nikon Z6 III, continuous high speed (extended) with SD card: 110 shots in 7 seconds (representation of 15.7 FPS) before the recession begins.
- Nikon Z6 III, continuous high speed (extended) with CFE card: 15.7 FPS remained continuously continuously.
In short, both Nikon Z5 II and Nikon Z6 III are capable of bursting longer at high speeds. With either camera in constant high-speed mode, you can shoot 200 meters of sprints from beginning to end, even with a expression of happiness when crossing the finish line. The buffer on Nikon Z5 II fills a little earlier than the Nikon Z6 III, however, mainly due to the CFEXPress card on Nikon Z6 III. If only one UHS-II SD card is used in both cameras, they perform more evenly.
other features
Birds lead life from us at a very different speed. Their movements often occur so quickly that waiting for the classic “decisive moment” before pressing the shutter will probably give up you disappointment. This is why wildlife photographers pay so much attention to continuous shooting rates. The first generation Z5 was not at all runners in that regard. Its 4.5 FPS may be cured for the shooting of a snoozing nightger, but you will probably remember the stars that feeds its girls.
Nikon clearly recognized this weakness, and the speed of the Z5 II bursting has been dramatically increased. With a mechanical shutter, it now shoots at 11 FPS – which is essentially equal with Nikon D500, a camera that I have always considered very fast. The Z5 II also gets a collision with its electronic shutter (15 FPS), but I will be cautious using it for fast -moving subjects. The speed of the readout on the Z5 II looks specific to a non-stacked sensor (around 1/20 seconds, pending further tests). If your subject is moving very fast, the result may be unwanted by the rolling shutter effect.
Meanwhile, the Z6 III squeezes a little more with its mechanical shutter (14 FPS) and electronic shutter (20 FPS). Thanks to its partially stacked sensor, the Z6 III also has a sharp readout speed of 1/70 seconds, which is sufficient to reduce the rolling shutter most of the time. However, it is still not as fast as stacked sensors on Nikon Z8 and Nikon Z9 that are capable of 1/270 second readout speed.
One thing that made me especially happy with Nikon Z5 II was the ability to customize the bus button on Nikon Z9. Those are the days when the entry level cameras lacked meaningful button optimization. In addition to some slight differences, I was able to program the Z5 II button to match the memory of the muscles developed on my top level nicon.
Like the recently announced Z50 II, Nikon Z5 II also has a dedicated picture control button. If you shoot a raw, you probably appoint it again in something, maybe the focus position or my menu. There are many options: twenty -four, to be accurate. Just choose your favorite.
Beyond ergonomics, another important aspect to me is how good the viewership looks. Nikon’s electronic viewfinder has never recorded a record on paper, and a 3.69 million-dot resolution will definitely not decline the jaw. But the number is one thing, what matters is really. And in the case of Z5 II, EVF looks great. It is bright, big and clear. In comparison with Z6 III, in which the current of Nikon is currently the best visible, I could not see a noticeable difference. Remember Christophobically small viewfinder on entry-level dslrs? Those days have gone.
I am also happy that Nikon was not stingy with adding its latest features to Nikon Nikon Z5 II. For example, take image stabilization. The Z5 II provides a very impressive 7.5 stop of IBIS and provides focus point priority, which also defeats the current major Z9. I will leave a practical stabilization test for the future, more detailed reviews. The same image goes for quality. Unfortunately, the software used in general for raw editing does not yet recognize Z5 II. But once I am able to process raw files in a normal way, I do not expect to be disappointed-it looks good as the image quality of Nikon ZF, which will make it the best-in-class between today’s 24 megapixel sensors.
Overall, which I have seen so far, Nikon Z5 II has attacked me as a very capable camera with an excellent value-to-demonstration ratio. In fact, the more I think of it, Nikon does not really have an entry-level full-frame camera, because the Z5 II definitely does not feel the same.
