Nikon Zeight (Z8); First Thoughts

Recently, I was driving down a very tiny brick street on a very rainy day.  I noticed these yellow
daffodils in bloom in a garden next to a driveway.  I quickly stopped, walked over and made a few handheld exposures using the tilting LCD with the Z8 and 24-120mm f/4 lens @ f/16.  Shutter speed
was 1/60th sec. and the ISO was 1000.  Just a quick snap of the first flowers I've seen in 2024!
(click to enlarge)

As many of you know, I purchased a Nikon Z8 for the primary purpose of having a camera with better subject detection than both my OM-1 and Fujifilm X-H2S.  In the past, I did little bird and wildlife photography but I now find myself photographing those subjects much more often.  I was not satisfied with the overall results I got from those other two cameras so I purchased the Z8 (refurbished & on sale) and sold the X-H2S as well as my Fujifilm 150-600mm lens and my Nikon Z7II.  I don't plan on carrying a Z8 kit daily.  Daily general photography use is still assigned to my Fujifilm X-T5 and/or my OM-1.  

I've now had the Z8 for several weeks and have taken it out a few times.  I’ve had very limited use so far so what I write today aren’t my final thoughts.  Those will come after several months of use.  I also used it to copy quite a few old medium format negatives and 35mm slides.  For those of you who may be interested, I'll convey my very preliminary thoughts about this camera.  This is not a review by any means, most not likely even complete initial thoughts, but I wanted to get something out there for those of you who may be wondering what I think about this new camera.

Immediately upon picking up and holding the Z8 as well as looking at the controls and menus, the camera felt and looked very familiar as I’ve owned and used Nikon film and digital cameras since 1975.  In fact, my first digital SLR was a Nikon D70.  Most all of Nikon's cameras are very similar in shape, with a couple of exceptions.  Every button, dial and lever was exactly where I thought it would be.  No having to get used to a new layout.  The menu system is familiar as well but has necessarily grown due to many added features and controls.

This image represents roughly 4.5% of the original image.  I have no complaints being that the
original is really no more than a quick, handheld snapshot.

The Z8 feels good in my hand.  As with owners of other brands of cameras, they say that their brand's cameras feel good in their hand as well.  Everyone has their own preference.  The Z8 fits my hand perfectly and the controls are exactly where I want them to be.  As an example, recently I was out in sub-freezing weather waiting for an Amtrak train (which was very late!).  As time passed my shutter finger went numb from the cold (if you are young, get ready as these things tend to happen when you get older).  I worried that as the train quickly approached from around a bend with no virtually sounds to alert me and I brought the camera to my eye, would my finger actually be on the shutter button?  No need to worry.  The shutter button is placed exactly where my index finger naturally comes to a rest when holding the camera.  I couldn’t feel my fingertip so I looked at it and the top of the camera to make sure it was coming to rest on the shutter button.  But I needn’t have.  It just landed there every time.  In December when out in the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, I was using my X-H2S.  My finger became numb when out early on a very cold morning and I found I had to look at my finger and visually place it on the shutter button.  It didn't naturally fall directly on it.  That shutter button was not placed as well as the Z8's.

A rural Virginia composition.  I don't often see clothes or other articles hanging out to dry on clothes
lines these days.  When I do, I try to stop and photograph the scene.  Throwback. (click to enlarge)

Additionally, the AF-On button and joystick are also perfectly placed.  In other cameras I've had to place some Sugru (a moldable putty-like glue that you can roll into a little ball and stick on top of a button to give it more height from the surrounding flat camera body)  on those buttons so my finger could easily find them.  They were either to flat against the body or not placed where your finger would naturally find them.   Not so with the Z8.  (These little things add up to make a difference, believe me.)

Image quality in every sense of the word, in my opinion, is excellent.  Its better than any other digital camera I've owned or used.  Other cameras I own also produce excellent image quality but not with 47mp.  So there's that.

Nikon has recently added so many more configurable items in the menu.  It is remarkable.  I don't think there is anything I would want to do that the camera won't allow me to do.  But, eventually, I'm sure I'll find something.  lol.

Nikon recently released firmware version 2.0 for this camera.  This new firmware is so packed with improvements and additional features, for a moment, I thought it was a Fujifilm Kaizen release!  Oh!  I forgot.  Fujifilm doesn't give us Kaizen-type firmware upgrades any longer.  Sad.  In the new firmware release several new features were added to the camera which really gives it more capabilities than its big brother, the Z9.  With the exception of the larger body (a negative to me), bigger battery and two CFExpress B cards, the Z8 equals or exceeds the Z9 for a couple of thousand dollars less.  The battery capacity and extra CFExpress B card are both non-issues for how I photograph.

Here are some comments about the new features.

The Z8 with firmware v2.0 has the best autofocus of any digital camera I've ever used.  It is amazing when compared with my other cameras.  Also, the Z8 has a custom function that allows me to assign a button to scroll through all (or some, depending upon what I choose) of the autofocus modes.  Just keep pushing a single button and the AF mode changes.  No longer 'push a button and scroll with a dial' as is required in other cameras.  That makes a difference, I've found.

The 3D AF Tracking is unbelievable.  It is so tenacious that once you place the square on top of your subject and press AF, the square will follow the subject around the frame better than bulldog on a bone.  I found it very hard for the 3D tracking to lose my chosen subject, no matter what it was, where it was or how fast it was moving.  OM should take a look at this and apply similar technology to their C-AF + Tracking, which is relatively useless.

I've not used the 180mp pixel shift.  I'll try that out in the future.  I wasn't impressed with either my Fujifilm's or OM-1's comparable feature.  I'm anxious to see how Nikon's compares.

In firmware 2.0 Nikon also gave use Auto Capture.  That feature turns the camera into a sophisticated 'game camera' or 'trail camera.'  You can set distance, subject, movement, subject size, etc. and when the criteria is met, the camera fires off the number of frames you set.  All automatically.  You could be home sleeping!  (not that I would! lol)

Pre-Release Capture is similar to that found in my OM-1 as Pro Capture and my Fujifilm X-T5, called Pre-Shot.  For those of you who may not be familiar with this kind of feature, it allows you to half press the shutter to start the camera buffering  images continuously until you fully press the shutter at which time it then records all of the images in the buffer (up to one second's worth which could be as many as 120) and also records the images made after the shutter button was fully pressed and until you released it.  What changed is now Nikon allows you to hold that shutter button halfway down for as long as 300 seconds instead of 30 seconds.  I know my other cameras restrict the buffering to 30 seconds.  I suspect some photographers might not have known that there was a 30 second limit and when they did fully press the shutter, there were no buffered images recorded.  No worries now.  The only downside with the Nikon version of this is that the images captured are JPEGs and not raw files as they are in the OM and Fujifilm cameras.  Hopefully, that will change in the future.

Along with those features Nikon expanded what buttons can be reassigned what functions and increased the number of options for which functions can be assigned to buttons, which makes the camera almost infinitely configurable.  I like options.  

I've never owned a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera that had a cover for the sensor when the lens is removed.  For all of my Olympus and Fujifilm cameras, I didn't need it.  Sensor dust was never a problem.  My experience with Nikons in the past was that sensor dust was always a problem.  Not any longer.  I really appreciate this addition.

Video has been improved but I still have no interest in video so don't look for anything about video here.

On the negative side (my opinion but maybe not yours) the camera is bigger and heavier than I find ideal.  I don’t like bigger cameras any longer since I’ve been primarily using OM and Fujifilm cameras for years.  That said, the size and weight just might be required in order to fit the electronics, IBIS, sensor, memory cards, full frame sensor and all of the other wonderful stuff that is packed inside.  However, it is not significantly bigger and heavier.  I don't really object a lot as the Z8 is not Z9 or Canon R3 sized.  I now just prefer smaller cameras.  Hence, the reason it won't be my daily carry camera.

I don't know if you are a user of Custom Setting Banks.  You know the kind.  They are normally labeled C1, C2, C3, etc., on a dial on top of your camera.  I use them religiously on my OM-1 and did on my Fujifilm X-H2S.  The X-T5 is really not very conducive to saving banks of settings due to its dials and how the body is engineered.  But that is okay since I bought the camera for its dials, etc.  I digress.  Back to the Z8.  The a) shooting and b) custom memory banks on Nikon cameras are almost worthless.  Almost.  I won’t go into it here but Nikon needs to take a lesson from (in my experience) Olympus and Fujifilm (maybe also Canon and Sony but I don’t know for sure) and completely re-engineer their memory bank system.  You have to configure two sets of banks for each type of photography you want to cover and then some of the settings aren't available and can't be saved but with others, if you change them in one bank they will be changed in all the other banks!  Are you kidding me? Additionally, unlike OM/Olympus, you can't choose whether or not you want the banks to be able to be modified ‘on the fly’ or always return to what you originally set them for.  Nikon allows them to be modified ‘on the fly’ so if you want to go back to your original saved settings, you have to remember to do it manually.  What were they thinking?  If you want to learn about a very poorly engineered system, delve into Nikon's custom and shooting settings banks—at your own peril!

As I mentioned I haven't been able to take out the camera much since I received it.  I do want to relate one example to demonstrate the AF and dynamic range capabilities of this camera.  This is a railroad photo example. 

I went out with the intent to try the vehicle subject detect on a train since I often times practice railroad photography.  I purposefully went to a place where an Amtrak train, normally running at 70-79mph would be traveling almost directly at me, fully backlit with deep shadows in a pine forest next to the tracks.  Would the AF subject detect ‘see’ the train and track it, would the three very bright headlights on the front of the train fool the meter and could I hold sky detail while keep shadows from being crushed?  Oh!  And I would be continuously zooming out with my lens all at the same time it was traveling towards me.

Well, the answer is the subject detection picked up the front of the locomotive in the far distance long before I planned on pressing the shutter.  The light meter kept the exposure correct and the dynamic range was plentiful to bring down the sky and raise the shadows.  No data lost.  I had the camera set for 10fps, the shutter speed at 1/2000th sec and the aperture f/8.  I made 52 exposures (on purpose to test the AF) and in every one the front of the locomotive was in sharp focus.  I'm posting one of the images directly below.  I was impressed as I have never had that kind of success with any other camera I've owned.

Amtrak train approaching at ~79mph, backlit (look at shadows on ground in front of signal tower).
Vehicle subject detect picked up train long before I was ready to press the shutter and tracked it
 flawlessly.  The sky was white, the shadows and front of the train were both very dark but
the dynamic range was plentiful and allowed me to edit the file as I desired.  (click to enlarge)

I have a three + week long road trip to Yellowstone, the Tetons and other parts west and mid-west planned for early summer.  The main purpose is to photograph wildlife in the two national parks.  However, I’ll take my time driving out and back and look for other subjects to photograph.  If the Nikon 180-600mm lens I have ordered arrives in time, I will take the Nikon kit specifically for two reasons.  I will be traveling alone so I am not space limited and, of course, the AF subject detection is the best for the anticipated grizzly sows and cubs, wolves, bison, elk and whatever other critters I encounter.  I don’t want to return home disappointed.  If the 180-600mm Nikon lens has not yet been delivered to me, well, I’m going to have to come up with a Plan B.  Not sure what that would be right now. 😬

In summary, so far, with a couple of minor exceptions, I'm very happy with the camera, how it feels, the controls, menus, especially the autofocus and, of course the most important aspect, the image quality.  I’m sure that after I return from the Rockies and the national parks I mentioned, I’ll have a much more thorough report.

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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