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Home → Reviews → Cameras and Lenses → Nikon Z5 Review

Nikon Z5

By Nasim Mansurov 66 Comments
Last Updated On January 16, 2021

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Table of Contents

  • Overview and Specifications
  • Camera Construction and Handling
  • Autofocus Performance
  • ISO Comparisons
  • Summary
  • More Image Samples
  • Reader Comments
Disclosures, Terms and Conditions and Support Options
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66 Comments
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Rani Matta
Rani Matta
December 14, 2020 8:46 pm

When are you going to upload the ISO comparison mate, im interested in it against the EOS

4
Reply
Alfred Müllner
Alfred Müllner
Reply to  Rani Matta
December 17, 2020 12:29 pm

“This comparison will be postet later today”.
Nasim could you please explain “today” ???

0
Reply
Nasim Mansurov
Nasim Mansurov
Author
Reply to  Alfred Müllner
December 17, 2020 3:42 pm

Alfred, please see my response to Rani above. My apologies for the delay, still haven’t received all the cameras I was supposed to receive!

1
Reply
Alfred Müllner
Alfred Müllner
Reply to  Nasim Mansurov
December 17, 2020 4:51 pm

Sorry, couldn’t see your response!
Anyway, the Z7 II doesn’t matter at this point – for me…
You can update later..😉

0
Reply
Nasim Mansurov
Nasim Mansurov
Author
Reply to  Rani Matta
December 17, 2020 3:41 pm

Rani, my apologies about this. I was expecting B&H to ship the Nikon Z7 II much sooner, roughly at the time when I posted the review, so that I can put a number of cameras to test, including the Z6 II. However, for some strange reason, B&H has not shipped the Z7 II yet. I was one of the first to pre-order that camera for testing, so I am not sure what’s going on.

If the camera does not arrive within the next few days, I will be posting the ISO comparison without it.

3
Reply
Nasim Mansurov
Nasim Mansurov
Author
Reply to  Rani Matta
January 16, 2021 7:32 pm

Rani, my apologies for a late update to the review. I got tired of waiting for the Z7 II, so I went ahead and did all the comparisons. The review has been updated with the comparisons.

0
Reply
Joe H.
Joe H.
December 10, 2020 1:42 am

Who else is here for the pictures?

This is a nice gallery of photos, Nasim. Are you planning to do your fall workshop in Colorado next year? I am really looking forward to it!

3
Reply
Nasim Mansurov
Nasim Mansurov
Author
Reply to  Joe H.
December 10, 2020 1:49 am

Thank you Joe! Unfortunately, it took me a while to cull through all the images and post-process them, which is why this review took long to publish. I have the ISO comparisons coming up as well, but decided to push them back to tomorrow since I have to complete one more test and I forgot about it (need it for the upcoming Canon EOS R6 review).

In regards to the fall workshop, I am certainly planning to run it next year. I was hoping to do a workshop earlier next year in Death Valley, but things aren’t looking good at this point with COVID-19, and the park is currently closed for any groups. I will post the workshop announcements as soon as things clear up a little and life starts returning back to normal (hopefully soon).

I have a bunch of gear in my hands, including the Nikon Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S, Z 70-200mm f/2.8 S, 500mm PF, 1.x TC, Z6 II, and the Z7 II should be coming real soon too. Can’t go anywhere at the moment, since places are closing down real fast in all states, and I don’t want to get stuck anywhere. Crazy times!

0
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Jean
Jean
Reply to  Nasim Mansurov
December 12, 2020 12:36 am

Can’t wait for your Z 70-200 and Z6 II review!

0
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Steve Knight
Steve Knight
Reply to  Joe H.
December 13, 2020 9:46 am

Yup, always a pleasure to see what Nasim achieves with any camera and lens. These kind of images do the Z5 and kit lenses real proud!

2
Reply
Michael Ursick
Michael Ursick
December 19, 2020 6:04 pm

I’ve gone from a 7100 to a Z 50 but I always wanted a full frame camera do you think it’s worth trading the Z 50 for the Z5

2
Reply
Nasim Mansurov
Nasim Mansurov
Author
Reply to  Michael Ursick
January 16, 2021 7:36 pm

Michael, always upgrade glass before upgrading your bodies. If your lenses are high-qualuty and full-frame compatible, then you will see the benefit from moving up to full-frame. Otherwise you will end up spending a lot of $ to get into full-frame.

At the end of the day, most people don’t really need full-frame. Unless you’ve already reached the limit with your Z50, I would recommend against upgrading.

0
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Raudel Ravelo
Raudel Ravelo
January 7, 2021 1:39 am

ISO comparison, please!

1
Reply
Nasim Mansurov
Nasim Mansurov
Author
Reply to  Raudel Ravelo
January 16, 2021 7:37 pm

Please see the updated review. My apologies for the wait!

0
Reply
Will
Will
December 17, 2020 8:32 am

Looking forward to the ISO Comparisons being uploaded. I’m seriously considering the Z5 as my next camera to upgrade my D600. I mainly shoot landscapes and astro with occasional shoots of my kids. The D600 focus system is mediocre at best and it looks like the Z5 will be a nice upgrade in this dept. Now i’m really interested to see how this camera performs at high ISO’s and how much of a step up it will be for night photography over my D600. I was comparing the D610 to the Z5 on Dpreview and at high ISO’s there didn’t seem to be much difference. Although that isn’t necessarily a good gauge for it’s astro performance as dynamic range can be more important than ISO performance alone.

1
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Will
Will
Reply to  Will
January 4, 2021 2:51 pm

We had some great Boxing Day sales here in Canada so I pulled the trigger on a new Z5. I’ve been using it for about a week now and love it. The focusing system is night and day better than my D600 and the low light performance does seem much improved especially at the higher ISO’s. 12,800 and 25,600 are actually quite usable. My D600 would fall apart at 6400 and up. I’m really looking forward to testing the dynamic range and high iso capabilities for landscape and astrophotography soon. I also got the FTZ adapter which allows all my F mount lenses to work flawlessly (50mm f1.8G, 18-35 AF-S ED, and Tamron 70-210 f4 (had to be upgraded to firmware 2.0). Also to my surprise my Samyang 24mm f1.4 works great with no issues that i have noticed so far. I’ve read reports online that this lens does not work unless you cover one of the contacts with tape. Not sure if there’s different versions out there of this lens with varying electronics ?

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Lee R
Lee R
December 15, 2020 2:49 pm

I just purchased one of these with the 24-200 and 35/85 primes. (I have a D-750 and a variety of lenses in F mount as well). The only downsides so far are 4.5 FPS is slow, but I didn’t buy it for action, so Z6/6ii for that. Low light AF has been mixed. It’s doing better than the D-750 with a 1.8 (oddly better with Low light AF off), but worse above F4. The 24-200 won’t do well in low light but with the primes its fine. I can barely see anything through the OVF on the D-750 in the conditions this Z5 is getting AF locks. It’s highly aperture dependant though. Any way it’s easy to see with the EVF in low light so just using MF is very quick as you don’t need to use a switch, just rotate the focus ring.

Otherwise, I’m very impressed. I’m not heavy into video and own a iPhone 12 pro max with HDR video for wide angles so the crop factor won’t matter to me. I’ll just be using the iPhone at those focal lengths anyway. The Z5 would only be used for telephoto video where the crop isn’t a big deal.

I couldn’t pass up the price advantage with this camera without a lot of downsides. The EVF is really nice.

Images look nicer than the D-750 (which has a great sensor) with the expeed 6 jpeg rendering ooc.

Autofocus is fine. A bit different to use but the Z lenses are very fast to focus and it’s near-instantaneous in good light. In low light expect it to take a second but that’s very low light.

For the price it’s a huge value.

1
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Marcin
Marcin
December 10, 2020 11:26 am

“keep in mind that excessive [EVF] brightness harms battery life”
Much more importantly, it harms your eyesight!

1
Reply
Nasim Mansurov
Nasim Mansurov
Author
Reply to  Marcin
December 10, 2020 2:37 pm

Marcin, sometimes it helps to keep the EVF brighter when shooting in daylight conditions. But I agree, not a good idea to keep it very bright, as it drains the battery as well as your eyesight :)

0
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Jason
Jason
December 10, 2020 9:42 am

What an interesting review and that 24-200 is remarkable good for a budget superzoom. Now I know you said the 4k is worse on the Z5 vs the Z6, but what about 1080p quality? Is the Z6 still better in that arena?

1
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Nasim Mansurov
Nasim Mansurov
Author
Reply to  Jason
December 10, 2020 2:40 pm

Jason, I am testing 3 different copies of that lens in lab – should have some results this weekend. So far it is certainly a decent lens and a great choice for those who don’t want to swap lenses in the field. But it is no professional zoom by any means…it certainly has some weaknesses, especially when it comes to vignetting and corner performance.

For Full HD 1080p videos, the Z5 is excellent, I would say as good as the Z6.

1
Reply
Jason
Jason
Reply to  Nasim Mansurov
December 15, 2020 8:48 am

Thanks, Nasim. I will be very interested to see your results, though I prefer to stick to pro primes myself :). And thanks for the reply about 1080p. I often shoot in 1080p for some of my films and the Z5 looks like a very attractive camera for landscapes, which your review helped cement in my mind.

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Norris Carroll
Norris Carroll
December 12, 2020 8:58 pm

Question part 2
I guess the basic question is can Fuji X mount glass compete with Nikon Z mount glass?

0
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Norris Carroll
Norris Carroll
December 12, 2020 8:53 pm

Great article and awesome images as usual!
Have you compared the full frame cameras with the XT3 or XT4.
Usually use a Nikon DSLR but just returned from a hiking trip where I opted to use an XT3 because of weight considerations.

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