Thanks for this, Nasim. I got a Z50 sometime before Christmas, and it’s the best camera I’ve ever owned (I have never owned a professional level camera, just good point and shoots and midlevel DSLRs). Having a lot of fun using it. Even three more dedicated lenses down the line would be a boon.
I think your reviews are the best in the business, and really apreciate your recommended settings pieces, too.
And your photos are out of this world. I especially love your desert sands/ camel pictures here. Just stunning.
Ruben GB
March 26, 2020 3:52 am
First of all, thank you for the review, I love the “field based” reviews of your site, more appealing than the only technical reviews you can find elsewhere
I am a Nikon FX DSLR user (Nikon D750)…I am very happy with it and really do not have in plan to change it in the short term
I have also a second “light” camera for travel. I had Nikon 1, then I moved to Oly m4/3 (ome10 Mk1) and then I came back to Nikon DX DSLR with a D5500, my current second camera. One important issue for me is the tracking AF. I have two small children and I saw, not every camera can cope with it. Nikon 1 was pretty ok but after Nikon decided to abandon the system and due the lack of some native lenses important for me (f/1,8 35 & 85 equivalent) I changed to Oly. Tough the camera and IQ were nice, the continues AF performance was pretty poor and I had really few keepers when my children moved around. With the D5500 I am happier, specially with day light, when the 9 central points are very effective in AFC (best results with AF-C and Dynamic 39). But with low light and specially incandescent light the AF system finds its limits and shows a tendency to backfocus with fast primes. I observed this behaviour also with my previous D610, using a similar AF system.
After reading your review, it seems the AF-C system struggles with erratic movement as birds. One sentence, regarding problems to track when birds are coming directly to your camera, makes me having some doubts. Do you think the camera would have also problems to track children moving erratically around? In this case, how would it compare with the AF of the D5500 in good light?
KR
Joachim
April 16, 2020 12:03 pm
I like to add a couple of observations I haven’t seen in the review. Maybe I was to occupied watching your pictures, Nasim ;). The buttons do feel a bit tighter than the ones of Z 6/7, which is a good thing as the front Fn buttons are too easily activated. That also goes for the dials and wheels. The whole handling feels a bit better although some things are yelling “I had to be cheap” (no headphone socket, no hotshoe-cover, the 16-50’s rear cap about the cheapest I posses, more a stiff plastic bag.
My pleasant surprises were: the whole kit with a range from 16-250 weighs ready to shoot 1 kg – wow! The minimal focus distances of the lenses are not constant but changing with the focal length and becoming rather nice close-up types. For the 50-250 it starts at not very spectacular 50 cm @ 50 mm FL up to 100 cm @ 250 mm.
The LCD, well, it’s just stupid not to have a tilt-swivel-type. Even more so because it’s annoying when the camera is on tripod and I use the LCD turnt a bit upwards to have a better view from the top: Each time I want to use the touchscreen it switches off as the camera is set to auto-switch and the IR sensor above the finder goes crazy when something warm comes closer than 5 cm / 2″. Sony cameras switch off the EVF when the user turns the LCD up – you could not look into the EVF anyway. Simple, but effective.
ilya
April 15, 2020 9:27 am
Great article and beautiful photos, Nasim! I’m a long-time Nikon DSLR user, and currently use D750, which is fantastic, but a bit on the heavy side. I’ve tried switching over to Fuji XT-3 last year, but didn’t like it as much, it was too small and less comfortable to use, Lightroom didn’t support it as well, and I ended up returning to Nikon again. I like the Nikon ergonomics, and all the buttons make me feel at home. A big optical viewfinder is also great, even when the camera is OFF. The Z50 seems very intriguing, but I’m concerned about the auto focus. I wanted to ask if the auto focus in the Z50 feels just like the LiveView autofocus does in a DSLR? I see a significant difference between the Live View and regular auto focus performance: the live view one is much slower, tends to hunt back and forth a lot, and I generally avoid it unless I’m shooting on a tripod in low light, and use it to dial in precise manual focus. If the Z50 always feels like the Live View, then I imagine it would be a big step down in regular use? Thank you in advance!
The AF is quicker than the D750’s LiveView AF, at least with genuine Z-lenses. And there’s a major differences between the Z line and the D750: when in LiveView and as far as I remember, the D750 always swings the mirror down, then up again. It’s impossible if you want to hit exactly the moment something happens – not to mention continuous shooting at 11 fps (Z 50) in LV without blackout. But do yourself a favor and get the kit with both lenses.
Olli P.
April 13, 2020 8:11 am
Fantastic review, very detailled and exactly what I’d been looking for.
Thanks a bunch for that review, Nasim, and please keep up the excellent work. It’s always a pleasure to read reviews like yours, unbiased, getting to the nitty gritty and yet not losing the general picture.
I’ve been seriously considering purchasing a Z50 so as to retire my old Nikon DX DSLR. I’m going to wait, however, until they offer a compact wide-angle lens somewhere in the range of 10-20 or 24 mm because I can’t see myself buying lightweight equipment and then adding the same weight and bulk by putting an old DSLR wide-angle lens plus an adaptor in my camera bag. That just doesn’t make sense.
Mark Allen
March 31, 2020 11:08 am
Thank you Nasim, excellent and informative read.
I am really interested in the z50. I recently went travelling for a long trip around east Africa and felt that my two 7000 bodies (7100/7500) were just taking up too much space in my rucksack. I really want something small and compact but capable and the z50 seems perfect. But one thing is holding me back currently. Until we see more details about the pancake lenses there isn’t really much lens choice for this camera. Yes I can buy s lenses but they are large and relatively very expspenive compared to a DX offering. I’m hoping the new pancake lenses can offer soemthing more affordable whilst still being excellent. The 40mm could be an excellent travel portrait lens. Yes I can adapt my current f mount lenses but it would be amazing to be able to have a small travel kit. I guess time will tell if Nikon will release more DX lenses and/or pancakes.
Christian S.
March 28, 2020 5:59 pm
On the Z6 and Z7, you can map out hot pixel by automatically cleaning the sensor twice, consecutively. I don’t know whether that works on the Z50.
Christian S.
March 28, 2020 5:58 pm
On the Z6 and Z7, you can map out hot pixel by automatically cleaning the sensor twice, consecutively. I don’t know whether that works on the Z6.
Tim Kant
March 28, 2020 9:35 am
Thanks for the great review and awesome photos! Last fall I had decided to trade in my aging D7000 and D5100 on a newer camera body when the Z50 was introduced. I considered the Z50 but in the end decided on the D7500 + 16-80mm f2.8-4 kit instead, mainly because of lenses. I already owned 8 F-mount lenses, two of which need the in-body AF motor which the Z50 and FTZ adapter lack but the D7500 DSLR has. The Z50 and its 2 collapsible lenses are compact, light and excellent in many ways but f6.3 at the long end is disappointing. Since Nikon never produced a basic set of small, fast, light f2 DX primes (equivalent to 24, 35, 50, 85 for FX) for its crop sensor DSLRs, I have little confidence that they will ever do so for DX mirrorless. If I had been starting from scratch to shop for a crop sensor mirrorless, I would have been strongly tempted to choose one of the Fujifilm XT bodies with all the lens options available to it. My 2nd choice would have been m4/3 mirrorless from Olympus for the same reason, lenses. I should say some nice things about the Z50 (in the order they matter to me): 1) Eye AF and focus peaking. 2) uses the same lens mount as the FF bodies, and so can utilize the FF Z-mount lenses. 3) Standard zoom begins at 16mm instead of 18mm. 4) Smaller, lighter and less expensive than my D7500 kit. 5) Excellent compact travel camera that exceeds what my smartphone can do. I expect that the DX DSLRs will soon disappear and the Z50 will be joined by a more basic Z30 and more advanced Z70. I’d probably prefer a Z70 with IBIS as my primary camera. Nasim: the real world photos you and Spencer include with your articles demonstrate what a skilled, creative photographer can do with any camera! Keep up the good work.
Nice commentary and fully agree with your assessment of how Nikon did not fully develop their DX line of lenses for F mount. I moved from Nikon DX to Fuji for that reason (I wasn’t as invested in the system as you seem to be). But, still some great options in DX F mount and the zoom you just got with your new kit is a huge highlight. Would have gone to 7000 series if I had stayed with Nikon. Happy shooting!
VASANTHA JAYASOORIYA
March 27, 2020 9:30 am
Appreciate the in-depth review. It confirms my decision to buy the Z50 with FTZ adapter, when it came out. I have two questions: 1. Since I have an old 70-300/5.6 AF-S VR lens (and your negative comments on it re size, weight and image quality), would the newer 70-300/5.6E AF-P lens be a better choice? Any views regarding its performance with the Z50? 2. Would you recommend using a glass screen protector on the LCD screen? Would it affect the touch screen feature? Thanks and Best Regards, Vasantha
Thanks for this, Nasim. I got a Z50 sometime before Christmas, and it’s the best camera I’ve ever owned (I have never owned a professional level camera, just good point and shoots and midlevel DSLRs). Having a lot of fun using it. Even three more dedicated lenses down the line would be a boon.
I think your reviews are the best in the business, and really apreciate your recommended settings pieces, too.
And your photos are out of this world. I especially love your desert sands/ camel pictures here. Just stunning.
First of all, thank you for the review, I love the “field based” reviews of your site, more appealing than the only technical reviews you can find elsewhere
I am a Nikon FX DSLR user (Nikon D750)…I am very happy with it and really do not have in plan to change it in the short term
I have also a second “light” camera for travel. I had Nikon 1, then I moved to Oly m4/3 (ome10 Mk1) and then I came back to Nikon DX DSLR with a D5500, my current second camera. One important issue for me is the tracking AF. I have two small children and I saw, not every camera can cope with it. Nikon 1 was pretty ok but after Nikon decided to abandon the system and due the lack of some native lenses important for me (f/1,8 35 & 85 equivalent) I changed to Oly. Tough the camera and IQ were nice, the continues AF performance was pretty poor and I had really few keepers when my children moved around. With the D5500 I am happier, specially with day light, when the 9 central points are very effective in AFC (best results with AF-C and Dynamic 39). But with low light and specially incandescent light the AF system finds its limits and shows a tendency to backfocus with fast primes. I observed this behaviour also with my previous D610, using a similar AF system.
After reading your review, it seems the AF-C system struggles with erratic movement as birds. One sentence, regarding problems to track when birds are coming directly to your camera, makes me having some doubts. Do you think the camera would have also problems to track children moving erratically around? In this case, how would it compare with the AF of the D5500 in good light?
KR
I like to add a couple of observations I haven’t seen in the review. Maybe I was to occupied watching your pictures, Nasim ;).
The buttons do feel a bit tighter than the ones of Z 6/7, which is a good thing as the front Fn buttons are too easily activated. That also goes for the dials and wheels. The whole handling feels a bit better although some things are yelling “I had to be cheap” (no headphone socket, no hotshoe-cover, the 16-50’s rear cap about the cheapest I posses, more a stiff plastic bag.
My pleasant surprises were: the whole kit with a range from 16-250 weighs ready to shoot 1 kg – wow! The minimal focus distances of the lenses are not constant but changing with the focal length and becoming rather nice close-up types. For the 50-250 it starts at not very spectacular 50 cm @ 50 mm FL up to 100 cm @ 250 mm.
The LCD, well, it’s just stupid not to have a tilt-swivel-type. Even more so because it’s annoying when the camera is on tripod and I use the LCD turnt a bit upwards to have a better view from the top: Each time I want to use the touchscreen it switches off as the camera is set to auto-switch and the IR sensor above the finder goes crazy when something warm comes closer than 5 cm / 2″. Sony cameras switch off the EVF when the user turns the LCD up – you could not look into the EVF anyway. Simple, but effective.
Great article and beautiful photos, Nasim!
I’m a long-time Nikon DSLR user, and currently use D750, which is fantastic, but a bit on the heavy side.
I’ve tried switching over to Fuji XT-3 last year, but didn’t like it as much, it was too small and less comfortable to use, Lightroom didn’t support it as well, and I ended up returning to Nikon again. I like the Nikon ergonomics, and all the buttons make me feel at home. A big optical viewfinder is also great, even when the camera is OFF.
The Z50 seems very intriguing, but I’m concerned about the auto focus.
I wanted to ask if the auto focus in the Z50 feels just like the LiveView autofocus does in a DSLR?
I see a significant difference between the Live View and regular auto focus performance: the live view one is much slower, tends to hunt back and forth a lot, and I generally avoid it unless I’m shooting on a tripod in low light, and use it to dial in precise manual focus. If the Z50 always feels like the Live View, then I imagine it would be a big step down in regular use?
Thank you in advance!
The AF is quicker than the D750’s LiveView AF, at least with genuine Z-lenses. And there’s a major differences between the Z line and the D750: when in LiveView and as far as I remember, the D750 always swings the mirror down, then up again. It’s impossible if you want to hit exactly the moment something happens – not to mention continuous shooting at 11 fps (Z 50) in LV without blackout. But do yourself a favor and get the kit with both lenses.
Fantastic review, very detailled and exactly what I’d been looking for.
Thanks a bunch for that review, Nasim, and please keep up the excellent work. It’s always a pleasure to read reviews like yours, unbiased, getting to the nitty gritty and yet not losing the general picture.
I’ve been seriously considering purchasing a Z50 so as to retire my old Nikon DX DSLR. I’m going to wait, however, until they offer a compact wide-angle lens somewhere in the range of 10-20 or 24 mm because I can’t see myself buying lightweight equipment and then adding the same weight and bulk by putting an old DSLR wide-angle lens plus an adaptor in my camera bag. That just doesn’t make sense.
Thank you Nasim, excellent and informative read.
I am really interested in the z50. I recently went travelling for a long trip around east Africa and felt that my two 7000 bodies (7100/7500) were just taking up too much space in my rucksack. I really want something small and compact but capable and the z50 seems perfect. But one thing is holding me back currently. Until we see more details about the pancake lenses there isn’t really much lens choice for this camera. Yes I can buy s lenses but they are large and relatively very expspenive compared to a DX offering. I’m hoping the new pancake lenses can offer soemthing more affordable whilst still being excellent. The 40mm could be an excellent travel portrait lens. Yes I can adapt my current f mount lenses but it would be amazing to be able to have a small travel kit. I guess time will tell if Nikon will release more DX lenses and/or pancakes.
On the Z6 and Z7, you can map out hot pixel by automatically cleaning the sensor twice, consecutively. I don’t know whether that works on the Z50.
On the Z6 and Z7, you can map out hot pixel by automatically cleaning the sensor twice, consecutively. I don’t know whether that works on the Z6.
Thanks for the great review and awesome photos!
Last fall I had decided to trade in my aging D7000 and D5100 on a newer camera body when the Z50 was introduced. I considered the Z50 but in the end decided on the D7500 + 16-80mm f2.8-4 kit instead, mainly because of lenses. I already owned 8 F-mount lenses, two of which need the in-body AF motor which the Z50 and FTZ adapter lack but the D7500 DSLR has.
The Z50 and its 2 collapsible lenses are compact, light and excellent in many ways but f6.3 at the long end is disappointing. Since Nikon never produced a basic set of small, fast, light f2 DX primes (equivalent to 24, 35, 50, 85 for FX) for its crop sensor DSLRs, I have little confidence that they will ever do so for DX mirrorless. If I had been starting from scratch to shop for a crop sensor mirrorless, I would have been strongly tempted to choose one of the Fujifilm XT bodies with all the lens options available to it. My 2nd choice would have been m4/3 mirrorless from Olympus for the same reason, lenses.
I should say some nice things about the Z50 (in the order they matter to me): 1) Eye AF and focus peaking. 2) uses the same lens mount as the FF bodies, and so can utilize the FF Z-mount lenses. 3) Standard zoom begins at 16mm instead of 18mm. 4) Smaller, lighter and less expensive than my D7500 kit. 5) Excellent compact travel camera that exceeds what my smartphone can do. I expect that the DX DSLRs will soon disappear and the Z50 will be joined by a more basic Z30 and more advanced Z70. I’d probably prefer a Z70 with IBIS as my primary camera.
Nasim: the real world photos you and Spencer include with your articles demonstrate what a skilled, creative photographer can do with any camera! Keep up the good work.
Nice commentary and fully agree with your assessment of how Nikon did not fully develop their DX line of lenses for F mount. I moved from Nikon DX to Fuji for that reason (I wasn’t as invested in the system as you seem to be). But, still some great options in DX F mount and the zoom you just got with your new kit is a huge highlight. Would have gone to 7000 series if I had stayed with Nikon. Happy shooting!
Appreciate the in-depth review. It confirms my decision to buy the Z50 with FTZ adapter, when it came out. I have two questions:
1. Since I have an old 70-300/5.6 AF-S VR lens (and your negative comments on it re size, weight and image quality), would the newer 70-300/5.6E AF-P lens be a better choice? Any views regarding its performance with the Z50?
2. Would you recommend using a glass screen protector on the LCD screen? Would it affect the touch screen feature?
Thanks and Best Regards,
Vasantha