Autofocus
Let’s face it, the autofocus on the Z6 II was crying out for an upgrade. With the Nikon Z6 III, Nikon has dealt some generous cards. The Z6 III gets the same Expeed 7 processor as the Z8/9 and the Zf. This processor is said to be ten times faster than its predecessor, which powers the Z6 II.
Also significantly faster is the new sensor, which is a sort of hybrid between a conventional and a stacked sensor: a so-called partially stacked sensor. Subject recognition features have been expanded significantly, too. All this should lead to much better autofocus performance.
Did the Z6 III live up to my high expectations? Well, I’ve been using superlatives when talking about the new Z6 III so far, but now I’m going to slow down a bit. As far as autofocus goes, I’m pretty spoiled by the Z9, so I will be pretty demanding and honest. I liked some parts of the Nikon Z6 III’s autofocus performance, but not everything.
Let’s start with subject detection. The options on the Nikon Z6 III for subject recognition are handled the same way as in the original Z8/9 firmware, or the current Zf. That is, all living creatures except humans are under the cat icon. In later firmware updates, the Nikon Z8 and Z9 split this pile into birds and others.
In my experience, this caused a noticeable improvement in the reliability of subject detection with the Nikon Z8 and Z9. And until the Nikon Z6 III gets a similar firmware update, it is stuck at the older level of subject recognition performance. So to say that this camera focuses as well as the Z8 or Z9 is only true if you haven’t updated your firmware on those two cameras.
The Nikon Z6 III struggled most when I had only the bird’s head in the viewfinder, not the whole body. It also had some issues reliably landing on the subject in very low light. The Nikon Z9 used to fail in these situations too (and still occasionally does, but much less often). I found myself switching to the Z6 III’s “dynamic area AF” setting in these situations, without auto subject detection engaged.
Despite what I wrote, I would describe the subject detection capabilities of the new camera as very good. But it is not at the best-in-class level of the Nikon Z8 and Nikon Z9. Hopefully Nikon gives the Z6 III the same type of firmware update to make it more level with those cameras.
However, what bothered me more was another issue, which I don’t know if a firmware update would solve. I noticed that the camera sometimes had trouble keeping the focus point on the bird’s eye during continuous shooting. It’s like a sticker that falls off with the slightest gust of wind. It was not uncommon that the first shot of the series was in focus and the following shots were out of focus, if the bird was moving fast enough.
In the viewfinder, I noticed that the initially green frame around the eye turned red when the shutter released, and then the focusing box enlarged to a red frame around the entire animal. When I checked the active focus points in Nikon NX Studio, this was confirmed. I tried both mechanical and electronic shutters, but none had any noticeable effect on the described behavior. Interestingly, I haven’t noticed anything similar on the Zf, for example. I don’t know if it was just my sample of the Nikon Z6 III or if others have experienced something similar.
To conclude on an optimistic note, it is still a dramatic improvement over the Nikon Z6 II. I was able to get sharp photos of birds in flight more often than now. And hopefully, these issues will one day be fixed with a firmware update – my prediction is that they will. When a new firmware arrives, I’ll check it out and let you know if there has been a change for the better.
On the next page of this review, I will explain some of the additional features and changes with the Nikon Z6 III, such as high-speed continuous shooting, image stabilization, and battery life.
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