Photography Life

PL provides various digital photography news, reviews, articles, tips, tutorials and guides to photographers of all levels

  • Lens Reviews
  • Camera Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • Compare Cameras
  • Forum
    • Sign Up
    • Login
  • About
  • Search
Home โ†’ Reviews โ†’ Cameras and Lenses โ†’ Nikon Z7 Review

Nikon Z7 Review

By Nasim Mansurov 159 Comments
Last Updated On January 20, 2022

«»

Nikon Z7 vs Nikon D850 ISO Performance Comparison

So far, we have pointed out that both Nikon Z7 and the D850 have very similar sensors – they both sport identical resolution, have identical ISO sensitivity range and a base ISO of 64. However, we have also pointed out that there is one main difference between the two sensors – the Nikon Z7 has built-in phase-detection pixels, whereas the Nikon D850 does not. Let’s take a look and see how the Nikon Z7 compares to the Nikon D850 in ISO performance for both low and high ISO values.

First, we will start with the base ISO of 64. In all the images below, the Nikon Z7 is on the left, and the D850 is on the right:

Nikon Z7 ISO 64 Nikon D850 ISO 64

As expected, it is nearly impossible to tell the difference in image quality between the two cameras. Both produce extremely clean images. The same is true for all low ISO levels all the way to ISO 1600, as you can see from the image crops below. Here is ISO 100:

Nikon Z7 ISO 100 Nikon D850 ISO 100

ISO 200:

Nikon Z7 ISO 200 Nikon D850 ISO 200

ISO 400:

Nikon Z7 ISO 400 Nikon D850 ISO 400

ISO 800:

Nikon Z7 ISO 800 Nikon D850 ISO 800

As we push ISO to 1600, we can start seeing subtle differences between the Nikon Z7 and the D850, especially when it comes to color noise in the shadows. Here, the Nikon Z7 shows a bit more color noise in comparison:

Nikon Z7 ISO 1600 Nikon D850 ISO 1600

This becomes more evident when ISO is pushed to 3200:

Nikon Z7 ISO 3200 Nikon D850 ISO 3200

And even more so at ISO 6400:

Nikon Z7 ISO 6400 Nikon D850 ISO 6400

At ISO 12800 both cameras produce plenty of noise, but the Nikon Z7 is still a bit worse in comparison:

Nikon Z7 ISO 12800 Nikon D850 ISO 12800

We can observe similar behavior at ISO 25600 as well, with the Z7 showing slightly worse color noise:

Nikon Z7 ISO 25600 Nikon D850 ISO 25600

The differences start to diminish at extremely high ISOs above 25600. Here, both cameras look really bad:

Nikon Z7 ISO 51200 Nikon D850 ISO 51200

Lastly, ISO 102400 is completely unusable on both cameras, but we can still see that the Nikon D850 looks slightly superior in comparison.

Nikon Z7 ISO 102400 Nikon D850 ISO 102400

From the above tests we can conclude that the Nikon Z7 does have slightly weaker overall performance compared to the Nikon D850, most likely caused by the addition of phase detection pixels.

Does this make the Nikon Z7 inferior to the Nikon D850 in terms of image quality? If you are going to always pixel-peep your images at 100% view and underexpose by 5+ stops, then the Nikon Z7 is not for you. For all other normal people, the variances in performance between the two cameras are too small to make a difference in the real world…

Table of Contents

  • Overview and Specifications
  • Camera Construction and Handling
  • Autofocus Performance and Buffer
  • Nikon FTZ Adapter and Z Lenses
  • Image Sensor
  • Focus Stacking
  • ISO Performance and Camera Comparisons
  • Summary
  • More Image Samples
  • Reader Comments
«»
Looking for even more exclusive content?

On Photography Life, you already get world-class articles with no advertising every day for free. As a Member, you'll get even more:

Silver ($5/mo)
  • Exclusive articles
  • Monthly Q&A chat
  • Early lens test results
  • "Creative Landscape Photography" eBook
Gold ($12/mo)
  • All that, PLUS:
  • Online workshops
  • Monthly photo critiques
  • Vote on our next lens reviews
 
Click Here to Join Today
 
Disclosures, Terms and Conditions and Support Options

Learn

  • Beginner Photography
  • Landscape Photography
  • Wildlife Photography
  • Portraiture
  • Post-Processing
  • Advanced Tutorials
Photography Life on Patreon

Reviews

  • Camera Reviews
  • Lens Reviews
  • Other Gear Reviews
  • Best Cameras and Lenses

Photography Tutorials

Photography Basics
Landscape Photography
Wildlife Photography
Macro Photography
Composition & Creativity
Black & White Photography
Night Sky Photography
Portrait Photography
Street Photography
Photography Videos

Unique Gift Ideas

Best Gifts for Photographers

Subscribe via Email

If you like our content, you can subscribe to our newsletter to receive weekly email updates using the link below:

Subscribe to our newsletter

Site Menu

  • About Us
  • Beginner Photography
  • Lens Database
  • Lens Index
  • Photo Spots
  • Search
  • Forum

Reviews

  • Reviews Archive
  • Camera Reviews
  • Lens Reviews
  • Other Gear Reviews

More

  • Contact Us
  • Subscribe
  • Workshops
  • Support Us
  • Submit Content

Copyright © 2025 ยท Photography Life

You are going to send email to

Move Comment