A First Look at the New Nikon Z 5

The new Z 5 is yet another exciting camera release in this otherwise bleak year. How good is it though?

2020 might be a year to forget in many regards, but we've been unexpectedly fortunate in the camera industry insofar as releases. Canon have been throwing desirable camera after desirable lens at us, Sony are poised for their new version of the a7S, and now Nikon are offering a mirrorless, full frame body for what would consider to be a steal, price wise.

At just $1,396 for the body only, you're getting a full frame mirrorless camera, that shoots 4K UHD, dual card slots, weather sealing, and various other perks. It really does combine many of the flagship features of the Z 6 and Z 7, with the addition of the dual card slots so many people wanted. The trade-off is significantly slower frames per second, but 4.5 fps is certainly nothing to turn your nose up. 

I wrote recently about the worst value cameras currently on the market, but this could honestly be the best with so much for such a reasonable price. What do you think?

Rob Baggs's picture

Robert K Baggs is a professional portrait and commercial photographer, educator, and consultant from England. Robert has a First-Class degree in Philosophy and a Master's by Research. In 2015 Robert's work on plagiarism in photography was published as part of several universities' photography degree syllabuses.

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16 Comments

I feel like the only thing making me question whether this is a good deal is: 1) is subject tracking clumsy to engage? and 2) how solvent is Nikon overall? Is there any chance they'll go the way of olympus?

The second question will irk a lot of people; but it's an important one. When you buy into a system, you need assurance they'll be supporting the product for many years to come.
Unfortunately, japanese companies are notorious for pretending everything in peachy-keen even when they are in financial hot water

Very sad about the Japanese companies I just buy Leica..

How do you know if someone shoots Leica? Don't worry, they'll tell you.

yeah, with this marketing and line-up I kinda wonder how long will Nikon last. personally I guess I am staying with the ship that supports DSLR till the end... and maybe I can buy d850 used for few years more, so that I can save money for leica SL3-4 or whichever their will be :).

13 comments, primarily being negative about other camera brands you don’t own, your contribution to this site is amazing.

Most reviews on Z lenses and cameras to date have been between very good and excellent, not sure how that means Nikon is fading just because of logistical issues.

Both Canon and Nikon are building a new lineup of mirrorless FF cameras and lenses, they had to start somewhere and they simply started at different points of the lineup.

Been shooting a Z7 since December along with my D850. I think it's a great camera.

Have you even used the Z 1.8 primes ? They're not big and certainly not slow to focus.

You're pretty funny.

Actually, he's pretty sad.

I've been shooting with the Z6 and the D610 as my back up since last November and damn am I happy with this setup though the Z6 has yet to fail at anything. I'd like to pick the Z5 towards the years end up as a back up because the D610 is kind of almost vintage technology wise, besides I'd like to trade a few of my F mount lenses and purchase a few more of the S lenses.