In July, Nikon announced the Z 5, an entry-level, compact, mirrorless full frame camera. It doesn’t ditch too many of the high-end specs of its more expensive siblings, but how does it perform as a tool for shooting weddings?
Taylor Jackon shoots a vast number of weddings each year so his thoughts on how the Z 5 functions as a wedding photographer’s camera offer some valuable insights. What’s refreshing for me is that Jackson frequently shoots in HD and doesn’t feel that his clients are missing out by not filming in 4K — something that the Z 5 only does at 30fps and with a 1.7x crop.
While it’s slightly more expensive than its direct competition, the Canon EOS RP, the Z 5 offers one huge advantage to a wedding photographer: dual card slots. Card failures are rare but there probably isn’t too many wedding photographers who are comfortable not having some redundancy, especially when it’s pretty much a default feature in so many other cameras.
Add in IBIS and weather sealing and the Z 5 feels much more like a professional choice despite its reduced specifications, while the RP perhaps feels more like a solid back-up body.
Are you shooting on the Z 5 or are you pondering purchase? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
The answer to your title is simple and universally applicable: As good as the photographer using "it" (fill in any brand/model).
The Z5 is a fantastic camera. I know imma get a lot of hate but I feel like it's the modern D700. It's a really well rounded camera just like the D700 was for it's time. I know some people think it costs too much but I think the price is actually really fair.
The problem I have with the z cameras, and I haven’t tried the z5, but I’m guessing it will still have the issue, is the delay from when the camera is idle to when it’s ready to take a photo. On my Z6 and z7 there’s a few seconds of time between it readying itself and being able to take a photo, with screen blackout. This is a problem when I’m doing a wedding or event, as it means I miss moments. With a DSLR it’s always ready to go - people don’t seem to notice this much, but it bugs me, and is the biggest failing for wedding shooting, way more of a problem than 1 card in my opinion.
WTF get out of here with that shit. Reported.