Today, Nikon added another member to its line of mirrorless cameras, the updated Nikon Z5 II.
It’s been nearly five years since the release of the original Z5. I think it’s safe to say that the Z5 received far less fanfare upon its initial release than its bigger siblings the Z6 and Z7. In the years since, Nikon has released its flagship, the Z9, which drove major updates to all of its lines which have been released since then, further cementing the company’s focus on hybrid photographers and video professionals. Well, now, in its second iteration, the new Nikon Z5 II learns from its predecessors and continues to build on this tradition at an affordable price point.
With a 24.5 full frame sensor, the camera uses the same high-powered EXPEED 7 image processing engine as Nikon’s professional models, the Z8 and Z9. It uses a back-illuminated (BSI) CMOS sensor and comes with dual SD card slots.
With the Z5 II, Nikon is announcing a new AF-A mode. This option allows the camera to automatically switch between AF-S and AF-C modes depending on subject movement, changes in composition, or other variables it detects during still photography shoots. This will come in handy for users wanting to defer all autofocus duties when photographing kids, pets, or other hard-to-predict subjects. The camera uses focus-point VR, which tailors stabilization to the area covered by the active AF point. For those wanting longer exposures, the camera offers extended shutter speeds up to 900 seconds (15 minutes) in manual exposure mode.
The Z5 II has prerelease capture and is capable of shooting 14 fps with a mechanical shutter. That expands to 15 to 30 frames per second with the electronic shutter, with full autofocus capabilities. Speaking of autofocus, Nikon is promising class-leading low light performance down to -10 EV. The Z5 II will have a dedicated bird detection mode for avian enthusiasts.
For those looking to film themselves, the Z5 II provides a 3.2” vari-angle LCD touchscreen that fully articulates. The camera also has a product mode, which allows focus to shift automatically from a user’s face to a product held in front of the lens when doing YouTube-style presentation videos.
The standard ISO range is 100–64,000. This is expandable to a 204,800 equivalent in photo or 51,200 in video.
Speaking of video, the camera now offers Nikon’s excellent new 12-bit N-RAW video format—a big advantage, especially at this price point. It is the first camera to be able to record N-RAW to an SD card. It can do 4K up to 30 fps without a crop. It can do 60 fps with a 1.5x crop, and 120 fps in Full HD in 8-bit H.264.
All of this comes in at a price of $1699.95 body only or $1999.95 in a kit with the NIKKOR Z 24-50mm f/4-6.3 lens.
