With a 45.7-megapixel sensor and a lot of dynamic range, the Nikon Z 7II mirrorless camera looks like a strong candidate for a lot of landscape photographers. How does it hold up in practice? This great video review features an experienced landscape photographer discussing his thoughts months after switching from a medium format setup.
Coming to you from Thomas Heaton, this awesome video review takes a look at the Nikon Z 7II mirrorless camera for landscape photography. The Z 7II comes with a nice range of features, including:
- 45.7-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor
- No optical low-pass filter for higher levels of detail
- 5-axis in-body Vibration Reduction
- Low native ISO of 64
- 4K video at up to 60 fps with external 10-bit N-Log and HLG
- 493 phase-detection autofocus points
- Eye-Detect AF for both people and animals
- Dual memory card slots (one CFexpress Type B and one SD UHS-II slot)
- 3.6-million-dot OLED electronic viewfinder
- 3.2-inch, 2.1-million-dot tilting touchscreen
- 10 fps continuous burst rate
- Long exposure times of up to 15 minutes
- Magnesium alloy body with dust- and weather-resistance for working in inclement conditions
While not perfect, the Z 7II certainly produces high-quality images and ticks a lot of boxes for landscape work. Check out the video above for Heaton's full thoughts on the camera.
For me, not even knowing this previously, and for once agreeing with Thomas, the way in which Nikon processes aspect ratios in-camera, where it bins the pixels outside the crop, instead of just making it a digital simulation like EVERY other camera does, is ludicrous!
When he disclosed this, I seriously couldn't' believe it at first and literally went to the Nikon site to pull up the reference manual, and sure enough, Nikon does pixel binning when non-native crops are selected!
For a while I was contemplating going with Nikon, but this is a MASSIVE show-stopper for me! Even though I currently own a Sony and mostly use the frame grids to compose my shots and envision different crops, I do occasionally switch aspect ratios because I know I'll still get the full sensor readout in my RAW file.
Why Nikon??? Why do you do something this stupid???
His other "complaint" is in regards to the focus system. No, the Z7ii doesn't work as well as Sony or Canon, but it's still a good performer, so this isn't a big issue, especially if you're just a landscape photographer.
This is an extremely flawed comparison.
First he’s comparing the pricing to much better performing cameras. I mean, the other cameras are literally flagships and this is not.
Second, he’s talking about this being a replacement for his GFX but then later on admits he largely uses Manual Focus, because he can’t trust the AF in the Nikon. At this point you’ve thrown the baby out with the bath water and more or less told people to stick with the GFX, even though it was unintentionally done.
Honestly, I've used the Z7II when I tried it out, and Thomas' lambastic statement of not being able to trust the auto focus on this camera is either, woefully hyperbolic of him (not unusual), has a defective camera, or is inept at learning how to configure and use the various focus modes (probably), because there are COUNTLESS other landscape photographers using this EXACT camera with ZERO issues trusting the auto focus.
Also, he came from the GFX 50, which in all honesty is in a comparable class to this camera (as neither are flagships any longer, though they used to be).
Bottom line, Thomas is NOT the person to give any credence to when it comes to gear review or commentary.