The Nikon Z6 featured as one of Nikon’s full-frame mirrorless camera releases in 2018 and, quite unsurprisingly, bears a very close resemblance to the Z7, with the major difference being its 24MP sensor in contrast to the 46MP of the Z7 and a slight reduction in resolution. The Nikon Z6 can be used for different kinds of video shooting and performs excellently well.
However, how reliable is the Nikon Z6 for photography? What kind of photography brings out the best in this mirrorless camera? Sports photography, portrait photography, or wildlife photography?
The essential point every potential buyer should know is that Nikon Z6 can be used for almost any kind of photography but displays a certain kind of excellence in some, making it look like it was built for those kinds of shooting.
Nikon Z6 Mirrorless Digital Camera With 24-70mm Lens also appears to be one of the interesting areas of inquiry, and as you may already know, the kind of lens you choose determines what your shot will look like. So, we will also have a rundown on the lens compatible with the Z6 mirrorless camera. Strap on!
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Is The Nikon Z6 Good for Photography?
Cameras are to photographers what paint is to artists. You have to know when to use a certain kind, and for a photographer holding a Nikon Z6, it’s almost a re-liveable experience for all kinds of photography he wants to do.
However, there are certain kinds of photography it comes out quite inadept. We will be discussing the performance of the Nikon Z6 in certain kinds of photography.
01. Landscape
Nikon Z6 falls short in resolution when compared to certain other cameras but can perform decently as a lightweight camera for shooting landscape photography. Moreover, its superb build features are capable of handling whatever mother nature focuses on, and most interestingly, with a tilting LCD, tripod work is just as seamless as it can be.
What you get with JPEG is also very good, but be aware that the possibility of banding isn’t far-fetched if you’re going to pull up shadows.
02. Portraits
While it’s possible to engage your Nikon Z6 in portraiture, due to the specifications of the camera, it comes out lacking in the tools needed to provide the user with the best results.
First of all, the competitor’s eye AF lacks an equivalent, making a user rely on the camera’s face detection, which works fairly well, but with the focus point of the camera being too big or too small. Also, pinpoint AF comes only in S-AF mode and has far slower focus compared to other focus modes. There is a limit ultimately in the selection of the standard portrait lenses.
03. Street
In all honesty, the Z6 isn’t particularly a stealthy camera. However, a silent shutter mode is all you need to keep as discreet as possible while shooting in the streets, and for this, Z6 is that ideal camera.
There’s a downside to this mode that you need to be aware of, though, which is that under artificial light, banding will be visible at times. With a tilting LCD, however, you can shoot from the hip and tap quickly on the subject you want to focus on.
As of December 2018, two primes are available – a 35mm and 50mm f1.8, though they don’t seem too compact. With the help of SnapBridge, sharing photos is indeed a snap.
04. Sports
Even though it isn’t as glamorous as D5 or Sony a7 III for sports photography, the Z6 can be relied upon for shooting casual sports photography. However, you may avoid the subject tracing mode of the camera. This is because it takes an unusually long number of minutes to pick a subject.
Nonetheless, sticking with one target point or shooting zone allows the camera to keep up, allowing you to shoot at up to 9FPS without needing a live feed. The ultimate frustrating side of shooting sports scenes with a Z6 is the incongruous blackouts you have to deal with in the EVF occurring between shots, making it hard to follow to keep up with the action.
Popular Nikon Z6 Mirrorless Digital Camera With 24-70mm Lens
The Z6 being part of the early Z series, storms the world of optics with a high-end FX-format 24.5MP BSI CMOS sensor, and to match this exceptionality, it features the EXPEED six with an ability to offer at every shooting time unbeatable image quality. Consider some of the features and performance abilities of the Z6:
01. 24.5MP FX-format BSI CMOS sensor
With a 24.5MP FX-Format, a camera can only leave you astonished with the impressive all-around shooting. This is precisely what you get from the Z6, and with a low-light quality as superb as what is offered, your shots are bound to come out incredibly looking. It was also built for fast continuous shooting, as the camera has very fast readouts that benefit long hours of shooting as well as time-lapse recording.
The sensor flaunts a back-illuminated design that makes the sensitivity as clean as it can be, and also puts within the limit, output noise when shooting at high ISO values. More impressively, the common ISO 51200 is not excluded from this, even one as low as 100.
02. Video recording of 4K UHD
You would be wrong to think the utility of the impressive sensor and processor of the Z6 is limited to still imagery, as the camera turns out to be while shooting videos a reliable and very powerful multimedia camera. For video recording, a 3840 × 2160 UHD 4K is the number when using the full-frame area or a DX crop area in 24p, 25, or 30p frame rates.
If your desire is a camera with a video recording ability of 1080p full HD, the Z6 is just that camera, and what makes it even more perfect for this is that you can go up to 120p when in slow motion playback.
03. A phase-detect AF system of 273 points
On the camera sensor, several phase-detect autofocus points cover up to 90% of both vertical and horizontal areas of the image. What a user gets from this is speedy and precise focusing for videos, and with a coverage area that expands enough to catch the photographer’s subject, tracking will get to the frame edges.
Hybrid AF is also supported for video shooting, which very seamlessly switches between contrast and phase detection systems providing the user with smooth focusing when shooting.
04. NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S lens
Having ordered this amazing Nikon Z optical wonder, you get a standard NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S zoom lens that performs excellently well as far as covering a wide-angle to portrait size range. Another beautiful thing about the camera lens is that it sports a maximum F/4 aperture.
Also, the optical design of the camera embodies an aspherical element alongside a high-performing dispersion element, which helps to minimize aberrations as well as the distortion that comes from shooting at high sharpness.
Lenses for Nikon Z6 Mirrorless Camera
There are many kinds of lenses suitable for the Nikon Z6, and as a matter of fact, the list is ever-growing, which is one of the reasons it’s been dubbed an all-around camera. Let’s consider them:
01. Nikon 24-120mm f/4
Specifications
- Zoom lens
- The maximum aperture is f/4
- Focal length range is 24-120mm
Key features
Balance
With the 24-120mm lens, a user can capture long-term images very easily. There is also reduced vibration, which reduces camera shakes, resulting in crisp, clear images.
Image versatility
With this zoom lens, HD landscape video and photos are easier to take than when other kinds of the lens are in use, providing the softest and most delicate warm tones and eye-pleasing shadows.
02. NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8
Specifications
- Zoom lens
- Maximum aperture is f/2.8
- Multi-focusing system
Key features
Unique lens compatibility
Among a lot of Nikon users, this lens is popularly regarded as the best zoom lens for Z6. It serves quite satisfactorily for vlogging, as one concerns himself much with issues of video deterioration. Moreover, the big aperture of the lens makes it suitable for sensors like that in the Nikon z6.
Multi-focus system
The 24-70mm lens, among its other exquisite features, comes with a novel multi-focusing system with dual AF-drive units, synced precisely to provide accurate, quick autofocusing, minimizing aberrations across the zoom range.
03. Sigma 85mm f/1.4
For portraiture, if you opt for the sigma 85mm f/1.4, you aren’t making a bad choice at all.
Specifications
- Short telephoto lens
- Wide maximum aperture
- Compatible with MC-11
Key features
Overwhelming vitality
Featuring a Hypersonic Motor with new algorithms with speed 1.3 times that of the previous lenses, the lens can automatically center on the subject. When mounted on one Nikon Z6, you get nine aperture blades that can produce a beautiful bokeh effect outside the plane of focus for portraits.
Extensive territory coverage
One of the unique features of the Sigma 85mm is how its unique perspective confronts stereotypes while expanding the expressive ability of portraiture.
Can I Use My Old Lenses With Nikon Z6?
Old prime lenses from your previous camera don’t have to be discarded in place of a new one. They work just as well as the new lens, provided they are compatible with the Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera. However, you may want to use a lens mount adapter to improve the usability of the old lens.
Lens mount adapters are an excellent choice for Nikon users who want to retain their old lenses. The concerning side of this is that most times, it works only in manual focus. They are also well designed to make mounting effortless by featuring smooth surfaces. They allow for full manual installation and are easy to install and unmount.
Is Sony a7III Better Than Nikon Z6?
Z6 and a7III are two professional mirrorless cameras from Nikon and Sony. These two powerful cameras, however, both sport differences that, on a head-to-head comparison, don’t seem too wide apart. Hence, the deciding factor of selection in terms of performance has to narrow down to a blurry line between both.
From a design perspective, Z6 weighs about 1.29 pounds, making it smaller and more compact than most other SLR cameras. The interesting thing here, though, is that the handgrip is slightly deeper than the standard mirrorless camera. The A7III, on the other hand, weighs, without a lens, 1.44 pounds and has a deeper grip, which provides for more comfortable handling.
On the performance side, Nikon Z6 has an illuminated image sensor of 24.5MP, an incredible image stabilization system, and comes loaded with a novel EXPEED image processor with overwhelming shoot quality.
A top-tier ISO range and shutter speed are other features that make the Nikon Z6 formidable. Sony A7III comes with a back-illuminated image processor and a 24MP BSI full-frame image sensor, making it one of the best cameras in terms of low-light shooting prowess.
The ISO range of the A7III also matches that of the Nikon Z6 toe-to-toe, in that with a range that stretches from 100-51200 and retains excellent imagery when it’s stretched to 6,400, it’s difficult to write off its shooting performance.
So what then is left to judge both cameras with?
Consider this – while the Z6 supports the SnapBridge application, which enables you to transfer pictures to your smartphone, the A7III lacks this. Another feature that compares is how many shots you can get shooting with both cameras.
For the Zikon Z6, the battery life permits up to 310 shots, while for the Sony A7III, you can keep shooting up to 610. If we are to go with this as the deciding factor, Sony A7III does a better job here.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Will I damage the sensor of my Nikon Z6 by cleaning it?
You can clean the sensor on your Nikon Z6, but bear in mind that doing this places you at risk of damaging the sensor. Nikon was built to have its sensor VR enter some lock position when the camera is off.
A lot of other IBS types don’t lock the sensor. Nikon, however, is refusing to make any statement about sensor cleaning but rather recommends that you have it returned to them for cleaning.
What is the autofocus of Z6 like?
The Z6 comes with a very efficient autofocus system. In the course of production, the Z series have witnessed a beef-up, carrying firmware updates and can also compete with what’s obtainable from other SLR cameras.
Does the Nikon Z6 have a distraction correction function?
Essentially, the Nikon Z6 features a diffraction correction system that can be turned on and off as the user pleases. This can be found next to the Vignetting and Distortion control menus. Its function, though, hasn’t been spelled out in clear terms by Nikon, but from close inspection, it seems it runs as some basic kind of deconvolution.
To Conclude
Having not tried a camera before, knowing what to expect maybe a mildly troubling thought, as most professional photographers are cautious not to invest in a poorly performing camera.
Fortunately, we have done a pretty good job quelling some, if not all, your doubts about the Nikon Z6 being an all-around high-performing camera. Nonetheless, we have also pointed out that what kind of photography you use it for will determine the level of use convenience you get and picture output too. You might want to have a look again.