More FX Mirrorless Cameras Announced at PhotoKina and XQD

I kind of wonder what wasn't mature in the sensor tech a year ago, though

I don't think that's the issue. Nikon (and I assume Canon as well) made a business decision as to when to enter the mirrorless FX market. It's undeniable that mirrorless has certain advantages over DSLRs - those have been discussed at length time and again. The transition from DSLR to mirrorless is more evolutionary than revolutionary IMO.

Panasonic and Sigma just recently decided they want a piece of the pie too - and found a willing partner in Leica (who has entered the market with the SL a few years ago and has had an even longer digital FX presence with the M Series rangefinders).

So assuming Nikon themselves set the actual 'base' price in each country, which State is the cheapest to walk into with a bunch of notes?

The 2850gm for my 300mm 2.8 VR I is easily handholdable, but in real life the 4750gm for the 600mm ED II is just nuts...:D

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Late Edit, missed your reply Dieter!

I kind of wonder what wasn't mature in the sensor tech a year ago, though. New features in the just-launched mirrorless cameras seem minimal to me. I'm judging a lot based on previews, though.

My knowledge on mirrorless cameras is fairly limited. Recently I got to play around with a Z7 and its EVF was quite nice. I was using it indoors with some bright ceiling lights and it was fine. 3, 4 years ago I checked out some mirrorless cameras and those bright areas indoors was totally washed out in the EVF.

typo corrected, Z7 not D7

My knowledge on mirrorless cameras is fairly limited. Recently I got to play around with a D7 and its EVF was quite nice. I was using it indoors with some bright ceiling lights and it was fine. 3, 4 years ago I checked out some mirrorless cameras and those bright areas indoors was totally washed out in the EVF.

You keep calling it the D7.

You keep calling it the D7.

Because that is the camera I want Nikon to produce. :cool:

I happened to switch on my Nikon V1 the other day and really, really hope EVFs have got much MUCH better:D

Yup, no shadows or highlights visible. it helped with aiming and some composition, but......:(

Because that is the camera I want Nikon to produce. :cool:

I guess there will be a D7 because our friend Andrew does not buy the Z so Nikon has to continue to make the D's.

BeBu, I know I'm a great influencer, but honestly I think it's almost entirely my gravitational effect. I always thought of myself as a strange attractor.

I can't guarantee that I won't find a future Z model to be appealing, especially if Nikon give that line more attention than the dSLRs. For now, the Z7 isn't particularly an upgrade in the areas I care about (and is in areas I don't), so I'm happy slowly paying off my D850. I'd be a little surprised if there aren't more dSLRs to come from Nikon, maybe even in the Z6/ D6x0/D750 market segment. For full frame, the litmus test will be whether Nikon risk a Z9 over a D6, which comes down partly to adoption speed.

That leads to the eternal early-adopter question: do we assume the Z models are the future and start to feel nervous about stockpiling F-mount glass, or do we wait to see whether it suffers the fate of the 1 series? I'm assuming it'll succeed, but I'm prepared to check for some massive snafu where Nikon might drop the ball before I feel entirely confident in it.

Curiously, no Sony mirrorless camera (or DSLR) to date has an XQD slot. You would think a camera designed for sports such as the A9 would benefit greatly from XQD.

Possibly Sony realizes thatat this point in time, camera's depending on XQD will not have a hughe market, since the only XQD cards available in large parts of the world are their own brand which sell at very high prices..

Camera's working with all kinds or SD cards ( which can also realize comfrotable high speeds, cover a much much larger market share and hence are more interresting for manufacters including Sony.

Where i live , currently, the cheapest XQD card available is a 64GB g-series at around 160 Euro's wich is much to expensive for the general hobby photographer

For this reason also I will currently steer away from any camera which depends on XQD cards, and the XQD slot in my D500 is largely unused after the 2 XQD cards i own both have failed ...

Andrew, where's the Z8?

I'm assuming Nikon are following Sony's naming scheme. :-) (Not as unlikely as you'd think - graphics cards, for example, have been known to have weird naming so they don't look like they're a generation behind the competition.)

I do have a Z88. Does that help?

For this reason also I will currently steer away from any camera which depends on XQD cards, and the XQD slot in my D500 is largely unused after the 2 XQD cards i own both have failed ...

Well, agreed about XQD vs SD pricing (although not so much UHS-II), but... You've had XQD failures? Thom Hogan would probably like to hear from you - apparently he's never heard evidence of any.

Well, agreed about XQD vs SD pricing (although not so much UHS-II), but... You've had XQD failures? Thom Hogan would probably like to hear from you - apparently he's never heard evidence of any.

If Tom Hogan would do a simple Google search on "XQD Failure" he would find that my XQD cards are not the only ones that did fail..

On the other hand: Tom Hogan only classifies "Failure"as a situation where it becomes totaly impossible to recover lost files whith all possible effott of specialists in data recovery, or losing the card in sand or sea ….. ( read the "update"at the bottom of this page by Tom Hogan : The Card Failure Issue | Sans Mirror | Thom Hogan )

If Tom Hogan would do a simple Google search on "XQD Failure" he would find that my XQD cards are not the only ones that did fail..

 

On the other hand: Tom Hogan only classifies "Failure"as a situation where it becomes totaly impossible to recover lost files whith all possible effott of specialists in data recovery, or losing the card in sand or sea ….. ( read the "update"at the bottom of this page by Tom Hogan : The Card Failure Issue | Sans Mirror | Thom Hogan )

Oh, fair enough. I've had few card failures (certainly recently), but then I rarely shoot anything that would leave me distraught to lose.

Other than Sony, the dedicated sports cameras use some faster memory cards than CF or SD. Canon uses CFast and Nikon XQD.

I haven't had any XQD failure so far, and I have one body that uses dual XQD cards for over 2 years. However, if you ever need professional recovery from a damaged memory card, it may cost a few hundred dollars to a few thousand, depending on how much they can squeeze out of you. Fortunately I have never had the need to go down that route yet. Having dual cards is key and that is one drawback for the Z6 and Z7. Hopefully Nikon will correct that in the next generation.

I am a very happy XQD user and bought my cards from B&H, saving about 50% compared to local prices in Finland. Overseas purchases are perfectly legal as you pay the tariffs and VAT. I can't imagine any reason to purchase memory cards in European stores as they are grossly overpriced.

XQD is nicer to handle than CF or SD and brilliantly fast.

I guess there will be a D7 because our friend Andrew does not buy the Z so Nikon has to continue to make the D's.

I imagine there are many of us who prefer DSLRs, despite the heavy push by the online gearhead sites towards system changes. Mirrorless is appealing to those sites because it generally involves all new gear (if you want to avoid clumsy adapters and limited functionality) and because mirrorless cameras are quite expensive, there is big money to be made from those clicks. Happy users of existing systems are no good since they don't spend as much money as the frequent system switchers, who are in my opinion running hard yet barely staying still let alone getting anywhere.

start to feel nervous about stockpiling F-mount glass, or do we wait to see whether it suffers the fate of the 1 series?

I believe Nikon's intention is to develop both systems going into the future and there is no reason to assume either system will fail. How they keep both alive, is by developing them in their own directions rather than doing one camera or system to everything.

You can see from early reports, for example, that the D850 will focus on a moving subject better than a Z7 (in stills photography using the viewfinder) but the Z7 will focus much better during video. The Z system lenses are mostly compact and high quality but short focal lengths only, and F system includes active development of superteles and exotic special purpose lenses such as 19 PC. You can expect Nikon to purposefully differentiate the two systems (but Z cameras can use F lenses, to some extent). No vertical grip for example places the Z bodies towards travel and compactness. I would imagine Canon to do the same.