Big test
CONTRASTY LIGHT? NO PROBLEM The Z 8 coped brilliantly with all sorts of lighting, from contrasty to spotlit night scenes. Members of Bawds, Cambridge-based theatre group, taken during Photo Video 24 (above)
The Z 8, like the Z 9, has plenty of options when it comes to fast shooting, with Raw capture possible at 20fps and normal-level JPEGs at 30fps, 60fps and 120fps. There’s a pre- capture option too. As the Z 8 is electronic shutter only, there’s no need to make sure the right shutter type is set for fast shooting. Its rapid readout also means rolling shutter is not an issue in most instances – not even with the rotating propeller blades of an airplane. I did notice a slight distortion in a dragonfly’s wings in its up- or down-stroke, but not consistently, so nothing to be concerned about. In my continuous shooting tests, the Z 8 delivered Nikon’s quoted shooting rates. Loaded with a ProGrade 1700MB/s card and shooting only lossless compressed Raws, I got 20fps for three seconds before slowing down to 17fps and three seconds after that the shooting rate dropped to 14fps and stayed at that rate for 90 seconds. This burst resulted in 1306 frames, and the camera could have continued. Shoot JPEG-only on a CFexpress card and you can continue shooting until the card is full.
button and holds them in its buffer, only committing them to memory when the button is fully pressed. The Z 8 has dual card slots – CFexpress Type B/XQD and SD UHS II – but if you want a prolonged, high- speed shooting experience, you have to forego the backup security of an SD card and rely on a CFexpress card. Or just shoot judiciously and manage the buffer. Pre-capture is available for normal-level JPEGs only at 30fps, 60fps and 120fps respectively. In C30 mode there is the option of FX (36x24mm) or DX format (24x16mm); C60 is DX only and C120 is FX only and gives 4128x2752-pixel images equivalent to 11MB. In the menu, you can set pre-release time with the choice of 0.3sec, 0.5sec and one second and then decide how long you want the post-capture burst to be maintained: one second, two seconds, three seconds or max. Pre-capture works well. I loved using it on birds and dragonflies. For the latter, I kept my finger on the button while the insect sat there, and pushed it all the way down when it disappeared. It is a little hit-and-miss because the AF system can’t cope with the very rapid frame rate,
Selecting high-efficiency Raw files, I got 20fps for 16 seconds before slowing down to 16fps and again the camera could have motored on much longer at that speed. Swapping to a ProGrade 300MB/s SD card only, the camera managed lossless compressed Raw files at 20fps for just two seconds before slowing down to 15fps for two seconds and settling at 8fps. Using high-efficiency Raw files, I managed a total of 31 frames at 20fps, before slowing down to 15fps. Action and nature shooters will appreciate the Z 8’s pre-capture function that takes pictures on partial depression of the shutter MENU MATTERS The Z 8’s menu will be welcomingly familiar to any existing Nikon users. Here are the options for video set-up
EFFICIENCY Half pressing the shutter button allows a burst to be taken and held, but not stored until the button is depressed fully – great for action and nature
14 Photography News | Issue 109
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