Big test
I tried the Z 9 with a selection of Nikon Z lenses, including the 35mm f/1.8, 28-75mm f/2.8, 24-120mm f/4 and 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 (which was used for all the bird AF tracking tests), and also a few F-mount lenses via the FTZ Mark II adapter. The Z 9’s autofocusing is excellent and a significant step forward from the Z 7II. That’s not to say the Z 7II’s is poor, because it isn’t, but its eye detect and AF tracking are not that responsive – and some way behind the Canon EOS R5 and Sony A1. The Z 9’s AF is much more like it and tracking skills are very good – whether it was children running around or birds flying. The camera AF subject detect has four options: people, animals, vehicle and auto detect. These can be used in different AF patterns, such as wide area L, auto area AF and 3D tracking – the actual options vary in AF-S and AF-C modes. With so many options, set-up needs thinking about and I tried various combinations, with pretty good rates of success. For people, auto area AF with face/eye detect was generally best. Although, there was the odd hiccup when there was more than one person in the frame and the camera did not always pick the right
the Z 9 can very probably oblige. I did some comparisons with the 20fps and 120fps shooting speeds, and it is incredible the differences tiny fractions of a second can make. Shooting a gull taking off from a post, for example, and the 120fps setting just offers so many variants. Tests of contrasty, detailed scenes with the three Raw save options were also interesting. In theory, Raws saved in lossless compression should give more detailed, malleable files to squeeze out every ounce of quality. I didn’t see huge differences between the three formats, so in many situations, the more storage-friendly, high-efficiency Raw format is the preferred option.
PERFORMANCE: EXPOSURE LATITUDE
The Nikon sensor proved good when it came to latitude. The shots underexposed by 4EV and overexposed by 2EV could be very successfully recovered. There was some noise with recovered -4EV and -3EV Raws, but it was fine, neutral, and only visible if you go beyond 100% magnification. Raws overexposed by +2EV could be successfully recovered with the same quality as the correctly exposed shot. In conditions which were not too contrasty, even +3EV, shots could be recovered well.
using a 100-400mm zoom lens on the camera. The lens was set to 100mm and the exposure for the correctly exposed image was 1/800sec at f/8 and ISO 100. Adobe Lightroom corrected exposures.
To check out exposure latitude of Z 9 Raws, I shot numerous exposure brackets for a mix of scenes and lighting types. This shot of Burnham-on-Sea Pier was taken on a bright February late morning
-3EV
CONTROL CLUSTER Setting exposure bracketing and mode can be done by the large locking knob, and there’s a collar to set drive mode
-2EV
-1EV
0
+1EV
+2EV
+3EV
RAW POWER The Z 9 has three Raw save options, and even the most space-saving, high-efficiency selection is very good and suits critical use
PERFORMANCE: CONTINUOUS SHOOTING
f/4.5-5.6 lens (in first tests this issue), with an exposure of 1/1600sec at f/7.1 and ISO 400. There’s no pre-burst buffering mode (like that found on Fujifilm, Olympus and Panasonic cameras), so you can’t ‘take’ shots without recording them. As a non-press shooter, I think 120fps burst shooting is great fun just to play with, although the staggering number of shots tempers how often I would use it.
someone will find a use for it, but right now I am grateful that the shots are JPEG only – working through hundreds (thousands) of Raws would probably exhaust my cool-running computer. Here’s a few shots of a gull take-off from a 50 frame sequence, at 120fps, to give you an idea of what can be achieved, taken with the Z 9 and a Nikon 100-400mm
The Z 9 can shoot stills at prodigious speeds, maxing out at 120fps with AE/AF tracking. In my tests, I got over 700 frames in one burst before the camera took a very short time out, then picked up the pace again. It is true you only get this speed if you shoot JPEGs that are 11 megapixels (4128x2752 pixels), but, to be honest, that’s still pretty good. The questions you are likely to be asking are ‘why?’ and ‘who needs it?’ Well, I’m sure
Issue 97 | Photography News 29
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