Nikon Z6 II Review

hi there american viewers it's chris nichols here with a quick public service announcement for you we are in this video going to be pronouncing this letter quite a lot today as zed and i understand that this can be both physically and emotionally traumatizing for you even though the arrest of the entirety of the english-speaking world says it zed so in order to make you feel included and not left out we are going to have subtitles much like a foreign film at the bottom of the video so that you can all follow along thanks so much and let's get into our z62 review [Music] welcome back deeperview tv viewers chris nichols here today we're doing a full review on the nikon z6 version two now what's really changed on the z6 version too i mean at the heart of this it seems like a fairly small thing nikon simply added a second xspeed6 processor and that's generating a lot of cynicism about well we got the same sensor we got the same body the same handling what really gives like what is this really going to do to change my life hopefully by the end of the review we'll have explained that a little bit better for you we're going to shoot around southern calgary here out in the countryside and just really see is that going to make a big difference is it worthwhile we're going to answer that question for you [Music] a brand new feature on the z62 which a lot of people will find invaluable we've got dual card slots now in the original z6 you had cf express which is a very fast card option although it is expensive and sometimes it's hard to find accessories and peripherals to then support that so now we have an sd card slot it's uh s2 this does give us all the usual benefits like overflow or double backup if we want to have it now one of the main improvements on the z62 is a much bigger buffer over its predecessor we're getting three and a half times according to nikon i mean where you roughly get 40 shots of raw on the z6 before the buffer filled i did a test here with the cf express card i got 14-bit lossless compressed high-speed burst 133 shots before it filled and then it only took about eight seconds or so i was able to do another burst again so the buffer increase is real that's not one of the nice benefits of having the new dual processor but if you are mirroring shots between the sd card and the cfx press it is going to slow things way down so do keep that in mind now we have the exact same sensor that we found in the nikon z6 it's certainly a solid performer low light performance is exactly the same as well however there is one thing that we did notice the original z6 had an issue with banding showing up especially when you really push dark shadows and that seems to be gone now on the z62 and that really is nice because it does effectively allow you to get more dynamic range so to speak without the image quality loss the z6 had okay so the z62 still just has a vertical tilting screen i know a lot of people actually prefer that though i do like that when i tilt this out unlike a lot of other cameras on the market it disables evf so it's not blacking out on me or trying to switch back and forth without me having to even set a button or hit anything you know jordan and i have always loved the handling on the zed cameras they're rugged they're well sealed they feel good nice big grips everything feels high quality the menus are easy to use nothing's changed on the z62 we still have the same touch screen menu interface or i can use the control pad on the bottom or i can customize my dials to navigate the menus and my only real complaint about that is we still have the same issue with the autofocus joystick where although it's probably one of the nicest joysticks of any camera on the market i still can't use this to manipulate the menus and i wish i could because i like having the camera up to my eye in the evf hit the menu button and be able to manipulate that and that's naturally where my thumb falls but i've got to break my grip and drop it down to the control pad if i want to do it that way i wish they'd change that i guess you're gonna have to get good at customizing the dials to do that and get used to the way that works now the displays have stayed the same as well from the z6 i've got the 3.69 million dot evf and just over 2 million dot back panel they're very nice to use however apparently dual processors cannot fix the fact that we still have 60 frames per second max refresh rate on the evf and that seems strange to me because we know this panel is capable of more it'd be nice to see something higher especially consider that having the bigger buffer now and having things like animal detect autofocus on this camera make this an ideal option for sports and wildlife shooting i wish i could see a faster frame rate there now blackout time in the screen has been minimized from the z6 that is a nice benefit [Music] so animal eye detect doesn't work on black cows with black eyes heavily backlit by the sun disappointing nikon zed autofocus i mean it has improved but there's always been some issues we'd like to see change i mean i've always preferred the way nikon did their 3d tracking on their slrs i choose a specific 3d tracking mode i get a box i put that box on what i want i hit the af on button or shutter and it starts tracking and i like that here i still have to do the hit the ok button to engage the tracking box or a custom button that i've set and then start tracking on something you get used to it but it is still one extra step and they have not changed that now another issue we had with the z6 and z7 was a very clunky interface to engage face detector animal detector which are added with firmware updates you have to do it through auto area mode it was clunky it was slow and you'd have to go in the menu to turn it on and off so we do have a much better system here now so first off through the i button i can do that face detect animal attack or no face and eye detect simply by going the i menu choosing that option and then choosing the appropriate auto area mode but they've also added a second auto focus mode it's called wide area mode and in this mode i now get a big box it's a red box i do wish we could customize the size of that hopefully that'll be added later but it is handy that i can now limit the face detect or eye detect in that boxed area now this is great if i've got multiple people but i specifically only want one person's face or eyes to be detected put the box on them and it will limit itself to that area whereas in the past it would detect faces and i'd have to then use the joystick or touch screen to move back and forth until i got the one that i wanted in focus it's also a great way to have focus on someone's face and then choose to focus on a different thing and eliminate that so for example if i had somebody holding a camera i could put the box low on the camera and now that's not on the person's face it's not gonna even try to go to their eyes and it will actually focus on the camera previously i'd have to go into the menu turn eye detect off and then go back out and do that again now the third issue that we had was with the actual eye detect accuracy itself it was really good on the older cameras with focusing right on the eyelashes now the camera focuses on the eyes properly and that's a huge improvement especially now that we have a lot of these new wide aperture lenses coming out like the 50 millimeter 1.2 this is going to be very critical so overall it's nice to see nikon listening to people making the interface easier and more intuitive and faster to use the tracking i still wish had a better interface and the actual quality of the tracking pretty much seems the same as it was before but the other changes to be able to quickly set what you want and where you want the camera to focus are welcome now the z62 just like the z72 and the z5 use the brand new enel 15c battery the best capacity we've seen out of any of the enel 15s but it is nice that in a pinch if you've got the old batteries lying around you can still power these cameras albeit at of course reduced amounts of battery life now the enel 15c does give us nice advantages in this camera first off these can charge the battery through the usb c port but also now with the z62 i can put a usb charger in here pd-rated and actually power the camera so that if i need to use it indefinitely or tethered in the studio or something like that i just don't even have to worry about battery life at all hey everyone it's jordan and ivy who's home today to talk about the video recording on the nikon z62 and it's kind of tough to do because the major upgrade is the 4k60 recording but it's not available yet it's coming in a firmware update so we'll be looking at that a little bit later but i'm guessing it's going to be exactly the same kind of quality as what we're seeing with other cameras that i think share this sensor so there will be a super 35 or aps-c crop when you're recording 4k 60 but it'll be really nice to have the option the other major improvement they've done is one i've been asking for for a long time they are giving us the option to reverse the manual focus direction so if you've been using video lenses your whole life you can now use these nikon z series lenses and you'll be able to manually focus properly so you're doing a really good job of being quiet but of course the neighbors have now started cleaning their furnace so you'll have to bear with the audio a little bit sorry about that guys you're doing great now one other thing they've carried over from the z6 is the ability to record prores raw to an atomos ninja 5. it is a paid firmware update and we've already done a video about the quality of that but one thing i didn't look at last time was what the quality would be like using super 35 now i did find it is very similar at low iso there's no advantage in terms of moire and aliasing but at high iso the full frame image is much nicer so there's really no advantage to using the super 35 prores raw recording on this but if you're looking for a little more flexibility with your files it's great to have the option all right it's a full-frame mirrorless camera capable of recording good video so we got to talk about overheating with this now one thing nikon hasn't changed is thank you so much there is still a 30 minute record cut off when you're using the camera so you do have to start and stop recording for longer takes or you can bypass that with an external recorder however doing continuous clips i was able to record for an hour and 43 minutes before not the camera overheated it didn't even give me a warning but until the battery died now that was only room temperature because it's snowing in canada right now but in controlled situations i don't think overheating is going to be a real problem but in general the z62 is just a really full featured video package it doesn't have a headline feature that you can't get anywhere else but the autofocus works very well and we now have eye detect in it if you're using lenses with extremely shallow depth of field the image stabilizer is quite effective on it i do wish they'd give us a fully articulating screen if it's a more video centric model not all of us have a wife who's also a good videographer that can shoot their video for them you'll need to use an external monitor if you plan to film yourself if you've already got a lot of nikon lenses then this is going to be the best option for you if you want a good video camera for them but even if you're coming in without any commitments to a system this is really nice because it has no major drawbacks to it with the panasonic s5 sure you're getting better video quality but the autofocus can be a real drawback and the canon r6 is a fantastic package but you're still dealing with those overheating issues that don't seem to be a problem here so nikon's brought out a very compelling little video package you know i think when nikon first came out with the z6 and the z7 it was a very interesting first attempt into the serious full-frame market the cameras had a lot going for them they're beautifully designed they handled well they were solid and rugged you know good components at the heart of the cameras but they still left a lot to be desired and some quirky interface changes i i think it really kind of threw off slr users that were using 750s and 850s looking at these cameras and saying do i really feel it's the right time to push forward into the mirrorless market and i don't think it worked out very well for nikon honestly so now that we have cameras like the z62 where we have better user interface options and much longer buffer rates and dual card slots now i think a lot of those people that enjoyed those benefits on slrs can take a serious look at these cameras and say okay maybe it was good to hold on this is now the right time to jump and so i think in that regard nikon's done a great job now what if you're a new user coming into the full frame mirrorless market you want a capable but affordable camera i absolutely do think that this package would certainly suit your needs i think that all the changes they've made have really made this far more versatile as a camera that can handle sports action and wildlife you know photojournalism weddings some more serious stuff and so in that regard i think this is a very capable system the only issue for nikon is they're facing some stiff competition from canon with their eos r6 that's also very capable albeit somewhat more expensive platform than this otherwise sony has the venerable a7 iii it is competitive but it is an older camera and this does look very compelling next to that but if sony does come out eventually with an a7 version four that's again gonna really put a lot of pressure on the companies all in all though these improvements i think are important because they were absolutely necessary to make this a compelling and versatile product let's answer that final question are the dual processors worth it is this a big enough change i think the answer is yes i don't think a lot of z6 users are going to necessarily upgrade to this but this really does give nikon that future-proofing going forward because having the dual processors means that this camera is now capable of being updated in the future with better firmware updates and staying competitive against canon and sony and i think that's critical to the success of this camera i hope you guys agree or at least have more insight into what nikon's changed here thank you so much for joining us and please do subscribe hit that button it's right there it's easy just click it if you haven't already we would really appreciate that check out dpreview.com you can see our sample galleries thanks so much [Music] you

Channel: DPReview TV

Views: 183,844

Rating: 4.9069147 out of 5

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Id: y05eQizbpKM

Length: 13min 53sec (833 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 12 2020