I love my Nikon Z8. It’s a robust camera that is loaded with great features, and it just works, period. But it’s also pretty huge, so it isn’t really the camera I reach for when I’m traveling. I’ve also reviewed a number of compact lenses for Nikon Z, from Nikon’s own Nikkor Z 40mm F2 to really compact lenses like the Viltrox 20mm F2.8 and the even smaller 28mm F4.5 “Chip”. It’s kind of a waste to throw a 70g lens like the 28mm on a 910g camera (which is what the Z8 weighs with battery and memory installed). Now, to be fair, Nikon doesn’t really have any small full frame Z-mount camera. There’s nothing to compare to the Sony A7C series or even even the Canon RP in absolute size. But while it isn’t tiny, the Nikon Z5 II manages to essentially be the most robust, fully featured full frame camera to ever hit the market at a price of under $1700. Frankly this feels like a camera that would typically be competing in the $2200-$2500 range, making it perhaps the best full frame value on the market. We’ll dive deeper into why I think the Z5II is such an appealing camera in this review while also being critical of any of its flaws. You can find my full thoughts in the video review below or by reading on.

Follow Me @ YouTube | Patreon |  Instagram | Facebook | DA Merchandise | Flickr | 500px | X

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Z5 II used in this review was loaned to me by Nikon Canada.   As always, this is a completely independent review.  All opinions and conclusions are my own.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nikon Comparisons | Other Brand Comparisons

I was initially interested in looking at the Nikon Zf as a more travel-friendly option, but then the Z5II arrived. It is, essentially, the Zf in a more conventional body with better ergonomics (a real grip!), a bit less weight, and a slightly cheaper price tag. And, while not small, it is at least considerably smaller than my Z8.

Truthfully Nikon’s “small” camera is about the same size as Sony’s biggest camera!

So no, it doesn’t really meet the criteria of being a travel camera (Nikon doesn’t really have a full frame entry in that space), but fortunately it excels at many other things. Many times when I’m reviewing cameras in this space I come across areas where they feel intentionally crippled. Only one card slot, a maximum shutter speed of just 1/4000th of a second, no camera based stabilization, or very low specs on the viewfinder, but Nikon hasn’t done any of these things.

And, what’s more, while Z-mount isn’t yet fully open, there are a ton of excellent lenses coming from Viltrox and Tamron to Z-mount, making it a far more open platform than Canon R. And, while Sony still gets the most third party development, Sony also intentionally reserves certain features for Sony lenses alone. In almost every case where I’ve reviewed a lens on both Sony E and Nikon Z, I’ve preferred the Z-mount performance. There’s a lot of reason to consider a Z5II, so let’s jump in.

Key Features

• 24.5MP FX-Format CMOS Sensor
• EXPEED 7 Image Processor
• ISO 100-64000, Up to 30 fps Shooting
• UHD 4K and Full HD Video Recording
• 3.6m-Dot OLED Electronic Viewfinder
• 3.2″ 2.1m-Dot Vari-Angle Touchscreen LCD
• 9-Type Subject Detection AF
• 5-Axis Sensor-Shift Vibration Reduction
• Built-In Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
• Dual SD UHS-II Card Slots
• EN-EL15c battery rated at 380 shots

The standout features here are having quality Vibration Reduction, dual card slots, a full 1/8000th shutter speed with mechanical shutter, and having class leading specs on the LCD screen and equaling the best competitor in viewfinder specs. These are all areas where competing cameras often cut to artificially create market separation with their more upscale models. Nikon has taken a different approach with the Z5II, and while it may encroach on the Z6III sales, it looks like it is already resulting in increased market share for Nikon.

Nikon’s autofocus system has been refined over the life of the Z system to date, and it is now competitive with Sony and Canon after lagging behind them initially. I haven’t really noticed any less capabilities than my Z8.

The 24.5MP FX-Format CMOS Sensor used here is probably the least inspiring aspect of the design. It has a few extra pixels compared to the some of the competition (6048 x 4032 vs 6000 x 4000), but it also falls a bit behind the sensors from Canon (R8) and Sony (a7C) in both dynamic range and high ISO performance. That being said, the differences amount to less than a half stop of dynamic range and close performance to the Canon sensor in ISO (the Sony sensor is about 16% better). Low light performance is still quite good.

Bottom line is that the Z5II is competitive even in its weakest areas, while obviously superior in areas of strength, and the market is responding accordingly.

Build and Handling

One of the first things I like to do when I am testing a new camera is hand it around to people with various hand sizes and get their feedback on how the camera feels in their hands. That helps provide me some perspective beyond the way that a camera feels in my own hands (which are on the lower end of large). In my anecdotal polling, everyone reported that the Z5II felt great in their hands. My pinky would barely fit on the grip, but it did fit, and the Z5II feels natural in my hands. Nikon accomplishes this in two ways; the Z5II is taller than competing cameras and also has a deeper grip.

That makes the camera more ergonomically sound than competing models, but also means that you aren’t going to see anything like the portability of a camera like Sony’s a7C series. That still feels like a space that Nikon needs to fill.

The Z5II measures in at 5.3″ (width) x 4″ (height) x 2.8″ (depth), which is 134 x 100.5 x 72 mm. Ironically this is both narrower (-10mm) and shorter (-2mm) than the Zf. The huge difference between the cameras is that the Z5II has a real grip, so there is a massive 33mm in depth.

Like all Nikon Z cameras, the Z5II is on the heavy side of the class. It weighs in at 1.5lb (700g) with the battery and memory cards installed. That’s a half pound heavier than the Canon R8. I suspect that part of this is due to using more magnesium-alloy in the construction as opposed to plastics.

Its body is weather-sealed to offer protection against dust and moisture, which I find vital when living in a country that has a LOT of precipitation of various kinds.

Out of all of the camera systems I test, only Nikon persists in their lens mounting process being backwards from literally everyone else. Whereas all other cameras involve rotation a lens to the right to mount it, and then to the left to release it. This means that at times you inadvertently loosen the lens hood, as they all rotate the same direction.

If you use use multiple systems (as I do), you are forever rotating lenses and lens caps the wrong direction because everything else rotates the opposite direction. Minor rant aside, let’s move on, as that’s not likely to change at this point.

The overall control ergonomics are very good, particularly if you are accustomed to how Nikon’s controls work. My least favorite aspect of Nikon’s control scheme remains the process for adjusting either ISO or Exposure Compensation, which is a two step process requiring you to hit the requisite button and then rotate the rear control dial. I immediately change the F7 setting in the custom menu to allow you to release the button before using the dial, as otherwise you have to hold the button down the whole time you rotate the dial.

Other systems will often give you more direct access to those controls on a wheel or dial. I would like to see Nikon move away from the rear D-pad and put a control wheel there like Sony which would enable direct access to at least one of these functions.

Outside of this, however, I think the control scheme is pretty great. I particularly appreciate the two custom buttons (Fn) on the front near the grip, which is more of a professional level feature that none of the competitors in this class offer.

Each of these can be assigned a function from a huge range of choices.

I do miss the sensor cover that Nikon implemented on its higher end models, as the first thing I noticed on my loaner when I took the camera cap off was some dust on the sensor.

The Nikon Z6III is Nikon’s next tier up camera, and one key feature it has that the Z5II lacks is a top mounted LCD.

That can be very useful, but you’ll also pay about a $500 premium to move up to this level.

Besides that omission, the control scheme on the top is straightforward.

The front section near the shutter has a cluster of controls, including a ON-OFF switch that surrounds the shutter button itself, allowing for quick one handed operation. Beneath the shutter button is the front control wheel. There is also a exposure compensation button along with a dedicated ISO button. Both of those functions work in the fashion that you hold the button down while rotation the rear wheel to change the value. The final button is a video recording button.

To the right of the viewfinder stack we have the main mode dial. It doesn’t have a locking mechanism, and it did get bumped to a different mode a few times if I had the camera packed in a smaller case. We have the typical PASM modes along with an auto mode and three user setups. There is another button there that defaults to the picture style controls, though it can be programmed to other functions if so desired.

The rear wheel at the upper right corner of the camera in the back is the default means of scrolling through different values.

The viewfinder stack has the standard hotshoe on the top, but, as of yet, Nikon has not matched Sony’s multi-interface shoe that can also record digital audio through appropriate microphones. That viewfinder stack as a diopter on the right side and a button that allows you to switch between different viewing modes on the left side. This will allow you to lock into just LCD, monitor, or switching between the two in different ways.

The basic specifications of the viewfinder are similar to higher end cameras like the Z8 at 3.69m dots. At the Z8 level, this amount of resolution is underperforming, but on the Z5II this is actually at the top of the class, and Nikon’s viewfinders are quite good. The brightness is rated at 3000 nits, which Nikon claims is 6x brighter than competitors. It gives for a more natural viewing experience. If you are shooting a static subject, expect essentially blackout free conditions, but if you are tracking a moving subject, I did see backout in better frames, which does complicate tracking somewhat.

I also vastly prefer the center position for the viewfinder to the left side oriented viewfinder of the Sony a7C series.

The LCD screen is also a highlight. It is a little larger than competing LCD screens (3.2″ vs 3″) and also has higher resolution at 2.1 million dots. The lowest resolution is the Sony a7C with just 921,600 dots. The Z5II’s LCD very bright and clear, and usable in a variety of lighting conditions. It is fully articulating, allowing you to do front monitoring. Touch responsiveness seems good.

The back of the camera should seem pretty familiar to those who have used Nikon before. On the upper left side there is a shooting mode button (changes will require using the rear control wheel just like changing ISO or exposure compensation). There is also a delete button with the garbage can logo on it. The right side has a Display button surrounded by a toggle for switching between stills and video control setups. And yes, you can assign unique control assignments for both (different functions for buttons, for example). There is an AF-ON button next to that, and below that is first the control joystick (can be clicked for a secondary function) and the “i” button to access the quick menu.

Underneath that is a D-pad for navigation with the OK/Select button in the center. Another cluster of buttons include the Menu button along with the Playback button and the ability to either zoom in or zoom out via a final pair of buttons.

The right side of the camera has a nicely executed compartment for the memory cards. There are two UHS-II rated SD card slots. There are obviously newer/superior card formats, but UHS-II cards are definitely fast enough for this level of resolution. More importantly, we have two card slots where competing cameras only offer one.

The majority of the connection ports are found on the left side of the camera. These are found under two rubberized port covers that unfortunately don’t open like doors and instead just sort of hang around. The left section has a 3.5mm mic input along with a 3.5mm headphone monitoring output which doubles as a remote trigger port. The right side has a USB-C (USB 3.2 / 3.1 Gen 1) along with a micro-HDMI port. I don’t love micro-HDMI, but that is the standard for this class of camera.

The battery compartment is on the bottom of the camera, and houses a Nikon EN-EL15c battery pack. It is a 2280mAh (16Wh) battery that is similar in capacity to the battery in the a7C but much larger than the one in the R8. The battery pack is rated for just 380 shots, so buying a spare or two is worth doing. The smaller pack in the R8 delivers even less, though the a7C delivers considerably more.

Nikon’s in camera VR (Vibration Reduction) is CIPA rated up to 7.5 stops, which exceeds the rating on the Z8. I find Nikon’s VR works excellent in general, and seems to do a better job with third party lenses than what I see on systems like Sony. The great thing about in-body-image stabilization is that you can use it with all lenses, including those without lens-based stabilization. I use the Viltrox AF 50mm F2 AIR for this shot, and effortlessly got a stable 1/13th of a second shot in fading light.

If you have a lens that doesn’t have electronics, be sure to manually set the focal length to help get better stabilization results.

One other positive for Nikon’s approach to lenses without electronics (I’m doing a review of an upcoming lens on the platform right now) is that it allows you to set up a number of “non-CPU lenses” (lenses without electronics) and assign a name to those lenses along with a focal length so that the camera can set the proper VR setting and also provide at least a lens designation for EXIF data. That’s very helpful to someone like me who reviews many lenses every year, as lenses without electronics are harder to search for in Lightroom.

The MSRP for the Z5II in the US is $1696, and this is a remarkably complete feature set for a full frame camera this price point. This is the same price as an APS-C model like the Fujifilm X-T5.

Shutter and Buffer Depth

The Z5II has a typical mechanical shutter, though as mentioned, we can get a maximum shutter speed in mechanical of 1/8000th second rather than the 1/4000th of a second that is common in this class. While the Z6III has a similar resolution point as the Z5II, it uses a different partially stacked sensor that has a faster readout speed. What that means is that you do have the potential on the Z5II for a bit more rolling shutter when shooting fast action, though real world performance seems good enough that most people won’t have a big issue with this.

I didn’t feel like I could track bees quite as well as on the Z8, but I was able to get a lot of impressively good shots in just a minute or two.

The maximum flash sync speed (X-sync speed) of the Z5II is 1/200th of a second, which is about average for this class. If you need faster sync speed, move into HSS mode, which gives you a bit less power output from your flashes but allows for much faster sync speeds.

We don’t get any secondary electronic shutter speed upper limit, so the 1/8000th shutter speed limit is the shutter speed limit. That’s a full stop better than 1/4000th of a shutter speed limit, which where some competitors are with their mechanical shutters.

The original Z5 had a burst speed of just 4.5 shots per second. That’s been more than doubled to 11FPS on the Z5II. You can squeeze a bit more speed out than that, though with compromises. You can shoot a little faster in silent mode, though Nikon indicates 14FPS as being possible. There are expanded modes where shooting is possible up to 15FPS and even 30FPS, but with some compromises, including being limited to shooting JPEGs only. Shooting in silent mode is going to produce other compromises, so I would use 11FPS as your practical limit for most situations.

Nikon is a little less forthcoming with buffer depth than other brands. Photographylife.com tested the Z5II and found that there was a limit imposed of 200 frames at slower speeds, and that dropped as low as 145 frames at faster 11FPS burst speed. That figure is actually bit better than competing models in this class. For most people that will be enough speed and enough depth to capture action.

With two card slots you do have different sorting and backup options available.

Autofocus for Stills

The Z5II benefits from the Z9 era improvements to Nikon’s autofocus. The Z5II uses a lower maximum number of focus points of 299, though frankly we’ve reached a point where this figure is increasingly less relevant. What matters is that most of the frame is covered with AF points, allowing you to focus and track pretty much anywhere. This is the typical hybrid AF system we see in modern mirrorless cameras, where the Phase Detect system is backed by a Contrast AF system.

The tracking recognizes up to nine distinct subjects, including people, dogs, cats, birds, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, airplanes, and trains. This subject recognition and tracking applies to both stills and video.

As per usual, you have a wide range of options for how large of an area that you want autofocus to focus on, but most of the time I just leave it the widest area or with 3D tracking enabled, and the AF generally does a great job.

Nikon has added a pre-release capture mode, which allows the camera to start capturing images when the shutter is half depressed, assuring that you don’t miss critical moments.

Nikon’s focus is pretty excellent now, even when a cat decides to interrupt your formal sensor tests.

Focus is effective in a variety of lighting conditions, including extreme low light. Nikon claims autofocus in as dim of conditions as -10 EV, which is remarkable. And, while focus was much slower, I was able to lock focus in near dark conditions even with the Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB lens. This is a 1/5th of a second shot at ISO 12,800, F1.8 (which, by the way, does show off the impressive VR capabilities of this camera as well!)

I’ve used these Nikon bodies in less extreme but very dim ceremonies and events and gotten good focus results.

All in all, I’ve found the Z5II to be a very competent autofocusing camera that is right up there among the best I’ve used from Canon and Sony. The fact that the ergonomics of the camera are so good helps assure that bigger telephoto lenses will work fine on it as well.

Manual Focus on Nikon

I’ve actually really enjoyed the various Nikon focus aids and the overall manual focus experience on Nikon. Here’s a few reasons why:

1. Clear, useful EVF. I’ve got much higher resolution viewfinders on Sony cameras, but Sony viewfinders do some weird things when the shutter is half depressed. And I typically want the shutter half depressed when manually focusing, as this helps stabilize the viewfinder while I focus. Nikon’s viewfinder is clear and makes it easy to see focus moving as I turn the manual focus ring.
2. Effective IBIS (VR). I’ve been impressed with the real world stability of Nikon’s in camera VR. It works effectively and allows for both a stable viewfinder experience as a I focus and also stable results when I take the shot. To my knowledge, no manual focus lens to this point has included lens-based image stabilization, so having effective in-camera stabilization is very important.
3. Useful manual focus aids. There are three primary manual focus aids that I’ve utilized when manually focusing, including the onscreen focus confirmation box (put it where you want focus to be, and it will turn green when proper focus has been achieved), magnification of the image to visually confirm focus, and focus overlays (peaking). With some lenses Nikon includes a directional arrow that points you the direction you need to turn the focus ring to focus in the right direction, but that isn’t always the case. I’ve found that the focus box is quite accurate, though, and it makes manual focus fairly easy.

If you change the D18 setting in the custom menu, you can get behavior when magnifying the image more similar to what I see on Canon or Sony (half depressing the shutter will cancel the magnification). The photos above I took with the lovely little manual-focus-only Thypoch Simera 28mm F1.4.

Video Autofocus

I initially was a little disappointed with video autofocus on Nikon cameras until I discovered that I needed to be a little more hands on with the settings. I couldn’t use default settings and get the results I wanted in the way I could with Canon or Nikon. Once adjusting those settings (which largely focus on sharpening the focus response), I mostly get the results I’m looking for.

I will sometimes see a few more pulses, and just a slightly less amount of confidence in focusing…particularly when a trackable subject isn’t in frame.

I used the Z5II for multiple segments for my YouTube channel and got very solid results in those settings with multiple lenses.

Video Performance

The Nikon Z5II has a fairly robust set of video specs for this class of camera.

You can get up to 4K60, though this will come with a substantial 1.5x crop factor.

We get 10-bit H.265 support, 12-bit N-RAW filming (plan for a big card, as this is filmed at 420Mbps, N-Log, no crop at 4K/30P, the addition FullHD/120P, and even a new set of available LUTs developed with RED.

Just to give you an idea of the difference between 8 bit and 12 bit video, while 8 bit video can produce 16.77 million colors (that’s a lot!), 12 bit video can produce up to 68 billion different color variations!! That results in richer video with more tonality and subtle details.

Footage generally looks very good. Here’s a screenshot for a clip shot with the Nikkor Z 35mm F1.8S.

As would be expected at this point, you can shoot in N-Log and HLG color profiles to give you more control over editing/grading the footage or producing high dynamic range footage. When shooting in N-Raw and with N-Log enabled, you can get as much as 14 stops of dynamic range. That’s not at the top of the heap, but is very competitive with other brands.

This sensor doesn’t have an incredibly fast readout speed, so just know that you may need to watch for rolling shutter in some situations.

Nikon does have a function similar to Sony’s Clear Image Zoom, which they call Hi-Res Zoom. Essentially this takes advantage of the high resolution of the camera by allowing some digital zoom without much (if any) quality loss. I’ve periodically used this function and it can be useful to assure you get the framing you want.

The recording limit seems pegged at 2 hours and 5 minutes, which incidentally is about as much as you would get out of a battery anyway.

Other than the heavy crop at 4K60, this is a very set of video options.

Image Quality Breakdown

The Nikon Z5II employs the same 24.5MP FX-Format CMOS Sensor found in a camera like the Zf. The Z6III has a sensor with similar resolution, but it is a partially stacked sensor that is better tuned for sports use. While the Z5II doesn’t have the same sensor as the flagship Z8 and Z9 cameras, it does inherit the EXPEED 7 processing unit. The 45MP sensor found in cameras like my Z8 has better specs than this sensor and also starts at a lower base ISO 64. The sensor in the Z5II has a more traditional base ISO of 100. It’s native ISO range is 100-51,200.

While I don’t find 24MP particularly compelling at this stage (all of my cameras offer much higher resolution), this is still sufficient resolution for most applications and can produce nicely detailed image with good colors and saturation levels.

We’ll break down the performance in a little more detail in a variety of areas, from dynamic range to ISO and more.

Dynamic Range

Dynamic range has become one those topics that was really debated ad nauseum on photography forums, particularly when there was more of a difference between certain brands. It was an area where photographers could brag, “my camera is better than yours!” That’s become less common in recent years, however, as there really isn’t much of a difference between brands any longer.  As I noted previously, Nikon’s 24.5MP sensor is running a little behind Canon and Sony’s equivalent sensor, but as you can see from this chart (courtesy of Photons to Photos), it isn’t by a wide margin.

Dynamic range is the ratio between the darkest point and the brightest point possible on a sensor. The more “stops” there are between those two points mean that more and more information can be recorded in a single frame. I can definitely say that there are a number of situations where improved dynamic range gives the photographer (and particularly the post-processor) more latitude to fulfill their vision. This could be in the ability to recover a blown-out sky or shadowed area as a landscape photographer or the ability to balance a foreground subject with a background or sky for portrait photographers. 

Good dynamic range gives you a lot of control over how a final image will look. In this shot, for example, there is a huge variance between the brightest point (the sky and the street lamp) and the shadows of the foreground. I’ve exaggerated that recovery on the right side, pretty much maximizing the sliders to reduce the highlights and raise the shadows.

Now, to be clear, I don’t actually prefer the result on the right, but it does show you how much modern cameras allow you to tweak a single image.

According to Photons to Photos, the Z5II delivers 11.15 stops of dynamic range, which falls slightly behind the Canon R8 (11.58 stops) and the Sony a7C (11.59 stops). In the Nikon space, that’s only a bit behind the 11.32 stops they cite for the Z8.

This is at base ISO, however (ISO 64 for the Z8, ISO 100 for Canon and Nikon), but we see that the Canon advantage does remain throughout the ISO range.

So how does the Z5II’s sensor hold up in my tests?

We will start with shadow recovery. In my tests I start with an established base exposure shot of a photography themed still life setup that I use. It looks like this:

This is what I’m calling the proper exposure for the scene, the baseline. In a subsequent series of images I progressively underexposed the image by 1-5 stops so that I could measure how cleanly the shadows could be recovered. The goal is to avoid color shifts, additional noise, or other artifacts from this process. Our goal should be to see a recovered result that looks as similar to the baseline result above as possible.

Modern cameras are often very good with shadow recovery, and that’s the case with the Z5II. There isn’t much to see at 1-3 stops, so I’ll skip right to the 4 stop recovery. Below you can see the captured result (four stops underexposure) and then the result after I’ve add those 4 stops back in.

If we go back and compare to the original properly exposed image, we find that one definite strength of the Z5II is color fastness. The two images look remarkably similar with no color casts.

Looking in at a pixel level, we can see that the two results still look quite similar.

The color balance looks remarkably similar.

This was a good enough result that I pushed on to five stops. There’s a bit more noise now and a bit of a magenta color shift, but the image is still very usable, and that’s from an original where you couldn’t hardly see anything because the image was so dark.

Modern cameras also tend towards being less sufficient at recovering highlights than shadows. Overexposure causes texture to be lost in bright highlight areas, and it will also result in certain colors starting to disappear (which is why I include the color swatch board in the scene). In this series I progressively overexposure the image by 1-4 stops and then try to recover the highlights by reducing the exposure in post. At two stops of exposure you can see the loss of details in the image on the left. Colors and texture information have been lost in overexposed areas, but the right side shows a successful recovery of that information.

We can see that colors have reemerged in the swatches, and, if we look closely, we can see that lost textures in the metal of the camera have been recovered successfully.

The recovery looks very natural, so that’s what I define as a successful recovery. Somewhere between 2 and 3 stops we start to find the limit, however.

The three stop recovery isn’t bad, but it isn’t perfect. You can see that there are a few places where the texture off the metal of the SLR is lost, and the whole image hasn’t recovered to a fully natural brightness (it feels underexposed.). Moving on to four stops produces a wholly unusable image.

This result is pretty consistent with what I’m seeing from other similar cameras, as the numbers from Photons to Photos suggests. There’s enough real world dynamic range to take difficult landscape scenes and get a more compelling image out of them. I’ve done a more subtle recovery here to allow us to see the foreground rocks in the image hinted at, more colors in the sunset, and more gradations in the color of the water.

Often leaving highlights or shadows crushed actually produces a more compelling image, but there are other times when having good dynamic range allows you to save an image that would otherwise be lost. I would rather have the capability and not use it than need it and not have it.

ISO Performance

High resolution cameras are often disadvantaged relative to lower resolution cameras due to having more pixels packed into the same area. When viewed at a pixel level, far more flaws are in evidence. This in theory should help the Z5II out relative to something like the Z8 or Z9. The native ISO range of the Z5II is 100-51,200, though it is expandable in both directions (at a cost to image quality)

As you raise the ISO, the goal is to have as little additional noise as possible, no obvious colors shifts, and to avoid patterns in areas of the image that should be uniform (like blank walls, for example). Through ISO 1600 there is no problem. All I can see is some very faint pattern noise in the color swatches as compared to the base ISO on the left:

The pattern at ISO 3200 is largely the same, though with just a bit more noise. It’s still clean, overall, but I can see the shadows lifting just a bit due to the noise (black levels aren’t as deep). The results on a global level still look large the same.

ISO 6400 still looks fairly clean. There is a bit more noise, and the black levels aren’t quite as good, but I’m impressed with the color fastness. There is no color cast and the images still look surprisingly similar.

At ISO 12.800, we can see that the noise is getting rougher, but I’m not seeing any banding or color cast, and frankly the black levels look pretty good to my eye.

How about a real world image at ISO 12,800? This shot looks completely natural at a global level.

Punch in to a pixel level and you can that the noise is fairly rough, but I would still consider this useful.

I have to say that I was quite pleasantly surprised by what I found at very high ISO levels, too. The noise pattern continues to roughen, but the shadows stay fairly dark and there is no apparent color shift.

Kudos, Nikon. That’s pretty great.

Resolution

As noted, the 24.5MP resolution of the slightly bests the 24MP sensor of either the Sony or the Canon competitors. That’s 6048 x 4032 pixels versus the 6000 x 4000 pixel resolution of the competing sensors. I prefer higher resolution, but I also remember a day not that long ago when this was more resolution than what was available on any camera. This is enough for printing quite large, but not if you need to start cropping into the image. That means that DX crop (APS-C) isn’t particularly useful at a 3984 x 2656 (10.5MP)

The Z5II essentially gives you 3 options when shooting RAWs: Lossless Compressed (which averages roughly 30MB in file size), High Efficiency* (roughly 16MB), and High Efficiency (roughly 12MB). There isn’t really other full frame resolution options to choose other than the DX crop.

You don’t have as much cropping options as with a camera like the Z8, obviously.

If I crop into this image to get a different composition, I end up with just 5.5MP of resolution.

Enough for social media, but not for anything critical. This is enough resolution for minor crops, but don’t go crazy.

There is a pixel shift mode on the Z5II where the camera will quickly take up to 32 images with slight shifts to the sensor to produce an end result up to 96MP, though this will require using the free NX Studio software to stitch it together. Here’s how much more information is in that 96MP image at a 100% magnification level compared to the single image.

It could potentially be useful for certain scenes, though you have to be sure there is no movement.

Color Science

Every company has a slightly different approach to color science. Of the four major brands that I regularly use, I would probably rank Canon and Fuji in my top bracket with Sony and Nikon on the lower bracket, but with the recognition that there isn’t much of a difference. What’s more, you do have the ability to tweak the “recipe” for color within camera. I’ve mostly been happy with colors out of the Z5II.

Skin tones look nice.

How’s this for some color pop?

Adapters like the Megadap ETZ21 Pro or the Neewer NW-ETZ allow you to use Sony FE lenses on the Z5II, and they work nicely.

While Nikon can’t really match Fuji in the film simulation department, it does have a number of color profiles/”looks” in camera, and a number of those are interesting. There’s a wide variety of options, including a number of good monochrome options that filter certain colors for different looks.

After having run my typical battery of sensor tests, I think this sensor is perhaps a bit underrated. It did pretty good in all my tests.

You can check out a variety of images from different lenses in the image gallery here.

Conclusion

I consider the Nikon Z5II to be a remarkable success as a camera. I often find reviewing cameras in this class fairly frustrating, as you can see the potential of the camera being intentionally held back by the manufacturer. I don’t feel like that after having reviewed the Z5II. Yes, there are places that I can tell that it isn’t a flagship camera, but most of them are not in places where the ordinary photographer is going to notice. Casual photographers don’t need 8K video, 30 frames per second, 45MP, or to mess with CFExpress cards.

What they need is a camera just like the Nikon Z5II; a mini jack-of-all-trades of camera that is remarkably capable in a wide variety of disciplines. I can’t think of a camera I’d choose over this one even if you extended the price margin up to $2000.

The Nikon Z5II currently retails for about $1700 USD, and while that’s more than the Canon R8, I’d choose the Z5II over the R8 any day of the week. It has IBIS, better battery life, a broader lens selection (including an increasing number of excellent third party lenses), and has dual card slots. It’s generally a lot of fun to use, and it is no wonder that the Z5II is propelling the Nikon brand upwards. I suspect it will do that for some time to come.

Pros:

• The most fully featured camera in this class
• Extremely versatile camera is pretty good at everything
• Excellent grip and general ergonomics
• Has a better viewfinder and monitor than competitors
• Includes outstanding VR
• Excellent autofocus capabilities
• Buffer specs are very competitive
• Does not penalize third party lenses
• Good video specs
• Strong sensor performance in all tested areas
• Outstanding price to performance ratio

Cons:

• Rotations are opposite to all other camera systems I’ve tested
• Reliance on rear wheel for adjustments isn’t as ergonomic as it could be
• Considerably heavier than competition

_________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

________________________________________________________Purchase the Nikon Z5II @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

_________________________________________________________________

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Keywords: Nikon, Nikon Z5 II, Z, Z5II, Z-mount, Z5II, Review, mirrorless, Full Frame, Sports, Tracking, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Handling, Focus, Portraits, Resolution, High ISO, Image Quality, Sample Images, Photography, 24MP, #letthelightin, #DA, #NIKON, #Z5II, #NIKONZ5II