Review - Nikon Z5 Is An Entry-Level Full-Frame Shooter With Few Compromises!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwelcome everybody to apple insider it is andrew here and today we are talking about this guy yeah you can't probably see too much in this shot but this is the brand new nikon z5 now it is fall which means it is basically camera season alongside iphone season so today we're going to be talking about the z5 we're going to compare the z5 which is nikon's new entry level full frame mirrorless camera and we're going to compare it to the z6 and then just kind of give you a whole pile of sample photo sample shots and let you guys kind of make decisions for yourself we're also going to talk about connectivity and how this works with all of your apple gear so let's go ahead and dive into this thing checking out the nikon z5 entry level full frame mirrorless camera before we get into our usage of the camera and our z6 compare let's just run through some of the basic specs of the nikon z5 so first up this is part of their new mirrorless line using their z mount system so it mounts to all their new z lenses though there are adapters to work with older f-mount lenses too so you don't have to worry about that there's even a range extender so you can use smaller lenses and get some additional focal length there getting some additional zoom without having to pick up completely separate lenses there's been more and more z-mount lenses coming out since the original nikon z6 and z7 were released and then we also the z50 after that so a bunch of different lenses to play around with we've been using our 35 mil 1.8 and our 24 to 70 f4 so a couple different ones that we've been playing with as well as a few of our older vintage nikon lenses using our f to z adapter looking at the ports and stuff on the camera on the left hand side you'll find a headphone jack output as well as a mic input there we also have a control button or a control input to control with a clicker as well as hdmi and a usb c port power everything up using usbc i do dislike that they put that usbc port all over the top because if there's one thing that we're using more frequently it's that usb-c port especially to connect to our ipads and our mac some bum that they put that's so high on your portlet port kind of profile here so i wish that was more towards the bottom for easier access of course on the right hand side we have our two sd card slots for redundant shooting and a lot of memory there controls everything on the back is going to be the same as it was for the z5 z6 and z7 but the top of the camera has changed now there's no longer the mode wheel there on the left hand side it's been moved to the right which is great because this thing is incredibly ergonomic and comfortable to hold in your hand we love holding onto this thing but uh before when these controls were on this side it made it a little bit difficult you had to use two hands essentially to switch modes so i'm glad they moved this for to here to over here there is no lock in place which means it is a little bit easy to bump hit a little bit a weird way and that dial can't turn around but is still in a great spot and you can control with your thumb while you were shooting no need for your extra hand in there so do like the repositioning of that wish it maybe had a lock but it had a lock you'd have to you know have an extra hand to assist in turning it uh the display is gone from up there we saw the z6 and the z7 we didn't use that display all that much so we don't mind the compromise of putting the mode button in a better place now the display on the back same thing as a z5 or the z6 and z7 but it is about half the resolution about a 1 million dots compared to 2 million dots still a very solid display and likely the viewfinder has not changed that is the same quality as the others with 100 coverage of what you're seeing on the camera the sensor is a full-frame sensor it is 24.3 megapixels just shy of the 24.5 megapixels on the z6 and well below the 42 i believe megapixels on the z7 but above the 20 ish megapixels on the z50 so a good middle option there because it's the same resolution as the z6 but there are a few changes i will talk about in a little bit uh otherwise pretty standard as far as the nikon cameras go the screen tilt it pivots down and up very comfortable it doesn't go to the sides but honestly we never really use that with the cameras that do offer that so it wasn't a huge deal for us the tilting is kind of the biggest thing so we've been using this camera for about a week now we've come from the z56 and the z7 and we've used those two extensively so we're pretty uh familiar with the z line of cameras from nikon so we knew we were kind of getting into when we were seeing out the new camera and honestly we are very impressed with this there are the small changes such as the polycarbonate body rather than the magnesium alloy for the back and the bottom of this but you really don't notice the kind of the reduction in quality it still feels extremely solid it's strong it is weatherproof dust proof so even if you get caught out in the rain you're okay there it's always the five axis stabilizer in there so if you're shooting on any of the new lenses you have five axis stabilization in the camera and if you're going to any older cameras or older lenses uh sony's or nikon's vr lenses as we see here these guys you still get three additional axes of stabilization so it still builds on that and adds additional benefits to those older lenses so we just love that in here and one feature we love shooting with a nice fast aperture opening things all the way up and this thing can actually shoot at 1 over 8 000 per second which is incredibly fast so you can shoot with an incredibly fast aperture and have a really quick shutter speed without having to throw that variable nd filter on the front of your camera so just incredibly quick shots and i love that that kind of level of feature made it into what is supposed to be an entry level camera we've honestly had no real qualms with this our biggest issues with this camera are the limitations on how fast you can shoot only 4.5 shots per second and the crop factor on video those are our biggest gripes with this camera otherwise this is an absolute slam dunk i mean you're several hundred dollars cheaper than the z6 and it has pretty much everything you need image quality is going to be on par until you're looking at really low light shots and shadows where you're going to miss that backside illuminated sensor but otherwise this thing has been crisp and you can see all of our sample shots we've taken with this these are all unedited right off the sensor just everything looks absolutely crispy we are in love with this camera it lacks a little bit on that video side but that is what the z6 is for this thing is incredible we have loved nikon z lenses z camera z mount cameras and this is just another slam dunk i mean it's cheaper than the z6 but you got everything that you need here even stabilization the incredibly fast shooting the autofocus system we had a few issues with that early on with the z6 and z7 but nikon fixed that with some updates for better tracking and this takes advantage of all of those changes here so any of the issues that we had before with the autofocus system boom now it doesn't seem to be as sticky sometimes sometimes we notice it picks up a little bit on the background versus the foreground subject but it was like once or twice really in our shooting and it's so easy just to tap on the screen where you want to focus boom done good to go so there was no issues there as far as using this with your apple gear this is what you need so there are a few different things one usbc connect it over to your ipad you go to the files app you can transfer to external drives or jump into photos there's full support for the raw shots on this right away so no issue working with raw photos over on the ipad or on the mac there's also the mobile app snapbridge snapbridge allows you to easily transfer all of your photos from your camera over to your iphone or ipad it can do two megapixel shots or it can do full resolution shots to take a little bit longer it can connect over wi-fi also connecting over bluetooth they can actually add all the metadata for gps geotagging so you get all your location data synced to your photos on here you can also capture all of your shots with the snapbridge app connect it and you can shoot in full manual mode you can also jump into ap or s and change all those settings as well so you can really frame your shot line everything up don't have to touch your camera to fire so you have to worry about jiggling anything you don't need an actual remote to go along with it and you can shoot in video mode as well you can add a timer so you can literally be in a group shot frame everything up then fire it hide your phone away boom take your group shot all directly from your phone with this thing very easy to control and use the camera as well as getting those photos across using that snap bridge application so we're going to be comparing this primarily against the z6 now the z50 is lower is cheaper than the z5 but the z50 is a crop sensor dx sensor where this is an fx sensor is a full frame sensor and we're just going to be comparing kind of full frame cameras here the z5 to the z6 the inch level to the kind of intermediate model now they both come in with a roughly 24 megapixel sensor they both have the same xspeed 6 processor but there are a few differences there so one the z6 has a backside illuminated sensor a bsi sensor which is actually similar to what apple is doing over on the iphone side and basically that backside illuminated sensor allows more light to come into the sensor just gives a little bit better low light performance to the z6 you'll notice a lot in studio shots or anything that is particularly low light in your notes in the shadows there's going to be more grain more noise on the z5 than the z6 now it's not a ton we did shoot quite a few of these and we didn't notice anything that was going to be like no we have to go with the z6 because of that but it is something that you're going to notice we also noticed that with the isos the z6 is able to achieve a and four thousand eight hundred equivalent iso where the z5 only goes up to a hundred and two thousand four hundred equivalent i also mentioned that these have the same processor in there but the z5 is only capable of 4.5 shots a second where the z6 can get up to 12. this is a little bit bothersome for us now 4.5 is actually pretty standard for its class but considering that the z6 with the same processor is able to shoot 12 frames per second it seems like nikon may have artificially limited that to make there a bigger difference between the z5 and the z6 still the z5 is able to get an impressive 100 shot buffer you can shoot burst mode four and a half per second for a hundred shots before that buffer starts to kick in and that is absolutely impressive a truly pro level feature that we are really happy to see in this entry-level camera the z5 also struggles a little bit with video now nikon has really positioned the z6 as the filmmaker's camera the vloggers camera they literally even sell a filmmaker's package partnering it with the atmos recorder and everything that you need to shoot video with the z6 whereas the z5 is really meant for photography the biggest difference is there is when you're shooting in 4k you're actually going to get a 1.7 times crop so you're cropped in a little bit which definitely makes a difference especially if you're shooting something up close you're really going to notice that crop factor uh honestly for video we're definitely looking at the z6 there's a huge bunch of differences the z6 has compared to the z5 as well as even the z7 so the z6 is where it is at for filmography and vloggers video makers definitely the z6 it also has pro res raw output to those atmos recorders if you pay for the 200 upgrade again all on the z6 not here on the z5 but do not worry the z5 definitely kicks butt there are a few things that the z5 does that are actually better than the z6 and possibly even the z7 first up is those memory card slots we kind of showed this off there are two uh s2 sd card slots in here so one it's using sd now sd is not quite as good as the qxt or cf express cards that we're getting on the z6 and z7 but because there are two slots you have that redundancy so you can shoot photos on one and video on the other your jpegs to one and dike up raw's on the other or just two sets of jpegs so that way if something ever happens to one card you have a backup a lot of pros prosumers are going to love the redundancy aspect of having two card slots in there and sds a little bit slower and have smaller capacities than cfx press they at least are readily available and far far cheaper you can pick those things up for nothing and a lot of computers even have readers already built in picking up an imac already got a reader built in there and the readers are just completely prevalent out there so it's very easy to get a hold of another big difference is this is using the en elc battery whereas the z6 and z7 are using the en elb battery when you have the b model it basically enables the in-camera charging and if you put an en elb battery in here it can do the in-camera charging over usbc but what makes the z5 different and this is a feature that it only has is it can actually be charged over usbc while you're shooting it has continuous power mode so you can throw this thing up on a tripod and continue to charge it powered up over usbc so that's very unique here that en elc c battery also gives you a larger battery life than the z6 and the z7 regardless if you're using the viewfinder or the monitor on the back so some impressive power components to the z5 the mirrorless camera market has been heating up we are seeing new cameras from panasonic from sony from canon and of course we're seeing them from nikon and they're all vying for your attention nikon has done a great job they're one of the oldest names in cameras and they made the cognizant decision here to focus really on photos and they have done that they have delivered an incredible photo experience on a cheaper camera than the z6 with all the benefits of its z mount line full-frame camera entry level pretty much everything you need from the pro levels even though this is an entry-level camera nothing about it feels like an empty entry level camera and of course it works amazingly well with all your apple gear your iphone your ipad and of course your mac so it really has everything an apple user is looking for if you guys want to grab one of these they sell them a standalone if you already got some z lenses around but if not they have a few kit options too and you're looking for video step up go to the z6 maybe pick up that filmmaker kit get get it bundled with an atmos recorder but either way i want to know what you guys think what do you think of all of our sample shots that we showed off let me know down below in the comments or reach me on twitter at andrew underscore osu and stay tuned to apple insider for all your apple news as well as future camera reviews youwelcome everybody to apple insider it is andrew here and today we are talking about this guy yeah you can't probably see too much in this shot but this is the brand new nikon z5 now it is fall which means it is basically camera season alongside iphone season so today we're going to be talking about the z5 we're going to compare the z5 which is nikon's new entry level full frame mirrorless camera and we're going to compare it to the z6 and then just kind of give you a whole pile of sample photo sample shots and let you guys kind of make decisions for yourself we're also going to talk about connectivity and how this works with all of your apple gear so let's go ahead and dive into this thing checking out the nikon z5 entry level full frame mirrorless camera before we get into our usage of the camera and our z6 compare let's just run through some of the basic specs of the nikon z5 so first up this is part of their new mirrorless line using their z mount system so it mounts to all their new z lenses though there are adapters to work with older f-mount lenses too so you don't have to worry about that there's even a range extender so you can use smaller lenses and get some additional focal length there getting some additional zoom without having to pick up completely separate lenses there's been more and more z-mount lenses coming out since the original nikon z6 and z7 were released and then we also the z50 after that so a bunch of different lenses to play around with we've been using our 35 mil 1.8 and our 24 to 70 f4 so a couple different ones that we've been playing with as well as a few of our older vintage nikon lenses using our f to z adapter looking at the ports and stuff on the camera on the left hand side you'll find a headphone jack output as well as a mic input there we also have a control button or a control input to control with a clicker as well as hdmi and a usb c port power everything up using usbc i do dislike that they put that usbc port all over the top because if there's one thing that we're using more frequently it's that usb-c port especially to connect to our ipads and our mac some bum that they put that's so high on your portlet port kind of profile here so i wish that was more towards the bottom for easier access of course on the right hand side we have our two sd card slots for redundant shooting and a lot of memory there controls everything on the back is going to be the same as it was for the z5 z6 and z7 but the top of the camera has changed now there's no longer the mode wheel there on the left hand side it's been moved to the right which is great because this thing is incredibly ergonomic and comfortable to hold in your hand we love holding onto this thing but uh before when these controls were on this side it made it a little bit difficult you had to use two hands essentially to switch modes so i'm glad they moved this for to here to over here there is no lock in place which means it is a little bit easy to bump hit a little bit a weird way and that dial can't turn around but is still in a great spot and you can control with your thumb while you were shooting no need for your extra hand in there so do like the repositioning of that wish it maybe had a lock but it had a lock you'd have to you know have an extra hand to assist in turning it uh the display is gone from up there we saw the z6 and the z7 we didn't use that display all that much so we don't mind the compromise of putting the mode button in a better place now the display on the back same thing as a z5 or the z6 and z7 but it is about half the resolution about a 1 million dots compared to 2 million dots still a very solid display and likely the viewfinder has not changed that is the same quality as the others with 100 coverage of what you're seeing on the camera the sensor is a full-frame sensor it is 24.3 megapixels just shy of the 24.5 megapixels on the z6 and well below the 42 i believe megapixels on the z7 but above the 20 ish megapixels on the z50 so a good middle option there because it's the same resolution as the z6 but there are a few changes i will talk about in a little bit uh otherwise pretty standard as far as the nikon cameras go the screen tilt it pivots down and up very comfortable it doesn't go to the sides but honestly we never really use that with the cameras that do offer that so it wasn't a huge deal for us the tilting is kind of the biggest thing so we've been using this camera for about a week now we've come from the z56 and the z7 and we've used those two extensively so we're pretty uh familiar with the z line of cameras from nikon so we knew we were kind of getting into when we were seeing out the new camera and honestly we are very impressed with this there are the small changes such as the polycarbonate body rather than the magnesium alloy for the back and the bottom of this but you really don't notice the kind of the reduction in quality it still feels extremely solid it's strong it is weatherproof dust proof so even if you get caught out in the rain you're okay there it's always the five axis stabilizer in there so if you're shooting on any of the new lenses you have five axis stabilization in the camera and if you're going to any older cameras or older lenses uh sony's or nikon's vr lenses as we see here these guys you still get three additional axes of stabilization so it still builds on that and adds additional benefits to those older lenses so we just love that in here and one feature we love shooting with a nice fast aperture opening things all the way up and this thing can actually shoot at 1 over 8 000 per second which is incredibly fast so you can shoot with an incredibly fast aperture and have a really quick shutter speed without having to throw that variable nd filter on the front of your camera so just incredibly quick shots and i love that that kind of level of feature made it into what is supposed to be an entry level camera we've honestly had no real qualms with this our biggest issues with this camera are the limitations on how fast you can shoot only 4.5 shots per second and the crop factor on video those are our biggest gripes with this camera otherwise this is an absolute slam dunk i mean you're several hundred dollars cheaper than the z6 and it has pretty much everything you need image quality is going to be on par until you're looking at really low light shots and shadows where you're going to miss that backside illuminated sensor but otherwise this thing has been crisp and you can see all of our sample shots we've taken with this these are all unedited right off the sensor just everything looks absolutely crispy we are in love with this camera it lacks a little bit on that video side but that is what the z6 is for this thing is incredible we have loved nikon z lenses z camera z mount cameras and this is just another slam dunk i mean it's cheaper than the z6 but you got everything that you need here even stabilization the incredibly fast shooting the autofocus system we had a few issues with that early on with the z6 and z7 but nikon fixed that with some updates for better tracking and this takes advantage of all of those changes here so any of the issues that we had before with the autofocus system boom now it doesn't seem to be as sticky sometimes sometimes we notice it picks up a little bit on the background versus the foreground subject but it was like once or twice really in our shooting and it's so easy just to tap on the screen where you want to focus boom done good to go so there was no issues there as far as using this with your apple gear this is what you need so there are a few different things one usbc connect it over to your ipad you go to the files app you can transfer to external drives or jump into photos there's full support for the raw shots on this right away so no issue working with raw photos over on the ipad or on the mac there's also the mobile app snapbridge snapbridge allows you to easily transfer all of your photos from your camera over to your iphone or ipad it can do two megapixel shots or it can do full resolution shots to take a little bit longer it can connect over wi-fi also connecting over bluetooth they can actually add all the metadata for gps geotagging so you get all your location data synced to your photos on here you can also capture all of your shots with the snapbridge app connect it and you can shoot in full manual mode you can also jump into ap or s and change all those settings as well so you can really frame your shot line everything up don't have to touch your camera to fire so you have to worry about jiggling anything you don't need an actual remote to go along with it and you can shoot in video mode as well you can add a timer so you can literally be in a group shot frame everything up then fire it hide your phone away boom take your group shot all directly from your phone with this thing very easy to control and use the camera as well as getting those photos across using that snap bridge application so we're going to be comparing this primarily against the z6 now the z50 is lower is cheaper than the z5 but the z50 is a crop sensor dx sensor where this is an fx sensor is a full frame sensor and we're just going to be comparing kind of full frame cameras here the z5 to the z6 the inch level to the kind of intermediate model now they both come in with a roughly 24 megapixel sensor they both have the same xspeed 6 processor but there are a few differences there so one the z6 has a backside illuminated sensor a bsi sensor which is actually similar to what apple is doing over on the iphone side and basically that backside illuminated sensor allows more light to come into the sensor just gives a little bit better low light performance to the z6 you'll notice a lot in studio shots or anything that is particularly low light in your notes in the shadows there's going to be more grain more noise on the z5 than the z6 now it's not a ton we did shoot quite a few of these and we didn't notice anything that was going to be like no we have to go with the z6 because of that but it is something that you're going to notice we also noticed that with the isos the z6 is able to achieve a and four thousand eight hundred equivalent iso where the z5 only goes up to a hundred and two thousand four hundred equivalent i also mentioned that these have the same processor in there but the z5 is only capable of 4.5 shots a second where the z6 can get up to 12. this is a little bit bothersome for us now 4.5 is actually pretty standard for its class but considering that the z6 with the same processor is able to shoot 12 frames per second it seems like nikon may have artificially limited that to make there a bigger difference between the z5 and the z6 still the z5 is able to get an impressive 100 shot buffer you can shoot burst mode four and a half per second for a hundred shots before that buffer starts to kick in and that is absolutely impressive a truly pro level feature that we are really happy to see in this entry-level camera the z5 also struggles a little bit with video now nikon has really positioned the z6 as the filmmaker's camera the vloggers camera they literally even sell a filmmaker's package partnering it with the atmos recorder and everything that you need to shoot video with the z6 whereas the z5 is really meant for photography the biggest difference is there is when you're shooting in 4k you're actually going to get a 1.7 times crop so you're cropped in a little bit which definitely makes a difference especially if you're shooting something up close you're really going to notice that crop factor uh honestly for video we're definitely looking at the z6 there's a huge bunch of differences the z6 has compared to the z5 as well as even the z7 so the z6 is where it is at for filmography and vloggers video makers definitely the z6 it also has pro res raw output to those atmos recorders if you pay for the 200 upgrade again all on the z6 not here on the z5 but do not worry the z5 definitely kicks butt there are a few things that the z5 does that are actually better than the z6 and possibly even the z7 first up is those memory card slots we kind of showed this off there are two uh s2 sd card slots in here so one it's using sd now sd is not quite as good as the qxt or cf express cards that we're getting on the z6 and z7 but because there are two slots you have that redundancy so you can shoot photos on one and video on the other your jpegs to one and dike up raw's on the other or just two sets of jpegs so that way if something ever happens to one card you have a backup a lot of pros prosumers are going to love the redundancy aspect of having two card slots in there and sds a little bit slower and have smaller capacities than cfx press they at least are readily available and far far cheaper you can pick those things up for nothing and a lot of computers even have readers already built in picking up an imac already got a reader built in there and the readers are just completely prevalent out there so it's very easy to get a hold of another big difference is this is using the en elc battery whereas the z6 and z7 are using the en elb battery when you have the b model it basically enables the in-camera charging and if you put an en elb battery in here it can do the in-camera charging over usbc but what makes the z5 different and this is a feature that it only has is it can actually be charged over usbc while you're shooting it has continuous power mode so you can throw this thing up on a tripod and continue to charge it powered up over usbc so that's very unique here that en elc c battery also gives you a larger battery life than the z6 and the z7 regardless if you're using the viewfinder or the monitor on the back so some impressive power components to the z5 the mirrorless camera market has been heating up we are seeing new cameras from panasonic from sony from canon and of course we're seeing them from nikon and they're all vying for your attention nikon has done a great job they're one of the oldest names in cameras and they made the cognizant decision here to focus really on photos and they have done that they have delivered an incredible photo experience on a cheaper camera than the z6 with all the benefits of its z mount line full-frame camera entry level pretty much everything you need from the pro levels even though this is an entry-level camera nothing about it feels like an empty entry level camera and of course it works amazingly well with all your apple gear your iphone your ipad and of course your mac so it really has everything an apple user is looking for if you guys want to grab one of these they sell them a standalone if you already got some z lenses around but if not they have a few kit options too and you're looking for video step up go to the z6 maybe pick up that filmmaker kit get get it bundled with an atmos recorder but either way i want to know what you guys think what do you think of all of our sample shots that we showed off let me know down below in the comments or reach me on twitter at andrew underscore osu and stay tuned to apple insider for all your apple news as well as future camera reviews you\n"