Nikon – Z 6 II 4k Video Mirrorless Camera with NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 Lens – Black

The Nikon Z6 was and still is a great camera, but has been heavily derided by reviewers on the ‘Tube. Some of the criticisms were unjustified, while others had some merit. The Z6 II fills in any of the gaps that caused these criticisms.The TLDR of this camera is that its a refined Z6. Nikon listened and updated the Z6 in every was that was necessary.Still, the reviewers will hold this up against the Sonys and the Canons, but Nikon’s target audience is not people switching camera systems. Instead, Nikon’s audience is its own current DSLR consumer base who may want to go mirrorless.The theme for the Z6 II (note that Nikon does not call it a “Mark II”) is two of everything.Internally, this camera is faster and has a larger buffer, due to the inclusion of a second processor.Continuous High shooting speed has increased by two frames per second from 12 to 14.There are now two card slots (1 XQD/CFExpress Type B and a USH-II SD card). I wish there were two of the same cards for convenience. The Z5 has two SD card slots if you prefer that.The Z6 II supports a vertical battery grip with buttons for taking photos in portrait orientation. So now there are two sets of buttons, with the optional grip.It has the same sensor as the Z6, so no changes there.Currently as of this writing (November 15, 2020), none of the major photo editing software packages have been updated to support the .NEF raw files it produces. This is normal for newly released cameras, and the updates should be coming soon. In the meantime, you can shoot raw and jpeg so you can edit the raw files later. Alternatively, you can use Nikon’s Capture NX software.My firmware is 1.00. Firmware updates will make it even better (like the video updates coming in February 2021).It uses the en-el15c battery, but accepts the older en-el15 and en-el15b batteries.I think the greatest improvement so far is the wide area eye detection, where you can enable a red box in the viewfinder that restricts the eye detection to only eyes inside the red box. This way, you are giving the camera a helping hand as to where you want it to look for eyes. This is a rather unique approach that I don’t believe any other camera system supports.Overall, the Z6 II feels familiar more than it feels different. In fact, if you have a Z6, you may not need to upgrade to the Z6 II, depending on your needs. If you are a still life, street, or portrait photographer, your Z6 is still a great camera. Pros and wedding photographers (business owners) will probably want to upgrade though for the autofocus, dual card slots, and speed improvements. If you shoot fast action or wildlife, I think this is a great upgrade for you due to the speed improvements.This is the complete camera from Nikon. Nikon has given everyone what they wanted in the Z6 II.

I have been wanting to switch to mirrorless for several years, and this is the camera that…

I do really love this camera. I was unsure at first but quickly discovered the many benefits of…

As a very happy Nikon Z6 owner, I questioned this upgrade. Nikon (for once) provided a series of strong updates to the original Z6/Z7 firmware, especially with the addition of eye (subject) detection that made it a much stronger camera over time. What ultimately drove me to update was the addition of dual card slots (redundancy, split RAW+JPG), a much deeper buffer for continuous shooting, and faster autofocus. I am pleased with my decision, but your priorities may differ.First of all, image quality is outstanding, and equal to the Z6 (it uses the same 24MP sensor). Frankly, there wasn’t much to improve there in my opinion.Burst processing is dramatically improved, and the buffer is much deeper, allowing you to capture live-action shots at a faster rate (14 fps if you use 12-bit not 14-bit RAW), and many more shots. This alone may be worth the upgrade for many photographers.For me, the dual card slots were a major driving factor. It’s annoying that they are different form factors (XQD/CFExpress and UHS-II SDXC), but you have a variety of menu options for how you store photos and videos, which slot has “priority”, and the ability to duplicate everything to both cards or split NEF RAW and JPG between them. You can also use the cards sequentially as overflow, although that kind of defeats the purpose of redundancy. All of this in a body that is exactly the same dimensions as the original Z6.Which leads me finally to autofocus. Nikon likes to tout that the dual EXPEED processors in the Z6 II lets you autofocus 2-stops darker conditions. I took a number of shots in low lighting conditions with the same lens between my old Z6 and the new Z6 II, and although the Z6 II focuses faster, it wasn’t noticeable enough (for me) to justify the upgrade on this alone. I will say that the Z6 II adds new autofocus modes not available in the Z6, including Eye (People or Pets) to Video capture, as well as the ability to specify a smaller frame to focus on eyes. This functionality provides perhaps more accurate autofocus with complex subjects.All-in-all a very worthwhile upgrade for me from the original Z6, but your mileage / priorities my vary.

Great camera, a vast improvement over the original Z 6. Auto Focus is fast and reliable. Bud…