Nikon Z7 underwater camera review is by Backscatter.com (Facebook | Instagram | Youtube):
The Nikon Z7 is the first full-frame mirrorless camera from Nikon, and it’s a high-resolution 46-megapixel beast that produces the best overall image quality seen yet from a mirrorless camera. Team Backscatter set the camera up in a housing and headed down to the Caribbean for a comprehensive underwater field test. Read on and watch the video below to learn what underwater shooters need to know about the Nikon Z7 and why we have affectionately dubbed it the ‘Mini-D850’.
In the case of the Nikon Z7, we are comparing the image quality against the Nikon D850 – which is the Nikon Z7’s closest relative – and our current pick for best still image quality produced from any camera tested underwater so far.
One of the biggest things to consider when looking at mirrorless cameras is the Electronic Viewfinder (EVF). The lack of an optical prism and mirror within the camera body is the defining difference between Mirrorless and SLR cameras. Until now, the electronic viewfinder found on most mirrorless cameras has been our biggest turnoff. The problem is that most of them just don’t come close to the dynamic range that an optical viewfinder can display. This leaves underwater photographers to struggle when composing shots because you just can’t see what’s going on in the often underexposed foreground and overexposed background.
While it is possible to shoot only from the LCD screen and not use the electronic viewfinder at all, it is actually advantageous to use the electronic viewfinder in order to shoot as close as possible to traditional SLR style.
This can bring a number of benefits, but where it has the most impact is when shooting macro and using an expanded 45-degree viewfinder on the housing. By keeping an eye on the viewfinder, the camera and housing can be placed nice and low in the sand, and you will not have to contort your head and face into an awkward angle or get yourself buried in the sand just to see what you’re shooting.
Between electronic image quality and in-viewfinder image review, we feel that the EVF on the Nikon Z7 has raised the bar for what we expect from a mirrorless camera electronic viewfinder.
Overall the Nikon Z7 performed fairly well in the autofocus department, with good speed and accuracy. It wasn’t quite as fast as a Nikon SLR but it still felt snappy and responsive. The biggest thing to note about autofocus is that the Nikon Z7 uses an entirely new system for autofocus, both inside the camera and in terms of user control, so those migrating from a Nikon SLR may find it to be a little unfamiliar at first, but ultimately easy to adjust to and use. The Nikon Z7 has both single and continuous autofocus modes, with controls and focus points being easily accessible through the ‘i’ menu, as there is no dedicated AF button such as on an SLR body.
There is a 493-Point Phase Detect Autofocus subject tracking mode, but it’s not the same as the 3D AF Tracking Mode that we have in the Nikon D850 and Nikon D500. While this feature does a decent job on the Nikon Z7, the accuracy, intelligence, and speed of the 3D tracking on Nikon D850 is a high bar to meet. There is definitely a noticeable difference between the two when compared side by side, with the Nikon D850 taking the top spot.
Straight out of the box, most mirrorless cameras, the Nikon Z7 included, are configured by default to be shot like a compact camera – that is they expect to be shot primarily from the LCD screen. We want to set up the Nikon Z7 to shoot as close as possible to an SLR to make effective use of the electronic viewfinder.
A key setting on the Nikon Z7 is to disable the automatic image playback in the electronic viewfinder. This allows for an uninterrupted live view through the EVF, so you can shoot away without any blackout or pop-ups. This nets a faster overall shooting speed, where the only speed limitation is that of the recycle rate of our strobes.
Another helpful setting to change is the press-and-hold requirement for buttons like ISO. These are changed to ‘toggle’ so that it is not necessary to perform an awkward control-hold and dial activation simultaneously.
The Nikon Z7 captures full frame 4K 30p video at 144 megabits per second in H264, essentially sharing the same video specs as the Nikon D850. It uses the full width of the sensor when recording in 4K, so there is no crop factor to contend with when rolling video. This is excellent because it allows for super-wide fisheye shots. Additionally, it is possible to enable the crop-sensor DX mode to tighten up the shot by 1.5x without sacrificing depth of field, especially helpful for getting in tighter when shooting super macro and dealing with paper-thin depth of field.
The Nikon Z7 has 5-axis in-body image stabilization, helping to smooth out your clips for that graceful, cinematic look.
For underwater shooters, the true test of any camera’s video capabilities comes down to ambient light custom white balance color. Just like the Nikon D850 before it, the Nikon Z7 produces some truly great looking ambient light underwater color.
The white balance results look good down to about the 45-foot to 50-foot range in tropical, clear, blue water testing conditions. Between 50-feet to 55-feet is where the color began to fall apart a bit, with the water color starting to shift away from blue and more towards magenta. This is about the normal expected depth limit for most ambient light custom white balance captures, with Canon being the notable exception by capturing accurate color down to the 70 foot depth range.
The color results looked very similar to those from the Nikon D850, which was a monumental leap forward for Nikon. Consider that the Nikon D500 was basically unusable for video and that camera is still current. The Nikon Z7 is producing a massive amount of underwater color improvement over previous Nikon cameras.
There isn’t a dedicated white balance button on the camera, but the function is easily accessed through the ‘i’ menu and a new white balance can be executed super easily. This is one of the fastest and easiest to execute custom white balances out there right now. You also get 6 separate banks for storing white balances, which is awesome because we have to capture a new one every for every 10-feet of depth that we change.
The Nikon Z7 is our new favorite full frame mirrorless camera and we’ve taken to referring to it as the “Mini-D850”. It packs an awesome image quality on par with the Nikon D850 thanks to the insanely sharp 46-megapixel resolution and a native ISO value of 64 for outstanding dynamic range. It has the best electronic viewfinder that we’ve seen yet, and it displays an electronic image that is sharply defined with plenty of dynamic range detail. The autofocus was fast and accurate overall, though we do wish the Nikon Z7 had the same autofocus system and operation as the Nikon D850. While the body itself is smaller and lighter than an SLR, the overall underwater system size is about the same.
Pros
Cons
The original, full-length Nikon Z7 underwater camera review can be found here. All photos used with permission. You can follow Backscatter.com on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube.
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