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After nine years of occasionally chasing the retro-camera-with-modern-features unicorn, Nikon may have finally gotten the formula right.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Japanese camera maker is announcing the Nikon ZF, a modern mirrorless camera packed with fairly high specs \u2014 like a 24.5-megapixel full-frame sensor, 299-point tracking autofocus with subject detection, in-body image stabilization, and dual card slots (of a sort) \u2014 in a body that looks just like one of the camera\u2019s analog forebears. Nikon may have done this dance before with its trifling ZFC and long-forgotten Df DSLR, but it\u2019s correcting its main mistakes with those cameras by giving the ZF a full-frame sensor and competitive price of $1,999.95 when it launches mid-October.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
While the Df may look a whole lot like an old Nikon FM2 or FE2 film camera, it\u2019s got the same Expeed 7 processor found in Nikon\u2019s higher-end Z8 and Z9 cameras, along with much of their accouterment. The ZF has five-axis in-body image stabilization Nikon claims is good for eight stops of correction, 3D tracking autofocus, 4K 10-bit H.265 video with up to 60 frames per second cropped or 30fps full-width, an articulating 3.2-inch touchscreen, and continuous burst shooting up to 30fps. But what separates the ZF the most from the Z8 and Z9 are its vintage looks with classic dials, a dedicated switch for monochrome mode, and an audible KACHUNK-sounding mechanical shutter (the Z8 and Z9 solely use electronic shutters).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It\u2019s those looks, sounds, and feel that really give the ZF its greatest charm, as my colleague Becca Farsace got to experience in her all-too-brief hands-on time in the video above.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The ZF seems positioned primarily at photographers who idolize the cameras of yore but want the latest tech and features to get higher image quality than film can provide. It\u2019s basically Nikon\u2019s greatest answer yet to Fujifilm (which built its X-system on vintage camera aesthetics) and its biggest attempt to court film enthusiasts and those who covet Leica cameras but can\u2019t justify their super-high prices. The ZF is not nearly as hardcore of a camera as the black-and-white-only Leica M11 Monochrom, as its monochromatic mode is simply a software filter rather than part of the sensor\u2019s hardware design, but it dabbles in Leica\u2019s vibes-based world with its looks and its magnesium-alloy build.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The facade starts to break down a little once you put a non-vintage-looking Nikkor Z lens on it. There are only two old-school style \u201cSE\u201d lenses in Nikon\u2019s lineup, a 28mm f\/2.8 and a 40mm f\/2, so most of Nikon\u2019s current lenses will break your Steve McCurry cosplay a bit. You can mount true vintage glass to the ZF, but that awkwardly puts an adapter in the way. And speaking of awkwardness, while it\u2019s great the ZF supports dual card slots, it\u2019s an SD and microSD tandem \u2014 which is just kinda weird, even if I\u2019ll take what I can get.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I\u2019ll wager many of the ZF\u2019s quirks can be forgiven by the photo diehards who love a camera that looks and acts like a camera more than a laptop. I can recall the hype behind the Df in 2014 when Nikon was first teasing a return to the good ol\u2019 days. That camera might have had some success if it wasn\u2019t so expensive and wasn\u2019t a re-housed Nikon D600 body with a great sensor but the video stripped out. And when the ZFC came out in 2021, the collective groan from many of us was essentially, \u201cNice work, Nikon. Now try again, and don\u2019t make it from cheap plastic or give it a cropped sensor that you\u2019re likely to ignore with lens support.\u201d The ZF looks like it\u2019s exactly that \u2014 a metal, full-frame camera that honors Nikon\u2019s roots and uses its best glass.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n[ad_2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ad_1] After nine years of occasionally chasing the retro-camera-with-modern-features unicorn, Nikon may have finally gotten the formula right.\u00a0 The Japanese camera maker is announcing the Nikon ZF, a modern mirrorless camera packed with fairly high specs \u2014 like a 24.5-megapixel full-frame sensor, 299-point tracking autofocus with subject detection, in-body image stabilization, and dual card slots …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}