Hi there this is Ian from MPB and today we have a bit of a treat for you we have the Nikon Z fc
This is Nikon's latest attempt at making a camera in a vintage style in a very similar style
to 2012's Nikon DF the main differences as you can probably see aside from the size
is that the Z fc is actually a mirrorless camera as opposed to a DSLR so obviously the camera is
going to be much smaller because obviously it completely lacks a mirror as you can see in
there so the DF was actually a fairly bulky camera but um it was still kind of based in terms of its
styling to Nikon's cameras of the 70s for example like the FM2 and the FE2 now here we actually have
my own personal FM IIIA so for illustration purposes you can actually see that with a Z fc
Nikon actually got it really really close in terms of the overall overall look of the FM3A
So a few things about the Z fc it's a crop sensor camera or aps-c which means that it's
about one and a half times a crop factor so for example it would mean that if you
were to put a 28mm lens on this it'll be roughly the equivalent of about 35 mil viewing angle
on a full frame camera next you'll probably notice that in keeping with um the cameras of old like
the FE2 FM FM2 and FM3A it actually makes use of a lot of top dials on top of the camera to
actually make the shooting experience i guess a lot easier i would say it means that you have
almost dedicated dials for pretty much everything that you would need to
change basically whenever you're shooting out in the field so starting here on the right
hand side you have the exposure compensation dial which i actually tend to use quite a lot
i actually find that changing this a lot to just tweak your exposures for example when you're
using aperture aperture priority is actually a big help so i tend to use that quite a lot
next obviously you have your shutter button which is just here and then you have your main shutter
speed dial which goes from bulb all the way to 1 4,000 of a second and here you can also control
what kind of exposure you want to take so if you if you want it on bulb
if you want it on timer for example it's all controlling this top dial here and finally we
have this dial here on the far left of the camera and it's probably my favorite dial
it's something that i kind of rabbit on about quite a lot in terms of modern cameras and it's
basically a dedicated ISO dial I love the idea of being able to select iso very very quickly
as conditions change it's something that i'm not entirely sure why more manufacturers don't do
but I think it's definitely a welcome a welcome addition to this camera aside from in keeping
with the overall look of the camera i think it's great to have that dial on top for easy changes
whilst we're on iso this this camera will go from uh the lowest ISO of 100 all the way to
51,200 natively but it can be pushed to 200,000 if needs be although I do struggle to find a time
when you'd actually need to do that as i imagine that the results won't be too great probably
quite a lot of mushy shadows and lack of detail so moving on from the ISO dial here we also have the
asap shooting modes as well you have all the all the four main modes that you find in most cameras
which is great depending on the type of shooting that you're doing and how much time you have or
the environment that you're in so overall i really love the design of this camera in terms of all
the dials that it's provided and it's almost as if they've basically kept a lot of the DF
style buttons and dials and layouts but obviously made it into a much much smaller camera
You've probably seen that I failed to mention the resolution of this camera
but this one has 21 megapixels which I think is a very very healthy amount of megapixels
personally I think for an aps-c size sensor I don't think you want to compress
too many megapixels in there I find that the more megapixels you do have the more your image can
end up looking a little bit synthetic shall we say so I think 21 megapixels for an aps-c
sensor is actually bang on the money in terms of menu systems those who are used to
shooting with a Nikon will actually be really pleased to know that um the menus are pretty
much unchanged from any Nikon camera and that's basically true from Nikon's which are DSLR's or
Nikons are mirrorless um like the zed series the Z7, Z6 series of cameras the menus are
unchanged so people that are actually going from a traditional Nikon DSLR system and the menu system
that's been has been in place for years will find a very very similar menu system in here obviously
there are a few changes because obviously mirrorless technology is slightly different
um but by and large everything just makes sense if you're used to a Nikon system but to be perfectly
honest with a camera like the Z fc I think once you have all your initial setup done you're very
rarely going to be changing things too much in those menu systems everything will probably be
done on top here or on the information menu at the back or the quick access menu at the back
so as many of you know Nikon don't really have a premium compact camera available in the market
in the same way that Fujifilm have an X100V or Leica have a Q2 for example this is very
much an interchangeable lens system however the size would be I would say very comparable
to those other cameras with that even though you do get a form at the form factor of something very
small and very carriable um you do still have the option to change lenses so if you want to kind of
keep it kind of small and compact much like this one for example and mount let's say a 28mm lens
onto it you can do that but equally you can have the flexibility of a zoom as well i think in terms
of build quality Nikon have done a great job in terms of balancing build quality and size in terms
of the materials that they've used to actually make this camera Nikon know that most people are
not going to be battering this camera in the same way that a pro level photographer would
so you can imagine a pro photographer is constantly putting stuff down picking them
up changing lenses very quickly the life that this camera is likely going to lead it's not
going to be the same as that people are choosing this camera aside from many of his features also
because of his aesthetics which means that people will probably look after this camera a lot more
be a lot more careful with it in which case it means that it doesn't need to be built out of
solid metal and if it was built out of solid metal it would be a lot heavier which would mean that
people would not want to take it out with them i think the size the weights and where Nikon have
chosen to actually make this camera out of more premium materials I think is pretty much perfect
so what do I love about this camera well I love the way it looks I own a Nikon FM3A and I love
the way the camera looks so I think to have a mirrorless digital body that looks like this I
think is fantastic I absolutely love the iso dial at the top I love the fact that I can actually
change that dial I know which way to turn it even as i'm peering through the viewfinder so in case
the light is beginning to go down as it is today I can very easily just change the ISO very very
quickly without having to access a menu and that is great and thirdly my other favorite thing about
this camera is the usable jpegs I think for this type of camera I think that's absolutely perfect
I think a lot of people will want to maybe tweak a little bit the output of the JPEG which is totally
possible in this camera but I love the fact that you have an option to create a look that you like
straight out of the camera without having to worry about about raw images
the thing is not everyone wants raw images some people just want
nice pictures straight out the camera and this one gives you that option
and it gives you a lot more than just one option you have tons of JPEG modes to choose from