Today we're gonna be discussing the video capabilities
of the Nikon Z9,
because despite it being Nikon's new flagship photo camera
with impressive specs in that category,
it's also their best video camera to date,
and arguably the most powerful video camera
in the mirrorless market.
Let's get undone!
(cool music)
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What is happening, everybody?!
I'm Gerald Undone and I'm done
doing those user-commented intros!
Little throwback there to the old intro
and the greeting for the fans
that have been asking for it for a while.
But onto the disclosure.
Nikon lent me this production Z9 to make this review,
as well as the 35mm f/1.8 lens.
I also borrowed the 70-200mm lens from Camera Canada,
so a big thank you to them.
I don't get to keep any of this gear,
no money changed hands,
and Nikon doesn't get any input on this video's production
or get to preview it before it's posted.
This video does have a sponsor though,
and that's Storyblocks.
Alright, let's start off by addressing my video concerns
of the last Nikon camera I reviewed, the Z6 II,
and see if any of those issues have been fixed here.
Ergonomics will be familiar to Nikon shooters,
and there's no shortage of buttons here on the Z9.
I do still wish that the D-Pad on the back was a wheel
for mapping to ISO, which is a problem I had on the Z6,
but overall, the controls are decent.
The menus haven't changed,
which is still a pain point for me.
The design is the same,
there's just now even more options for this camera,
which is good, but they can still be hard to find sometimes.
The biggest issue I have ergonomically
is accidental presses of buttons,
like with this little guy on the side here.
My palm hits it sometimes when I'm supporting the lens
and there's no way to disable it in the menu,
and depending on your setting,
it can actually stop your recording.
I'd like Nikon to add an off option for this button.
The same is also true, albeit to a lesser extent,
for the portrait shutter button as well,
which you can accidentally hit if you have bigger hands.
I've also been finding the memory card door to be very stiff
and hard to open with one hand from behind the camera.
I can definitely push it from the front easily,
but when it's on a tripod, from behind, I kinda find
it requires two hands without messing up your shot
Lastly, this camera is heavy
and not just because of this pro body form factor.
I recently had the Canon R3,
which is also a big camera,
but it felt significantly lighter in the hands.
This Z9 weighs 1,340 grams or about 3 pounds,
and after a bit of shooting, you really start to feel it,
especially if it's paired with the 70-200 f/2.8,
which is also a comparably hefty lens.
I have found that the weight does help with stabilization,
and it does feel well-built.
It's basically a tank.
And even though it doesn't have a mechanical shutter,
it still has a sensor protector, which I appreciate.
I am noticing now though
that I'm trying to be quiet for the video,
that the strap loops here
(device rattles)
are the rattle-y variety.
It has dual card slots for CFexpress Type-B,
which you can use for backup recording in photo,
but sadly, still not in video.
However, you can record both internally and externally
at the same time,
and the camera gives you the options for enabling menus
and on screen display information on the external monitor,
even in 4K,
without either screen blacking out in any combination.
That's something Sony and Canon still haven't mastered yet,
so I was happy to see it.
And that HDMI port is a full size Type-A,
which is a step up from the Z6 and even the Canon R3.
And they also fixed the output lag issue on the Z6,
so now the HDMI and LCD
are in sync visually and respond quickly.
The screen is better as well compared to the Z6.
Its range of motion has been improved on the main axis,
and they added a portrait tilt as well,
which is handy for getting those low or high vertical shots.
However, despite all those fixes,
you still can't use focus peaking and zebras
at the same time, just like on the Z6.
They have added some functionality for manual focus,
but right now it only works on certain lenses
and there appears to be some bugs.
For instance, there's an option to enable or disable
a focus override that allows you to manual focus
at any time during autofocus
by just turning the focus ring.
But it only works on certain lenses
and it seems to be bugged.
At least on the 70-200,
even if I disable the override in the menu,
turning the focus ring, even accidentally,
disables autofocus temporarily.
This causes problems and needs to be fixed
as soon as possible.
The other new function is the ability to program
a linear focus and throw distance in degrees.
This option is fantastic and much needed.
It offers a great amount of customization
and makes Nikon viable for manual focusing.
However, currently, I believe it's only available
when using the 70-200.
I'd like to see this expanded to the entire lens lineup.
The USB-C port supports power delivery,
which works to charge the camera while off,
but also to slow the battery's discharge while in use.
With USB-PD connected,
you can run this camera for several hours.
But even on just battery power,
I found the runtime on this camera impressive.
I was averaging close to three hours of 8K recording
on this monster with a full charge,
which is exceptional battery life,
and all without any signs of overheating.
It doesn't even really get warm.
And thankfully, Nikon got rid of the 30-minute record limit
from the Z6, but they replaced it
with a two-hour and 5-minute one.
This I have no explanation for.
Why two hours and five minutes?
At first I thought that was just the capacity of my card,
but it's happening with bigger cards too,
and it's even listed on the official spec sheet.
You can do back to back recordings at that length
and the camera doesn't seem to shut down or overheat,
so it's a weird limit.
Maybe it's just to be overly precautious?
It doesn't matter the record mode either,
4K24, 8K30, 4K60,
all two hours and five minutes.
So as long as your recordings
don't need to be longer than two hours,
this is the most stable
and reliable hybrid video camera I've tested,
especially when it comes to 8K or high frame rate recording.
And of course, you can exceed that two-hour limit
if you record externally.
I also like how Nikon has laid out
the resolution and frame rates.
It doesn't matter whether you shoot PAL or NTSC,
you can just pick the frame rate you want from a list.
However, there aren't options for DCI or true 24p.
Jumping into autofocus,
I'd say it feels slightly improved over the Z6 II.
It still suffers a bit with lowlight.
I find that once you get down
past about three stops under exposed,
it becomes really unreliable, even while shooting at f/2.8.
But overexposure is not an issue.
You can keep focus
even when your subject is completely nuclear.
Lens choice makes a huge difference here though.
On the 35mm f/1.8, I'd say the autofocus was decent at best,
but on the 70-200, it was mostly excellent
and would be a reliable choice in my opinion.
That's probably my biggest hurdle with Nikon right now
is the inconsistency in lens performance, selection,
and functionality in the menu when it comes to focusing.
I do like all the tracking options it has in video though.
You can track people with eye detection,
animals with eye detection, and vehicles,
and it has an auto mode to intelligently switch
between them, which has worked reliably for me.
It's got 3.5mm ports for microphone in and headphone out,
and control in the menu for microphone level,
frequency range, and an attenuator for hotter mics.
It cannot accept a line level signal though from my testing.
But we can test an on camera shotgun mic
to see how it sounds with the microphone
doing the heavy lifting
and setting the internal gain on the camera to its minimum.
Let's test that now
while I tell you about today's sponsor, Storyblocks.
Okay, here we go.
So I've got the RØDE VideoMic NTG
set up on top of the camera.
I've got the camera set to one, which is the minimum gain.
We're in the wide frequency range, attenuator is off.
(finger tapping)
Let's just prove that it's mic here that we're listening to.
Now obviously, this mic isn't gonna sound the same
as my Sennheiser up here,
but it should give you an idea of how clean
we can get the preempts to sound.
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IBIS feels good on this camera.
This isn't a vlogging camera,
and you're not gonna get gimbal results,
but the combination of the weight of this system
mixed with the IBIS controls
make for a good human tripod experience.
I prefer the sport mode though over the normal,
as I found it fought me less and moved better with me
if I was tracking a subject or panning.
It also has an electronic VR, which adds a crop,
but I didn't care for this mode.
I found just the sport mode,
plus a stabilized lens like the 70-200 gave great results.
I was handholding at 200mm
and found the shots looked quite steady.
All of my test shots are at 24p as well,
so you can see the shakes
instead of hiding them in slow motion.
Rolling shutter exists on this camera,
but it definitely falls in the pass category in my opinion.
It's similar to that of the Sony A1 or Canon R3.
In fact, it might be a tiny bit better,
but definitely usable.
It's only really noticeable in the 8K readout modes,
so 8K up to 30p, and 4K oversampled up to 30p.
The 60p and 120p 4K modes are much faster reading,
because they don't oversample,
so rolling shutter is not an issue with them.
And you also have the option to crop in camera to Nikon DX
if you want, which will likely improve
rolling shutter for the 4K modes.
But again, the full frame oversampled rolling shutter
is solid and gets a pass.
Fun fact regarding that oversampling and external recording.
As I've mentioned in other videos,
the way I currently use my Sony A1
is I set the camera to 8K internal,
but then I record externally to the Atomos Ninja V,
which ends up creating an oversampled 4K image externally.
You can also do this on the Nikon Z9,
however it won't let you record internally during this mode.
In fact, you have to physically
remove the cards from the camera to enable this.
Otherwise, if you have the camera set to 8K internally
with cards in the camera and HDMI connected,
the HDMI output defaults down to 1080p,
but as soon as you remove the cards,
it goes to 4K externally
and it seems to be a much cleaner oversampled image.
This is quirky, but potentially useful
if you don't want to record ProRes internally.
But how cool is it
that you can record ProRes internally on this camera?
The only reason I'd go the Ninja V route on this camera
is the cost savings on SSDs vs CFexpress cards.
But it's impressive how self-reliant the Z9 is.
Lastly, on the oversampling front,
here are some images of the different recording modes,
showing the quality gained or lost
depending on resolution and frame rate.
The 4K60 and 120 do lose some sharpness,
but it isn't anything that makes those modes
not worth using.
They're all still quite viable
and look great and maintain their dynamic range.
Strangely, there is a difference in dynamic range
between the H265 recordings and the ProRes recordings.
The H265 were averaging about half a stop better.
And I think this can be attributed
to the character of the noise in these modes.
The H265 seems to have
either a more aggressive noise reduction
or it manages to mask the noise better through compression.
Because the highlight retention
between the two codecs is the same,
but the H265 scores slightly cleaner according to Imatest.
It also scores cleaner
when compared to the external recordings.
Both external and internal ProRes match
and are half a stop worse for noise than H265 internal.
But when I went back and looked at the charts,
I didn't find that the H265 had any less detail
than the ProRes, so it's not like the noise reduction
is so aggressive that it's hurting detail.
So as far as I can tell, it's a viable way to clean up
your shadows a touch in camera,
I just don't know the specifics
of what's going on with that process.
But anyway, when testing using the Xyla 21,
I averaged around 12 stops of usable dynamic range.
Slightly lower on ProRes and slightly higher on H265.
I do think, though,
that this score is slightly limited by N-Log.
N-Log seems to suffers from the same shortcomings
that other manufacturers first log profile did,
just like Canon Log 1 or S-Log.
We need an N-Log 2 with expanded dynamic range
for cameras that are capable like the Z9 surely is.
But this might be less important when Nikon releases
the upcoming raw update for the Z9,
if it allows us to decode to a different log profile
of your choosing in post.
I'll test that update when it's available
and I'll let you know.
But in its current state,
12 stops of dynamic range is passable.
It's not the best in the mirrorless world,
but it certainly isn't the worst
and can definitely get the job done.
Color wise, N-Log is good.
Well, the Z9 is good in general.
I feel the same way I feel about the Z6 II.
You've got two great options.
Nikon's flat profile is one of the best in the game
for a mostly finished image that offers great-looking,
accurate color that can just use a contrast tweak
to your taste in post.
And then N-Log is viable now
that Nikon has been updating their LUT.
They have a Z9 version available for download as well.
It can be a bit punchy at times,
but if you expose neutrally,
it can give you a great-looking image in one step.
Alternatively, if you like to ETTR,
then the Leeming LUT for Nikon still works reasonably well
on the Z9 and also gives a great look.
Regarding exposure, I was quite pleased with the results
while moving through the ISO range.
Noise is well-controlled at most stops
and is usable up to and beyond ISO 12,800.
It does appear to clean up at ISO 4000,
which I'm going to assume is a second native ISO.
I'll be able to confirm this again
when I get the raw update,
but it definitely performs like a second native ISO.
But detail, color integrity, and tone were well-maintained
while moving up in ISO and I have no complaints about that.
Obviously, you're still gonna get better noise performance
by overexposing, but I'd have no concerns using this camera
in low light, with neutral exposure,
other than the aforementioned autofocus limitations.
And that's pretty much it.
There's some minor things I could be picky about.
I wish there was a tally light, for example,
as without a front-facing screen,
it's difficult to know if you're recording
when self-filming, but mostly, this is a fantastic camera.
It doesn't fail in any category.
It's an extremely robust and reliable machine
that passes or excels in all areas.
It has a couple ergonomic hurdles,
but this is an incredibly impressive release from Nikon
who up until this point,
weren't that competitive when it came to video.
Well, that claim no longer stands, because with the Z9,
Nikon has one of, if not the best
hybrid mirrorless camera available for video.
But that's gonna be it for me.
I hope you found this video entertaining
or at least helpful, and if you did,
make sure you leave it the old thumbs up
and consider subscribing, if you haven't already.
But if you did not find this video helpful or entertaining,
try setting the playback speed to 75%.
Yeah, alright.
I'm done.