Hey, this is Scott of Photography Banzai.
Today we're taking a look at the Nikon Z50. Thanks to
Camera Craft in Rockford Illinois for letting me try this out at their shop. I'll be
comparing this to the Canon EOS M5. It has a few similar features mostly
physically like the flip down screen. But we're gonna look at those two cameras
together in this video. This is the first aps-c mirrorless camera in the Z
mount. That means it has a smaller sensor than the full frame is Z6 and Z7. I'm not
gonna go into specs too much. You can look those up easily, but basically has
around 21 megapixels. There is no in-body stabilization in
the Z50. With the M5 that I have here as comparison it also does not have in body
image stabilization. Definitely has a solid feeling body. Nice materials, the
grip is substantial. I think this is the best grip that have used for an aps-c
mirrorless camera so far. I'm liking how the controls are laid out. You have the
two dials for adjusting settings of whatever mode you're in. So if you're in
manual mode you'll use the front dial and the top dial to adjust two different
settings, and then there's an ISO button to adjust ISO itself. With Nikon, you
hold that button down and then use one of the dials to adjust ISO. The main mode
dial on the Z50 does not have any type of lock to it. On the M5 it actually does
have a lock, which is convenient in some situations. But it is also harder to
change. One of the nicest physical features of the Nikon cameras with the
Z6, Z7, and this is Z50 is that the viewfinder comes out quite a bit from
the back of the camera. So that gives you a nice eye relief. It works well with
photography up to your face with the viewfinder. The viewfinder itself is
around 2.3 million pixels, which is actually very similar to the M5. But I
think the view in the Z50 is larger. Seems a little bit better in my opinion
for the viewfinder. On the bottom of the camera you have the tripod socket. It's
in a nice position. Also, the battery door is far to the side so that you
shouldn't have any issues with quick release plates. The battery door itself
doesn't have any type of spring to it. So it does flop around if you open it up. I
don't see any type of weather seal around that battery door. There is a new
battery for this camera. it's the EN-EL25 battery. Has around 1100 milliamp
hours. That's on the pretty average side how much battery power it has. Actually the
the M5 is very similar in that case. Considering these aren't my cameras that
I try out, I have no way of testing the battery capacity on my own. So it is
rated around 300 photos per charge and around 75 minutes of video per charge.
Next to the battery there's the SD card slot. It's a little challenging to get
to the card itself, but I think it's better than A6100 that I had used
previously. On the M5 it is also near the battery. But it's slightly easier to
access. The one negative of the M5 is the battery door is so long that if you want
to use quick release plates with tripods that doesn't work too well on the M5. But
with the Z50 definitely a nice setup there. You have a lot of standard ports
on the camera. HDMI, USB.. you can charge through the USB, which is very nice. Also
you have a mic port. That's very good for any type of video stuff you want to do.
With the M5 it also has a mic port. One difference with ports on the M5 and Z50
is that the M5 has a dedicated port for a cable release. Now, with the Z50 you can
get an accessory to do wireless bluetooth connectivity with the shutter
and all that. So there is at least an option. The Z50 has a touchscreen. It
flips down 180 degrees to face the lens. The M5 is exactly the same in that case.
Now, there are some challenges to this design. Vlogging works nicely if you're
doing it handheld. But any type of situation where you want to film
yourself and put it on a tripod you'll need some type of bracket system. It is a
very unusual design, but sometimes it does work out decently well. The touch
implementation on both cameras is very nice. The Z50, you've got full touch with
the interface. With touch to focus. You can go through your photos and zoom in zoom out
on them. Adjust settings. It has a very nice touch interface to the Z50. Same thing
with the M5. On the Z50 you can switch between photo and video with a top
switch next to the mode dial. The Z50 has a built-in flash. That's nice to have if you
are into that. Of course the M5 also has a built-in flash. Let's take a quick look
at the size difference between the Z mount and the EF-M mount. You can see it!
it's definitely a much larger diameter for the Z mount. So there are some
benefits and negatives. If you want a very compact camera,
that is a challenge for the Z mount. However, you can see that the Z50 is definitely
very small for what it is compared to the M5. As I mentioned before, there is a
front dial and a top dial to adjust settings as you like.
So if you're in aperture priority, use one of those dials. If you're in manual,
you can use one for aperture, one for shutter speed, and then you've got your
ISO with a button. Of course, one of the nicest features of a camera of this
level are the custom modes. In the Nikon it's U1 and U2. Basically, you can push
whatever settings you want into those and you'll be able to get back to those
settings instantly. I really like that feature. With the Nikon you have an 'i'
button. That allows you to access some features faster than you would if you
were going through the menu itself. You're definitely going to be using that
'i' button a lot with this camera. On the Z50 touch screen you actually have
three dedicated buttons that are part of the screen itself. Zoom in, zoom out, and
display. I think that's a great setup and it's very logical from a control
standpoint an interface standpoint to have those three buttons associated with
the screen itself. So it does use the actual touch screen technology to make
those buttons work. I think it's a really interesting setup and I like how they
design that. The Z50 has a dedicated button that allows you to switch between
the viewfinder and the back screen. There is, of course, the standard sensor on
there that you can do it automatically. But it is nice to have a button as well.
The Z50 has a button that allows you to adjust exposure compensation. You can hold
that button down and use one of the dials to adjust it. With the M5 it has a
dedicated dial for exposure compensation, but I think in some situations the
Nikon setup is better. There's an Fn1 and Fn2 button near the mount on the Z50.
It's nice to have. You can adjust those how you would like. In my limited testing
so far the Z50's autofocus feels very quick. I didn't notice any issues with it.
Now, when we get to tracking it works like their older DSLRs in liveview
still. Use the OK button to lock on and lock off of targets. So you can select
something on the screen or use the OK button to give you a selectable box to
move around the screen. You pick an object on the screen, lock on and then
the camera will follow that. When I was testing the tracking
it did lock on nicely. It kept on the subject for the most part. I would even
move it off-screen and they move it back on the screen and they would track that
object still some of the time. So I do think tracking will be pretty decent on
the Z50. There are various autofocus modes on the camera. I didn't try them all out,
but I did use the pin point autofocus most of the time. Gives a very small point of
focus, which is nice. I like that fine grain autofocus control. Worked just fine.
No issues with that pinpoint autofocus. One of the nice features that really
helps out aperture priority and similar setups is having a minimum shutter speed.
So in the Z50 that feature is in there. When you set auto ISO you can set a
minimum shutter speed. Very nice feature to have. The M5 actually does not have that
and it's pretty frustrating. If your subjects are moving pretty quick you can
dial that in as you would like. But still using easier simpler mode so you can
focus on composition and other aspects of photography. There are a bunch of
creative filters on the Z50. I really didn't try them up too much but just know
that they're in there. If you're into that sort of thing...
The Z50 does not have any in-body stabilization in the camera. But it does
have an electronic stabilizer for video. Also, the optical VR when the lens has
it's has a few settings as well. One nice quality of life feature with
photography that I noticed in the Z50 is that you can adjust it to where... When
you take a photo it'll normally just show you the photo itself in a review
mode and you press the shutter button or something you know go back to the live
view. So you can actually adjust this to not have that happen in the viewfinder
but still have it happen in the back screen. The camera has auto exposure
bracketing for five photos maximum plus or minus three stops. Has a multiple
exposure overlay feature with various types of overlays. Haven't tried it out, but
it's in there if you're interested. Also has an interval timer.
Time-lapse movie mode
and silent photography.
I did do some sample videos for the Z50, let's check those out...
The Z50 is very featured with video. You have 4k 30.. 24.. and all that. You can do
slow motion with 120 frames a second, or have the camera itself slow down the
footage. I did do a test with the slow motion video. I used the option where the
camera makes that slow motion clip. You can see how much time goes between
pressing the spray bottle and the liquid coming out of there. Really interesting
to see slow motion like that where it comes right from the camera. That's a super
convenient way to make those clips.
The main reason we're looking at the Z50 and M5 together is that flip-down screen.
I wanted to do a vlogging test with those two just to see how they turned out
together. I had all of the stabilization settings on both cameras. So electronic
VR. Did a vlogging test. The first vlogging test full manual settings nothing that
the camera could change.
And for the second test I did auto ISO. But besides that all the settings were
manual and the same. Of course, I used the standard kit lenses on both cameras.
Of course, I did take simple photos with the Z50. Let's check those out. We're
gonna look at a full view of each photo and then 100% crop of somewhere in the photo...
I also took a few sample photos of the M5 and Z50 together. Let's check those out...
One important aspect of a camera are lenses. So with the Z50 there aren't
a ton of native lens options. Especially with aps-c. You've got the two different
kit lenses. The 16 to 50 3.5-5.6 VR. And also the 50 to 250 at 4.5-6.3 VR.
I had both the lenses. I really didn't try the telephoto out too much. Now here's a
little quick comparison with the M5 kit lens and the Z50 kit lens. You can see
that diameter again. The lens.. how big of a difference it is. These aps-c Z
mount lenses have a lock setup to them so they do compact. You can rotate the lens a
little bit, unlocks and they'll be ready to use. With the Z50 of course you can
adapt f-mount lenses. That's all of the film era, DSLR era. So the G type lenses I
really like the F/1.8 primes for F mount. But you'll need the adapter of
course. With the f-mount adapter you can adjust the aperture, which is good. But
you can't use lenses in autofocus that don't have a motor inside. Actually had
one of those older film era lenses. Tried out with the Z50. It worked just
fine with aperture. I was able to adjust it through the camera. Of course I was
doing manual focus with that lens. But there is peaking inside the Z50 so you
will definitely have some benefits with manual lenses on that camera. If you don't know
what peaking is, it's basically a feature to help you focus. So you can use the
full frame Z mount lenses on the camera of course. There are some options. You've got
the 50 1.8. There is a 35 millimeter f/1.8. That's getting up there in
price. But it is an option. It'll give you that 50 millimeter equivalent look to
the photos. Looking at the road-map... There's going to be a 28 and a 40
millimeter that are not 'S', so I can expect those to be a decent option
for the Z50. Now we're going to talk a little bit more about my personal
opinion with the Z50. Basically, some of the positives and negatives. First off
we're going to go with the negatives. There is no wired cable release. I
think this camera is very good for photographers. So it's too bad that they
didn't put that physical port in the camera. The autofocus tracking on the
camera is a little fumbly. You have to use the okay
button. Works nicely from my experience so far, but just consider that if you're
doing a lot of action sports tracking with the camera. The flip down 180 degree
screen is an awkward design. I have it on the M5 and it has definitely some
negatives to it. Especially when you're trying to mount it on something and have
the screen face forward. There is no in-camera shake reduction. I think that
was a big missed feature for the Z50. I really do think it would have given the
Z50 a leg up. They could use full-frame lenses with it and have a really amazing
stabilizing system. I think in the future we'll probably see that, but who knows...
It really doesn't make sense to me than Nikon was trying to compete on size with
the Z50. You have a really large mount. I think they could have done some things
to improve the camera and sacrifice a little bit of the size. In a relation to
that, the battery is a big sticking point for me personally. I think they really
should have tried to go with the battery they use in the Z6 and Z7 and some of
their DSLRs. Would have been better for anyone that was already in the system.
for the Z mount. Whatever size sacrifice they would have had to make, I really do
think it would have been worth it. The Z mount as a system is really just
starting out. So with native dedicated lenses in aps-c you've only got those
two kit lenses. And the full-frame lenses are not super cheap. Now, they're
definitely cheaper than some of the other options in other mounts. You just
have to consider that if you want to go full native. Now let's go over the things
I really do like about the camera. Compared to something like Z6 this uses
SD cards. Super convenient format. You can find SD cards anywhere any store. I do
think the camera is a joy to use from a photographer's standpoint. It's got a
good layout. Nice ergonomics. Nice large grip to it. So using the camera as a
photography camera I really did enjoy that. You've got some of the features like
the U1 U2. You have a minimum shutter speed feature. Definitely has a lot to it
with the interface, the design, how it works. That using as a photo camera I
think it's one of the best out there for aps-c mirrorless right now. While the
viewfinder is the same megapixels as the M5, I think the viewfinder in the Z6 is
better in every way. It feels larger. Comes out from the
camera more, so it's more convenient to use. I really do like the viewfinder on the
Z50. Video output on the Z50 seems very nice. You have a lot of options with it.
The 4k stuff, that nice high frames per second. The autofocus felt quick, felt
prompt. Had no issues there. They did put a nice amount of customization and even
features like autofocus adjust. Which I assume is related to their f-mount
lenses. Definitely a good amount of customization. Good amount of features in
the camera. The z mount itself feels like the most future-proof of all the mounts
out there, if you are interested in that. A nice large diameter with the short
registration distance means you can adapt pretty much anything to the Z
mount. It will be interesting to see how the Z mount itself develops. Especially
now that the Z50 is there with the aps-c. That was a look at the Z50. Hope you
enjoyed the video. Again thanks to Camera Craft in Rockford Illinois for letting me
try this camera out at their shop.
Scott from photography Banzai. If you did enjoy the
video please consider subscribing that helps me out a lot likes in shares
helped out a lot as well. Thanks again!