The year is 2008.
Canon has just released the 5D mark ii, a rather standard
update to their full frame photography DSLR line.
Save for one afterthought the addition of video
recording at 30 frames per second video recording that also happens
to be the most vocal licious thing that filmmakers had pretty much ever seen
up to this point.
This kickstarted the DSLR filmmaking revolution
and paved the way for most of the compact filmmaking cameras that we use today.
But back in 2008, Canon only really had one main competitor.
This competitor was the anti canon with cameras and lenses
that competed very well on every feature, but had lenses
that mounted to their cameras and focused in reverse.
I'm speaking, of course, of Nikon and 2008 was an inflection point
in this company's 100 plus years of existence
because unlike Canon, who chose to include professional
filmmaking features, Nikon chose to essentially ignore them.
And one could argue opened up gaps in the market for Panasonic and Sony to step in.
To be clear, Nikon did announce their D90 DSLR in 2008,
a camera that just like the 5d Mark two could record video.
But unlike the five D, the D90 could only record for 5 minutes
and didn't include basic features like exposure control.
This lack of even basic control over the video
capabilities of their DSLRs persisted for years to come.
Even as Canon continued to release DSLRs with more and better video features
and Panasonic released the incredibly popular series of cameras
after a few years by seemingly their own choice, Nikon chose
to ignore this new filmmaking market, and so it left them behind.
In 2011, only three years after the five day
mark two, I still knew photographers that use Nikon, But the vast
majority of filmmakers had migrated to Canon DSLRs.
Now here we are over a decade and change later, and suddenly
things are different because Nikon appears to have finally woken up.
Not content to allow Canon, Panasonic and Sony to dominate filmmaking.
In the past few years, Nikon have emerged with mirrorless cameras
in their z-series, all of which have decent video capabilities.
But decent isn't enough in this age of competition, and Nikon knows it.
So in early 2022, they went all out and announced something new a camera
that is so stuffed full of filmmaking features and capabilities
that it is essentially impossible to ignore.
And I would say
if you're a filmmaker that does not at least have Nikon on your radar,
you better at it because the things that they're doing
are incredibly impressive and their future looks extremely bright.
This new camera is the Z9, and with the history out of the way,
which I think is really important for you
to understand the context of where Nikon is coming from,
we got to talk about this camera.
So in this video, I'm going to be reviewing it
from the perspective of a wedding filmmaker and telling you
why you need to start noticing Nikon, especially if you've been filming weddings
or documenting CES or pretty much anything else for that matter.
This camera's really impressive.
Also, for the sake of ethics, I want you to know this video isn't paid
or sponsored by Nikon.
And while they did send me this camera to check out,
it is going to be sent back to them very soon.
And the first time they see this video is the first time you see it
when I posted to YouTube.
Starting off, then the first thing you're going to notice about the z9 is its size.
When I first took this camera out of the box,
I said, Dang, this reminds me more of a DSLR than a mirrorless camera.
This thing is chunky.
It's big, it's heavy, and you can definitely tell that Nikon
chose to go more of the Panasonic route with their mirrorless,
where they're not afraid to make them big versus Sony,
who has managed to make their mirrorless cameras a bit larger over time
but are still pretty darn compact by comparison.
I would keep the Z nines weight in mind if you're planning on filming
along wedding day because holding this thing can get tiring after a while.
With the Z Nine's large size though, you are getting a very well
put together camera.
That ergonomically feels really great to hold.
It's also covered in buttons.
Wow. So many buttons.
When I said this camera stuffed full of features, I was not joking.
On the left side you have a full size HDMI port as well as Usb-C that supports
power delivery, headphone and microphone inputs and an ethernet jack, which I know
high end photographers need,
but it really does cemented that this camera has everything
and the kitchen sink on the right side of the camera.
You have dual cfexpress type B card slots as well as a bright
yellow warning here that says caution hot card.
Which hot card also happened to be
my nickname from high school because you could never mind.
Anyways, I love seeing dual card slots as a wedding
filmmaker because weddings are one.
Take events where you do not get any do overs
and so by being able to record two dual memory cards,
this is just another backup that you have for your filmmaking.
And I recommend that pretty much anybody that films weddings use dual memory cards.
Unfortunately, though, even with dual card slots, the Z9 can only record video
to one slot at a time, meaning that it doesn't offer this backup feature.
It's not a deal breaker, but there are two slots.
Come on. Nikon Enable dual recording.
This is a weird miss on a camera that's so packed full of filmmaking features.
Looking at the back now, you have a really nice sized screen
that can tilt up and down and also side to side as well.
Unfortunately, the screen does not flip out.
So you can view yourself though,
but this isn't a deal breaker for wedding filmmakers, I don't think.
But if you're a YouTuber, sorry, you can use an external monitor.
One thing that I love, if you look up here above this screen, you're going to see
this little switch that lets you toggle between photo and video modes.
And this reminds me so much of the photo and video switch on my Canon 70.
It's cool to see some like this
about a decade after I saw it on the seven D body.
Out of the way though,
we need to talk about the bajillion other features that Nikon
managed to cram into this camera.
So starting off in no particular order.
Rapid fire style.
The Z9 has in-body image stabilization like most other mirrorless
cameras do these days, and in my testing I found it to be good.
The ibis is not as good as something you're going to get
from a Panasonic camera, for example, but it's still very usable.
The Z9 also has autofocus as well.
That works great in video mode.
In my testing with a 24 to 70 and 50 millimeter, 1.2 lenses,
the z9 locked on to faces and I quickly and easily and held them well.
Similarly to Sony's new A7 R5, the Z9 uses artificial intelligence
to detect different objects and focus on them,
which definitely helps talking manual focus too.
This camera is also really interesting because with Nikon lenses
they normally adjust focus in the opposite direction
from all of their lenses, meaning that unlike a normal lens
where you would rotate it counterclockwise to focus to infinity with a Nikon lens,
you rotate counterclockwise to focus closer with the lens settings.
In this camera, though,
you can actually change the direction that the lenses focus
to bring your Nikon lenses in line
with all the other lenses out there from other camera manufacturers.
This is really cool and I love that they give you this feature
which is going to make switching to Nikon much easier for filmmakers.
Now let's get to the big enchilada here.
And the reason this camera is just so darn impressive.
We got to talk about resolution and frame rates because the Z9 is,
in a word, an absolute monster.
At the time of making this video, we're seeing a lot of cameras,
at least that film in HK,
But all of them feel like they're just barely hitting this resolution
with compromises to stabilization, codecs, recording times and crazy rolling
shutter proving that AK is really in its infancy
for mirrorless cameras with the Z9 though all of this changes
where most of its competition is limited to AK at 24 or 30 FP at most, the Z9 says
How does 60 frames per second sound with an over two hour recording time?
Dang, this is nuts.
And heck, I can still remember in 2020 whenever specs were starting to leak
for the Sony A7 S3 and I couldn't believe they might be releasing
a camera capable of filming in 4K at 120 apps.
Here we are after a couple of years of Passed and Nikon's releasing a camera
that goes far bigger than that with eight K at 60.
So cool.
More important than just the resolution
of the video formats and codecs that Nikon has packed into this camera.
Because this camera is so powerful, it might be illegal.
Let me explain.
When they first announced the z9, it was incapable of filming raw video.
But Nikon said that RAW
would be coming in a firmware update
and a few months later, raw video support was added to the camera.
So yes, the Z9 can film in eight K at up
to 60 apps in their proprietary in raw 12 bit raw video codec
as well as in 4K at up to 60 FP in Apple's Prores raw codec.
This is incredibly impressive.
But more importantly, I want you to look at their competition.
Notice that Sony and Panasonic do not currently offer
raw video recording in-camera and if you want to record RAW,
you need to use an external recorder over HDMI like an ATOMOS.
Now why is that?
Well, remember how I said earlier that this camera might be illegal?
Yes. The reason that none of Nikon's competitors have offered compressed
internal raw video
recording is due to a patent held by red, the camera company, not the color.
I'm simplifying here a lot, but one of Red's innovations
was the creation of a compressed raw video codec for their cameras,
which they applied and received a patent for.
Now, I'm not a lawyer, but I've read many articles
about this patent that say that it is overly broad
and essentially prevents any of their competition
from being able to compete in the compressed raw video space.
Red has since taken Cannes Affinity, Sony and even Apple to court over this patent,
and they've all lost to red And I'm pretty sure
you're probably thinking, Matt, what about black magic?
Oh, yeah. Red sued them too, actually.
But Blackmagic got around Red's patent by changing the way they record
raw video by partially debating it in camera.
That's a whole other video, though.
We got to get back to Nikon and them, including internal
raw recording internally with the Z9 via a firmware update.
In short, this is a very noticeable update.
And it's not just something that me or you or other filmmakers are going to notice
because Red noticed also, and they recently sued Nikon over it,
and both companies are still fighting it out in court
at the time of making this video.
Who deserves to win?
Like I said, I'm not a lawyer, but I can say that if you buy a z9
right now, today, it has these internal rock recording capabilities.
But I have no clue after this court case is settled
whether there might be another firmware update that removes this feature.
So I guess that if you're going to buy a z9,
that might be an argument for buying one now
and then just never updating the firmware ever again.
Anyways, legality of the internal raw recording aside,
it is incredibly cool to see Nikon not only embracing a proprietary raw codec
with the Z9, but also including pro as raw internally as well.
This camera gives you so much flexibility pretty much every single frame
rate or resolution that you could ever want are included in this camera.
And if you are a wedding filmmaker,
I think this camera is pretty well future proof for quite some time.
Do you need a K?
Well, no, but having filmed a wedding in six K
before, I really appreciated the ability to zoom in post
when I was stuck in the back of a church in the balcony, unable to get any closer.
The red camera that I was using to film in six K at the time made my life
so much easier.
So I do think
there are benefits to HK and plus, if you don't want to film in a K,
there's nothing stopping you
from switching this camera down to 4K and filming in
whatever frame rate and resolution you want to there.
Oh, and side note in regards to AK, there unsurprisingly is some rolling shutter,
but more importantly,
especially if you're filming in RAW the Z9 eats memory cards like me
at one of those sushi restaurants where the sushi comes by a little train
and you pick off the plate need as much as you want.
Nikon sent me a 650 gigabyte memory card to use with the Z9.
And with that card completely empty, I still had less
than 15 minutes of recording time available before it was completely filled.
If I chose to film in HK at 60 Epson raw, so be careful.
This footage is beautiful, but like my beard, it is also dangerous.
Speaking of
beautiful footage, the Z9 does support recording in Nikon's n
log picture profile, which should give you great dynamic range
and it supports this picture profile regardless of the video
format or resolution you were shooting in, which is great.
Side note I have a set of color presets called Who is Matt Lutz?
And I'm pleased to tell you that all the Nikon footage in this video
is colored with those presets and they work great.
I will link to my color presets down below now with all this AK talk.
You're probably wondering how this camera handles overheating.
There is a setting in the menu
auto temperature cut out that you can set from standard to high.
And the good news is that Nikon has said that this camera's capable of
recording up to 2 hours and 5 minutes in eight K without overheating,
and even then that camera won't overheat, but the recording will stop
and you'll need to restart it.
It's a weird limitation, but it probably won't affect you unless you're
filming a super long wedding ceremony or an insane round of toasts at a reception.
In my testing, which admittedly it is winter in Texas,
so I do not have access to the super hot Texas summer heat.
Leave this camera out into tested.
Regardless, I did not experience any overheating
while I was filming with this camera.
Likewise, you may be concerned about the battery life
when filming at such high resolutions and frame rates, but I have to say that
this camera comes with a massive and I mean massive battery.
Just look at this thing is huge.
It easily lasts 2 to 3 hours.
It's stellar for a wedding.
I still think that you're going
to need 2 to 3 batteries, depending on the resolution you're filming at.
And if you choose to fill in raw or not.
But the battery life is still very good overall.
Now, what about lowlight performance?
If you film weddings, the odds are that you're not going to ever have full control
over the lighting no matter what you're filming.
So you're going to need a camera
that's capable of handling a wide variety of lighting scenarios
in my testing, especially considering that the Z9 is a full frame camera
with a large sensor, I found that it looks good up to around ISO 12,800 or
so before it started to get really noisy.
You could go higher though
if you needed to because a reception or ceremony was really dark,
but you may be dealing with some noise in your footage.
Regardless, I always recommend bringing lights to a wedding
or anything else you're filming
and that is going to result in you getting better quality footage overall.
Now let's talk about the price of the Z9, because this is where I think
things get really interesting and more nuanced than just a number.
At the time of making this video, the Z9 cost 50 $500,
which is definitely a hefty chunk of change.
But whatever you consider all the cameras capable of doing,
I definitely think it's worth it for you, though.
Whether you should buy it or not is going to come down to a deeper question
than whether or not you can just afford the camera or not.
Remember that with any camera you are buying into an ecosystem,
meaning that you need to not only consider things like the camera that you're
purchasing, but also what lenses are currently available for it.
Can you adapt lenses from other camera manufacturers to it?
What accessories can you buy and what options do you have as far as a,
B or C cameras that you can buy to go alongside it?
See, because in a vacuum, the Z9 is arguably
one of the best cameras available today.
And it's a no brainer to recommend that you purchase it to film
weddings or really honestly, anything else for that matter.
But I want you to take a moment and look at the lenses
that Nikon currently has available.
I love seeing that they have the basics like a 24 to 70 and 72 200 available,
but they also have cooler lenses like a 50 millimeter, 1.2.
And even if f .95, all of these lenses are going to be a significant investment
and that 0.95 lenses cost more than what I've paid for a car before.
But you need to see if Nikon has all the lenses available
that you're interested in using.
One cool feature of their website is that it shows you all of the lenses
they currently have available, as well as a preview of future lenses.
They're working on.
So this is a great way to do your research.
More importantly than lenses though, and this is my main hangup about the z9
is that there are currently no other cameras that Nikon makes that come
even close to this level of performance that you get in this camera.
One thing that I love about Sony, for example,
and the reason that I recommend them so much is that you could go out and buy,
say, an S3 to use as your A camera to film a wedding,
but instead of needing to purchase a second or third FCS three to be
your B or C cameras, you can instead invest in the X30, which is going to match
the fx3 visually and offer many of the same features as the fx3.
But in a significantly more affordable body.
Sony offers a great ecosystem of cameras at different price points
that match each other, visually,
making it easy to save some money as you build out your filmmaking kit.
With Nikon, though at the time of making this video,
they don't have a secondary camera yet that's going to perform
comparably to the Z nine.
If you want to buy another camera that has internal raw recording
or even ten bit color without raw,
you don't have any option but to buy another Z9
the Z seven mark two comes close, but it's still only eight bit.
So we're at an interesting crossroads right now.
It feels like Nikon have finally woken up and begun to compete
in the filmmaking space,
and they've done it with a huge bang with the Z nine.
But whether I think you should buy this
camera to film weddings is going to rely on two things.
Either you having a ton of money to invest in cameras and lenses,
at which point I would say, Heck yeah, buy two z nines
and you're going to absolutely love them and make some amazing films or two
more likely.
I'm going to tell you to wait to buy the Z nine
because I want to see what other cameras nikon's going to make that
are more affordable that will build out their filmmaking ecosystem better.
If Nikon can release a more affordable camera like az7 or Z six mark three
that doesn't quite attain the heights and capabilities of the Z nine,
but will be able to match the footage from it, let's say in
4K ten bit instead of eight K, for example.
In that case, I think that Nikon is going to be
a very viable option in the camera landscape today.
Speaking of viable options, if you're a wedding filmmaker like me,
that is also watching YouTube, which considering this is a video
on YouTube for wedding filmmakers, I would love to help you out.
So I've put together a free guide called YouTube Tips for Wedding Filmmakers.
This guide is going to share with you some of the biggest practical things
that you can do right now to get more views and bookings on YouTube.
As a wedding filmmaker, it's completely for free.
You can download it link down below.
Thanks so much for watching and have a great day.