Nikon in 2018: started with a whimper, went out with a bang

Nikon Z 7 mirrorless camera

After the launch of the Nikon D850 towards the tail end of 2017, Nikon had a quiet start to 2018, with very little of note throughout the early part of the year. And despite the success of the D850 – arguably the best all-round DSLR to date, combining an incredible high-resolution 46MP sensor with blistering 9fps shooting speed when used with a battery grip – mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras from the likes of Sony and Fujifilm had made serious inroads into the interchangeable lens camera market dominated by Nikon and Canon

In contrast, Nikon quietly gave up on its own existing line of 1 series mirrorless cameras in 2018. Launched in 2011, the Nikon 1 line used a CX format sensor, far smaller than the DX sensors used in Nikon’s beginner DSLRs, and with a 2.7x crop factor compared to 35mm full frame sensors. To boot, only a limited number of native lenses were produced. As such, they didn’t make as much on an impact as perhaps they otherwise might have.  

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