When the Nikon Z50 landed on the scene, there was polite applause. A golf clap. "Well done, old chap."
I remember first being shown the Nikon Z50 at the Big N's headquarters. I thought it was a cool little camera – the 20.9MP sensor seemed a little stingy by 2019 standards, but otherwise it was compact and capable and perfectly respectable.
The general photo public, however, was pretty indifferent – and the Z50 hardly set cash registers on fire at camera stores.
Fast-forward a couple of years, to the arrival of the Nikon Z fc. Another cool little camera – the 20.9MP sensor seemed a little stingy by 2021 standards, because it was the same sensor – and the same everything else – as the one in the Nikon Z50.
However, despite their internals being technically identical, the Z fc was styled like an old film camera and looked far more like a Fujifilm or Olympus body. Instead of golf claps came thunderous, Beyonce-level ovations – and instead of lukewarm cash registers, cameras flew off the shelves.
It blows my mind. The Nikon Z50 is – aside from having a pop-up flash and lacking a fully articulating screen – the exact same camera as the Z fc, it just doesn't look retro. So what it tells us is that photographers don't care about kit – or maybe they do, but they don't care about what it does as much as how it looks.
Why is this relevant in 2024? Because we've just seen the launch of the Panasonic Lumix S9 – a camera unashamedly aimed at content creators, Instagrammers, and dare I say it hipsters (or whatever hipsters have evolved to). It's basically a Panasonic Lumix S5II but instead of looking like a boring boxy camera, it looks like an old film camera and it comes in fancy colors.
And it's probably going to sell like hot cakes. Because if there's one thing the mirrorless revolution has told us, from Fujifilm to the Nikon Z fc and Zf, it's that photographers are just hipsters.
If you enjoyed this article, you might be interested in reading more about the best Nikon cameras and the best Nikon lenses – including the best Nikon Z lenses, designed exclusively for its mirrorless cameras.
