I was very tempted by the deals on the Nikon Z9 over Black Friday. I've been a Nikon shooter for many years, using professional DSLRs to shoot equestrian sports. And for me the Nikon Z9 is the dream camera for the action photographer. But amazingly, with the Boxing Day sales not even her Park Camera has dropped the price of this top-end full-frame mirrorless to its best-ever price - with a saving of £900!
The Z9 is powered by Deep Learning AF, which makes the camera capable of nine kinds of simultaneous subject recognition: human eyes, faces, heads, and upper-bodies; animal eyes, heads, and bodies; and cars, planes, trains, and motorbikes. While it has the same 493 AF points as the Nikon Z7 II, it has 5 times more auto-area AF points to the tune of 405, the back-side illuminated nature of the new image sensor, which places the electronics behind the photosites, results in superior low light performance – and combined with the native ISO64-25,600 sensitivity (expandable to ISO32-102,400), the Z9 is a formidable low light performer.
So, if you're a professional photographer or videographer, who's after pristine images and you're looking to make the change to a full-frame mirrorless camera – or you like swapping from shooting stills to video – this should definitely be on your shortlist.
It’s was fashionably late, but the Nikon Z9 definitely made an entrance. On paper it beats the Sony A1 and Canon EOS R3 with its blistering 120fps burst shooting, 8K 60p capability, 2 hours of 8K recording, and a price tag that’s hundreds of bucks cheaper – though the A1 still has it licked in terms of resolution. Still, this is a remarkable camera that promises next-level professional performance that is now at an ever lower price than before!
See our guide to the best lenses for the Nikon Z9 and Z8