Nikon didn’t go back to the drawing board for its second-generation full-frame mirrorless camera. Instead, the Z 7 II ($2,999.95, body only) is a modest update to the first edition. Improvements include dual memory card slots and support for a proper vertical grip, directly addressing gripes voiced about the Z 7. Dual processors provide plenty of pep, and the image sensor remains one of the best you can find in any camera. Autofocus is speedy too, but not quite as intelligent as some others. Competitors like the Canon EOS R5 and the Editors’ Choice award-winning Sony a7R IV are a bit more capable, especially in terms of subject tracking, but they also cost more.
Built for Pros and Enthusiasts
The Z 7 II is built, and priced, for professional photographers and more serious hobbyists. It’s a full-frame camera, designed around a stabilized 45.7MP sensor. The body is made from magnesium alloy and other quality components, and includes internal sealing to protect against dust and splashes.
The Z system is Nikon’s second effort in the mirrorless space. It swaps an optical viewfinder for an electronic one and uses a different lens system than Nikon’s venerable SLR series. The net result is a body that’s a bit slimmer—the Z 7 II comes in at 4.0 by 5.3 by 2.7 inches (HWD) and 1.4 pounds. Compare that with the D850 SLR (4.9 by 5.7 by 3.1 inches, 2.0 pounds), a camera that uses a similar image sensor. Despite being heavier, the D850 doesn’t include in-body image stabilization (IBIS).
The Z 7 II does. IBIS is a table stakes feature in mirrorless and it’s included here. The five-axis system steadies any attached lens—you’ll get up to five stops of compensation with native Z lenses and stabilized SLR lenses mounted via Nikon’s official FTZ adapter. Adapted lenses without their own VR get about three stops of correction, nothing to sneeze at. We’re happy to see the Z 7’s stabilization features carry through to the Z 7 II.
There is some room for Nikon to get more out of the system, though. The Z 7 II doesn’t include a multi-shot mode, one that shifts the sensor slightly between exposures for truer color sampling and better capture of textures. It’s not an everyday feature for most—a tripod and still-life subject are requirements—but it’s something that’s more common on high-end models, and is starting to make its way into mainstream cameras, too. The 24MP Panasonic S5, for instance, includes an implementation that outputs 96MP photos.
Handling and Ergonomics
The Z 7 II’s body design is, on the outside, unchanged from first edition. It sports the same comfortable handgrip and flexible control layout. Many buttons are multifunction, assignable in the camera menu, including the two unmarked ones nested between the lens mount and grip.
The top includes a standard PASM Mode dial at the left, a monochrome information display, and front and rear control dials. The shutter release sits at the top of the grip and is set at a slight angle. It’s flanked by Record, ISO, and EV control buttons.
The remainder of the controls are on the rear. Play and Delete are snuck into the top left corner, and the buttons you’re more likely to use when making images are on the right side. There’s an AF-ON button at the top, and lower down you’ll find the one to launch the on-screen i menu. Drive, Menu, and Plus and Minus controls are bunched together toward the bottom.
Menus are navigable via touch or a four-way directional pad, which has an OK button at its center. The Z 7 II also includes an eight-way joystick for focus control. It’s smaller, has its own press-in function, and does a fine job of moving the focus point about for photographers who prefer to work that way.
Controls are split between stills and video. The rear toggle switch changes modes. Menus and exposure settings are set independently, important as they typically vary between video and photos.
A vertical battery grip was marketed for the first-generation Z 6 and Z 7 cameras, but didn’t include a shutter release or control dials for more comfortable photography in portrait orientation, typically standard. Nikon changed its tune for the Z 7 II (and Z 6 II).
A new grip, the MB-N11 ($399.95), doubles the camera’s battery life, and includes controls for vertical operation—front and rear command dials, a shutter release, AF-ON, and a focus adjustment joystick are included. It also adds some size to the camera, welcome for photographers with bigger-than-average hands.
You’ll frame images using the rear display or eye-level electronic viewfinder. The EVF is one of the best in its class. Its 0.8x magnification factor shows a larger image than some full-frame SLRs, and resolution is excellent (3.7 million dots). It includes the expected eye sensor and diopter focus adjustment.
The rear display offers tilt adjustment, but doesn’t swing out to the side or face forward. Nikon does a good job leveraging its touch function, so it’s easy enough to tap to set autofocus or punch in and magnify when reviewing shots. The quality is very good, too—the 3.2-inch LCD is bright with 2.1-million-dot resolution.
By default, the displays shows a preview of the scene as the camera will capture it, a useful tool for previsualizing an exposure in the field. Studio photographers can change the setting so you always see a properly exposed image, necessary for setting focus when you’re lighting a scene with flash. If you’ve used Live View on a Nikon SLR, you’ll be familiar with the experience.
Z Lens and Legacy Support
The Z 7 II works with Nikkor Z lenses. The system is a few years old now and growing, but there are still a few gaps here and there. If you’re coming in from a Nikon SLR system, you can bring your lenses with you.
The FTZ Adapter bridges the gap, and works seamlessly with most lenses. The exceptions are those that rely on the camera’s screw-drive to autofocus—the FTZ doesn’t include one, so they’ll only work with manual focus. It’s a shame, and we’d love to see Nikon release an updated version to bring full support for some classic glass.
As for native options, the Z 7 II is available in a kit along with the Nikkor Z 24-70mm F4 S for $3,599.95—a $400 discount compared with buying them separately.
The basics are mostly covered as well. A trio of F2.8 zooms covers wide to telephoto (14-24mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm), and you can extend the reach of the Nikkor Z 70-200mm F2.8 S using a 1.4x or 2.0x teleconverter.
Nikon hasn’t released any F1.4 primes for the system, but has quality F1.8 glass in 20mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm focal lengths. It’s also delved into brighter apertures—the Nikkor Z 50mm F1.2 S is already out, and a brighter 85mm is promised on the system roadmap.
It’s also dabbled in the exotic, with the showy, but manual focus, Nikkor Z 58mm F0.95 S Noct, which costs $8,000 and weighs close to four and a half pounds. The Noct is an outlier, even among the S Line, Nikon’s designation for its premium lenses. If you see an S designation in a lens’ name, you can expect a pro-grade build, complete with dust and splash protection.
It’s not all high-end, though. The budget-friendly 24-50mm and 24-200mm zooms are on sale now, and Nikon promises more lenses outside of its S Line, including compact 28mm and 40mm primes, a 50mm macro, and a 200-600mm telezoom.
One thing missing is third-party support. Sigma and Tamron are both delivering excellent lenses for other mirrorless systems, typically for fewer dollars than you pay for the name brand version.
Nikon’s lenses are excellent in their own right, and priced in line with Canon and Sony glass for their respective systems. Techart sells an adapter to use Sony E lenses with Z cameras, but user reports of its quality are mixed at best. If you want to use Sony lenses, buy a Sony camera.
Connectivity and Power
The Z 7 II uses Nikon’s SnapBridge app for wireless transfer to a smartphone or tablet. Available for Android and iOS, the app connects your phone and camera via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. It supports automatic transfer of social-sized (2MP) JPGs over Bluetooth, and supports full-size Raw and JPG image transfer and remote control over Wi-Fi.
Nikon doesn’t include an in-body flash, but the Z 7 II can mount a Speedlight or wireless transmitter in its hot shoe. It includes 3.5mm headphone and microphone, mini HDMI, Nikon DC2, and USB-C connections on its side panel.
Memory cards load in a door at the back of the handgrip. The primary slot supports CFexpress (Type B) and XQD memory cards, and the second supports UHS-II SDXC media. The addition of the SD slot is a benefit to photographers with a stash of memory cards, and having two slots gives event photographers a bit more confidence—the camera can write images to two cards simultaneously, so you won’t lose images if one becomes corrupted.
Power is provided by the EN-EL15c battery. It’s the latest edition of the EN-EL15, and the older versions can be used to power the Z 7 II as well, but with less life. The 15b and 15c are the only editions that support in-camera charging via USB-C.
The Z7 II is rated for 420 shots using the rear display, and 360 using the EVF per CIPA standards. You’ll likely get more shots in practice, especially if you use continuous drive mode and take it easy with wireless transfer. Among high-resolution models, the battery life here is middle of the pack—the Canon EOS R5 gets less (320 LCD, 220 EVF) and the Sony a7R IV gets more (670 LCD, 530 EVF).
Improved, Not Reinvented, Autofocus
Nikon has made some subtle changes to the Z 7 II’s autofocus system, and generally sped up performance—the doubled processing power helps there. You’re now able to combine eye detection focus with a limited area of focus, useful for picking out a single subject in a crowded scene.
It’s a welcome update, but a pretty minor one overall, and shows where Nikon is lagging behind competitors. The Canon EOS R5 and Sony a7R IV can detect eyes and faces and track subjects in basically any focus mode, while the R5 takes things a step further with intelligent subject recognition and tracking.
That doesn’t make the Z 7 II deficient, rather it’s simply not cutting edge in the same way as its competitors. It’s a big upgrade from SLRs, especially in terms of coverage—autofocus is available almost to the edges of the frame, rather than limited to a central area. That alone makes it a bit easier to keep focus on your subject when tracking a moving target.
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You can set the focus point by tapping on the rear display, useful for tripod work, or using the rear focus joystick. There are varying areas of interest, ranging from the precise Pinpoint option (available only in AF-S) to the wider Dynamic Area AF. The autofocus system is also able to choose its own subject, with the aid of face and eye detection for humans, cats, and dogs. Nikon also hides its subject tracking in this mode—a press of the OK button switches to focus box, and when it locks onto a subject the boxes follow it across the frame, as long as you keep the focus system engaged.
Generally speaking, the Z 7 II’s autofocus system is more capable than Nikon’s best SLRs, including the D850. It offers nearly full coverage of the sensor, and benefits from placing focus directly on the image sensor. It just isn’t quite up there with what you get from competitors.
We’ll have to see if firmware updates change things—Nikon has already announced one (1.10), which promises to improve eye detection for when your subject isn’t as tightly framed. The first-generation Z 7 received a few new features, notably eye detection for pets, after its introduction.
Up to 10fps at 45MP
As for pure capture speed, the Z 7 II keeps up with its competitors. It fires at up to 10fps when using the mechanical shutter, matching the Sony a7R IV and Canon EOS R5. Flash sync is available to 1/200-second and the shutter fires as quickly as 1/8,000-second, standard for this class.
A fully electronic shutter is included, too. It makes absolute silent capture an option, but doesn’t do anything to improve burst capture rate. I’d also recommend using the mechanical shutter for any sort of fast-moving subjects or panning shots—you’re sure to see motion distortion in images if you rely on the electronic shutter for these types of scenes.
How long the camera can keep firing at top speed depends on your choice of image format and memory card. I tested the Z 7 II with a SanDisk CFexpress card, rated for 1,400MBps write speed, and a Sony Tough UHS-II SD card, rated at 299MBps.
With CFexpress I netted 45 Raw+JPG, 74 Raw, and 200 JPG frames before the camera slowed down. In each case, the images cleared from camera to card quickly—5 seconds for JPG, 10 seconds for Raw, and 15 seconds for the Raw+JPG pairs. You’ll get fewer shots with SDXC, but not as little as you might think—with the Sony UHS-II card, I was able to snap 37 Raw+JPG, 49 Raw, or 169 JPG images, with recovery times similar to CFe.
Imaging and Video
There’s not a lot new when it comes to the Z 7 II’s imaging capabilities. The camera uses the same sensor as the Z 7, and while there are now dual processors powering it, the JPG engine is the same as well.
The 45MP image sensor isn’t the newest around, and it no longer has more pixels than any other—the Canon EOS R5 and Panasonic S1R match it, and Sony has its 60MP a7R IV—but there’s no quibbling to be about the quality of those pixels.
The Z 7 II sports a broader ISO range than others, with a native ISO 64 design and ISO 32 available as an extended option—good news for landscape photographers who employ longer exposures in daylight. For low light, it hits ISO 25600 in its native range, and can be pushed as high as ISO 102400 in its extended mode.
If you work in JPG mode, you’ll enjoy nearly perfect images through ISO 800, and excellent detail when pushing as high as ISO 6400. Noise reduction dulls photos a bit when the camera is set higher, but you’ll still net usable results through ISO 25600, the highest standard setting.
Raw capture is available, too, and is a better choice for photographers who spend time editing images in Lightroom. You’ll have ample room to adjust highlights, shadows, color, and tone to suit your taste. You’ll also be have access to better better noise reduction controls, so you can eke a bit more detail out of high-ISO shots.
The Z 7 II’s video toolkit enjoys some updates as well. Features from the previous model carry over, so you still get 4K recording at 8-bit quality internally and 10-bit externally. The recording rate has been upped to 60fps (with a very slight crop); 24fps and 30fps are still available and use the full width of the sensor.
You can shoot ready-to-share clips with a number of in-camera profiles, including creative looks like black-and-white. There’s also a flat profile, N-log, with desaturated color and lowered contrast, for more flexibility in post-production.
If you want more, Nikon offers an upgrade that adds Raw video capture to the Z 7 II, priced at $199.95. It ups the HDMI output to 12-bit and supports both Apple ProRes Raw and Blackmagic Raw when used with an external recording device.
Dual Cards and Processors Make the Difference
The Nikon Z 7 II makes no attempts to rock the boat in terms of design. The body and controls are unchanged, as is the imaging engine and sensor. Upgrades are pointed toward demanding users—dual processors speed operation and add support for 60fps video capture, a second memory card slot is there for event photographers, and there’s a proper vertical grip available if you prefer it.
And, despite using a sensor that’s now a few years old, image quality remains up there with the best of its high-resolution, full-frame competitors. Magnesium construction with weather protection, strong ergonomics, and a stabilized sensor are all there as well.
That’s the good, but there’s some disappointment to go with it. The Z 7 autofocus was competitive with Sony (and better than Canon) at the time it launched, but in the ensuing years, Sony has improved, and Canon revolutionized, their respective subject tracking systems. Nikon has some catching up to do.
For around $3,000, the Z 7 II has some value appeal in the high-resolution space. It has to compete with the Z 7, still on sale for a couple of hundred dollars less, but I’d give preference to the second edition, assuming it’s not stretching your budget too far. Nikon has already rolled out one minor firmware update, and we hope to see more that take advantage of the upgraded processing power.
If you’re willing to spend more, the Canon EOS R5 ($3,899) and the Sony a7R IV ($3,499) are more capable. The R5’s 8K video gets headlines, but its autofocus and imaging capabilities are the real star of the show—the hangup is price. The Sony a7R IV isn’t quite as forward-thinking, but it has the best all-around performance among its high-resolution peers.
