It is no secret that Nikon has been fighting, but that’s not stopping the company from using all its efforts to next Z9, which has now been officially announced to arrive sometime before the end of 2021.
Positioned above the Z6 II and Z7 II, the Z9 will be Nikon’s new flagship full-frame mirrorless camera with a new stacked FX-format CMOS sensor and a new image processing engine. As the Canon EOS R5 and the Sony Alpha 1, The Z9 is said to support 8K video capture, while meeting the needs of professional photographers and high-tech enthusiasts.
In short, Nikon says the Z9 “will offer the best photo and video performance in Nikon’s history”.
That is a bold statement, but three years after the launch of its first full frame mirrorless cameras on the Z6 and Z7, it seems that Nikon may finally be reaching its limit and could not arrive at a more critical time.
Last fall, Nikon was said to be in “trouble” after being hit by one of the worst sales declines in recent history (due in large part to the pandemic), with Nikon’s relatively late entry into state-of-the-art mirrorless cameras, allowing Sony to dive in and become the dominant player in the segment.
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Unfortunately, because the Z9 was revealed as part of a development announcement (which camera manufacturers use to briefly describe future products), other concrete details are relatively sparse. Judging by the official photo, it looks like The Z9 will feature an integrated vertical grip and space for extra batteries, but that’s all we know for sure now.
However, after a recent interview where a Nikon exec sat down with DP Review, it looks like the Z9 is turning into a professional workhorse designed to completely replace the D6, while offering excellent durability and as Nikon describes in its development announcement: “final usability. ”
The tricky part is that, with Canon EOS R5 available since last summer and Sony Alpha scheduled to launch sometime this month, Nikon may once again be forced to try to catch up when the Z9 is officially released on end of this year. So, with the expectation that Nikon will reveal more details as we approach autumn, stay tuned for updates.