My friend got one and it is very nice but if I were agnostic I don't know since Canon and Sony are very competitive. Yet they all suffer from poor user interface design that's locks you into using things only their way. After using my iPhone or a digital Leica I look at the Canikony cameras and want to move the buttons around or better yet, put LEDs on the buttons that I can assign functions and also get 3-character backlighting so I can use them in the dark. Nikon makes more sense to me in the way my 1970s Texas Instrument pocket calculator did compared to the Hewett Packard (Sony, Canon) logic but the reality is they all kind of stink and haven't changed much since Kodak figured out how do everything and license it to them.
I was looking at the back of one camera and realized that if I redid the interface all the buttons to the left of the screen could be eliminated or reassigned.
I also thanked the Lord that I am right handed and right eyed because I have no idea how Lefties adapt. They could make an ambidextrous camera it seems to me but it would take a real ergonomic and user interface guru, none of which seem to exist.
It feels like the Z9 II or s version would be perfect if Nikon listened.
What I am hoping for is around 2024 they do a Nikon Z8 in a body that isn't crimped but without the battery grip that adds at least a pound. That would be like the D850 DSLR which, even after 5-6 years seems to be the pinnacle of price-performance-value and usability.
I've owned the Z7, Z7ii and Z6ii and half a dozen lenses. The lenses have been superb, comparable to the best of Zeiss, Leica, etc. and generally better built than the AFS-G series (although still consumer build level until you get to the more expensive ones). Also have had the Z50 (an excellent smaller sensor) and Z5 (a bit cheaper build than the Z6). They are very good but with my XL hands I feel crimped holding them and the buttons are a bit close. If I needed a Z body now I'd get the first Z7 since they're less expensive and differences with the Z7ii are minor and none impact image quality. Firmware updates made the Z7 so close to the Z7ii that only the dual card slots are a selling point for the later.
As for auto-focus, my sense is the cameras are as capable as the DSLRs but the controls are not documented or implemented very well. A lot of this is cultural, maybe native Japanese get it better than I can being an American but it's hard to access the camera's amazing capabilities because the controls obscure what it is they do or make it more difficult to get to. A lot of people I know set all the focusing to automatic and let the camera choose the focusing mode and then they cheat and manually fine tune if needed. For 98% of the market where Joe Schmo is shooting a static subject or a portrait the auto works perfectly.
And I'll be damned if I am going to suffer through Thom Hogan's pretentious writing to hear the instructions in Soy English.
I'm still using D850s until they do better. Just ordered my fourth VC 40 SLII lens (long story) but it's the perfect EDC kit and actually smaller than a Z7 with a normal prime (although a bit heavier).
