Z9 Did Nikon get it right?

[peefeeniz]

I remember B&H when old men with shylocks shouted at and insulted you so I used Calumet out of Chicago instead. Saved sales tax too.

Now it feels like B&H is the only place to shop since rival Adorama is sketchy AF and the other places online make me wonder how long it will be until my credit card numbers will be sold?

Meanwhile the local camera shops are worthless, might as well go to Best Buy for brick and mortar (or steel and sheetrock).

~~~

Nikon F3hp and MD12 was the peak of good Nikon design, the F4 also was darn futuristic and the F5 was an excellent brick. Only flaws is the leaking LCDs and all those hundreds of aging rubber, epoxy, brittle plastic parts, springs, tiny watchmaker stuff.

Why they never slotted a professional body that didn't weigh five pounds between the F5 and plasticy F100 is beyond me although the F100 was a grand back in the day. I guess it was the F6, which is still tempting but I know it's near unrepairable.

 

[Pál_K]

But what about the F4E ? 😎

That’s pretty big. But professionals of the day probably appreciated the extra battery power.

Just like the $6k Nikon Z9 - it seems like a tool for professionals involved in sports photography and those that need impressive frame rates or video. Sadly, perhaps the dedicated video camera will exist no longer?

Dedicated enthusiasts with the money to buy a Z9 might have fun exploring the Z9’s capabilities - nothing wrong with that.

I would play with one if given the opportunity, but I doubt I’d use even 20% of its features. I feel guilty that my old X-Pro1 has a video mode I’ll never use.

 

[peefeeniz]

Up until now (I think) the faster “sports photographer” cameras sacrificed megapixels or dynamic range… you had to give something up for speed. Now the new pro bodies give you everything ~ high resolution and speed.

Which was probably a marketing decision as much as a technical one. I knew people who had to buy both a D3x and D3s because of perceived need. Canon and Nikon must have loved that but now Sony competition pushed them to do a solid all-arounder.

 

[ptpdprinter]

I feel guilty that my old X-Pro1 has a video mode I’ll never use.

One way to avoid the guilt is to refrain from reading the camera manual. It's pretty easy to figure out how to take pictures without the manual. Sure, you may miss out on how to make your JPEGs purple using one of the Lomo film modes, but how often are you going to want purple JPEGs? What were these guys thinking? No Lomo enthusiast would be caught dead shooting a digital camera so why have Lomo film modes to begin with? This is what happens when you get the marketing department involved.