I don't see much activity about the Z5II on this board. To me this seems like a great option if you don't like the Zf ergo's. Is there something I'm missing about this camera body? I've been following the Zf threads and find the image quality to be excellent.
so many raves about this camera on YouTube.
The 4K 60 is cropped, and there may be a tad of rolling shutter, but there seem to be very few complaints otherwise.
Anaitis wrote:
I don't see much activity about the Z5II on this board. To me this seems like a great option if you don't like the Zf ergo's. Is there something I'm missing about this camera body? I've been following the Zf threads and find the image quality to be excellent.
I don't think you are missing anything. It is a great camera.
I wouldn’t consider the Z5 II to be an entry level camera. The Z5 was, but the Z5 II is firmly a mid range prosumer body. Honestly, unless you absolutely need the fast readout from the Z6 III, the Z5 II should be the camera that so many photographers go to on the Nikon side. It’s Nikon’s A7 III.
The Z5II is an amazing camera for that price! Well beyond "entry level" at this point. As someone else pointed out, I just think for this particular forum a lot of the potential Z5II users had already gone with a Z6III or a Zf by the time the Z5II hit the market. So we haven't seen a rush of Z5II adopters. I suspect over time you will begin to see lots of Z5 II users here or folks using it as a second body. The Zf is stylish, but the Z5II is honestly probably the far more functional form factor of nearly the same camera.
Unless you have some specific needs or desires it is honestly almost hard to justify buying anything other than the Z5II at this point! It ticks so many boxes.
Something that is not clear to me is if it has all the cool manual focus/adapted lens features of the Zf. I'm quite intrigued with the idea of using old Nikon glass as well as being able to use my existing F mount lenses.
Anaitis wrote:
Something that is not clear to me is if it has all the cool manual focus/adapted lens features of the Zf. I'm quite intrigued with the idea of using old Nikon glass as well as being able to use my existing F mount lenses.
I believe it has everything the Zf on the latest firmware has. In fact the Zf had to have that firmware to be brought up to Z5 II spec.
Jman13 wrote:
I believe it has everything the Zf on the latest firmware has. In fact the Zf had to have that firmware to be brought up to Z5 II spec.
Are you sure about this? I found no indication in the Z5ii manual that eye detection and the color change of the focus field work in manual mode. It only mentions triangles as focus indicators. The Z6ii manual, on the other hand, describes all the functions known from the Zf.
Nifty Fifty wrote:
Are you sure about this? I found no indication in the Z5ii manual that eye detection and the color change of the focus field work in manual mode. It only mentions triangles as focus indicators. The Z6ii manual, on the other hand, describes all the functions known from the Zf.
I have to retract my statement. I found it in the manual after all. So it works! I apologize for the confusion.
As someone who was looking to move from Fujifilm to anything else, I feel like I did quite a bit of research. I didn't have any specific requirements other it just being somewhat recent to use features like IBIS, focus bracketing, and pixel shift. I thought about staying with APS-C for cheaper lenses, but the R7 felt too old and the a6700 was only $200 less than the Z5 II.
Compared to the a7c II and R6 mk II, it was definite cheaper at $600 and $300 less respectively. It had all the features I needed, pretty dang good AF (Fuji makes everyone else's AF seems like pure magic) and the ability to adapt basically any other DSLR *or* mirrorless lens to the body sold me. When directly comparing the bodies, it feels like most are basically the same with either very minor difference is IBIS, dynamic range, menus, etc or options that are nice but not critical as a "prosumer" like dual SD card slots.
I've had my Z5 II for about a week now and I'm still getting used to it, but I absolutely love it so far. The grip feels good, there's plenty of Nikon content to watch on YT, and it seems like the top tier lenses are really being slept on compared to Sony and Canon.
As Thom implies, if you’re not someone who shoots action in high speed bursts then the Z5ii is a great choice vs the Z6iii. I’m very tempted by the Z5ii for my Z lenses and using my Zf with my Voigtlanders and pre-AI lenses. Plus my Z7ii for when I want 46MP. I need to counter my GAS…
Clivem2 wrote:
As Thom implies, if you’re not someone who shoots action in high speed bursts then the Z5ii is a great choice vs the Z6iii. I’m very tempted by the Z5ii for my Z lenses and using my Zf with my Voigtlanders and pre-AI lenses. Plus my Z7ii for when I want 46MP. I need to counter my GAS…
Can I help you combat your GAS?
I understand that the Z5 II works exactly like the Zf with MF lenses (e.g., Voigtlanders, pre-AI, AI, etc.; BTW, I have no problem using my Apo-Lanthars with my old Z6).
IBIS too is very similar (7.5 vs 8 stops ... I'd say "identical" performance). Brighter VF and better ergonomics (in my opinion); two full-size UHS-II SD card slots
So it's time to replace your Zf with a Z5 II
