Nikon may be new to the mirrorless camera market, but it’s aiming high with its upcoming full-frame flagship mirrorless camera. Announced today, Nikon claims the Z9 offers “the best still and video performance in Nikon history.”
The Z9 is a very important entry for Nikon. It’s been struggling financially as the camera market shrinks. Nikon’s also been slow to adopt mirrorless technology and build out their mirrorless camera line. The Z9 is its first camera in its Z-mount line, so hopefully, it proves to be a good starting entry.
Right now there aren’t many details about the Z9. Typically, Nikon first announces it’s developing a camera and releases details later. Nikon revealed the camera houses an FX-format stacked CMOS sensor, a new processor and shoots 8K video. Nikon says the camera will tap out at 8K and won’t shoot at higher resolutions. This makes sense because Nikon recently said it’s focusing its resources on developing mirrorless cameras capable of shooting 8K video. Nikon says the camera will offer various video specs to “fulfill diverse needs and workflows.”
“The Z 9 embodies ultimate usability as a tool, offering users an unprecedented imaging experience from capture to workflow exceeding that of previous digital-SLR and mirrorless cameras,” Nikon writes in the Z9 press release.
When will the Nikon Z9 release?
Currently, there’s no concrete timeline for when the Z9’s release. However, Nikon promises the camera will release sometime in 2021. The Verge suggests we’ll see the camera launch in a few months. Nikon announced the D6 in a similar way. Nikon announced it was developing the D6 back in September 2019. The D6 released a few months later in February 2020. Nikon may handle the Z9 release the same way.
