The Z7II with the 14-24mm f/2.8 S lens. Why am I showing the camera with that lens? Because this is a combination that really shows off the high-resolution side of the camera.
What is It?
This is probably going to be a different sounding review than you expected. I'll get into my normal "full" review style in a bit, but first we have a ginormous elephant in the room to deal with: just how different is a Z7II from the Z7, and might that actually be important?
The full list of specification differences the Z7II has:
Dual card slots: adds Primary slot selection, Secondary slot function, Video recording destination optionsMB-N11 grip support: plus CSM #F9 allows customization of the two extra buttons and multi-selectorDual EXPEED processorsBuffer capacity increasedEN-EL15C battery with slightly more chargeUSB Power Delivery can be enabled with optional external charge sourceNew capability of no overlays/info on displays (must be assigned to a button, default is movie button), but this removed Split-screen zoom displayExtended shutter speeds via CSM #D6 (up to 900 seconds in Manual exposure mode; includes countdown in top LCD)Minimized the Virtual Horizon display so it doesn't occlude the composition view as muchFaster autofocus performance in a number of conditions/situationsBetter acquisition of faces and eyes at distanceSlight improvements to low-light autofocusNew AF-Area modes: people and animal versions of Auto-area AF and Wide-area AFInterval shooting; adds focus before shot option, exposure bracketing option, time-lapse movie optionTime-lapse movie: adds focus before shot option, destination choiceRemoved Stack peaking image capability from Focus shift shootingAdded 4K 50P/60PRemoved Face Detect option in CSM A settingsAdded i menu customization optionsAdded some CSM #F2 customization optionsAdded ability to reverse the lens focus ring direction (now CSM #F8)AF Fine-tuning options now allow tuning for zoom lenses (wide and tele ends can be programmed differently)Focus position can be saved on power downPixel mapping was added to refresh the image sensor (removes hot pixels)Added a new Energy saving mode for still photographyRemoved TIFF Image qualitySlightly changed the AF-On button and shutter release feelThe viewfinder hump is shaped slightly differentlyThe eye detect sensor’s performance is a bit different, particularly with the Rear LCD away from the bodyThat seems like a long list, right? The question a lot of folk will have is how much does that actually translate to in terms of tangible and meaningful differences? You'll note, for example, Nikon tweaked or removed some options. So if you're one of those folk that are down in the weeds using a very particular aspect/feature of the Z7, you might find that the Z7II changes that in ways you didn't want.
I have no idea why Nikon leaves off or changes features—no TIFF on the Z7II for example—but it's annoying, and sometimes breaks people's workflows. I suspect that part of the problem is that Nikon has a fixed space available for firmware, and that as they add new things into firmware, they sometimes need the space, so they take something else out, or they tweak something in ways that use less firmware memory. In the case of the Stack peaking image capability removal, I wonder if it was simply to make the Focus shift shooting menu options no longer a scrolling list.
So right up front, let me state a few things about the Z7II:
In terms of image or video quality, I see no meaningful differences between a Z7 and Z7II. Nikon's 45mp full frame sensor is still arguably state-of-the-art for high pixel count sensors.Many of the smaller things that were changed should have also been done in a firmware update for the Z7, but weren't, probably to get Z7 users to contemplate upgrading.Yes, the top, most obvious changes "fix" a few things that many Z7 users complained about, but that feels like less of an upgrade on the Z7II than it did on the Z6II, partly because people tend to use these cameras for different tasks.As I write this, the original Z7 is still available, and there's a US$600 price differential between the Z7 and Z7II. The question that most of you might ask is this: are the changes worth it?
My answer is no and yes, in that order. I don't find myself particularly appreciating (or using in many cases) many of those changes. They fall into a category I'd call "okay nice, but doesn't change things for me." I could do without those things, so no, those changes aren't worth it. I wrote this same thing in my Z6II review, but I feel that it's even more so with the Z7II. If you're using the Z7 II for landscape work, for example, very few of the changes have real meaningful impact on your imagery.
The yes part of my answer primary has to do with only three things, so I'd suggest that if they don't interest you much, just go read my Z7 review and consider that version of the camera. What are those three items?
Buffer performance. If you're running the camera at top frame rates and filling the buffer, the Z7II is simply better. It's not that the Z7 had an especially restrictive buffer, it's that the Z7II has a buffer big enough that you can generally ignore buffer constraints. But realistically, how many Z7-type users are pushing against buffer limits? I wasn't. Focus performance. Yes, the Z7II's focus performance is better. A bit faster to find focus, a bit better at tracking focus, a bit better in low light, and the Z7II clearly detects faces and eyes at longer distances. Faster focus is a tough benefit to quantify, though. That said, it's an observable enough difference that will be meaningful to people who shoot action with the Z7II. Moreover, the addition of “people/animal” AF Area modes partly fixes a problem in terms of switching the focus system quickly.USB power. The Z7II can stay powered from USB or charge the battery in the camera. At different times I find both things useful.Now it's possible that the dual slots or vertical grip option answers a question for you personally, but the former adds complications to the camera, and the latter adds an additional cost.
So, I've already probably given the short answer for many of you reading this review. Now let's get to the full review. As before, my review is going to look a lot like previous reviews (but with editing where the new features/handling/performance comes into play). That's because Nikon has produced five cameras (Z5, Z6, Z6II, Z7, Z7II) that are all very much alike in much of their abilities. There's more the same about those cameras than there is different. And to be consistent, I try to use the same exact wording and phrases in multiple reviews when the features and performance are the same.
The Z7II, like the Z7 before it, cribs a great deal from the DSLR lineup, particularly the D850, which seems to have served as the primary base for the Z series. The Z7II also shares accessories with the DSLR lineup. Unlike the Nikon 1, the Z series is almost fully integrated into Nikon's long SLR/DSLR legacy products.
Nope, nothing has changed in the back view: same controls, same layout.
Let's start with the Z7II basics.
The Z7II is a 45mp full frame (36x24mm) mirrorless camera. The image sensor itself is the same as in the Z7, and appears to be similar to the one used in the Nikon D850. It’s a BSI (backside illumination) Exmor-type design with the addition of phase detect photosite masking embedded in the microlens layer. Base ISO is 64, with the directly selectable range going to 25,600 (extendable with the HI settings to 102,400 equivalent, and with the LO settings down to ISO 32).
The Z7II sensor measures slightly different than the Z7 sensor in one thing: fixed pattern noise. It appears that Nikon caught their mistake with the focus pixel rows and corrected their math. All other measurements I made between Z7 and Z7II came up identical within sample error.
On top of the Z7II image sensor we do not have a low pass (AA) filter, which means that moire, and to some degree noise, can produce small detail-level artifacts. On the flip side, the lack of AA also tends to produce what some find to be visually useful faux detail beyond the Nyquist frequency. A high acuity lens such as the 14-24mm f/2.8 S produces incredibly-textured detail in landscape work.
The Z-mount the Z7II uses for lenses is distinguished by the smallest flange distance to date from the main competitors (16mm compared to a more typical 18-20mm). Coupled with a very wide throat opening of 52mm (compared to Sony's narrow 43.6mm), Nikon can (and sometimes does) put larger lens elements closer to the sensor than anyone else with a full frame camera. Nikon engineers can thus consider new optical designs where the entrance and exit pupils of the optical path have more flexibility. Nowhere do I see this come into play more than with a few of the Z Nikkors mounted on the Z7II. Indeed, I tend to prefer the results from my Z7II (at 45mp) to my Sony A7R Mark IV (at 60mp).
Nikon has kept the lens release button in its usual position found on the DSLRs, and Z-mount lenses twist onto the Z7II camera body exactly the same way F-mount lenses twist onto Nikon DSLRs. Which is to say, for some, backwards ;~). Still, that's the level of detail and consideration that any Nikon DSLR user would want Nikon to be making for mirrorless cameras that complement the DSLRs. Zoom and focus rings also work the same way in Z-dom as they do in D-dom: zoom in with a twist to the right (across the top of the lens), zoom out to the left.
So, other than the fact that the mount is bigger and closer to the sensor, the Z7II lens mount and lens attributes are recognizably Nikon to Nikon users.
Of course, you can't mount a DSLR lens directly on the mirrorless Z7II. For that Nikon has made an optional FTZ Adapter (F mount To Z mount, get it?). Another article on this site goes into the details about the FTZ adapter, so I won't elaborate much here. Suffice it to say that pretty much any AI-S or P-type manual focus Nikkor and any AF-S, AF-I, or AF-P autofocus Nikkor works much as you'd expect when mounted on a Z7II via the FTZ adapter. That's good news, because while the Z-mount lens choices continue to get better, we only have 17 FX Z-mount Nikkor lenses as this review is published, and a number of them overlap in function (four mid-range zooms, or the three 50mm lenses, for example). Even with nine more FX lenses on the Road Map coming soon—Nikon says before April 2022—there's still a paucity of lens choice in the Z-mount versus the F-mount that will take some time to go away. Most of you who pick up a Z7II after reading this review are going to be using at least some of your existing DSLR lenses via the FTZ for awhile.
The exception with FTZ Adapter is D-type autofocus lenses that use a screw-drive mechanism to move the focus elements. That screw-drive was powered by a motor in the DSLR cameras, which the Z7II does not have (nor does the FTZ Adapter). It’s unclear why Nikon chose to leave this ability off; perhaps because it would have consumed more power and made the FTZ Adapter more complex. Moreover, screw-drive autofocus lenses were the poorest in terms of focus speed (only the D3, D4, D5, and D6 type bodies had the high-powered motors that could drive them fast, and big batteries to allow that not to draw down power quickly).
You're probably wondering about the autofocus system at this point, as I just mentioned that most F-mount lenses work as expected on the Z7II with the FTZ adapter.
Nikon uses rows of phase detect photosite masking on the Z7II sensor. The photosites on those rows can provide both focus and exposure information. Basically every twelfth row has this dual-function nature. Nikon claims 493 points for autofocus, but that's user selectable single points using the camera controls. In reality, there are many thousands of autofocus points in the camera, as is true of most mirrorless cameras using phase detect on sensor. One thing, though: none of these autofocus detection sites are cross-type, as you find in the DSLRs. That means that focus is far more responsive to detail on one axis only (the long axis).
Focus performance with the latest firmware extends to -4EV with an f/2 lens attached. That's with the low light focus function enabled; normally it's -3EV. Those numbers are at least equivalent to the Nikon D750, one of the best low-light focusing DSLRs to date. Indeed, I'd tend to call them state-of-the-art numbers. (Note that some other makers use faster lenses to get higher numbers ;~). That said, if you need fastest-possible focus performance in low light, the Z6II is the better camera for that (-4EV and -6.5EV, or a stop to two stops better than the Z7II).
The thing about phase detect on the image sensor is that the precision with which the current focus position can be calculated is less than that in the DSLRs (at least at the central positions). That mostly has to do with geometry. That's why virtually all of mirrorless camera systems default to a followup contrast detect focus step after performing a phase detect step when they're set to what's known as single servo focus (AF-S in the Nikon cameras; it means that focus is only obtained once, and does not track the subject). The Z7II does not typically perform contrast detect steps, though (except in Pinpoint AF mode and when set to Low-light AF). Somehow, Nikon has gotten the same level of accuracy without having to perform the extra step in many cases.
In continuous servo (AF-C in Nikon parlance), the Z7II usually only performs a single phase detect focus operation. Note that whichever AF-area mode you pick in AF-C, far more than one underlying focus sensor (pixel) is being used to determine focus. That both helps and potentially hurts AF-C focus accuracy. I'll get to accuracy in the Performance section, below.
You should also know that the Z7II respects shooting aperture up to f/5.6. In other words, viewing and focus is performed at f/2.8 if you're set at f/2.8, while viewing and focus is performed at f/5.6 if you're set at f/5.6. When you set apertures of f/6.3 and smaller, the camera views and focuses the scene with the lens set to f/5.6 (or the maximum aperture of the lens if it's physically smaller than f/5.6). The unique aspect of this is that the EVF shows DOF directly up to f/5.6. Beyond that, you need to invoke a programmed button or pull off the trick I note in my book to see exact DOF in the viewfinder.
The main worry of Nikon DSLR users considering a Z7II has tended to be focus speed. They needn't have worried. Phase detect is essentially instant—okay, there's lag in the electronics stream to account for, but that's quite minimal—so it really depends upon the performance of the focus motor in the lens as to whether the actual focus speed is good or not. The focus motors in the Z-mount lenses tend to be very fast (and generally silent).
The worry among DSLR users was that no other mirrorless camera with adapter managed to achieve reasonable focus speed with existing F-mount Nikkors. So let me just say that focus speed with AF-S lenses mounted on the FTZ adapter on a Z7II is excellent, too, with perhaps a small caveat I'll get to in a moment.
I see no important difference in how AF-S lenses on the FTZ adapter work (yeah, a confusion of terms, that AF-S is not single servo, but a lens motor designation), though in a few cases I can measure it as slightly slower to initial focus than the same lens on my D6. I actually think AF-P lenses may work a little faster on the Z7II than they do on the DSLRs, but that "little" is so little that I can't actually measure it accurately, and you have an apples and oranges problem to deal with even trying to do such a test. Suffice it to say that Nikon DSLR AF-I, AF-S, and AF-P autofocus lenses mounted on an FTZ adapter pretty much keep their performance characteristics on the Z7II. Fast focusing lenses on a DSLR still tend to be fast focusing lenses on the Z7II.
What's missing on the Z7II autofocus are some of the traditional Nikon DSLR autofocus area modes in AF-C, plus the ability to switch AF-area mode quickly. You can't assign AF-ON+AF-area mode to anything, as you can on the D850 and other D5-generation DSLRs. There's no Group AF mode, nor any size variations for the Dynamic-area AF mode. We do now have a Wide-area AF (L-people) and Wide-area AF (L-animals) mode, though (yes, those names are clunky).
Meanwhile, manual focus lenses on the Z7II shine. That's because we have a plethora of "helpers" to help you nail focus. The full list—which requires a chipped lens that reports focal length and aperture to the camera—includes rangefinder focus distance display, the usual Nikon >o