Nikon’s new flagship camera, the Z9, has been one of the hottest tickets in the photo world with early shipments of this full-frame mirrorless marvel dribbling out late last year. Fortunately for us, our colleagues at Imaging Resource, Digital Photo Pro‘s sister site, got their hot little hands on a Z9 and just posted a gallery of real-world images they’ve captured with the camera so far.
We’ve included five of those images, which were shot by Imaging Resource Reviews Editor Jeremy Gray in upstate New York this past week, with this story. Click on a Nikon Z9 test image below to open the full resolution file.
“After extensive teasing throughout 2021 and a full unveil in late October, we have finally gone hands-on with the new Nikon Z9 mirrorless camera,” Gray wrote. “The flagship mirrorless camera is extremely impressive.”
He adds that Imaging Resource‘s hands-on review of the Nikon Z9 is still in progress but should be live next week. Gray’s Z9 real-world test photos were captured with the Nikkor Z 28mm F2.8 SE lens and the Nikkor Z 24-70mm F2.8S zoom.
“Unfortunately, with the Z9 being in such high demand and our time being so limited, we won’t be able to capture lab First Shots with the Z9 at this time,” Gray wrote. “However, we will publish lab test shots as soon as possible”
You can see a gallery of Gray’s full-size RAW and JPEG images captured with the Z9 here.
Digital Photo Pro named the Z9 one of the seven best cameras of 2021, taking its place alongside the equally impressive Sony A1 and Canon EOS R3.
The 45.7MP Nikon Z9 ($5499) is unique because it eliminates the need for a mechanical shutter, employing a full electronic shutter instead for recording images. Other highlights include the Z9’s autofocus system, which uses a new scene detection algorithm and 3D tracking.
The Nikon Z9 can capture blazing fast bursts of 30 frames per second (fps) for JPEG images, 20 fps for RAW files (with a 1000+ image buffer), and up to 120 fps at 11MP, all with full AF/AE. The Z9 can capture 8K video and achieves the “world’s longest record time” at 8K UHD 30p for more than two hours consecutively (up to approximately 125 minutes).
