0:14 Canon-ball? I thought this was a Nikon video. lolololol

Fantastic tube, thank you!

great analysis of Z8

Hi - does the sensor cover actually keep dust off the sensor

Battery life. Geeezzzzzzz, Remember all the film one had to carry and spend money on for one use. One can't carry a couple of extra batteries, oh the horror.

I miss DSLR like I miss vinyl. Not at all. It is great seeing with no problem what the camera sees in darkness. What the last picture looks like without removing my eye from the view finder. Not taking a picture in quite with everyone hearing it. Seeing a lot of information again without removing my eye from the view finder. Being able to take movies without, you know. I'm 75 and I don't miss file.

Is it just me, or is that Z30 in the intro shot focusing on your teeth and not your eyes? Your irises just seem soft by comparison. Feels like another miss of the Nikon Z AF system before the glorious Expeed 7

Good review. I want to add about how good the seat is. very comfortable, adjustable and nice armrests. Also my '24 model IKON came with a great new installed oil drain tube with the drain plug at the end, so you just put your pan under it and open it up. The cut quality is excellent. My lawn looks like a carpet. The IKON is definitely the best mower in the 4K price range. IMO

Which lens you use during the a-roll? The 16-50 kit lens?

I hate mine, rides ruff and will get stuck on level ground. have had nothing but problems with the Kawasaki engine. mower does cut nice but that s the only good thing

Thank you for the great video! Question to other recent Z8 users. I'm planning to get a Z8 (currently have a D5500). So, yes, a major upgrade. The price is a shocker and I plan to do some birding stuff and the prime 400mm or 600mm lenses look amazing, but their prices are a shocker too! I guess, I have to just bite the bullet and splurge on these? I love photography! What are your favorite Z lenses? Thank you all.

Good review, congrats.

Hi handsome

Great review. Zero turn reviews in general are hard to come by. I wished you would’ve commented on the cut and whether or not it met your needs. Thanks

Could you please explain clearly about the Focus modes in 80-400mm A/M, M/A and M Modes

Great review! Looking forward to the 2 year review

I have a Z8 and a Z9 as my wife and I both shoot A LOT, so how is it no one mentions the IBIS image stabilisation as a HUGE difference over the Nikon DSLRs? My D850 was gifted to a relative who loves it, but my biggest takeaway with the Z8/9 was the ability to shoot slow shutter speeds with great results. Was blown away when I shot photos at night, on a moving boat, under the Sydney Harbour bridge and got tack sharp images that were 1/15th hand held at 16,000 ISO. Removed noise with Topaz and my happy snap of the bridge and Opera House became Iconic. Z glass is exceptional and the amount of fails shrunk significantly with the Z cameras. Rarely miss focus, rarely have lens blur. The Z8 battery does let it down a bit as a full day shoot needs 2 batteries minimum, unless you avoid reviewing images, which I can't.

Not wanting to be critical, you make the case that switching from the D850 to the Z8 was worth it, hold the front page thats a shocker. You dont make the case for someone who doesnt own a shelf full of Nikon glass (like whats in the background of your video) , as to why they would switch to the Z8. Overall best image quality + autofocus prize currently would fall to Sony's Ar5 . Sports /Nature Action would be a split decision between Canon's R3 / Sonys A9III. Best Hybrid would be the Panny's S5IIx. Before the Z mount the F mount glass was the best reason to pick Nikon. Now Z mount not so much. Is there a stand out reason for the unbiased to pick the Z8 ? BTW I've owned the D3, the D750 , 7100 so Im not a Nikon hater

Spot on analysis! Excellent production!

the 850 has a more dynamic range. you can sense it especially if you shoot GFX. the 850 is a lot closer to the GFX than the Z8, or Z9. as far as photos goes the d850 is a beast. Get a D850, Don't look back. if you shoot video, events or birds.. get a z8, z9.

I think the ZF is the BEST VALUE NO COMPROMISE camera there is today...the Z8 is still rather expensive to most, granted it is made for Pros but they could've just easily omitted some features to cut cost.

Had opportunity to try Z8. Was not impressed with ergonomics. Saw they took out lots of buttons - didn't liked that. Saw Z lens - got digital screen instead analog - didn't like that either. Have tried panning with Z8 and saw ghosting. Decided to go for D850. Clients love the big bulky things that go CLICK. That way they feel they paid for something good. If you take out camera and there is no sound, client will start to think if he could do the same job with the iphone.

I am watching with great interest where Z goes. The D bodies have been a joy to use. But I keep getting interested in the Z5,6, maybe the 7. I have no use for the 8 and certainly not the 9. From a packaging and use standpoint for me, these make more sense.

One way to stretch the battery life is looking at Smallrig who does an official EN-EL15c USB-C Rechargeable Camera Battery which has a bit more power at 2400mAh. Another way is using an usb-c powerbank to drive the camera.

Good video. You covered features important to me. My current camera is a Panasonic DH3 that I’ve had for several years and am looking to replace. Since I was looking for another combo cam, my first choice was the Sony A7CR. Size was pretty good, but I kept finding “warts” - limitations that I could not accept. Next was the Sony A7CR. Much better, but after digging deeper, I found warts there too. Technology was great, but the combination wasn’t fully baked for me. Then I found the Nikon Z8. At first glance, it looked “boring”. But digging further, it looks very well baked - well thought out. Smoothly integrated photo AND video features. Straight-forward features that don’t require a lot of thought to figure out which combo can work together (especially in video). What appears to be different with the Z8 is that the important features for me are all there, well integrated, and work well. I’m still open, but a Z8 and Nikon lenses will be my next camera system.

Dont be fooled , the images are no better ! Not only did i keep the d850 i bought a new one in 2024 , its all the camera il ever need . People are conned into think theyre being left behind . Any photographer knows what his shots will look like because the screen shows them ,

I left the DSLR world when the Z7 came out ... 6 years ago now? I did not get the Z7 ii because I tried the Z9 and knew they were up to something fun with the Z8 rumors. Bought mine new on day #1 something like 1.5 years ago now and never looked back. Put a grip on it and realized it was bigger than a Z9 at that point, so I often thought about just getting the Z9 , but I like having the option to make it smaller by taking the grip off and putting a small lens on like the 26mm pancake, for taking on hikes, etc. Recently, I tried a D850, as I never had one of those, only had a D750, and compared to my Z8, it felt archaic and slow, especially the AF. The AF control in the Z8 and Z9 are completely stellar and always impressively fast, at everything. I finally sold all my AF-S and F mount lenses and am totally all in with the Z-mount lenses and those too are a step up in being lighter, faster and sharper. It's evolution taking place right before our eyes, folks. You won't regret it.

Great information and thanks for sharing. I got the 42” and of course one of the headlights wasn’t working. Since it was brand new I just called Ariens and within about 30 seconds of being on the phone with them they offered to sent me new headlight assemblies. Just don’t forget to register your machine for the warranty first. I haven’t noticed any issues with the belts and all the pulleys seem to be on the same plane. Now to figure out the proprietary blade issue if anyone has a suggestion? I would love to get some Gators for it because this set up doesn’t seem to chop up the grass as well as I would like. Overall, I like it so far, but time will tell.

I am conflicted. Been a Nikon DSLR owner in my professional career for 20 + years. I own a D4 and a D5 and love them and they are work horses. The Z8 is really tempting but not sure if I can move on to it just yet.

LOL, after years of using solely mirrorless cameras (Fujifilm X) I recently... got back to classic DSLRs (like the fantastic D700) - purely due to more "analogue/traditional" vibe they give me, and it's fun!

Thank you for this video. I agree for the most part, but I will bring my D850 to my grave (and it will probably outlast me)

Z8 is good, but EVERYTHING in that system is literally double the price of the old F-mount system.

Got a Z8 and a Z5, I prefer the Z5

Sold my D800. My Z8 is arriving this week. Can’t wait.

Nice video. I came to the same conclusion recently after dipping my toes in mirrorless. Finally sold my 850 and moved on. No regrets.

Welcome to the Awesome side

I have a D850 since it came out in 2017 . When the z6-7 came out I decided to wait until the Z8 and I’m extremely happy with it but I’ll be keeping the D850 for many reasons including the ability to digitise color positive -negative and b&w negative all in camera. Also I hear the valuation that some friends have to trade in their cameras that made me decide to keep mine. Thanks for the nice video…

Would love to see a video about using your older lenses with the Z8

Viewfinder vs back LCD: * With the DSLR, they are completely different: OVF and Live View * With the mirrorless, they are identical outputs to two different size monitors. [Using the LCD more is generally a bad thing, please avoid becoming a Sony shooter with the camera out in the right hand and the left hand in the jeans pocket. The Z8 owner's manual says to use the viewfinder. Ergonomics says to use the viewfinder.] How do you find the menu system different? The systems seem almost the same, with a few additions with each iteration: D800/D810/D850/Z7/Z7II/Z8. With a DSLR, turning it off is less significant. With the mirrorless, it is a big benefit, since the mirrorless camera is a full-time video camera and TV. Do you miss the D850 thunk more from the shutter or the mirror? Where does the Z7/Z7II fall on the satisfaction scale? I agree that the mirrorless cameras motivate video more than the DSLRs. Even without using video AF, being able to use the EVF while recording video is sometimes a win. One of the wins with the Z-mount is lens adaptability. Without getting a Leica camera, being able to put one or two 'special' Leica M-mount lenses on the Z cameras is really cool. Especially when comparing the price of some used Leica lenses with new Z lenses. Yes, operationally, apples and oranges. But for image rendition, the advantage sometimes goes to the older Leica glass. As others have mentioned, in-body stabilization is another big win for the full-frame Z cameras.

Great video quality with this. Delighted to see it was the z30

Great vid.

Who tall you are?

what lens are you using with the z30?

Great review, I just bought the 2024 model. Could you please share a link to the mulch plug you purchased?

Long-time D800 shooter here, dipped my toes into mirrorless with the Z5 since I only shoot professionally part-time. I did a few side by side tests of the D800's 36-megapixel NEFs with the Z5's 24-megapixel NEFs using identical focal lengths (AF-S Nikkor 85/1.8G and Z Nikkor 85/1.8S respectively) and was blown away by the sharpness and lack of chromatic aberration on the Z5 NEFs. I believe, as other commenters have mentioned, the Z lenses are likely the major contributor to the superior optical results.

While the Z8 is a better camera than the D850, I much prefer the build-quality of the D850, and the design of the D850 body, because unlike Mirrorless cameras high-end DSLRs have beautiful curves and contours; while Mirrorless cameras especially Sony ones have ugly hard edges and are very linear in design; why the hell did Nikon and Cannon conform to these bad design elements for their Mirrorless cameras?; the most beautiful camera designs were high-end DSLRs like the 5D MKIV, and the D850. Lastly the all Magnesium-Alloy body of the D850 was more durable than that of the Z8.

Ha I learned something new. I didn't know the evf has a high speed mode.

Sold my D850 1 month after I got my Z9

I love the customizability!!!

Hi William - welcome to Nikon Mirrorless! I switched early - bought a Z6 just to play around with, but found that within 6 months it had fully replaced my D750 (a great DSLR as well). Since then, Nikon mirrorless has really imporoved and now with the Z8/9 it has arrived. I shoot most my pro stuff with the Z8 and most my for fun/travel stuff with the Zf (which is a beast in its own right). Thanks for making this video - now is the time for all the fence sitters to make the move. The Z8 is a true replacement to the D850 - it is better in almost every way, and where it is not better (strictly speaking - like IQ) it is on par. All Nikon DSLR shooters should now transition to Nikon mirrorless: If Z8 is too expensive then Z6III (to be released very soon) will be at the right price point. With the FTZ adaptor you will be able to use all of your F Mount lenses and your G and E F mount lenses are literally better on the Z system than they every were for DSLR - they now get 3 axis IBIS and focus points across the frame - not to mention subject detection. I still regularly use my 105 1.4E lens, 28mm 1.4E and 58mm 1.4G lenses on my Z8 and they are better and more accurate than they ever were on the DSLR's. The Z mount lenses are also second to none in the market. The Z mount allows for the theoretical adaptation of lenses from any system. Currently there exists adaptors that adapt Sony E, Canon EF, Fuji X, Leica M to Nikon Z with native to near native functionality - so its also time for those from other systems to make the switch to Nikon as you can use your current lenses from all these systems - I'm. sure we will see an RF to Z adaptor soon - especially now that Nikon owns RED. Nikon is truly at the forefront of the industry - they only lack the marketing engines of the others and as such most in the general market still think that Sony's and Canon's are better- a brief list of why this is not the case follows - Nikon has superior: 1) Build quality 2) Ergonomics 3) RAW files 4) Mount (shortest flange in the business 16mm and largest throat diameter 55mm) - this allows for the best lens designs (look up angle of incidence as it relates to optics - also allows for the adaptation of all other lenses. 5) Cutting edge video - Z8 does up to 8k 60 in RAW - something that is not done to this day as well for the others and this camera is well over a year old 6) Best native lenses - other makers do not compare with Nikon's telephoto Z line-up for example. Other lenses that are unmatched are Nikon's Z 24-120 f/4, and of course 135mm 1.8 Plena that has optical characteristics that other manufacturers cannot match due to the physics of the mount. 7) New RAW compression algorithms that make large files much smaller with virtually no loss of IQ The list could go on, but you get the idea... If you should Nikon DLSR - as William points out - it is now time to move to mirrorless - this is undeniable. I'll go a further - if you left Nikon for Sony in the last 5-8 years, its now time to come back to Nikon, and finally no matter what you shoot, Nikon is the best hybrid system for FF period - come try it and you won't go back. -PD