Nikon Z7ii after 6 months use. Any regrets?

Regular followers, or watchers of my YouTube channel will hopefully remember back to April when I swapped in my beloved GFX50R and all my Fuji gear to make the switch to full frame.

I spent many days pouring over spec sheets, talking to fellow photographers and watching YouTube videos. What did I need? What were the ‘must haves’ and what were the ‘nice to haves?’ I made lists, I occasionally woke up in the morning with a burning question about some little detail or other that I needed to check out. I got quotes for my gear, I got more. Could I buy secondhand? What was the chances of buying a dud? What lenses did I need? How much would it all weigh?

After much deliberation and going through the process above over a month or so I arrived at Wex in Norwich with two systems on my list and a rough price for all the Fuji gear. I had boxed it all up and carried it up the stairs and into the showroom in two large boxes. The time had come.

On my list were two cameras and I genuinely had no idea, at that point, about what I was going to leave with. I had decided on the following ‘must haves’

1) Minimum 40mp sensor: I crop into my images quite regularly as my woodland photography is often shot using a 65x24 aspect ratio and cropping that from a 24mp sensor was going to have me a little doubtful of the quality.

2) Full frame: It had to be a full frame sensor as I work in situations with high contrast and I need to capture the subtle changes in the light at sunrise as well as having a high enough dynamic range to not have to bracket all of the time. I had decided that my ND grads were probably now a thing of the past so I had added a set of magnetic Kase filters to my shopping list. I still needed a polariser for water and woodland, and ND’s for long exposures.

3) Focal range: I wanted to cover ultra wide through to mid telephoto and I wanted to do that as light as possible with as few lenses as possible. Quality though had to remain high. A few years ago, accomplishing this with just two lenses (as I eventually managed) would have been impossible. Now, looking at some reviews it certainly seemed to be within the realms of possibility.

4) Ruggedness: The camera, whatever it turned out to be, needed to be built well enough to withstand everything I threw at it. I sometimes find myself shooting in wind and rain and occasionally the camera gets dropped. Clearly, this is not what cameras are designed to do but I wanted to have at least a chance of it surviving should the worst happen. My Nikon Z30, which I use for vlogging has been excellent on this particular aspect and has survived two falls. A point to Nikon.

5) Easy to understand menu system: One of the things I didn’t like about the X series (but not so much the GFX series) was the menu system. To be fair to Fuji it’s all well planned and laid out but I really struggled to understand what some of the choices meant! I could (maybe should) have studied the camera manual at length but I found myself in the field wanting to adjust something and couldn’t for the life of me find it without a quick google on my phone, not ideal if you have no signal.

6) Handling: It had to feel right in my hand, although I use my camera almost exclusively on a tripod I still wanted it to feel good hand holding, the buttons had to fall in the right place, the lens release button needed to be on the left. I have so much muscle memory from years of working with cameras that the lens release is always under my left hand, not so on the Fuji. Which leads me back to Wex and the showroom I found myself in.

The Decision

So while I waited for a final price on my Fuji system, which as it turned out would take a few days, I spent a bit of time with two cameras. The Nikon Z7ii and the Sony A7rv. I had almost chosen a Canon R5 and Wex had in fact got a secondhand one which I had reserved, but driving up I had decided that I was paying an extra £1000 or so for a super fast focussing system. I don’t need that for landscape photography. So a saving made there. The Canon does indeed look lovely and I’m sure it handles brilliantly. I have used several Canon bodies in the past, namely the 350D, 40D, 7D and a 5DS and would happily have gone back to Canon. It ticked all of the boxes above but was a little too expensive for what I needed.

So to the Nikon and the Sony. I have used literally hundreds of Nikon cameras over the years. Mostly FM2’s but also F1, F2, F3 and my very first experience of digital came in the form of a Nikon D1 which sported a 2.6mp sensor and was £4,999 new. We had the first one in the country to try and view the future of photography! I had always trusted the ruggedness of Nikons, they had been subjected to plenty of hard use over the years and I really knew my way around them. Plus the menu system was written in a language that was immediately familiar. The fact that my video camera was a Z30 meant that the Z7ii would slot in brilliantly with controls being pretty much in the same places. It also fulfilled all of my other ‘must haves’ above.

But I needed to try the Sony out first. Why? Because Stuart McGlennon said that that is what he would have chosen at that point. This was really interesting as Stu is a pro I admire and respect and is also a Nikon user. Why would he recommend Sony I wondered? He told me that he was actually quite happy with his Nikon, he uses a Z7, but that he felt the lens choice for the Sony was considerably wider and, therefore might allow me to have a larger focal range for the same money. I had heard, and looking through YouTube and various online reviews, that the menu system was complicated, not something that I wanted. But I had also been assured that this was not quite so true of the A7rv. It certainly looked impressive on paper, more pixels (that can’t hurt) a sensor cover when changing lenses (which the Z7ii hasn’t got) a super resolution mode (but do I really need that?) and loads of lens choices as Sigma and Tamron, to name but two, also make lenses for the Sony system.

So what did they feel like in the showroom? Well, to be honest, this was really a one horse race. My muscle memory of the Nikons I had used throughout my career immediately sprang back to life as soon as I picked the Z7ii up. The Sony was good and if I had been given it I could happily have used it, but comparing them side by side the Z7ii suited me better, it was like shaking the hand of an old friend! And it was cheaper! And Wex had an excellent condition used one in stock along with the 14-30 f4 in the same condition. The choice was made. I added the 24-200 Z lens to the package, again on Stuart’s recommendation, along with the Kase filter set and I was ready to go out and shoot. The only think I didn’t really want was the CF card that went into the Z7ii back up card slot. I have collected loads of SD cards over the years and CF cards are sooo expensive! But I don’t want to have a card fail and lose a shoot, it’s why I chose the Z7ii and not the Z7, so into the basket went a 128gb CF card.

Six months later

So, to the point of this blog post, which I am releasing a day before my video review of the Z7ii which you can find here what do I think 6 months on?

Well, spoiler alert, very positive!

First of all it’s important to say that I have only used it for landscape photography, almost totally on a tripod, and mostly using the back screen and not the viewfinder. I have also not (luckily) dropped it at all, so I can’t really comment on how rugged it is. But, I have used it in the rain and in dusty conditions and it has shrugged this off completely. It feels great in my hand, the grip is just right and the texture is good. The card cover undoes a bit too readily, sometimes when you grab it out of the bag it flips open, but so far it’s not been turned on and the cards are fine.

The lenses are amazing! The quality of both never ceases to amaze me. At some point I will grab a longer telephoto but for now 200mm is as far as I normally want to go.

Control and menu wise it’s as I expected. It is wonderfully set out and I understand what each feature does. It has also been a good choice to run alongside the Z30 as they share menu features. In the field I can get to what I want quickly and the U1, U2 and U3 slots are useful for setting different situations. I love the delay setting and how there are lots of options with this. I don’t need a 10 second timer all of the time but a 3 second option has been used a fair bit with the camera up high on a tripod.

I’m not going to cover all of my thoughts that are in the vlog, they are supposed to go together so go and check that out but I wanted to use this blog to really sum up my thoughts.

So here goes. Should you buy a Z7ii for landscape photography? My answer is a resounding yes. Whether or not you do though will depend on your situation. If you photograph weddings, sports, wildlife then the answer would be no. If you need a wider choice of glass, go with the Sony (as long as you’re happy to learn the menu system). If you don’t print your photos and only need them online then go for a cropped sensor system. And then you need to think about your budget. But for me the Z7ii has been brilliant, I’ve loved using it so far. If you do choose the Z7ii I can assure you that you will be more than happy with it, the results are stunning. It’s also really easy to use and get along with. I’ve been married 32 years and my wife and I are so used to each other now that we often say the same thing at the same time, so in tune with each other after that many years. It feels the same with the Z7ii. The XT4 was exotic, mysterious and fun for a while but in the end we just didn’t really click. This is different.

Two things I wish it had (and the Z8 has one of them). First of all a sensor cover when swapping lenses to prevent sensor dust, although I haven’t found this to be a problem so far. I also have Luminar Neo which has a brilliant ‘remove dust’ feature. Secondly I wish I could swap aspect ratios in the camera but still capture the full RAW file if I change my mind later. The GFX had this and I loved it. Maybe this is being held back for the Z7iii? And as I say on the vlog, why can’t I have the histogram and the level on the LCD at the same time?

Anyway, I hope you’ve found this useful and interesting. I’m happy to hear your comments if you would like to leave any below. In the meantime check out this vlog if you haven’t seen it, there are some interesting images to see on it as well. Let’s see how I feel about this camera in a year. Happy shooting!