Z8 specs

Either the Z8 or the Z7 III was going to be the increased pixel count camera. From a product line management standpoint, both choices have issues.

You may have noted that NR was confused about EVF pixel count. That's because multiple protos were circulating with different approaches in the new body. I wonder if Nikon went to the last moment before deciding which camera would get what? A Z8 with 60mp+ and a 9m dot EVF would be the D5/D850 approach, while a Z8 with the 45mp stacked and 3m dot EVF would be the D3/D700 approach.

Hi Thom! Welcome!

I for one think that reusing Z9 components in a smaller and lighter body makes a lot of sense. Nikon has a tradition of doing this since F5/F100 days.

The timing and method of release seems to indicate that this might be the case - as no long pre-announcement period for the Z8. Instead announce and ship soon after. If they pre-announced it earlier it would have killed Z9 sales.

I’m wondering if there’ll be a DX surprise.
A Z8/Z80 using the same body would be amazing and development of a new body platform might have accounted for some of the ‘delays’.
Playing on the ‘8’ and video theme of the teaser, if the DX came in with 40MP stacked DX sensor, just enough for 8k UHD?

On the video front since the Z9 has enough pixels for 8K DCI, we get a FW update for that in the Z9 after the Z8 introduces it?

How bout a D3/D700/D300 (Z9/Z8/Z80) approach?

I expect to handle "whatever is coming" - on 6th June this year.

I anticipate a specification on the Nikon website a few days earlier.

I think the time is finally right for a mirrorless D850, and hope that is what we will get. What about a mirrorless D500? That is making less sense to me because of today's high resolution sensors, and cropability.

Piece by piece:
1. Nikon appears to think that they need a competitor (Z8) to the Canon R5 (which mimics the D700/5D era). I'm not sure that the sales statistics back that up. But it seems clear we're about to find out.
2. As I'll outline on May 10th, Nikon has a problem with their Z lineup, and that is in the middle. Too many of Nikon's real competitors live in the US$1500-3000 realm, which has been devoid of new product for over two years from Nikon.
3. EXPEED really provides most of the electronics for the camera. The image sensor needs to be fast enough to support what EXPEED7 can now do. If you look at the age of the current Nikon image sensors, they're all—except for the Z9 one—too slow for EXPEED7's full capabilities. That implies at least two new image sensors are needed (DX and base FX). With fabs still full and Nikon's now lower volume, I don't see that they have the leverage with Sony Semiconductor they used to for Nikon-specific image sensors, which means it will take money or a different partner (or both).

We can easily point to what is needed, but I believe that Nikon's top management has managed them into a corner that they now need to get out of. The "pro Nikon" sentiment in the legacy base has eroded more than Nikon thinks.

Thanks for all you do for us, Thom, and great to have you here!

Canon R5 street price ("a brand new item from an authorized dealer with full Canon USA Warranty and free shipping.") in USA is ~USD $3200-3300 for a long while ... so which camera is @ $4K ?!

Currently B&H is selling the Canon R5 for $3399, which is $500 off the original $3899 price: www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1547009-REG/canon_eos_r5_mirrorless_digital.html

But we need to keep in mind that Canon announced the R5 and R6 simultaneously in July 2020, such that the R5 is approaching 3 years old, not to mention that the R6 has already been replaced by the R6 Mark II in November 2022. Essentially the R5 is already at the very tail end of its production cycle. I have little doubt that any R5 Mark II will restore to, or at least somewhere close to, the original $3899 price tag. In other words, Nikon's next pro-sumer body (e.g. the Z8) will be competing against the R5 Mark II around the $4000 mark, both in terms of features and price. If any Z8 merely matches the 3-year-old specs for the R5, people will complain that Nikon is really falling behind.

Nikon in terms of camera bodies for a long while is NOT a proactive player - but merely a reactive, defensive player with a shrinking market share ... Canon R5 II is not anywhere on a horizon, so like it or not - if Z8 is to "compete" w/ something ( there is always a way to frame it as not a competition vs some other models from C&S but to simply pick up more of still remaining existing Nikon dSLR users like D850 crowd with a cheaper & smaller body than Z9 ) then it is against USD $3200-3300 body of R5 mark 1 ( $3400 is a top price from the likes of B&H or Canon USA directly ) ... and NikonRumors thinks the prices are = nikonrumors.com/2023/04/30/nikon-z8-price-and-shipping-date.aspx/ = Eu 4500 body only ... it is not USD $4K level - is it ?

An Euro 4500 body can easily translate to a US$4000 body, because VAT is often included in European prices and camera equipment is frequently more expensive in Europe anyway. But I take everything from rumor sites with a grain of salt. What I believe is that Nikon needs to price their prosumer body significantly lower than the Z9. US$4000 is about right and they can always adjust features to meet that price. We'll find out on May 10.

No they don't "need to price this body significantly lower than $4,000" -- it is going to shoot out of stores at the $4,200+sales tax, which was my calc for the basic body price in the USA of the "alleged" leak pricing from the Republic of Ireland (presumably) OR even upto $4,500 -- there are vast numbers of video shooters as well as still shooters who want this body -- the cut down Z9 -- and access to the truly stupid Nikkor Z glass. ANd shooter like me who want a smaller Z body to go along-side our Z9 bodies (two in my case) - for use with "smaller lenses in the field and on the street - replacing a Z7 in my case.

We can expect a Z6iii and Z7iii and updates to the Z5 at some point as well. Possibly a Zf and Dx bodies (or updates to Z50+) later this year.... I am hoping that the 10th is more than just the launch of a Z8 -- and Nikon take the time to give dates for lenses on the road map, more details on other lenses they plan to release AND the future plans for other bodies -- but if only a Z8, my preorder is waiting to be accepted.

The price of the sensor and lenses that utilize it is a big reason to have a DX alternative. I have a D500 and would like to someday buy a D850, but that "someday" part makes my D500 a far more useful camera today. Also, when I hopefully do get a D850 I will keep my D500 as a back-up or maybe even continue to prefer it to carrying a more expensive camera around when the D500 does over 90% of what I want.

Interesting point that has been missing from much of the usual speculation around Nikon's development decisions.

Don't forget, Sony Semi is still Nikon Precisions second largest customer behind Intel. All those Sony sensors are fabbed on Nikon Steppers. That gives Nikon a little more inside than Sony Imaging even if Imaging ends up being the bigger customer. Sony Semi last year had almost 10 times the profit vs Sony imaging.