Behold the new Nikon Z7! At the heart of the camera is, of course, the new mount you see here. If you're sharp-eyed you'll note that there are a lot more pins than before, and Nikon says this is to allow the camera to gather more types of information from the lens mounted.
As you can see, the handgrip for the Z7 isn't that shallow after all. The function buttons on the camera have also taken on a new rectangular design, while the body itself seems to be just slightly smaller than your typical DSLR.
As you can see, the Z7 comes with a fair number of ports by the side to support your video recording needs. Mounted on this body is the new Nikkor 24-70mm f/4 S lens, which has a minimum focusing distance of just 30cm across the entire zoom range.
On the top of the body is the traditional information display panel, and longtime Nikon users may note how this is a fair bit smaller than what you're used to on their previous DSLRs. The lines of the camera are more angular too, as even the pentaprism is shaped slightly differently.
While the rear controls are still mostly there, now they're all bunched together to the right of the LCD menu instead of on both sides, which means some of the buttons (like the one to change drive mode) can be a little too small for comfort.
In case you haven't heard, XQD is the order of the day for both the Z7 and the Z6. Nikon's representatives say dual card slots weren't an option simply because that would eat into the space needed for the battery. On that note,you'll be able to charge the battery of the Z7 and Z6 via a power bank while its not in use, but you won't be able to keep it powered and operational that way.
Nikon has finally added touch-based control throughout the camera's operating system, so you can now navigate the menus and previews exactly as you would on your smartphone. Hurrah!
Also available for testing, was the FTZ mount adapter, which allows you to mount F-mount lenses with full AE/AF capabilities. If you have an existing stable of F-mount lenses, this would be something you'd definitely pick up. We're happy to report that all the F-mount lenses we tried with it seem to work just as well as if they were natively mounted. And the system is smart enough to balance between in-lens VR and the camera's IBIS.
What's nice is that in-camera sharpening adjustments have been implemented in the Z7, so you can adjust your images as you shoot them. In fact, even things like highlight compensation can be set in camera, so you can truly get images out of the camera with minimal retouching after.
The new Z mount lenses have been made more intelligent in that the focus rings can now be assigned different functions to better suit your shooting style. (But this, of course, can only be set in the new Z7 and Z6.)
Now for some image samples. This was shot with the camera's HDR function built-in, and as you can see, manages to quite effectively balance the exposure of the lights indoors with the bright noon sun outdoors without blowing out either. Quite impressive!
The 5-axis IBIS system is also one of the highlighted features of the camera, so we put this to the test with a relatively slow 1/8s handheld exposure. If you check the 100% crop in the next frame, you'll agree that the results are quite impressive!
Here's a 100% crop of the previous image. No motion blur is visible, proving the effectiveness of the Z7's IBIS system.
Of course, we had to do a high ISO test too, so here's a shot at the maximum ISO level of 25,600.
The 100% crop here shows that even at the highest sensitivity settings, color noise is quite well handled, though some details have been lost to noise reduction. You can still make out the details in the fabric of the lamp shade, so that's certainly quite impressive indeed.
Overall, we're fairly impressed with the Z7 as a first full-frame mirrorless camera from Nikon. It's light and responsive, and the AF definitely seems capable, though we didn't get a proper chance to test out the tracking capabilities. Local pricing and availability information haven't been announced yet, but given the camera is retailing for US$3,399.95 (body only) in the US, we can safely expect it to cost upwards of S$5,000 when it gets here.