Nikon Z5 II first look: power without the price

Nikon has announced the successor to its ‘entry level’ full-frame Z5, almost five years after the original camera was launched.

Like its predecessor, the Z5 II has two SD card slots and no top-plate LCD, but that’s where the similarities end. The new model has more in common with cameras higher up the range, with many high-end features trickling down to the Z5 II – and in some cases it exceeds the capabilities of even the flagship Z8 and Z9 cameras.

At the heart of the new camera is Nikon’s most advanced Expeed 7 imaging chip, which debuted in the Nikon Z9 and has since appeared in the Z8, Zf, Z6 III and Z50 II. This powerful processor has many benefits over the Expeed 6 found in the Z5, supercharging its successor’s performance.

Top of the bill is that the new camera inherits the same advanced subject detection autofocus originally introduced in the flagship Z9. The camera can recognize nine types of subjects, including people, animals, vehicles, birds and aircraft. Moreover, Nikon says that it can recognize and track subjects that occupy as little as 3% of the image frame, which is useful for locking onto faraway subjects.

See in the dark

Not only is it better at locking onto subjects, but it’s faster too – 68 per cent faster than the Z5, according to Nikon’s internal testing. And its autofocus system can lock onto subjects in light as low as -10EV, or near darkness roughly equivalent to the light of a half-moon – which is the same as Z6 III and better than Z8 and Z9. By comparison, the Z5 could only autofocus up to -4.5EV.

In Body Image Stabilization (IBIS) is much improved, thanks to the camera adopting the same Focus Point VR system found in the Zf and Z6 III, which corrects for camera shake around the active focus point and is worth around 7.5 stops of vibration reduction around the center of the image frame and six stops around the periphery. This is an improvement on the older system used in the Z8 and Z9, which can only correct for shake around the central area of the sensor, thereby improving stabilization when the subject is off-center.

The Z5 II employs 3D tracking autofocus, first found on Nikon DSLRs but which was absent on the original Z5. This autofocus mode analyses color and contrast, among other information, to predict subject movement, and is particularly useful for photographing action.

It also has the hybrid AF-A focus mode, only found on ‘beginner’ cameras, which automatically switches from single autofocus to continuous autofocus should a static subject start to move. While this mode has traditionally been shunned by more advanced photographers, Nikon says that AF-A focus has seen significant improvements over the years, and gives far more reliable results than earlier implementations.

The need for speed

The new camera produces images that are a teeny bit higher in resolution, at 24.5Mp rather than 24.3Mp, but much more significant is that this new sensor is the back-side illuminated (BSI) component found in the Nikon Zf. This gives better low-light performance than the Z5’s CMOS sensor and, in conjunction with the Expeed 7 chip, has enabled Nikon to increase the ISO range to ISO100-64,000 for stills and ISO100-51,200 for video (the Z5 was rated ISO100-51,200 stills, ISO100-25,600 video). Moreover, Nikon says that ISO performance is much cleaner at midrange ISOs in the ISO3200-6400 range.

One area that has been significantly improved compared to the Z5 is that its burst rate increased from a sluggish 4.5fps to a blistering 30fps in ‘High Speed +’ mode. Here, images are limited to JPEG-only and the mechanical shutter remains open, with the camera switching to an electronic shutter. I suspect this mode won’t suit every shooting scenario, because the sensor isn’t of the stacked variety as found in the Z8 and Z9 (nor partially stacked, like in Z6 III), so it is likely to exhibit ‘image shear’ when shooting fast-moving subjects or panning.

In normal shooting, with the shutter fully engaged, the frame rate drops to a still-not-inconsiderable 14fps when shooting 12-bit raw files, of 11fps for 14-bit raw images. It’s a huge step up from the Z5, and close in performance to the Zf (although the Nikon Z6 III is faster still, thanks to its partially stacked sensor, capturing up to 20fps raw files).

Taking control

A further trick of High Speed+ mode is that it enables Pre-release Capture. Here, the camera begins recording images as soon as you half-press the shutter button, for up to a second before the shutter button is fully depressed, and so this is useful should you ‘miss the shot’; you can simply check through the shots recorded beforehand and select the best image from the sequence. Again, images are JPEG only.

The Z5 II has a slightly deeper grip than the Z5 and its form factor is similar to the Z6 III / Z6 II / Z7 II. It takes the same ENB15-C battery, and is also compatible with the existing MB-N14 and MB-N11 battery grips for these cameras, which duplicate the camera controls for vertical shooting. By contrast, while there was a battery grip compatible with the Z5 (the MB-N10), this had no duplicated controls. The camera body is constructed on a magnesium alloy chassis, and it is said to have weather sealing that is on par with the Z6 III’s.

The control layout follows that of the most recent Nikon cameras, with the playback button moved from the top-left (on the Z5) to the bottom-right (as found on the Z6 III and Z8). When shooting through the viewfinder, the rear touch LCD can be repurposed as a Touch-Fn control, to move the focus point around the image frame without taking your eye away from the viewfinder, as well as a variety of other useful functions.

The camera has a dedicated Picture Control button, as first found on the Z50 II, giving direct access to Picture Controls, rather than having to go through the menu system. You can simply tap this button and use the command dial to flick through the available Picture Controls to see their effect before you take the shot.

The EVF is much brighter on the new camera, with its 3,000 nits being on par with Z8 and Z9, though it’s not quite as bright as in the 4,000 nits of the Z6 III. In comparison, the Z5’s EVF only had 1,000 nits of brightness. A brighter display makes it easier to shoot on sunny days, without the display being swamped by the ambient light.

The 3.2-inch rear LCD has double the resolution of the Z5, which has increased from 1,040k dots to 2,100k dots. It is now of the full vari-angle type, rather than merely tilting up and down, so it can flip out to the side and rotate to be forward-facing for selfies or when presenting videos, and can be reversed entirely and tucked into the camera body to protect the screen if you primarily shoot using the viewfinder. As in line with other more recent Nikons, the on-screen text now switches from horizontal to vertical, to match the camera’s orientation when shooting in portrait orientation.

Clouded vision

A Starlight View enables you to see your composition clearly when shooting in total darkness, and there’s an option to turn menus and onscreen text to red to help preserve night vision when shooting astrophotography.

There are a pair of SD card slots, both of which are of the UHS-II standard for fast recording of high-speed video when using compatible cards. While these don’t have the blistering read/write speeds of CFexpress cards, they are far cheaper to buy, which will be welcomed by the non-professional photographers Nikon is aiming this camera at.

The Z5 II joins the Z6 III and Z50 II in being the only cameras thus far to be compatible with Nikon Imaging Cloud, which automatically uploads images when the camera is in range of a Wi-Fi network to be stored for 30 days free of charge. The service can automatically forward uploaded images to other cloud services for permanent storage. It also enables image recipes to be downloaded, many of which have been developed in conjunction with Nikon’s Ambassadors and Creators family of pro photographers, to give your images a certain ‘look’. It also offers the ability to automatically keep the camera updated with the latest firmware over the air, rather than having to go through the rigmarole of downloading updates via a computer, copying them to a memory card, and installing the firmware manually.

It is a much better camera for video than the Z5. It can record up to 4K 60p and Full-HD 120p video, while the Z5 maxed out at 4K 30p and Full-HD 60p. In addition, video is uncropped up to 4K 30p (4K 60p is cropped to a 1.5x DX crop, while the Z5 had a much more severe 1.7x crop when shooting 4K). The camera can record N-Raw directly to SD UHS-II cards – this is the first time this has been seen in a camera that doesn’t use CFexpress cards. It has a full 10-bit N-Log profile, and can use Look-Up-Tables (LUTs) developed by Nikon’s recently acquired RED video arm, which are available for free download.

In addition to making use of IBIS to stabilize video, electronic vibration reduction further smoothes images for ‘run and gun’-style videography, where the camera shoots 4K and automatically crops and aligns video frames to Full-HD output. It has the ‘Product review’ video mode of the Z50 II, which automatically switches focus from the presenter to a product when it is held up to the camera, and a high-res zoom function gives a 2x zoom effect with no loss of quality by recording in 4K and outputting in Full-HD, It can also be used as a ‘plug and play’ webcam when plugged into a computer’s USB port, without the need for additional software.

On the face of it, the Z5 II looks not only to be a much more powerful camera than the Z5 it replaces but is a better camera, in most respects, than the Z6 II (if the top-plate LCD is unimportant to you). Of course, the proof of the pudding will be when we get it into our hands for lab testing and put it through its paces out in the field, but I reckon that this gives those in the market for a new full-frame Nikon camera something of a dilemma, as it has similar levels of performance to more upmarket Zf and Z6 III but at a far more tempting price tag that belies its impressive spec sheet.

That said, it is a little more expensive compared to the original Z5 at launch. The new camera has a body-only price of $1,699 / £1,599 / AU$2,699. In the US and Australia, the Z5 originally sold for $1,399 / AU$2,399 (it wasn’t available without a kit lens on launch in the UK).

There is also a range of kit lens options that make a lot of sense if you don’t already have any Z-series glass. It can be bought with a Nikon Z 24-50mm for $1,999 / £1,859 / AU$3,300 (which compares to $1,699 / £1,719 / AU$3,099 for the Z5 at launch bundled with the same lens). There are also options for the more upmarket Z 24-70mm f/4 S standard zoom for £1,859 / AU$3,649 or Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 superzoom for $2,499 / £2,299 / AU$4,062.

Of course, the price of the original Z5 has tumbled since launch, and at the time of writing can be picked up for under $1,000 / £1,000 / AU$2,000 (and may well tumble further once the new camera is available to buy at the end of April 2025). So before you preorder your Z5 II, you might want to consider whether the older camera suits your needs for considerably less outlay. To help you decide, don't miss my Nikon Z5 II vs Nikon Z5 guide…

Not made your mind up? See our guides to the best Nikon cameras and best cheap mirrorless cameras.