Review of the Nikon Z6 Mirrorless Camera

By: Caz Nowaczyk

In this review of the Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera, Tony and Chelsea Northrup test out this camera in different scenarios to see how it performs.

It has a few issues that you may want to know about, but are they serious enough to steer away from this camera?

Photography

• Ergonomically, it feels good to hold.
• Autofocus is an issue. While shooting wildlife, the camera hunted for focus and caused many missed shots. Even during a portrait shoot, the Z6 sometimes narrowly missed focus. As a result, they had to over-shoot to ensure they got at least one shot in focus.
• Autofocus also failed in backlit scenarios, so manual focus was used.
• The camera advertises shooting at 11 frames per second, but when shooting moving objects such as birds, you will need to drop that down to around 5 frames per second.
• Because the sensor doesn’t close when changing lenses, there is more possibility of getting dust on the sensor (an issue with mirroless cameras in general).
• White balance is the worst they have seen in any camera, and it had to be set manually.
• Exposure compensation had to be constantly adjusted to get the right exposure. The camera would often underexposure backlit portraits – often by a number of stops.

If you are a photographer, you may be better off buying a used Nikon D750 with the same lenses, with no need for an adapter. You’ll get the same image quality, without the focusing issues, plus two card slots.

Video

• When using video, rolling shutter is prevalent.
• The image stabilization isn’t good when shooting video, so often needed to be switched off. It was jarring when walking, which is problematic due to the native lenses not having image stabilization either.
• Focusing points go all the way to the edge of the frame.
• While the Z6 doesn’t have eye detection focus, Nikon has promised it in a future Firmware upgrade.
• While the Z6 has the best video autofocusing of any Nikon camera, they are still way behind other competitors.
• The video looks great when shooting in low-light scenarios. So much so that it outperforms it’s competitors in this area, including the Canon EOS R, Nikon Z7, Nikon D850, and Sony A7R III. This makes it one of the best low-light video performance cameras ever made.
• Auto White balance can be very problematic and often required setting it manually.
• No flip screen for filming yourself.

If you already own the Nikon D750 or D850, you already have the best Nikon cameras, so save your money and stick to those.
If you must go mirrorless, perhaps try competitor brands such as Sony and Fuji.

You may also find the following articles helpful:

• The New Panasonic Lumix S1 and S1R – Could these Full-frame Mirrorless Cameras be Cameras of the Year?
• Why We Have Such a Love-Hate Relationship with Mirrorless Cameras
• Gear Review: The Lumix G9 Mirrorless Camera
• The 19 Most Popular Compact System and Mirrorless Cameras with Our Readers
• Which Crop Sensor Sony a6000 Series Camera Should You Buy?