Camera companies start to hang marketing entry-level cameras with features that help beginners take great photos instantly. Nikon’s $910 Z50 II mirrorless joins the trend with a dedicated “Picture Control” button that creates fun, social media-ready looks. The new model also promises a faster shooting speed a five-year-old Z50improved autofocus and better video quality.
There’s no doubt that the Z50 II is aimed at the creative crowd, with a host of new features borrowed from Sony, Fujifilm and Panasonic. It starts with a Picture Control button (not a dial) that offers 31 presets like Denim, Toy Camera and Carbon for both photos and videos. It also provides color, brightness, tint, and more from Nikon Imaging Cloud. à la Panasonic S9. On the video side, it now offers a Product View Mode that instantly focuses on the product captured by the creator. Exhibition of Sony products feature.
At the same time, the Z50 II is surprisingly powerful. You can shoot at 30 frames per second in electronic mode (JPEG only) or 11 frames per second (RAW/JPEG) with the manual shutter. Autofocus has been overhauled to be more responsive and now includes 3D tracking with AI modes for animals, birds and vehicles – an automatic mode that selects the subject for you.
The video has also been greatly improved. It offers multi-sampling 4K 30p (no cropping) and 4K 60p (1.5x cropping) compared to the previous 4K 30p. Even better, the Z50 now offers N-Log 10-bit recording, compared to 8-bit with no log at all. This should greatly improve dynamic range and give video shooters more room for creativity in the editing suite.
The one downside to this camera is the resolution, which is on the low side for this price range at 20.9 megapixels. It also lacks in-body stabilization, so you’ll have to rely on electronic stabilization (which adds a small crop) for video, or buy lenses with built-in stabilization (VR, as Nikon calls it). I’m also not a fan of the boring body, but I imagine Nikon will release the Zfc II later with the same features in a retro design.
Other features include built-in flash, flip-out display, brighter 2.36 million dot EVF (now 1000 nits), single UHS-II card slot, microphone. and headphone jacks, a meter lamp, a waveform display, USB streaming support and a wider ISO range of up to 512,000. Nikon Z50 II now on pre-order for $907 (body only) or $1,050 with the Nikkor Z 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 VR kit lens.
