We’ve got the Nikon Z9 back in for testing, and we’ve found out that it has improved quite a bit. To clarify, we knew that changes had happened. But we weren’t aware just how much better the Nikon z9 became. So we’ve updated our Nikon z9 review to reflect some of those changes. And quite honestly, we’re really amazed at how it’s doing!
Here’s the updated text areas in our Nikon Z9 review. You can read the entire thing right here:
Update September 2023
Lots of firmware updates have turned the Nikon Z9 into an absolute beast when it comes to autofocus performance. Since firmware 3.0 it got boosts to subject detection improvement and autofocus tracking performance with low contrast subjects. Overall though, the entire autofocus system just seems slightly snappier. In my experience, there isn’t much of a difference between the focus performance on the Canon EOS R5, the Sony a1, and the Nikon z9.
We took the Nikon Z9 to a Renaissance Fair and a convention show. In both situations, the Nikon Z9 didn’t have much of a problem tracking faces providing it was set to the right scene detection mode. At times, the camera would accidentally switch from people to something like vehicle. I ensure that it was set to focus and track people most of the time. And quite honestly, it was so good that it seemed exactly comparable to what Sony does.
There wasn’t much of a difference to me when it came to focusing on POCs with a lot of melanin in their skin. But I admit that I need to do more testing with this. For the most part, it seems to be working — I’m curious to see how it performs in lower light though.
One of the coolest new additions is the Auto Capture feature. Here’s how Nikon summarizes it:
Added [Auto capture] to the photo shooting menu. Users can select capture criteria from [Motion] (the direction the subject is moving), [Distance] (how far the subject is from the camera), and [Subject detection] (whether or not a subject of a given type is detected), and the camera will take photographs automatically while it detects subjects that meet the selected criteria. Note that [Distance] is available with NIKKOR Z lenses and may not function as expected when used with other lenses.
Essentially, it turns the Nikon z9 into something like a trap camera. When a subject moves into a specific distance, it will take a photo. This is great for getting birds in the frame easily. It’s also great for law enforcement that want to use the Nikon z9 as a speed camera to take photos of speeding cars. All they need to do is set the camera to vehicle scene detection and then set up a parameter to only photograph a car when it’s coming at a certain speed. Nikon cameras have been used by governments for years this way.
Here’s a gallery shot with the new Tamron 35-150mm f2-2.8 port to Nikon. Honestly, this has to be one of the best lenses for Nikon now.
JPEG Image Quality Update September 2023
One of the new features added to the Nikon Z9 is a retouch option that lets you do things like trim the photo, lighten, darken, etc. However, it will only do this to JPEG files. If this is really something that you need, then it’s wonder to have it. Much of this can be done with lens filters and exposure control though. Still, I like the fact that things can be changed and I wish for Nikon to go even further and include things like white balance, clarity, and all the basic commands that you’d see in Lightroom.