Nikon Z8 Camera Review For Filmmakers - Not just a B Cam
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มิ.ย. 2024
- Matt Johnson's review of the Nikon Z8 camera for filmmakers, telling you how the Z8 gives you essentially all the features of the Z9 but in a more compact body and with a more compact price!
😁 Colored with my presets: whoismatt.com/luts
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0:00 Spoiling this review because I respect your time
1:29 Dramatically Lighter & Smaller
2:38 Screen & Ports
3:09 Memory Card Slots (& BIGGEST Con Of This Camera)
5:58 Crazy Good Video Formats & Resolutions
6:50 LOG Profiles, IBIS, Weird Recording Time Limit
7:19 Autofocus, Manual Focus, Rolling Shutter
8:15 RED Lawsuit Update
9:20 Raw Footage EATS Memory Cards
9:50 Any Overheating?
11:32 Battery Life
12:00 Lowlight Performance
12:20 The Price vs the Z9
14:05 Do I Recommend The Z8?
14:55 Notice The Shirt
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😲 Are you tempted by the Z8?
P.S. All the footage was colored with my presets, get them here - whoismatt.com/luts
Hi Matt, do you consider the vide focus capabilities on the z8 , comparable to the sony a s3 ?
Nikon is making strides in video quality with Z9 and Z8. I hope to see these video features in smaller cameras from Nikon.
This camera is even better than a1! Nikon knocked it out of the park this time.
Is it tho? I want to see a low light AF, I shoot a lot of clubs (video and photo) and it’s such a struggle with my z6ii…I hope to test it asap, I have been waiting for z8 for months.
@@kirillzolotarev461 Come on! I didn't include autofocus in my statement as Nikon has still a long way to go in that department. However, for the specs and the price this camera seems to be unbeatable.
@@kapilesh14 ahahah.. ok, I enjoyed shooting with z9 but something like Sony a7s iii is still so much faster in AF department for video, I thought this announcement will make my decipher about switching easier, but it made it harder.
@@kirillzolotarev461 I think that this camera is such a good news for all Nikon shooters. But would it force someone from Sony or Canon to jump ship would be a little difficult. The all around lens selection is an issue with Nikon. Also, as you mentioned autofocus in photo and video is so much superior in Canon and Sony. I myself selected a7Siii, AF of which is so much better but they have improved it even further with recent releases.
@@kirillzolotarev461 low light EV -7
Thanks for the advice, will get my z8 thursday! And love your positivism!
Great job, Matt. I appreciate your enthusiasm.
My wife does photography with Nikon and I've been using Sony for video. Our best lenses are Nikon, so my next camera will be moving me to Nikon. I started video years ago with a Nikon DSLR, but it was missing video features. It looks like Nikon finally caught up with the camera body.
Sony is still great but nikon is KILLING it and I love to see the competition
Thanks for the video Matt!
I believe Nikons had a true clear vision of the Z series as a whole rather than just making it up as they go along or confusing the line or switching around controls and menus per model etc It’s making more and more sense as they roll out the last 3 -5yrs of R&D. I’ve been really happy with the z9 for the last year and a half and the 8 makes it more accessible or as a backup/second camera for pro use . I think we are heading into an exciting Gen 3 of the z6/7 and the line up will really be a great option as a system. The glass has been awesome constantly with breathing in mind. The 85mm 1.2 is phenomenal.. the long glass is saving pros on multiple lenses with built in native element TC in them and even the PF glass.. the 24-120 f4 has been a workhorse all around lens for me even the close focus is ridiculous. It’s just really great to see and who woulda thought theyd be the brand to break the internal raw video barrier lol and be one of the first with no mechanical shutter which is doomed to explode on any brand the longer time goes on hammering it. So I guess helps in reselling the camera with shutter counts idk I could go on. 🤷♂️
Brother, Nikon needs to hire you to make a wedding video with their Z8. I keep seeing new videos popping up on Nikons TH-cam channel showcasing the Z8. They are all so terrible, with awful grading, blown highlights, etc. you really know what you’re doing, you protect the highlights, you grade beautifully, you film, creatively, and real pretty. Nikon needs to stop sabotaging themselves with their own videos.
Great review! I am interested in this. Do you care/have issues with A7siii Sony not updating firmware and giving FX3 all the goods? Is that a decision maker for you in any way? Love to know
This is a great review Matt!! Thanks. Very compelling camera from a Sony shooter here. Same price as my Fx3 😮
I'm happy to see that Nikon continues to push the envelope. The next step, I hope, is to see some of these features trickle into a Z6 iii.
hope so!
It will be interesting to see what video specs there are in a Z6iii. I’m thinking 10 bit N-Log 4K 60fps uncropped and 10 bit N-Log 6K 30fps. May be NRAW. Sell for $2,500.
The image quality of the Nikon is top-tier!
I'm looking to upgrade my Z5 to... well... I'm not sure. I also shoot video for weddings, but only have the z5 for a camera body. Would you recommend a better camera A and keep the z5 as my camera B, or stay with the z5 as a camera A and invest in another z5 for my camera B? Was seriously considering switching to Sony, but that's a lot of money for someone that hasn't been doing this for very long. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks Matt!
In what format you recommended record a wedding cuz prores raw 4k 60fps is not like 13gb per minute?
Wondering if the APSC crop mode is decent. That would compel me. 4k at 120 in full frame and crop mode so a 50mm 1.2 can also be a 85 1.8... Although no back up is kinda deal breaker for me.
Thanks Matt! If you get the chance, would love to learn about how the Z8 and Z9's autofocus performs with the Nikon FTZ adapter, or even the Techart EF-Z adapter. The lenses are too much of a cost right now, and it would be great if one could use some of the fantastic older glass, till there is budget to upgrade
Also, would love it if there was a Powergrade version of the LUTs at some point. I use Resolve for grading, and really like the ability to individually tweak the elements in the grades
For photography, the F mount lenses are good. For video, they are good, but there is an annoying grinding noise with the AF. I might be a bit fickle there. But just generally speaking, the Z lenses are just better. They have better resolution. They are sharper. AF sticks that bit better. You don’t have to get Z mount lenses straight away. Do it over time. But once you buy one of them, you will want more of them.
@@andrewmason8691 Thanks Andrew! With the prospect of saving approx 3000 USD by sticking with the existing F mount glass, I would happily live with the grinding for now. But definitely, the lenses will be upgraded one by one to the Z mount... I would rather do that slowly, but get the really good glass. For now, I think the Z8 is mainly going to be on my renting radar, it's a truly 2023 camera.
It also depends on the make/model. Even some z mount glass can be noisy, like my 105mm macro. Sigma is king of noise with the art lenses.
what is the H265 10bit like? I am not likely to be shooting 8k raw for everything.
Its awesome that theres not only Sony and Canon making innovations and marketing.
This will be my main cam and moving my z6ii to B cam duties.
Late to the convo but you can avoid overheating issues if you do long indoor videos (like interviews or whatever) by recording to external ssd or other fast device. It overheats due to memory card warming up and not battery so doing external recording alleviates that esp if you have external ssd on a cooling pad
Absolutely stunning colors! Finally a Mirrorles D700🔥
It’s Mirrorless D850 and even better
Haha, this. D700 was the best camera ever at that time. Maybe the z8 can be a new D700.
What cf express cards are you using to record 8K raw ?
thanks for the review. How easy is to match sony slog with a nlog? thanks
Premiere has a match footage optionnthat works pretty well.
What LUT did you use to make this video ? I love the colours 😊
All color graded with my whoismatt luts. They’re linked in the video description
Life long Nikon shooter here who has been shooting stills on a D850 and video on a Sony body. Does Nikon have a picture profile/file format like Sony’s S Cinetone that is usable straight off the camera or does everything require some level of color grading?
There are some formats that look nice straight out if cam.
Nice! Do you know if this sensor has dual native iso?
Yes it has.
I'd love to hear your opinion on Nikons internal N-Log or Raw. I use Z7/6ii models with an atomos ninja v and have never been happy with the N-Log footage. It always seems too contrasty compared to footage from Sony for example. I was just about to dump all my nikon gear and buy 2x a7rv, but i could stay with nikon. Not sure the z8 is everything i want. (video wise)
The internal raw is beautiful, I love the colors but it is definitely not easy on the memory cards even though its about half the size of ProRes Raw
I don't know who dropped the ball with the N-LOG LUT, but I have never had good luck with it in the Ninja V, either the recorder or lut is too contrasty or the instructions has been too conveluded. My suggestion is to make a N-LOG > 709 LUT with Danvici to load into the Ninja and do not toggle the log/HDR switch.
With a z8 there is a lot of improvement there, but the best thing to do is to stop using their lut and do your own grading. Also, color transforming the footage in DR to arri or vlog can help. In the latest firmware you can use a lower iso for nlog that really makes a difference too. I’d just rent one to to check before making the choice. Good luck.
I’m filming with R5 in 8K , rolling shutter sometime is horrible. Did you had a chance to compare rolling shutter with R5 and Z8 or Z9 ?
Stacked sensor really helps minimize rolling shutter which in my experience only impacted 8k/60 video. Anything lower frame rate wise in 8k or 4k and lower res has zero issues from my testing
Can you use an external SSD through USB C for recording that 8k? That way you could get a 4tb nvme or something like that and go for much longer
Nope
No. The ninja V does work in 4k, max 60p
Did you film your talking head portion with the Z9? Looks really nice.
Thanks! It was a Sony a7siii, I didn't have the Z9 to use with the Z8 :(
It's easy and fast to switch from video to photo?
Can you record maybe like blackmagic directly on an ssd? Like the new kondor handle with SanDisk blade ssd?
I wish! I don't believe it supports that though
@@whoismatt in B&H description of the camera it shows in an image recording on ssd, check it out
@@strippedlist you sure you aren't looking at the Panasonic S5iiX?
It Has 2 USB Ports Does That Mean You Can Record To a External SSD Drive Like The panasonic s5 ii x ? Thanks
Nope unfortunately not
@@whoismatt Man That Is Unfortunate Thanks For The Reply
Nikon Z8 4k 120fps has crop or not?
Thanks Matt for this. I was hoping to hear your thoughts on this as a wedding film maker. I started with Nikon but now shoot on Sony but I like seeing Nikon being more competitive in the video market. Love to chat with you sometime as I too am in Texas.
4K 120p sub sampled meaning ?
Where did you get the wooden desk in the background?
Home Depot
Really nice recap of this camera. Really noob-y question...if you're recording in 8k/60 for slow motion, are you shooting in multiples of 25 or 60 for shutter speed? Sorry if this the dumbest thing you've read today, just trying to wrap my head around 60fps slow mo (I usually use 4k/120 and shoot at 1/125 or 1/250).
Your question has to do with system frequency. Here in europe we use pal, so 50 p and in the us it’s mostly 60 p.
Matt!!! I keep thinking of selling my a7Rv and all my lenses and going for this! Video wise Nikon wins big time in just specs alone. I noticed my video quality being worse compared to my a7iv due to the binned video on the a7rv...but I can't go back to the a7iv with the inferior overall specs...and I can't use an a7siii because I do photography too. I feel the z8 does everything for me. But will I regret it? Is there anything about the Sony system that would make me not want to go through this transition? I only have 1 camera so don't care about pairing a zv with an alpha series camera or anything like that. I see you have BH on you affiliates, if I make any purchases, I'll use your link.
I do a lot of product photography and video especially tech like laptops, phones etc. How does the auto focus work on that? It's really not perfect on the sony system and I have to reshoot a lot. Jumpy focus and such. How's the nikon's autofocus when it comes to that?
How's the overall video quality compared to Sony? I don't have time to grade, so I just shoot in S-Cinetone. How's the straight out of camera video on the Z8?
If I do this, I have to sell $8000 worth of Sony gear for about $7000 to entice a quick transaction....so it's a gigantic decision for me.
Do you still use Sonys or did you switch?
how does the screen compare to Sony screens?
Hey Matt, awesome video! I just received my Z8 yesterday (woot). Was just wondering, as I was setting up the camera, I noticed that my exposure meter disappeared in video mode. How are you exposing your footage without a monitor? I've set everything up for nlog and I'm assuming nlog follows most logs and exposes to the right.. but without a meter or any indicators besides zebras, I'm just not sure what I'm doing, ha! Any help or recommendations would be great :D
Nikon doesn’t have it yet unfortunately, I miss it too, just like shutter angle.
I think you missed something really important. There is a histogram in video mode; a lot more informative than the "exposure meter."
is there a way to get a more natural look? its very sharp and digital...not very organic...beside mist filters...thanks!
Sure, filters and grading.
I think this is probably, all things taken into account, the best camera on the market for the money. But it’s still very expensive for a hobbyist such as myself. Hopefully in a few years, Nikon will have trickled down this tech to a camera costing half.
So this camera won’t work below minus 10 degrees Celsius? Nikon says minus 10 is an extreme temperature. That mean in practice that you can’t trust this camera in wintertime.
Does anyone know how to convert ProRes files to Davinci? Raw converter isn't working for my Z8 files.
You mean prores raw?
Yeah prores raw converter for Resolve; I found a few SWs that do the work, but is just easier to shoot in N-Raw (except for file size)@@KobusGevelspar
You can record 8k in 10bit h265 on an SD card.
Can someone confirm heat dissipation on this camera? There are reports that the card gets burning hot in video. The body is too small and there is not fan.
Cards can become hot, but the make/model makes a lot of difference
So bummed that you don't get two cf express slots like the z9. I don't understand why so many companies keep doing different slots its a complete deal breaker.
SIZE MATTERS. It's really simple.
@@reneefariasphoto40 I don't think changing one more slot would change the size by a lot or at all.
@@QUINPANO Curious. Are you an engineer? Have you done integrity test on this type of change? According to what other reviewers have stated it would require a larger camera body, which makes sense to me. But hey I am not an engineer.
@@reneefariasphoto40 look at the Z9 it's literally only that size because of the bigger grip and Ethernet ports on it and that has 2 slots
A Banana for scale? :D Some bananas are bigger than others.
There is NRAW HIGH and NRAW NORMAL. The latter is half the bitrate, so you get twice as much video on the sane size card. You evidently shot in HIGH. Did you try NORMAL? Is there a discernible difference in quality?
I tried both and the difference is really small, hardly noticeable
@@KobusGevelspar That is useful to know. Thanks.
Oh well, it's the first time I can say that I was the first somewhere.
Damn, I thought this camera had the perfect specs on paper, but the inability to record video to both card slots is a dealbreaker at this price point and for professional work.
I don’t think Z8 has AI AF, it is the same as Z9 which is tied to A1.
Wow,impressive 8 k.
Me likey.
This camera SLAPS by the looks of it
640 GB card filled in 15mins of filming in 8k 60fps Raw? Wow.
Those files B I G 😜
Yes. I get a little over 45mins on a 2tb red card
Until they can figure out the back up video recording I'm not sure this can be taken seriously as a pro video camera. Others do it, and they need to figure it out. If you record RAW on the z9 it does write proxies automatically, so why can't it write them on the other card??? Makes no sense.
Yeah really hoping they fix that in a firmware update.
I’ve been hoping they would do that but they haven’t done it for the z9 and it seems it would be easier because the cards are the same…
Beautiful Tool but way too expensive for my wallet. 4K video is more than sufficient for 99.9% of the people and pros, technology is really advancing so fast !
Awww it’s an R5!!!
Only much, much better!