Nikon Z6 III - The all-rounder flagship in Nikon's system camera range

Finally you can breathe a sigh of relief: The Nikon Z6 III was announced in the summer and many Nikonians are excited to see what the cat in the bag has to offer! We are finally letting it out of the bag at this point! Nikon has taken advantage of the long wait and given the camera a complete makeover and new orientation.

The inner workings of the Nikon Z6 III

With the Z9, Nikon has already shown that they have not slept through the times and presented a flagship that has rightly sold very well. The powerful autofocus, the fast continuous shooting with Pre-Capture and the ergonomics we and many professional photographers have come to expect from Nikon, but the Z9 was also a signal to many videographers to take a closer look at this camera.

With the Nikon Z8, Nikon finally introduced a slightly more compact version of the Z9, which was also once again in a slightly more affordable price segment, and, perhaps somewhat cheekily, made the Nikon Z7 II obsolete

Now much of the Nikon Z9 is also flowing into the long-awaited Nikon Z6 III!

Review of the Nikon Z9

The new sensor of the Z6III

The new Nikon Z6 III sensor comes with a newly developed CMOS BSI sensor, which is not fully stacked, but only partially. This structure enables faster readout and processing times of the camera, which were not possible before. This means that the sensor can be read out about 3.5 times faster than was possible with the sensor of the Nikon Z6 II. A final advantage of the new sensor and its partial BSI construction is the simpler production method, which is a significant factor, especially in the large series production of the camera.

We've already told you all about the new design and the improvement in readout time. But what does this mean for the rolling shutter effect? Overall, it benefits greatly from this improvement, even at higher frame rates and resolutions. The camera certainly can't speak for itself, but it is significantly improved.

Like the predecessor Z6 models and the Nikon Z f, the new sensor also offers 24.5 megapixels , which is okay for the performance on offer, but we would have liked a few more megapixels, as with the Sony Alpha 7 IV.

The Expeed 7 processor is also on board and, with 120 fps and up to 240 fps in video mode, offers photographers the security they need for their work. In addition to RAW, this Nikon also supports the increasingly popular HEIF format ! Pre-capture was also confirmed in the announcement video, with the Z6 III offering up to 1 second of pre-capture, so you'll never miss a moment again.

We can answer the question of a mechanical shutter, which will probably mainly concern flash photographers, with a good conscience with a yes! Anyone who has ever worked alone with a camera with an electronic shutter is probably already familiar with the effect. If you select a sync time that does not match the shutter release time of the sensor, stripes form in the photograph that run horizontally to the readout time of the sensor. Thanks to the mechanical shutter, a shutter speed of 1/8000th is also possible when using HSS.

IBIS of the Nikon Z6 III

As with the Nikon Z6 I, Z6 II and most other Nikon Z system cameras, the Nikon Z6 III is also equipped with IBIS (sensor stabilization). This was adopted from the Nikon Z f and offers up to 8 stops of stabilization. But that in itself is not very exciting, what is interesting here is the information that the stabilization is measured and carried out via the focus point. In this way, the sensor stabilization is adapted to the subject and thus offers more precise and very good stabilization - even outside the center of the sensor.

Autofocus performance of the all-rounder flagship

The fingers of many Nikonians are certainly already sweating: the Z9/Z8 autofocus is here! This means that you get fast autofocus performance in the compact body, which also delivers very good performance in low light. The AF here has an accurate performance at up to -10 exposure levels!

One of the biggest criticisms that Nikon had to face was the lack of 3D tracking on the previous models. A function that SLR photographers in particular appreciated in the Nikon models is now also built into the Nikon Z6 III. The camera has also been given the subject recognition features familiar from the Z8 and Z9.

The new look of the Nikon Z6 III - The Body

As already mentioned, the Nikon Z6 III is not a Nikon Z6 II with an update, no! It is more of a shrunken Nikon Z8. Still compact, but larger than usual. However, after having been rebuilt and reassembled from the inside, a modified body was necessary. Overall, however, it is only slightly larger than the Z6II.

Brighter than the sun, the new viewfinder of the Nikon Z6 III

The viewfinders are always the weakest point of system cameras; Sony users in particular are familiar with this, as the viewfinders installed there are not always the yellow of the egg. Nikon is aware of its responsibility when it comes to the view of the subject and has given the viewfinder a new display that is even 1000 nits brighter than the viewfinder of the Nikon Z9! With 4000 nits, you can even work through the viewfinder display in the desert or at the North Pole without any problems.

But that's not all Nikon has improved here: The Nikon Z6 III now has a viewfinder resolution of 5.7 megapixels, which allows for sensational sharpness and even 26% more colors in the display, which corresponds to the P3 color space. Of course, all at a frame rate of 120 frames per second!

Memory card slots

Nikon has again given the Z6 III two memory card slots, one with a CF Express type B slot and the second with an SD card slot for UHS II memory cards.

Batteries of the Nikon Z6III

Nikon also remains true to its battery policy and retains the EN-EL15 as the battery of choice!

Video functions of the Nikon Z6 III

We already mentioned that the Nikon Z9 had a little hype among videographers, the technical progress has also found its way here and does not disappoint. With 6K at 60p, 4K 120p as well as ProRes and N-RAW. In addition to H.264, the Nikon Z6 III also supports the modern h.265 standard.

Conclusion

The most exciting thing, of course, is the price: this performance package starts at an RRP of 2,999 and is therefore not only significantly more affordable than the Z8, but also a real statement compared to cameras from competing manufacturers! In conclusion, everything that Nikon has built into this model makes us say: Well done Nikon! A worthy successor that many photographers have been eagerly awaiting and will now be waiting for.