Nikon Z8 high iso.

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Icee

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A friend has asked me a question I can’t answer, she is looking at a Z8 and wanted to know how good it is at high ISOs. Can anyone shed some light on this for me. She does mostly wildlife in the uk so not great light.
Thanks.
 
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Icee said:
A friend has asked me a question I can’t answer, she is looking at a Z8 and wanted to know how good it is at high ISOs. Can anyone shed some light on this for me. She does mostly wildlife in the uk so not great light.
Thanks.
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The Z8 is basically identical to the Z9 in terms of high ISO performance which is to say excellent. The D5 and D6 were slightly better in that department but the difference is minor.

I don’t hesitate to shoot the Z8 at high ISO when necessary.
 
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Most new cameras are good in this regard, and for those of us who started with film, we are spoiled for choice. I have a Z8 and more recently a Z6iii. Based on an online chart, the Z6iii performs slightly better at high ISO (due to the larger pixel size since it has a lower overall pixel count). I typically now use my Z6iii for low light, but before I had it the Z8 worked well also. In real life use, I don't know you would see much difference. However, if your friend doesn't necessarily need 47MP, then I would advise them to get the Z6iii and save some money. But if they need (or want) 47MP, the Z8 is hard to beat and if I could only have one body that is the one I would own (and in fact it was the only body I owned until recently).
 
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The Nikon Z8 performs well at high ISOs, remaining virtually noise-free up to ISO 800. At ISO 1600 and 3200, noise is minimal and manageable. By ISO 6400, noise becomes noticeable but still controlled, making it suitable for wildlife photography in low light conditions. :)
 
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I own the Z9, which has the same sensor as the Z8. Shooting at 3200 iso f/2.8 at 1/30 gives results that are not comparable to 3200 iso f/5.6 1/2000. In the former case the noise will be much more visible and annoying in the latter it will be little different from 1000iso
Denoise programs do a good job as long as the photos are used for social and viewed on small screen devices. In case the photos are printed large, say 60*90cm or more you will see some kind of artifacts and unnatural sharpness.
If you shoot often in low light and high iso, say 3200 and up, better to opt for a Z6iii
Of course, these are just my impressions in my kind of photography
 
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How good high ISO is will be a personal judgement. For myself I’ll go to 25600 and have had to a number of times. That’s where something like Topaz Photo AI can make a huge difference. Just don’t expect miracles because you’ll still risk some plastic looking images if you’re not careful.
 
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As others have indicated, ETTR may help, though the Z8 is functionally iso-invariant so the real factors are overall illumination (photons). Shadow areas can become particularly challenging and loose detail in favor of the noise. In terms of strategies for managing the high ISO images, the strategy I've adopted depends more on the output. If the image is intended for print, I'll favor preservation of color and detail over NR whereas if the output is slated for the web NR tends to prevail.

Usually, up to ISO's of 6400 images are usually easily managed though it tends to become a bit more problematic at 12,800 and beyond. With the higher ISO's it becomes more of a struggle trying to preserve detail and color fidelity and I've adopted a two stage approach to addressing the noise. First, I do some general NR in whatever the RAW processor (DxO, On1 PR, etc.), tweaking the NR for modest gains albeit not sacrificing color and detail. Then after the image has been PP'ed, I send it to Topaz Noise Reduction AI, not the Photo AI which has limited NR models and work on the image from there. Depending on the particular image, one NR model seems to work better than others so I've found NRAI works better than Photo AI.
 
Looking at it objectively, it performs about as well as other modern cameras when it comes to noise. Noise is no longer one of the deciding factors in choosing a camera because within the same price range they are all going to be within 1/3 to 1/2 stop of each other. Your friend could check out their candidates here and see for themselves. On the photographic dynamic range one, at the bottom is a table where you can click the column header to sort, so the best ones in terms of low light ISO and low light EV are at the top. Z8 is neither near the top nor the bottom. Partly, I think, is that you pay a little price in noise for the benefits of a stacked sensor.


 
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