Rumors: How likely is a Z90?

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VinnyH

VinnyH

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I’m controlling myself 💰waiting for either the rumored Z6iii or the Z90. I’d like to have an aps-c powerhouse like the Z90 is projected. My 100-400 S lens could be that much better for wildlife moving to 200-600 and staying at 5.6. “Supposedly, a Z90 would be at least 24mp (hopefully 33mp) and the Expeed 7 processor. I can then have my Z7ii as my landscape and macro body.
Any hope these dreams/rumors might come true?
Thanks,
Vinny
 
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Unless Nikon changes their stance on APS-C, it's unlikely they come out with a Z9/Z8 with an APS-C sensor. As that is what Z900/Z500 or whatever you want to call a mirrorless D500 equivalent would need to be. If they were going to, or planning to, they'd have likely done it by now
 
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I was hoping to see a D500 equivalent in mirrorless. Basically a mini Z8 with a 30MP stacked sensor would be great. Considering how popular the D500 was and how Canon and Sony are still able to see a market for performance oriented DX cameras I don’t understand why Nikon seems to be in some sort of a dilemma when it comes to DX cameras/ lenses.

Thom Hogan posted recently about Nikon’s priorities (or lack thereof with DX) and that’s a bit disappointing if it is true.

Will the Triplets Get a Sibling? | Thom Hogan

What's happening the DX in the Z System?
www.zsystemuser.com
 
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thelordofthelight said:
I was hoping to see a D500 equivalent in mirrorless. Basically a mini Z8 with a 30MP stacked sensor would be great. Considering how popular the D500 was and how Canon and Sony are still able to see a market for performance oriented DX cameras I don’t understand why Nikon seems to be in some sort of a dilemma when it comes to DX cameras/ lenses.

Thom Hogan posted recently about Nikon’s priorities (or lack thereof with DX) and that’s a bit disappointing if it is true.

Will the Triplets Get a Sibling? | Thom Hogan

What's happening the DX in the Z System?
www.zsystemuser.com
Click to expand...
Maybe there is not enough space, or money to be made in the Canon / Sony DX space. If you have a full frame that can meet people’s expectations in crop mode, then a dedicated DX camera is redundant.
 
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There was a long period where Nikon's mirrorless lineup really did not feel very fleshed out on both the body and the lens side. As a wildlife guy I only really cared about the tele/supertele ranges and the burst speed/AF performance, but people I talked to who did more conventional stuff like weddings/events would explain gaps in the Z ecosystem to me that Canon and Sony had already solved. Total speculation, but I personally assumed that Nikon wasn't messing with DX because they were focusing their engineers on filling those gaps. And at least for me it seems like as of the 2023 releases, they really don't have any obvious gaps left that I could see keeping people from being happy on the Z mount.

If my speculation is vaguely accurate, then I would further assume that Nikon would have to show their cards soon; are they going to take a breather on FX format and swing back to update the DX range with a new body and at least a few lenses? Or are they just going to keep going full steam ahead with these FX releases? Surely the pressure is on for a Z6iii/Z7iii, but there are (seemingly) quite a few people who would love to see a "Z500", including many who have still not switched to mirrorless and don't plan to until an APS-C flagship is released (and I was one of them until the Z8 was announced).

This is kind of tangential, but one of the reasons I was happy to make the jump from the DX D500 to the FX Z8 is that honestly, 90% of my F-mount glass ended up being FX anyway. While there were some really well rated DX lenses over the years, for the most part if you wanted high quality glass (especially telephoto) you usually had to buy FX lenses, which greatly reduces the appeal of DX to me. Strapping a slightly smaller body to the exact same lens I could have put a Z8/Z9 on just doesn't make much sense to me...but when I only had the D500 I always wondered how much smaller you could make the 300PF and 500PF if you made a DX version. Just my personal feelings, but if I wanted something smaller and easier to carry than the Z8 and PF glass, I'd be taking a hard look at M43 systems.
 
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Going back 25 years ago, as far as I know, the smaller DX / APC format was selected to reduce production costs, especially with the state of litho tech in the semi conductor industry in the late 1990s.

Arguably, today a DX sensor still has significant cost advantages. Presumably this applies particularly to higher fab yields of stacked sensors from a single platter(s) and reduced production errors etc.

In this case, the argument holds that a DX Z90 will be key for Nikon to deliver a much affordable Baby Z9 with all the features for action genres. As importantly, a Z90 can (1) only boost sales of Z Nikkors, telephotos etc and (2) lock more customers into the Z system for the future, including upgrades to FX.....

In this follow up discussion to his article in a dpr thread, TH argues abandoning DX could weaken Nikon Imaging drastically in the medium term....

Anyone else waiting for a Nikon Z (CROP SENSOR) camera that replaces the D500?

I've been watching a LOT of Nikon Z8 reviews in the past few days, and I am glad to see that a lot of the Z9 functionality is there in a slightly smaller/lighter/less expensive form factor. However, I was hoping for a mirrorless APS-C (i.e., crop sensor) camera. A successor, specifically, to...
bcgforums.com bcgforums.com
 
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It would be nice if Nikon produced a DX mirrorless camera with better performance than their current trio. Something like Sony’s a6700. Thom Hogan, however, made a recent post where he stated that he was hearing nothing about a new DX camera. His feeling is that Nikon might abandon crop-sensor cameras and go all in on full frame FX cameras. I hope he is wrong.
 
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I completely understand the financial aspect of things, but setting that aside for a moment I think the Z8 essentially is all those things people wanting a new D500 are looking for.

It's just too expensive for what a lot of people are looking for, and that's a very reasonable objection.

I'm just not sure if a smaller sensor is going to amount to a $1500 price difference, let alone the $2500 diffetence many want, so the problem here is essentially a question of what we can imagine giving up from the Z8 to get the price down another $1500-2500.
 
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I see them releasing improved DX cameras in the future. The thing that is difficult to know is how long it will be before it happens. If you look at what they have done in FX so far, released the Z6/Z7 in the midrange, then released a slightly improved version of them to fix many complaints. They also released an entry level Z5 that isn’t the most competitive camera out there. From there, they released the Z9, made many firmware updates to make it one of the top cameras available today. Then moved that technology to the Z8 over a year later. The first mid level camera to get the technology is the Zf, more of a niche camera though seems to be selling very well. Rumors are that the Z6iii is coming soon so assume it will be next. That leaves it open for what other bodies will be coming and there are rumors a total of three for this year and they really left this primary market segment a long time without any updates. So will it be a Z7iii, Z5, Z50, or something new? If you look at how the Zf actually performs using the expeed7 and Z6 sensor, maybe a standard BSI APS-C sensor with the expeed7 would be enough to satisfy the APS-C crowd. You wouldn’t get completely blackout free EVF but the Zf feels a lot more like DSLR blackout than mirrorless. You would also have to use a mechanical shutter for fast action but I think they would be able to give it at least 14fps. I would expect this camera to be released prior to stacked sensor version because it would probably cost $1200-$1700 and really boost the APS-C market for Nikon.
 
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SCoombs said:
I'm just not sure if a smaller sensor is going to amount to a $1500 price difference, let alone the $2500 diffetence many want,
Click to expand...

The sensor alone wouldn't amount for 1500$ usd price difference...

But there is an interesting concept in economics called price elasticity of demand... You can sell a lot more cameras at 2500 usd than at 4000 usd.

And that means the investment can be spread out over more units and so drive the price lower.
 
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SCoombs said:
I completely understand the financial aspect of things, but setting that aside for a moment I think the Z8 essentially is all those things people wanting a new D500 are looking for.

It's just too expensive for what a lot of people are looking for, and that's a very reasonable objection.

I'm just not sure if a smaller sensor is going to amount to a $1500 price difference, let alone the $2500 diffetence many want, so the problem here is essentially a question of what we can imagine giving up from the Z8 to get the price down another $1500-2500.
Click to expand...
The D500 was $2,000 when it was released in 2016. Adjusting for inflation through 2023, that would be around $2,500 now.
 
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I think highly unlikely. Getting the capabilities of a Z8/9 in a crop sensor body will (a) be more expensive than the crop sensor market will bear for most people and (b) have heat and battery life issues. The components needed are just too expensive to put into entry level bodies. We’ve already seen how the Z8 long video suffers with heat issues…and an even smaller body would be worse.
 
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Anjin San said:
I think highly unlikely. Getting the capabilities of a Z8/9 in a crop sensor body will (a) be more expensive than the crop sensor market will bear for most people and (b) have heat and battery life issues. The components needed are just too expensive to put into entry level bodies. We’ve already seen how the Z8 long video suffers with heat issues…and an even smaller body would be worse.
Click to expand...
I've been vocal across many forums for as long as people have been discussing this topic that (other than price-wise) I don't think a more advanced DX body makes a lot of sense in the current landscape, but I actually think for point B a DX body could in theory fair notably better than the Z8.

Why? The Z8 is almost exactly the same size as a D500, and this is one of the reasons for my broader opinion that the Z8 more or less (price aside) already fills the role the D500 did. Make a Z8/D500 sized body with a crop sensor instead of a full framed sensor, and that probably opens up a pretty useful amount of real estate to put in better cooling and/or a larger capacity battery.
 
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