Nikon Z5 Review: 10 Reasons You Should Buy It!

As I'll talk about the 10 things that I love about the Nikon Z5 you'll be able to see if it's the camera for you. I'm intending to complement the video that I've already done where I look at the Z5 versus the Z6. Here are 10 tips, insights, reasons with a bonus one just for you. It's going to rock your world.

It's a 24-megapixel full-frame camera (wow!) that is worth looking for and worth getting into. I wish this sort of deal was available a few years ago when I was getting cracking on photography, but not so. This is a great starting place.

24 megapixels is big enough for you to blow up a photo the size of a house. Ok, not quite the size of a house, although if you blew it up the size of a house, you'd have to stand back, and then it would actually work. That's why you can blow up photos large because you don't look at them close up. You look at them from afar.

I've blown up a 12-megapixel photograph to 2 meter x 1 meter in print, and it came out "mint", so you can do amazing things with 24 megapixels. The reason other cameras go bigger is because of quality (of course) but also because you can crop in on those photographs and therefore recompose if you're not perfect the first time.

What that means is if you have a 24-megapixel full-frame camera versus a 24-megapixel crop sensor, the difference is that the crop sensor has a smaller sensor, same amount of megapixels 24 million, but crammed into a smaller sensor. That's an issue because the smaller your pixels are, the more light they let in, and the more light a pixel that's in the more detail it loses.

There is a anomaly in photography called high dynamic range, and that means capturing the details in the highlights when it's really bright, and in the shadows when it's really dark, and a full-frame manages to capture bright details and dark details far better than a crop sensor.

The Z5's full-frame sensor manages to capture bright details and dark details far better than a crop sensor

A crop sensor is cheaper, and I've shot on a crop sensor for years. You have to do things a little bit more creatively and have to think about it a bit more.

The other thing about a full frame camera is that you get more out of your lenses. So an aperture of f4 on a crop sensor is f2.8 on a full frame camera, so you get more out of your lenses.

That is more photos than I'll ever need to take in one sitting, ever. The other benefit is that the second one gives you a backup, so when the first one fills up, it also records the same information on the photographs onto the second card. Doing that means if the first card fails, you have a backup.

Wedding photographers use dual card cameras that's why the Z6 isn't preferable for them because it only has one XQD card whereas this has dual SD cards. The Z6 may also be too slow on a preferred auto focus speed. SD cards cards are cheaper. The cheapest I've found is on Amazon. (here's the link, prices may change).

I shoot with 170 Mbps. That means it writes to the card at 170 megabytes a second, which is very fast. With the Z5, it's not essential because it only shoots four frames a second. If you have a 12 frame per second camera (eg, the Z6 or higher), then it's very capable. These cards are V30 that means it can sustain a 30-megabyte read capacity when you're shooting video.

With V30 rated cards, If you're shooting any video, it's always good because you can crank it up to 4K and capture 100 frames a second. You can't do it on the Nikon Z5, but with a V30 you can capture remarkable things. So if you use an action camera, stick a V30 on it. You will be thanking me rather than the camera packing it in after one minute of use. 

Because of this you can switch between modes easily, without needing a second hand. It's so handy because it's right where your shooting hand sits. You can just alter it with your thumb and there's no button in the middle that you have to press down and fiddle around with.

How to program the Z5 FN buttons?

• You go to custom menu and choose F2, which gives you the function button controls. You select the first function button and select playback, and you're ready to go. That way you don't have to use the button on the other side of the camera.

My left hand is shooting; it's changing the modes; and it's accessing the menu and the zoom on the screen to make sure that I'm focused if I need to be. It also has ISO control and exposure control. I can turn it on/off, aperture and shutter, as well as look at my photos, all with the use of just one hand.

It's so handy because sometimes you have the shot, but you have to change a setting. If you have to come over from the other side of the camera it's just inconvenient. Well done Nikon. I love that it's so accessible. You sacrifice the LCD, but I'm okay with that.

It's an incredible camera to enter the creative expression of photography with. If you want to use this camera, it's amazing. Its low-light capabilities are really good. You can shoot on ISO 6400 without a worry. Just crank it up to 6400 or anything below that. You can shoot in low light, and you don't need to worry or be concerned about that in the slightest. Just beware that the auto focus in low-light needs some attention while shooting with it.

You can actually go one more and go up to ISO 8000, and that's when you start to introduce a fair bit of noise. The payoff to consider here is something like is the shot going to work and what do you think you need to sacrifice for that. The Z5 doesn't have a BSI sensor. The Z6 does. The Z6's BSI is a backside illumination sensor, which means you can write photographs to it quicker because it clears the sensor once the photos are taken.

That's why the Nikon Z6 shoots at 12 frames a second and the Z5 only shoots at 4.5 frames a second. No software update is ever going to be able to make this shoot at more frames per second because of the limitations of the sensor. But honestly, have a think about when you might use 12 frames a second? Maybe you can use it when you're shooting wildlife, surf photography all the time, or you want to edit a lot of photos just from pressing it down once.

the autofocus tracking does struggle if you're shooting fast-moving objects. If you want to shoot cars moving at a fast rate or if you want to shoot wildlife, such as birds, especially things that move fast, then you're going to struggle with the autofocus.

However, this holds up really well when I'm taking surf photography or when I'm doing panning shots while I'm shooting my kids. It's all that you'll ever need providing you're not moving into a specialist form of photography. If you're moving into a specialist form of photography such as wildlife photography, then the Z6, Z6ii or Z7 is the way to go, not the Z5.

There's limitations on the tracking that you would get if you bought a Z9, but if you're reading this, then you can't afford a Z9. The Z9 is Nikon's pro level camera and the autofocus and the tracking on that is near perfect.

I'm going to do some astro shoots later on in the year where I'm going to use that function a lot and enjoy it because it means that you can have 6, 10, or 12 hours out of the battery instead of just 2 hours, and that's a total win. I've had some people share their experience of this battery in this camera where it goes flat after a couple of days staying dormant in a bag. This hasn't been my experience though.

You can have 6, 10, or 12 hours out of the battery instead of just 2 hours, and that's a total win

I've never experienced that before, and so I wonder if it's a fault with that particular battery. A little while ago, I didn't touch it for a week and the battery was still banging. It was still fine.

So if you don't need some of the things that I've highlighted in this video, if you just need the things that this offers, you don't need a Z6. The thing where the Z6 excels at is 4k, 100 frames per second video. Z5 does 4k at 30 frames a second. It crops down because it doesn't use all of the sensor. So if you're looking for video, go the Z6, but if you just want a fantastic camera, this is it.

Thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate your support being part of the Creative Crew. Subscribe, like, and I'll see you in the next video.