Nikon Z 8 is rumored to be a high-speed continuous shooting camera wit…

According to rumors, Nikon Z 8 will be announced in August. Previous rumors said that Z 8 would be a high-pixel mirrorless camera, but now it is rumored to be the successor to D6. In other words, it is a model that improves high sensitivity performance and continuous shooting performance without being greedy for pixel count. Naturally, AF will be faster and more accurate, and if it is a successor to D6, it will have a double slot for CFexpress Type B cards. Specifically, it is a camera that competes with the successor to Canon EOS R3 and Sony α9II. The rumor that it will have a high pixel count comes from the numbering of Z 8, and it was positioned as the successor to D850. However, the successor to D850 will be Z 7 series, and I don't think they will make a high-pixel camera that competes with it. It seems that a model with a low pixel count, high sensitivity, high-speed continuous shooting, and excellent AF is what Nikon needs most right now. There was also a rumor that it was Z 1, but if that was the case, it would cause confusion in the numbering and it would be following Sony. Since the Z 9 is a flagship camera with many pixels, high-speed continuous shooting, and 8K video, I think the Z 8 should focus on high-speed continuous shooting. 4K/60p video is enough, so it's great without cropping. The continuous shooting speed of the EOS R3 is 30 frames per second, so it will probably exceed that, but it will be difficult to exceed it by a large margin. However, there is still a possibility that the number of pixels can be reduced like the Z9 and ultra-high-speed continuous shooting can be achieved. The image sensor is of course a back-illuminated stacked type, and a pixel count of about 24-30 million pixels would be sufficient. If the emphasis is on high-speed continuous shooting, it would be desirable to have the same battery as the Z 9, which would result in a vertical grip-integrated design. When you predict this, it seems like the specs will be surprisingly realistic. I'm looking forward to seeing whether it will be announced in August.

JPEG straight out of the camera. Photographed in August 2019. This camera was a high-speed continuous shooting camera at the time, so it is not suitable for subjects like this, but the high-magnification zoom lens was useful for close-up shots. Nikon D500, AF-SDX VR 18-300mm F3.5-6.3G, aperture F8, 1/500 sec, AWB, ISO Auto.