Nikon Z6III Review: Solving Shutter Woes With Simplicity & Style
Nikon Z6III Review: Nikon’s latest mid-segment offering makes you realise how good gadgets can get when they come without frills while taking care of basic needs that most don’t even think of.
Nikon Z6III Review: With an onslaught of new gadgets every other week, we tend to forget that the best tech out there work best when they are simple. Be it the clean user interface of iOS or the rather straightforward button layout of a PlayStation controller, easy-to-use gadgets with intuitive designs generally tend to stand the test of time and eventually become iconic.
When it comes to cameras, one might argue that there have not been THAT many design changes over the years. So, how do you bring out a new camera and still make it feel ‘fresh’ and ‘simple’ at the same time? Nikon Z6III could be a prime example of that.
I never thought I needed an exceptionally bright electronic viewfinder (EVF). As an amateur (read: casual) photographer, I always tend to learn the intricacies of a new camera body and its many, many bells and whistles in depth before I start using it. However, with the Z6III, using Nikon’s latest flagship offering felt as simple as using one of those old-school point-and-shoot cameras. All I needed to do was pick it up, and follow my intuitions.
To my surprise (and delight) I found Nikon’s hardware to do most of the heavy lifting for me, be it getting the best captures in certain modes, or making my life easier with handy tricks that make the Z6III one of the best cameras I used to date.
Finding The Best View
First things first, I still can’t get over the exceptional brightness of Nikon Z6III’s EVF. The Japanese tech giant did claim that the Z6III has the world’s brightest EVF (nearly 4,000 nits). However, when you look through it, you are instantly taken aback by its versatility.
When I am pointing the lens at a dark corner of a room, the EVF lights up the frame with a brightness that would put most capable OLED screens to shame. On the other hand, when I tried to focus on a subject standing in front of a bright light source, like the Sun, I could see my subject clearly, without having to do much guesswork on its details and conditions before clicking the shutter.
Shutting Down Rivals
Speaking of shutters, Nikon Z6III offers a handy feature called pre-release capture. This offers a buffer of up to 1 second, or even 3 seconds depending on your settings, after fully pressing the shutter.
This feature, though it might sound simple, will come in handy for both wildlife and wedding photographers. In both cases, be it trying to capture a fleeing wild cat or a fleeting moment when the bride looks at the groom, capturing the right moment simply boils down to the exact moment when you press the shutter.
The pre-release capture feature, with its buffer, helps to make sure you get the exact moment that you want, making Nikon Z6III a great suit for action photographers.
The flip-out screen with its touch controls can easily help Nikon Z6III outpace its rivals. The touch is incredibly responsive and if I have to compare it with a smartphone, the Z6III’s touch response works nearly as well as a mid-segment Android phone.
Also, I appreciate the auto-screen switch, when I hold the camera up to my eye to peer through the viewfinder. The screen turns off automatically and turns back on instantly the moment I take the camera away from my eye. This feature is nothing new, but it’s just one of those ‘simple’ things that make me fall in love with a gadget I’m using.
Love Handles
At around 760 g (with batteries), Nikon Z6III is slightly heavier than a Z7 but extremely lighter than the Z8. However, the slightly elongated finger grip on the body makes the Z6III easy to carry around in your hand.
I used the Z6III without a strap almost all the time during my test runs. My lens was a Nikkor 28-17/2.8 one, and never once during the test did I feel my hand feel heavier or the overall hold of the camera cumbersome.
Plus, the design of Z6III, with its rugged leather pattern and easy grips, will make even the most fastidious shutterbug happy.
Nikon Z6III comes with the standard set of connectivity options, all parked under a tight rubber flap. Be it USB-C to Wi-Fi connectivity, transferring photos to your laptop is easy and fast. All you need is the right app, such as SnapBridge (for Wi-Fi) and NX Studio (for USB transfers).
The Z6III supports a wide range of memory cards, from Lexar Gold Series Type B Card to SanDisk Extreme Pro-Series offerings. Apart from Type B, it also supports XQD cards and SD cards. Needless to say, you can carry multiple cards at the same time within your camera.
Heating Woes
While I couldn’t find much fault with the overall hardware, Nikon Z6III’s heating issue leaves a bit to be desired. Of course, a camera packed this thick with mirrors and little intricacies can’t possibly have a cooler inside. The thick body walls also don’t help in dissipating heat.
This results in a properly heated card every time you record long videos or transfer considerably larger files. I wish camera makers could do something about this heating issue as it might just increase the efficiency of the overall functioning.
Speaking of heat, Nikon Z6III’s battery offers a dependable performance. For example, when I took a fully charged battery and used the camera to record a video continuously on 6K RAW (24fps), the Z6III stopped working right after the 2-hour mark. That’s still an impressive performance.
When clicking photos, the battery life rarely mattered.
However, I should admit that when I tried to use a third-party EN-EL15b battery in the Z6III, I got an error message. That didn’t happen when I used Nikon’s battery that came with the camera. Now, is this an issue of Nikon being careful against third-party units? Or was my third-party EN-EL15b not compatible? I’m afraid I don’t know.
So, I’d happily advise you to stick to the original EN-EL15c batteries. After all, you are already spending a bomb on the camera itself. So why not go for the original apparatus that goes with it as well? Apple does a great job with a closed ecosystem. No reason why Nikon shouldn’t take a leaf out of the Cupertino giant’s book.
Stacked Well
Nikon Z6III is incredibly fast. It is the world’s first camera with a partially stacked CMOS sensor and it DOES make a heck of a difference.
Allow me to explain first. In digital cameras, the pixel zone and internal circuit bits can sometimes stretch all across the main image sensor, as we see in most of the costlier cameras such as the Z9. Sometimes, they are simply not stacked, like the Z6II. In the Z6III, however, the circuit bits are stacked on the top and bottom of the pixel zone.
What this does is offer noticeably fast autofocus, better video frame rates, continuous shooting rates, and an even faster rolling shutter effect than the preceding Z6II model. So, instead of becoming too costly, the Nikon Z6III offers the performance of a much costlier camera (or at least close to it).
When it comes to still images, the Z6III captures its subjects in incredible detail, with a commendable dynamic range with negligibly little noise, unless you are shooting in extremely low light conditions.
Just like most cameras, the Z6III works best under a bright light source, or natural daylight, bringing out beautiful details. It struggles a bit when the lights are depressingly low, however, when I clicked photos of my cat under regular room lights, the results were beyond complaints.
Of course, the Z6III is positioned by Nikon as a hybrid offering, which means a lot of neat video capabilities. Want to shoot internal RAW videos? Want to shoot ProRes instead? Nikon Z6III is more than up to the task in most cases.
You can also record at 240fps at Full-HD and H.265, which means that the Z6III could also come in handy for wildlife videographers who wish to shoot speeding animals in slow motion. If you are shooting at 6K, you can go up to 60fps in internal RAW, and in most cases, I found that the video captures almost all the details I can see without unnecessary processing.
Nikon Z6III Review: Final Verdict
The Nikon Z6III comes at a mid-segment price point. If you go for just the body, you will have to shell out Rs 2,47,990. You can go up to Rs 3,27,990 if you go for the 24-120/4 kit, or up to Rs 3,12,990 if you go for the 28-75/2.8 kit I was using.
At this price point, the Z6III is considerably cheaper than the top-end Z9 but is comfortably within the range of its Sony and Canon rivals.
So, why should you go for Nikon instead of Sony and Canon? Well, the bright EVF, the dynamic range, the AI-powered quick edit features within the camera, the gorgeous design, the trusted grip, the easy compatibility with semi-pro recording apparatus, the incredible dynamic range, and the overall sense of trust that Nikon brings with it makes the Z6III one of the best camera offerings this year.
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