Nikon Z50 II Review

Introduction

Ease of Use

The introduction of the new Z50 II means that there are now seven full-frame and four APS-C cameras in Nikon's mirrorless camera range.

In terms of how Nikon sees the Z50II, it sits towards the bottom of the range, just above the Z30, original Z50 and Zfc models.

Nikon are hoping to tempt people to upgrade from their smartphones or their D7000-series Nikon DSLRs with the launch of the new Z50 II, as well as suggesting it would make an ideal backup camera for Z6 and Z7 series owners.

The design of the body and controls is similar, but not identical, between the Z50 II and the Z50. It continues to resemble a Z6/7 that's spent a long time getting shrunk in the wash.

The new Mark II version is noticeably heavier than the original though - 495g versus 395g without the battery or a memory card fitted - and it's ever so slightly larger - 127 x 96.8 x 66.5mm versus 126.5 x 93.5 x 60mm.

Despite the weight increase, it remains a camera that you can truly carry anywhere and at all times without really noticing it, especially as the new version has a larger, even deeper handgrip that makes it easier to handle for longer periods of time.

The rubberized covering across the whole camera body adds a tactile quality that belies the Z50 II's mid-range price-point, as does the magnesium alloy build.

The external controls are in much the same places on both cameras, grouped on the right hand side of the camera which makes one handed operation easy, except for the Info and Magnify buttons on the rear which are now positioned as on higher-end models.

One of the other main design differences is the new dedicated Picture Control button on the top-panel of the Z50 II.

Nikon's Picture Controls are preset combinations of sharpening, contrast, brightness, saturation and hue. All 31 different Picture Controls can be tweaked to your liking, then saved and transferred to other cameras. The effects are visible in real time, and it’s easy to cycle through the different presets while shooting.

Nikon Imaging Cloud support on the Z50 II allows you to add custom Picture Controls, just like on the like Z6 III (no other cameras yet support Nikon Cloud).

The newer version has the same weather-sealing rating as the original one. While they don't have the same level of weatherproofing as the Z6/7 series, overall the build quality feels high enough to withstand a little bit of rough and tumble, as well as coping with a variety of different weather conditions, if you take the necessary precautions.

Both models have a handy built-in pop-up flash, currently making them the only Nikon mirrorless cameras to offer this feature. This may prove useful for some fill light if you haven't got a more powerful unit to hand.

Sadly, unlike on the Z6/Z7, there's still no AF joystick which you can use to move focus points around the frame.

Instead you have to use the slower, less precise method of pressing the four directions on the rear d-pad to move the AF point, with a press of the OK button recentering it.

It’s also not possible to use the touch-sensitive screen to set the AF point when shooting through the viewfinder, as on some rival models (although not the Z6/7), all of which makes selecting one of the 209 AF points less intuitive than it could be.

This is a shame given that the Z50 II uses the same Expeed 7 processor as the flagship Z9 and Z8 full-frame cameras, so it provides exactly the same subject detection options and behaviour.

It provides reliable recognition of 9 subject types (people, dogs, cats, birds, airplanes, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and trains), with an Auto mode, 3D tracking, and custom AF areas all available.

The Z50 II has an improved AF-A mode for stills, with the camera seamlessly switching to AF-C mode when detecting even the subtlest movements.

The revamped AF system is one of the main reasons to choose or upgrade from the previous Z50 model.

As well as offering a lot of advantages in terms of AF performance, the EXPEED 7 processor also boosts the number of different capture modes.

The original Z50 could shoot at a respectable 11fps with full-time autofocus and auto-exposure using the electronic shutter and a more pedestrian 5fps using the mechanical shutter.

The new Z50 II adds two faster High-speed frame capture + burst modes that provide 15fps and 30fps continuous shooting speeds, although only for JPEG files and not Raw.

The new Pre-Release Capture mode records images buffered up to one second before the shutter-release button is fully pressed when shooting in the High-Speed Frame Capture+ (C30) release mode.

The native sensitivity range of both Z50 cameras for still photos is ISO 100 to 51,200, which can be expanded to 204,800. For video the ISO range is 100-25600.

The EXPEED 7 processor in the Z50 II means that it now produces less noise at higher ISOs for cleaner images, despite using the same image sensor as the original Z50.

In addition to major improvements to auto-focus and bursts hooting, the third main area where the Z50 II outperforms its predecessor is video.

The original model offered 4K/30p and Full HD/120p recording modes, whereas the the new Z50 II offers 4K/60p, albeit with a 1.5x crop, 4K/30p oversampled from 5.6k with no crop, and Full HD/120p.

It also provides 10-bit N-Log for the first time ever on a DX camera, along with the ability to use RED Luts.

There is a red video record light on the front of the camera and a red framing border is displayed on the LCD screen when recording. It is also is the first Z camera to include a video self-timer that allows a delay before recording starts.

The Z50 II has a 2x Hi-res zoom for full HD video with 11 zoom speeds. There is no loss in resolution, unlike a digital zoom, because the camera records in 4K first then converts to 1080p.

Sound is also improved thanks to its built-in stereo mic and the option to attach an external mic, and it also offers an onboard wind-noise reduction function and a new 3.5 mm headphone socket.

The Z50 II has a special Product Review mode which smoothly shifts focus to items being showcased in the foreground of the video. This is a completely separate setting, not in the AF settings, and you can adjust the AF area/whole frame and the AF speed.

Both Z50 cameras offer Nikon’s electronic Vibration Reduction to help keep your footage nice and steady, which is important because neither of them feature in-body image stabilisation (IBIS), instead relying on the attached lens to supply it.

You can use the electronic vibration control feature on both cameras to help stabilise your video footage, but it does add a 1.3x crop. The Z50 II offers better electronic VR compared to the Z50, especially when using fast shutter speeds.

Both cameras have a 2,360k-dot electronic viewfinder, but the new 1000 cd/m2 electronic viewfinder on the Z50 II is roughly twice as bright as the EVF built into the Z50.

The brighter EVF provides a clearer view of the details even when shooting in harsh sunlight, dark environments, or changing light conditions.

The Z50 II also has a slimmer EVF that doesn’t protrude as much as on the Z50. It has a non-removable EVF cover that requires tools to remove.

The Z50 II has a larger 3.2 inch (3 inch on the Z50) LCD screen and it's a vari-angle design which is the same as the Z6 III display. The Z50 had a less versatile 180-degree flip screen that was more suited to stills photography.

Vloggers and video streamers only need one UAC and UAV compliant cable to connect the Z50 II directly to a smart device and go live on the video platform of their choice, and you can now also use it as a webcam without having to install the Webcam utility app.

There is a single SD/SDHC/SDXC memory card slot on both cameras housed in the battery compartment on the bottom of the camera.

The older Z50 model only supported the UHS-I standard, not the newer UHS-II cards which offer faster read and write speeds - thankfully the Z50 II benefits from supporting the latter standard.

Rather annoyingly, the card slot is still in the same compartment as the battery on the bottom of the camera, rather than in a dedicated compartment on the side.

The Nikon Z50 II also uses exactly the same EN-EL25 battery as the Z50, which offers a CIPA-rated battery life of 300 shots on a single charge, with real-life usage yielding longer life.

It can be powered and charged via a USB-C connection, which is useful if you're out and about and have a compatible power-bank to plug the camera into.

Both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity are included, primarily designed for use with Nikon’s Snapseed app.

After some early teething issues, on the whole using this app is a much more pleasant experience than when it first appeared a few years ago.

You can use it to automatically send files over to your phone for sharing online, which is useful for social media aficionados.

While it's great to see another new DX cropped-sensor mirrorless camera from Nikon, it's rather disheartening to observe the lack of progress in the release of new lenses for what is still a fledgeling system.

In the five years since the launch of the original Z50 which was accompanied by two DX Z-series lenses, the 16-50mm asnd 50-250mm, Nikon have seen fit to only introduce three more lenses, the 24mm prime, 12-28mm ultrawide zoom and the 18-140mm travel zoom.

So the available lenses continue to be the main weakness of buying into the Nikon APS-C sensor system, even six years after its initial launch.

Nikon still expects you to use the larger, heavier and more expensive full-frame FX lenses if you want to use anything faster than the genrally slow DX lenses., which rather negates using a smaller sensor camera in the first place.

There are some third-party lenses now available from the likes of Sigma (16mm, 30mm and 56mm F1.4 Contemporary), but they're still few and far between.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 20.9 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which produces an average image size of around 9Mb.

Noise

The base sensitivity of the Nikon Z50 II is ISO 100. At the other end of the scale, the highest native sensitivity is ISO 51200, but two boosted settings, ISO 102400 and ISO 204800, are also available.

JPEG	RAW

File Quality

The file quality settings available on the Nikon Z50 II include Basic, Normal and Fine for JPEGs, and the camera can also shoot 12- or 14-bit NEFs (Nikon's proprietary raw file format).

Basic (1.7Mb) (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash settings on the Nikon D3500 are Auto, Auto with red-eye reduction, Fill-flash, Auto slow sync, Auto slow sync with red-eye correction, and Rear curtain with slow sync. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (24mm)

Flash On - Wide Angle (24mm)

Flash Off - Telephoto (75mm)

Flash On - Telephoto (75mm)

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Flash On or the Red-eye-Reduction settings caused any noticeable red-eye.

Flash On

Red-eye Reduction

Active D-lighting (ADL)

D-lighting is Nikon's dynamic range optimisation tool that attempts to squeeze the full dynamic range of the sensor into JPEGs. Active D-lighting works “on the fly”, before the in-camera processing engine converts the raw image data into JPEGs. The available settings are Off, Low, Normal, High and Extra High, plus an Auto mode.

Off

Low

Normal

High

Extra High

Auto

Picture Controls

Nikon's Picture Controls are preset combinations of sharpening, contrast, brightness, saturation and hue. All 31 different Picture Controls can be tweaked to your liking, then saved and transferred to other cameras.

Auto

Standard

Neutral

Vivid

Monochrome

Flat Monochrome

Deep Tone Monochrome

Portrait

Rich Tone Portrait

Landscape

Flat

Creative Picture Controls

Dream

Morning

Pop

Sunday

Somber

Dramatic

Silence

Bleached

Melancholic

Pure

Denim

Toy

Sepia

Blue

Red

Pink

Charcoal

Graphite

Binary

Carbon

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Nikon Z50 II camera, which were all taken using the 20.9 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample RAW Images

The Nikon Z50 II enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format files. We've provided some Nikon RAW (NEF) samples for you to download (thumbnail images shown below are not 100% representative).

Sample Movies & Video

Product Images

Conclusion

The new for 2024 Z50 II is a strong update of the 5 year old original model, coming across like a miniature Z6 III thanks largely to the adoption of the latest EXPEED 7 processor.

The Z50 II is more obviously targeted at vloggers and videographers than stills photographers, with almost all of the key upgrades aimed at making life easier for content creators stepping up from a smartphone.

With 4K/60p and 1080/120p modes,10-bit H.265, N-Log, a special Product Review mode, 2x Hi-res zoom and two hour recording limit on-board, the Z50 II also benefits from easy live streaming and plug-and play webcam use.

It's very similar to the original in terms of their photography prowess, despite the 5 year gap between them, thanks to the continued use of the 20.9 megapixel APS-C sensor, so the Z50 is still worth considering if you're more of a hybrid shooter than an out-and-out movie maker.

Having said that, the inclusion of exactly the same subject detection options and behaviour as the Z8/9, including bird recognition, along with 30fps burst shooting and handy pre-capture mode makes the cropped sensor Z50 II something of a budget birding/wildlife powerhouse.

So it's rather disappointing to see the continued absence of an AF joystick, despite the camera undergoing a more general and largely successful control layout rejig along with an upgraded EVF and more versatile vari-angle LCD screen.

The only other notable flies in the ointment are continued from the Z50, namely the lack of in-camera image stabilisation, something that the more expensive full-frame Z6/7-series models offer, and the still very limited range of DX Z-mount lenses.

It's now five years on from the launch of their DX format APS-C sensor camera system, and Nikon still rather inexplicably only make five native lenses. Sure, there are some third-party options available now too, but it's clear that Nikon still see their entry-level camera system as the gateway to their full-frame FX range.

Which is a shame, because the new Z50 II is a lot more capable than its price and positioning might initially suggest, both for video and photographers alike.

Nikon have taken the brave decision to trickle down cutting-edge tech from their flagship cameras all the way down to their £849 / $910 entry-level offering - now they need to (finally) back it up with some higher-quality lens choices...

Ratings (out of 5)

Design	5
Features	4.5
Ease-of-use	4.5
Image quality	4.5
Value for money	5

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Nikon Z50 II.

Specifications

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