The new Nikon Z8

There's been a lot of talk about the Nikon Z8 lately, and I've watched some videos and read a few reviews. Almost all of them are positive. So, is it the perfect camera? Will I buy it?

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No, I won't be buying the Nikon Z8 for now. Here are my reasons: It's still too expensive! 4600 Swiss francs for the camera body is quite a lot of money. I've only been using my Nikon Z7 for four years, and apart from the slow autofocus, especially in twilight or at night, I have no complaints. And if the autofocus doesn't work at all in the dark, there's always a workaround.

But the biggest obstacle to buying one is AI, Artificial Intelligence. As long as I don't understand where AI is headed, I'm not buying a camera that costs 4600 Swiss francs. Scrolling through social media, I see more and more photos like this. Currently, they're still rather subtle, but you can see the manipulation in many of them. Very often with flowers in the foreground. Are we now going to put everyone under suspicion who includes flowers in the foreground of a landscape photo? I recently downloaded the Adobe app beta and started experimenting. I don't want to bother you with it now; the quality of the altered photos is still too low. But once I get hooked on something... I think many people aren't yet aware that quite a few photographers are using AI these days. But no one is declaring it, and so soon everyone who takes an exceptional photo will be under suspicion. Currently, those beautiful, artificial mountain photos with dominant flowers in the foreground are all the rage. If you see one of these, you have every right to be suspicious. Where is this all heading? Something similar to AI existed and still exists: time blending. A single image is created by combining several others. So, the background with the snow-covered mountains in winter and the flowers in the foreground in spring, and voilà, your "wow" photo. A lot of people also cheat with the full moon. I have one like that myself, but even a blind person could see that the moon was photoshopped in. 14mm focal length and a balloon like that for the moon :-)

Light trails with full moon

But back to the Nikon Z8. A few months ago, there were rumors that the Z8's sensor would also have around 60 megapixels. Sony had already launched a similar model years ago, with little success. Fortunately, this rumor proved false, and the Z8 has the same sensor as the Nikon Z7; they simply tweaked a few things here and there, but in my opinion, the differences are negligible. Another positive aspect came with the launch of the Nikon Z8: the Nikon D850 and the Nikon Z7 Mark II are dropping in price, and both have the Z8's 45.7 megapixel sensor. These are both mature cameras. They're definitely worth considering. And if you're looking for slightly fewer megapixels, the Nikon Z6 Mark II is also quite affordable. Personally, I'm waiting to see how the whole AI thing develops. I already have a top-notch camera in the Nikon Z7, and I have absolutely no qualms about trading it in for a newer model.

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