Nikon Z 6III in-depth review

Z 6III overview

You’re not struggling for choice if you’re in the market for a full-frame hybrid, with the Canon EOS R6 Mark II (£2000), Panasonic Lumix S5 II X (£1899) and Sony A7 IV (£2079) all excellent machines with plenty to offer.

These quoted street prices are for body only, so the Nikon Z 6III at £2699 is significantly more expensive; it’s also much more expensive than the Z 6II, which was £1999 at the time of launch and is now in the shops for £1599.

The Z 8 and Z 9 have stacked sensors and both reap the rewards of that super high-speed technology with their abilities, but it comes at a price. The partially stacked sensor in the Z 6III gives a fast readout without the cost of a fully stacked sensor.

The benefits include improved AF and tracking skills, full-width 6K/60p Raw video which is recordable to internal memory and flash sync at 1/60sec with the electronic shutter.

Factor in a very bright 5.76m-dot EVF, fully articulating monitor, 8EV benefit in-body image stabiliser (the most seen in a Nikon body), 20fps Raw shooting or 60fps with full-frame JPEGs as well as pre-capture, and the Z 6III seems a compelling proposition despite its lofty price tag.

Z 6III handling

The camera’s body form follows in the footsteps of the Z 6/7, though it is heavier and slightly bigger than its predecessors. Body only, it weighs 760g compared with 705g for the Z 6II – though it falls short of the Z 8, which is a hefty 910g.

The handgrip is deep, giving an excellent and secure grip, while core controls are readily accessible with the movie record, ISO and compensation buttons next to the shutter button and on/off collar.

With the focus joystick and AF-ON button at the rear, and the two front function buttons (Fn1 and Fn2) falling perfectly for the third and fourth fingers, controlling the camera is an intuitive pleasure. As you’d expect, there is plenty of customisation potential with the
Z 6III’s many buttons and various lens controls, including three user modes to which regularly used features can be assigned.

Hold the camera up to the eye and I challenge anyone not to be impressed with the EVF image. Its large, fine detail looks incredibly well-resolved and is bright… really bright. Using manual EVF brightness control, it goes up to Hi 2 or 4000 nits and has DCI-P3-equivalent colour gamut – the first mirrorless camera to have this. It’s also compatible with HLG shooting, but more on that later.

The optical versus EVF debate is not what it used to be due to the big strides made in electronic finders, and the Z 6III’s is one of the very best around; it might even appease those optical finder diehards. Maybe.

Z 6III video features

The Z 6III’s hybrid credentials are impressive. We’ve mentioned internal 6K/60p Raw video recording and a vari-angle monitor; it additionally offers full-sensor 4K with frame rates up to 60p, plus 100p and 120p (with a crop) and a full-size HDMI port. Autofocus has also been improved from its predecessor with AF 3D tracking and subject recognition, both benefiting from the faster readout of the sensor.

Nikon hasn’t been a big advocate of fully articulating monitors on its Z series, but we’ve seen two cameras come out recently with the feature: the Z f and now the Z 6III. I’m neither a vlogger nor a YouTuber; however, a camera monitor that faces forward is an obvious benefit and saves hooking up an external screen via HDMI.

Z 6III stills features

Before all you still photographers start feeling neglected, let me reassure you that the Z 6III has plenty to offer. Its 24.5-megapixel sensor is a high-performing unit, as you can see from its ISO performance (see Performance: ISO panel).

There’s Pixel Shift shooting (at four, eight, 16 or 32 frames) plus Pre-Release Capture, which kicks in at C30 and C60 for full-frame shots, and C120 where you get DX format (24x16mm) and ten-megapixel files.

Pre-release capture

Olympus got its Pro Capture bang on from the start with the ability to shoot Raws. Rivals, including Nikon, have been slow in embracing pre-capture – and with varying degrees of success. The Z 6III’s Pre-Release Capture feature is JPEG-only, but there’s the option of capturing frames at 0.3, 0.5 and 1sec before full shutter release, and the post-release burst can be set at 1, 2 or 3secs, or Max. Set Max and keep your finger down on the shutter button, and you’ll end up with hundreds of shots.

Continuous shooting

The Z 6III can shoot 14-bit Raws at 14fps with the normal shutter, which increases to 20fps with the electronic shutter. I did speed shooting and buffer tests using an Angelbird 512GB CFexpress B card rated at 1785MB/s and a Lexar 2000x SD card.

With the CFexpress B card in continuous high extended mode, I got 200 (the default max frame limit, although there’s an infinity option) lossless compressed Raws at 21fps with the electronic shutter and 15fps with the electronic front shutter. Shooting Raw and fine JPEG at maximum quality, I managed 176 shots at the same shooting rate before the buffer counter hit zero.

Using the SD card with the electronic shutter, I captured 88 Raws and 67 Raw+JPEGs at 21fps until the camera paused and the green write LED blinked for 12 seconds before extinguishing. With the electronic front shutter, I managed 110 Raws and 71 Raw+JPEGs at 14fps.

Put simply, if you need to shoot many frames rapidly, the Z 6III won’t let you down – even a fast SD card does pretty well for burst shooting. Control your shutter finger, and there’s no reason why you should run into buffering problems. While we’re talking shutter, there’s the option of five shutter sounds and five volume levels. I went for type B at level one.

Using the Z 6III

So the Z 6III has plenty to offer, but how did it perform on test? The short answer is very well indeed. I tested the camera with two zooms – the Z 24-120mm f/4 S and Z 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 VR S – and managed to get the kit wet on a couple of occasions during a damp testing week, but the camera proved reliable.

Shutter

It’s worth noting that, while the Z 6III has both mechanical and electronic shutters, the mechanical shutter was greyed out in the d6 Shutter Type menu because it’s not available with these two lenses. When using the electronic front-curtain shutter, the top speed is limited to 1/2000sec. The auto option is needed to access the full shutter speed range. The electronic shutter gives a top 1/16,000sec, while fast sensor readout allows flash sync at 1/60sec; it’s 1/200sec with the mechanical shutter.

Autofocus

A key benefit of the sensor’s readout – said to be 3.5x faster than the Z 6II – reveals itself in the camera’s AF system. It’s claimed to work down to -10EV with an f/1.2 lens, but with two modest-aperture zooms I couldn’t check it out. However, shooting in poorly lit interiors, the AF proved capable but still needed a sharp edge, contrast or detail to latch onto.

Its subject detection skills were generally good with people, although I had a couple of instances in video and still shooting where the focus box stayed on the subject’s eye. But checking the shots later revealed that focus wasn’t quite there. With feeding garden birds, the AF could hold focus as they leapt around. Occasionally, it would jump onto something in the background, resulting in lost focus on the subject.

Overall, the Z 6III impressed with its focusing speed, sensitivity and accuracy, with subject detection working well, including the auto selection option.

Image quality

The camera has three still image quality options. There’s 14-bit Raw and JPEG as well as HEIF. In most HEIF-capable cameras, all you have to do is select the mode in the menu. With the Z 6III, you only get HEIFs if HLG – an HDR standard – is chosen in the tone menu; choose SDR and you get 8-bit JPEGs.

HEIF uses a more space-efficient compression algorithm and 10-bit capture for a wider dynamic range with less detail loss in highlights and shadows. To enjoy it, though, you’ll need an HDR-capable monitor and software; it’s not an option for pre-capture shooting. Other limitations include ISO 400 being the lowest speed.

The view through the EVF in SDR mode is decent but comparatively dull and flat compared to the vibrant, warm and bright image when HLG mode is selected. Shooting in SDR and HLG modes, the difference in the EVF image is obvious, much more so than when the actual results were compared on an HDR screen.

I shot several high-contrast scenes in SDR and HLG using identical camera settings and checked them out in Nikon NX Studio and Adobe Lightroom on an Asus Proart 32in monitor that supports HDR-10 and HLG formats.

Yes, the HLG shots made a better job of high-contrast scenes across the tonal range, but the look might not appeal to everyone. However, it’s worth saying that shots taken in HLG are not like the strong, overprocessed HDR look popular a few years back. See the JPEG or HLG panel for more.

Summary

To sum up, the Z 6III impressed in many ways – from control layout to autofocusing, exposure and burst shooting to delivering excellent stills and video.