The Nikon Z50II tried and tested

Real-world performance

Paragliding in high altitude, you need very thick gloves, so I was nervous at the beginning, wondering how these big gloves would work with this tiny camera, but actually it was really responsive even with the gloves. I was very impressed.

Photographing paragliders in the air in the same environment is like flying in a three-dimensional picture – the landscape is moving all the time, the paragliders are moving all the time, and I have just a couple of seconds to get the image perfect. It’s crazy, because it’s not only left and right, but up and down, backwards and forwards, so it can be quite stressful. That’s why I need a camera that can keep up. Thankfully, the layout of the buttons is very similar to the Z8 or Z9, though I decided to customise a few of the controls – those that I need the most often – for quicker, easier image capture, which is very simple to do. For example, I always customise the Fn1 or Fn2 button to allow me to switch quickly between autofocus area modes, so I can easily click from auto-area autofocus to single-point autofocus immediately from one second to the next, which makes for a really comfortable way of photographing, especially when you need to pick out a subject and the background environment. Speaking of the autofocus, it works really well, which is good because it’s one of the most important things for me. I hear the Z50II benefits from Nikon’s latest autofocus algorithms, including subject detection, which came from the Z9, and it’s just, let’s say, the best autofocus that I know. So, you have the same powerhouse performance in this tiny housing.

Image quality

After I tested the camera, I came home and my mind was blown. The image quality was just so good. I was really, really happy. The only thing I missed, of course, was the resolution compared to the Z8 and Z9. But knowing I didn’t have this resolution made me really focus on getting the right framing, as I wouldn’t be able to crop in in the same way I do with the other cameras. And, as I always say in my workshops, if the focus is 100% right, the picture is sharp – this is sometimes a bigger benefit than having a very high resolution.

I mainly used the standard kit lens, the 16-50mm, which worked perfectly. I really love the flare resistance of that lens and, overall, it’s really very sharp. Of course, you don’t get the really wide aperture, but it’s not the main thing for me. The main thing for me was that every picture was sharp.

Low-light performance

As well as photographing during the day, I also tested the camera in low light and it was very, very impressive. We went for a late evening flight during the blue hour in the middle of January, when it was very cold. There was a little bit of fog in the valley that we were flying over, and the moon was coming out. And because it was the time of the year when the moon is closest to Earth, it looked like a supermoon. It was just the perfect day. I took the shutter speed a little slower to hold the noise and the ISO, which I don’t normally do, and made a little bit more effort to secure the camera as tight to my head as possible to avoid movement, and the results were really, really good. Yes, there is some noise in the image, but the look of the noise is organic, and the image quality is great.

Video capture

I tried the slow-mo video feature and really fell in love with it. To take 120 frames per second is incredible and it produces a good slow-mo result, especially compared to a phone. In fact, it was when I was recording video that I noticed just how good the image stabilisation is.

Hot tips

Keep the camera warm

Usually in very low temperatures, camera batteries deplete quickly, so it’s important to keep the camera warm. When I first saw the red battery symbol appear on the Z50II I thought, “OK, I need to change the battery immediately.” But I found this was not the case – it was actually warning me about the temperature, not the battery, and so I was still able to use the camera for another hour or so, which is amazing really.

Use auto ISO

Especially for recording video, use ISO auto set between 100 and 1600. This, in my point of view, is the best noise range of the camera and it works like magic, especially in situations where the light keeps changing. It means you can keep the speed and aperture the same and let ISO auto do the rest. It’s perfect. Even if you go straight from sun to shade, the camera adjusts the exposure with the ISO. It’s just smooth.

Conclusion

I would sum up the Nikon Z50II by saying it’s light and compact and has great usability and perfect autofocus. Give the camera the chance, especially if you want one that can produce excellent image quality, but don’t want something that will weigh you down. It’s ideal for capturing images for a small campaign, where the client doesn’t need super high resolution images, or for product photography, for example, where a really shallow depth of field is not necessary. This camera works perfectly for that – and also for the daily social media stuff. I used to use my phone, but now I have the Z50II with me I use that as the usability and image quality are much better than that of any phone.