Just minutes ago Nikon announced their first mirrorless cameras – Nikon Z6 and Z7. In the past month, each Wednesday, they were releasing a video teaser. These short promotional videos named “Travel of light”, “Mount”, “Body”, “Lens”, and “Photographers” created quite a hype for the upcoming cameras. And there is why. Nikon Z6 and Z7 are not revolutionary for the world by any means. Especially considering the current Sony, Fuji, Panasonic and Olympus cameras. But they are big step forward in Nikon’s thinking and future development as a camera company.

I believe no one argues that mirrorless is the future. In the last 10 years, starting with Lumix G1, mirrorless cameras went through many transformations and upgrades.

In January 2017, I wrote an article “What Do I Want from Nikon in 2017” where I shared with you what I want to see from Nikon in 2017, and what I actually expect them to release. Here is the summary of the wanted/expected things:

Things I wanted to see from Nikon in 2017

D850 – a D810 replacement
D900 – a D5 in a D500 body
Dm – a Df replacement
24-70mm f/2.8 E VR II
15-30mm f/2.8 E VR
Coolpix Z – zoom version of the Nikon Coolpix A
New naming nomenclature
Better AF for video

Things I thought we’ll see from Nikon in 2017

D5X
D620
D760
D820
D7300
Nikon DL
Df2
16-35 f/4 VR II

Right after I posted the article and Nikon announced cancellation of the DL series. But here we are – passed the middle of 2018 and it seems Nikon really rethought their game, and changed their strategy in a big way. We still have to expect surprises, but I will write separate article about this. Let’s dive to what I “predicted” inaccurately, and was I that far off the reality?

We have a long, almost 20 years, relationship with Nikon. It was not very easy to write this article, especially on Friday 13th, and coincidentally on the 100th anniversary of Nikon.

After the marvelous F100 (1999), N80(F80) (2000), and FM3A (2001), my first digital camera from Nikon was Coolpix 4300. That little 4 mpx camera changed the way I was looking at Photography, when it was released in 2002. It was so small and convenient to bring everywhere that I found myself constantly taking pictures of everything,  experimenting new techniques, and… I didn’t have to develop film anymore.

Several years later I bought my first Digital SLR and since then I have owned many models, including D80, D200, D5000, D5500, D7000, D800, D800E, D750, D810, and D850. I also had the chance to use many other models, so my overall experience with Nikon cameras and lenses can be considered to be at least “advanced”.