It is ten days now since the official announcement of the Nikon Z – Nikon’s first mirrorless cameras. There was (and still is) a huge interest among the entire photography world – internet is full with articles, specification comparisons, details, and pictures. YouTube is on alert as well. Many people are disappointed, many are praising the new cameras. Nothing new under the sun, you’ll say, and you’ll be right. But it is interesting to see what the initial reaction of the photography community was. Did it match the excitement of Nikon managers, ambassadors, sales reps, and pure fanboys?

In this article, which I am going to split to two parts, I’ll go through the most popular commentaries on YouTube, starting the day before the cameras were officially announced but specs were already leaked. In a follow-up, third article, I will share my personal opinion with you, my dear readers. I’ll link to the other articles here, once they are published. Updated: link to part 2:

It is going to be a long one, so get something to eat and drink and happy reading/watching.

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?