In my previous two articles “How YouTube welcomed the ‘Mirrorless Reinvented’ – part 1 and part 2”, I showed how the YouTube community greeted the new Nikon Z cameras – what were the major praises and complains about the two cameras. In this follow-up article, I will share with you my own thoughts about this release, the ten features I like most, and the ten things I don’t like about the Nikon Z.

First, let me start with the single, most important statement the YouTube’rs make in the videos, posted in my previous two articles. I shared 18 videos from the top photography channels and all 18 pointed one thing as the most disappointing feature of Nikon Z cameras – that it has only ONE CAMERA CARD SLOT!

I will get to this in a bit, but first let me list the top 10 things I like most in Nikon Z6 and Nikon Z7 cameras.

This article is part two of how YouTubers welcomed the new Nikon Z cameras. I will go in details on August 24th posts, and will link to the later videos, because it would be an endless read for you.

Aug 24, 2018

Tony & Chelsea Northrup, the biggest photography channel on YouTube join the conversation a bit late, but as they said in their video “Nikon Z7 Review: Maybe wait… (pre-production)” they were late because they “were sad, had some criticism, and were scared” and stressed about it. Just from the beginning their video prepares the viewers that they are going to criticize Nikon. They waited for the emotions to fade so they can give an objective thoughts and opinion about the new Z cameras from Nikon.

Tony and Chelsea start with the feel of the camera. They think that the buttons have that”mirrorless feel” that everyone has bashed Sony about, they did not like the single dial on top which doesn’t have a secondary ring used for continues low/high, timer, etc. Tony mentioned the lack of lighted buttons (like in the  D850) and the lack of the left row of buttons. They like both screens, but the EVF they think was over-hyped but in reality it was just OK, as the other cameras from this class. About the ONE MEMORY CARD SLOT – here is their expression when they started to talk about that – no need of further commentary.

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?