- Nikon's new $2,500 Z6 III uses a new sensor technology.
- It's faster than the previous model.
- Let’s be honest, all cameras these days are good enough for most people.
The Nikon Z3 III brings mysterious new sensor technology to its already impressive Z6 series.
Nikon is doing great with cameras, and the Z6 III continues that momentum. Its new "partially stacked CMOS sensor" allows it to shoot better video in lower light and focus faster. Otherwise, this is another solid win for Nikon, although these new additions may be more suited to videographers than stills photographers.
"Although Nikon was late to the game with professional mirrorless cameras, the leap forward it made reminds us of the incredible engineering in Nikon's history. I'm not a fan of products like this, but it's great to see Nikon still hanging on! ” Photography enthusiast Velvet Spaceman wrote in a Verge review.
When you take a photo, the sensor records the amount of light hitting each of its millions of pixels. This data then needs to be read from the sensor into the camera's computer memory, where it can be processed into RAW files and JPGs and then stored on the card.
Different types of sensors read data in different ways. The slowest way is to read one line at a time, move each pixel down the line until you reach the end, then move to the next line and start over. Ideally, you want the data readout circuitry to be as close as possible to the photo locations (also called pixels) to make the readout faster.
The problem with this is that the circuitry gets in the way of the sensor and impairs its light-gathering ability. To solve this problem, CMOS sensor manufacturers invented "back-illuminated" sensors. Essentially, they chip away at the back of the CMOS sensor so that light can enter through there. Flip the sensor over and you just put all the circuitry behind the sensor, away from the light.
Stacked CMOS sensors work better. Imagine making a few sensor circuit boards, scraping off the backing, and then stacking them on top of each other very carefully so everything lines up. This allows you to do things like mount RAM directly behind the pixels and get near-instant readouts.
This speed allows stacked CMOS to achieve incredible feats. Readouts are fast enough that the camera doesn't even have to block the live feed from the sensor to the viewfinder, meaning you can take full-resolution photos at 20 frames per second while still seeing your subject in real time.
As you can imagine, though, stacking these layers is still an expensive business, which is where Nikon's new partially stacked CMOS comes in.
Nikon has yet to announce details of the new sensor. At least not from a technical perspective. But DP Review's Richard Butler offers part of the explanation. It looks like Nikon kept most of the readout and analog-to-digital conversion circuitry on the edge of the sensor chip, but stacked them there, allowing for faster readout. The result is about a quarter the speed of fully stacked CMOS, but still faster than conventional non-stacked chips. As we'll see now, it's fast enough.
The $2,500 Z6 III offers 6K video at up to 60fps in N-Raw mode and can output 50 full-resolution JPGs in one second. That's great, but unless you're a videographer or sports photographer, it's also a bit academic. More immediately useful are the improvements made to focus by the sensor, which now works down to -10ev. This means it can focus under starlight without having to enable the camera's "starlight mode."
Nikon says focus speed is also 20% faster than the previous model, the Z6 II.
Indeed, we are in an incredible age of cameras. They capture sharp images in any light and faster than anyone needs. At this point, technology is so advanced that unless you work at the cutting edge of a professional field, any camera is good enough. Given this, Nikon's choice to use a less powerful partially stacked CMOS sensor seems like a smart move, keeping the (relatively) low price of this non-flagship model while subtly improving a few key features significantly.
"The real drawbacks/pros are usability and ergonomics. These cameras have tons of features and are very complex. For people who make money through media creation, ease of use is more important than other specs. This is a challenge that manufacturers have yet to face Get over it,” photographer JKGal wrote in a forum post that Lifewire participated in.
But when it comes to camera shopping, the basic performance of almost every model is so good that you need to consider ergonomics, lens and accessory options, and whether you really want a compact camera you can take with you everywhere or something like the Z6 III A bigger multi-purpose beast. Faster is not always better.
