Nikon Zf Review: Retro Dials on the Outside, Z8-Class Autofocus on the Inside
The Nikon Zf looks like a film camera from the early 1980s. It’s styled after the Nikon FM2, with brass-topped dials for shutter speed, ISO and exposure compensation and a little window showing the shutter speed. People stop you in the street to ask about it.
Underneath the costume, it’s thoroughly modern. Nikon put the Expeed 7 processor and subject-detection autofocus from the Z8 and Z9 in it, plus the best stabilization Nikon had shipped at the time. That combination made it one of the surprise hits of 2023, and it’s still a favorite with photographers who want a camera that feels good to use.
The sensor is a 24.5MP full-frame back-side illuminated chip. Not the newest, very well proven, and excellent in low light.
Video review: Chris Hagan
Built to be used by hand
The dials are the experience. Set your shutter speed on top, set ISO on top, and you can shoot all day without opening a menu. There’s a dedicated switch for black-and-white that changes the camera into monochrome mode instantly, with several mono profiles to pick from. It’s a small thing that a lot of Zf owners use constantly.
Stabilization is rated at up to 8 stops, and the Zf introduced “focus-point VR”, which stabilizes around your focus point rather than the center of the frame. Handheld portraits with the subject off to one side come out sharper.
Autofocus detects people, animals, birds, vehicles and more, with the same tracking logic as Nikon’s flagships. For street, travel, portraits and family it’s excellent.
There’s also a pixel-shift mode that merges several frames into a 96MP file for still subjects.
Video is better than it needs to be
You get 4K at 30p oversampled from 6K, 4K at 60p with a 1.5x crop, 10-bit recording and N-Log. The rear screen flips out fully, which is unusual on a retro body. It’s a perfectly good vlogging and hybrid camera if you want it to be.
Where it shows its priorities
The grip is shallow. Fine with small primes like the matching Nikon Z 40mm f/2 SE or 28mm f/2.8 SE. With a heavy zoom it gets uncomfortable fast. Third-party grips fix it, and many owners buy one.
The second card slot is a microSD, which is slower and more fragile than full-size SD. Use it for backup.
It’s heavy for its size, around 710 grams, because of all that metal. And the dials, charming as they are, can be slower than a modern control layout for fast-changing situations.
Who should buy it
Photographers who care how a camera feels. Street and travel shooters. Anyone who learned on film and wants that rhythm back, with modern autofocus and stabilization as a safety net. It’s also a fine second body for Z8 or Z6III owners.
The obvious rival is the Fujifilm X-T5, which has similar dials, more resolution and a smaller sensor. The Zf has better low-light performance and a full-frame look. Nikon later released the Z5II, which shares a lot of the Zf’s internals in a conventional body for less money. If the dials don’t excite you, buy that instead.
If they do, nothing else feels quite like the Zf.