Nikon Z 50 - Review and Sample Photos

The Nikon Z 50 brings Nikon's Z mount system to APS-C. We check out the new lenses, performance, and more.
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Intro - 0:00
Body - 0:40
Sensor & Image Quality - 2:54
Image Stabilisation - 4:40
Autofocus - 5:39
Video - 6:29
Conclusion - 7:29


Today we’re checking out the Nikon Z 50, which is the first APS-C model in their new line of mirrorless cameras. It’s essentially a mini-Z6, it shares the same Z mount and it has a similar yet smaller body design. There’s also two new Z-series crop lenses to match, the 16-50mm and 50-250mm. Now we’ll start by looking at the body, but check the video description if you want to jump to a specific part of the review. And as always, if you find this video helpful, please like and subscribe

This is really quite a compact camera, which is very nice. It weighs only 450g, and yet, the size doesn’t preclude quality, this is a very well-built camera. It’s a magnesium alloy construction, so it’s very solid and doesn’t feel cheap at all. In particular it has a very large handgrip for it’s size, which is really nice, it’s quite comfortable to hold. There’s not a huge array of buttons on here but it has dual control dials, a few customiseable buttons and also two custom programmable modes. I particularly like these controls embedded on the screen which allow you to quickly zoom in and check focus, that’s the first time I’ve seen this type of control on a camera and I quite like it. Speaking of the screen, it’s a full touchscreen with intuitive controls and is easy to use. It also tilts and flips all the way down for selfies
-It has a 2.36 million dot viewfinder which is in line with comparably-priced cameras, and it functions well. There’s a mic jack, HDMI and USB port, and it has one card slot that is UHS-II compatible. We’ve also got wifi, bluetooth and a pop-up flash here. The two new lenses balance well, and I particularly like the 16-50mm pancake lens due to it’s size.

Inside the Z 50 is a 20.8 MP APS-C sensor. Pretty average in terms of resolution, but still plenty for most people. The image quality is good, images are sharp and crisp, and it has pretty strong low-light performance as well. One of the key features here is that Z mount, Nikon has smartly kept the same mount as their full-frame mirrorless cameras which means you can put the full frame Z lenses on here - you’ll of course get a crop but otherwise they work great. Nikon now joins Sony as the only two manufacturers that have both APS-C and full frame mirrorless cameras that share the same lens mount. Of course you can also use the adapter to use existing Nikon DLSR lenses on the Z 50

The Z 50 does not have in-body image-stabilisation. To make up for this though, the 16-50mm and 50-250mm lenses do have image stabilisation in them - the 16-50 is rated for 4.5 stops and the 50-250mm rated for 5 stops. The camera itself does have electronic stabilisation that you can turn on too. I was surprised at the quality of these. So if you’ll be shooting with either of those two lenses I don’t think you’ll be too put out by the lack of IBIS, but it’s an important point as many of the full frame Z lenses or adapted lenses you may use won’t have IS.

I’m happy to report that the Z 50 sports quite a strong AF system. It takes the same system from the Z6, albeit with a few less points. It’s a 209 point phase detect AF system, and it’s quite solid. It also features Nikon’s Eye AF which is quite accurate and even allows you to toggle between which eye to track or even which person if you have multiple people in frame. The continuous AF tracking is pretty good, even in video shooting. The camera is also pretty speedy with 11 fps burst shooting.

Video-wise the camera is capable, if not incredibly exciting. It can shoot 4K video at up to 30 fps with no crop, which is good and the 4K look very nice. It can also hit 1080 at up to 120 fps. That flip down selfie screen definitely shows that Nikon is trying to appeal to vloggers a bit here, and it’s definitely workable as a vlogging camera, especially considering the eye AF works well and it has a mic jack
-It still would have been nicer if the screen flipped sideways rather than down so it wouldn’t interfere with tripods, and note there is no headphone jack so you can’t monitor your audio.

Overall I was happily impressed with the Nikon Z 50. This is a very solid, well-rounded camera. It doesn’t really have a standout “killer app” but it does everything quite well in a quality, yet compact body. I think this is a great entry-point into the mirrorless world for someone who wants quality, size, and performance, and who likes the idea of not having to buy a whole new system if they ever decide to upgrade to full frame in future