Equipments

It's been three weeks since I received the Nikon Z9 and I feel like I should write some sort of review about my experience with this camera, but I'm not sure where to start. It's not that it's not a good camera, or that it doesn't live up to expectations, but there's something about this camera that make me feel a bit out of this this era, but for Nikon, it's perhaps a surprise that came too late.

I guess I'll start with the negative part. A professional flagship camera body is usually not designed to change much to reduce the transition time as little as possible when changing to a new model. But the Z9 has changed a few things, from the arrangement of the buttons on the back to the way the memory card slots door is opened, and frankly, I don't like those changes. Of course, the change of those buttons in the back is likely to be in line with the flip-up view screen or to reduce the width of the device. For those who have already gotten the Z6/7, you can see the similarities between the two, with the Z9 only adding a few more buttons for vertical grip, and then using some of the same controls as the previous flagship body. As for the opening of the memory card slot, I honestly feel that it is a bit of a downgrade, as the previous design of the flagship can prevent the card slot from being opened accidentally, but instead of the previous design, the Z9 uses the prosumer design and adds an anti-opening lock to prevent it from being opened accidentally, It just like a bit over-designed. The top screen size is considerably reduced, although it has all the necessary information and a higher (tighter) resolution than before, so perhaps this is not a drawback. The familiar of the use should be adaptable over time, but it's just that it feels like such a difference that it might be taken longer to get used to in between the Z9 versus the older DSLR body.

Having said that, and after some of the nitpicks that may not matter to many people, let's talk about the surprises that this one brings. The surprises are the auto-focus, the 8k video recording, and the processing power. It's like petting a horse or a cat, you have to follow the hair and pet it in its own way, and that's how Nikon's auto-focus works. It sounds a bit sad, but I've gotten used to it over the years, so the problem that some people mention is that they have to go against its way, so of course, there's no way to do what they want and end up with bad user experience.

I've never been a big fan of using a "camera" to do the video recording, but over the years, cameras have kind of eaten up "camcorders" market share and cameras without recording functions are a rarity. The Z9 has 8k recording and 46MP high pixel sensor, isn't it kind of waste not to use those functions? after all, Looking at other brands and now they have to make a dedicated cooling version to record for a few more minutes, but with the Z9, I don't know what kind of dark magic chip is used in it, as long as the user doesn't put a certain brand that claims to be high end and professional but is in fact rubbish, the 30-minute 8k video can be recorded quite steadily without the body getting warm or even overheating. Even the temperature of the card is quite normal when you take it out.

The above-mentioned processor should have good image processing capabilities, as the autofocus function can capture the headlights of a car or the cockpit windows of a plane, in addition to the face and eyes detection AF that were already before. This means that Nikon has not only written the greater and better autofocus algorithm, but also the chip that can keep up with the processing power required for the algorithm, not to mention the 8K resolution of the digital recording.

In fact, I personally feel that Nikon has been tied up their hands in the development of its products over the years, with the sensor and recording components being strangled by Sony, which is really sad, and it was only when other mirrorless cameras were sold out that Nikon finally appeared as if they had received some kind of permission to sell those two new mirrorless camera back in 2018. Now with the Z9, it seems to have set a high standard for itself and other companies are suddenly at a loss as to what to do, so maybe when other companies come back to their senses and catch up with the Z9, we'll be looking forward to seeing what new developments will happen in digital cameras.

收到三周了，好像該寫點廢話來表述對於這台機身的一些使用心得，但卻不知道從何下筆。不是說這台相機不好，亦或是不符合原先的期待等，而是這台相機有一點不像是該在這個現下該出現的產品，但對於 Nikon 來說，又或許是一個太晚才迸出來的驚喜。

我想我先從不好的地方開始說好了，一台專業級的旗艦機身通常是不會做太大的設計改動，因為要減少在器材轉換時所可能會引發的調適動作，從 D1 開始一直到手頭上最後一台 D5 ，其實機身一拿起來完全不需要直視的情況下就可以做好許多操作的動作，可是 Z9 改變了一些東西，從背面按鍵的排列到記憶卡開啟的方式，老實說有一點不是很喜歡這樣的改變。當然這個背面的排列改變很有可能是要配合那個螢幕翻轉的配置，亦或是將機體的寬度減少。上述提到的背面按鍵排列，對於已經入手 Z6/7 的使用者來說，其實可以發現兩者的相似之處，而 Z9 只是多加了縱握時可以使用的一些按鍵，然後又沿用了一些以往旗艦機會設置的區塊。而至於記憶卡槽開啟的部分，老實說我覺得有一點降級的感覺，因為以往旗艦機的設計是可以很確實的避免卡槽誤開的情況，但 Z9 不用之前的設計，而改用了一般機種的設計，但又為了怕誤開而加了一個防開鎖，總覺得這樣的設計反而讓卡槽變的更不順手了說。而至於機頂的螢幕大幅縮水，雖說該有的資訊顯示都有，且螢幕的解析度也比以往要高，或許這點不能算缺點，但也說不上來的覺得奇怪。外觀的設計上其實應該都可以逐步適應的，只是感覺這樣的差異性，或許在使用 Z9 與 "傳統" 機身時要能確實的隨機調整。

講完了一些或許對很多人無關緊要的挑剔後，來說一下這台所帶來的驚喜吧？驚喜的地方有對焦，有錄影，有處理運算。對焦這事情 Nikon 一直就是不算夠好，但也不算夠壞，像是摸一匹馬或著摸摸小貓一樣的，要順著那個毛去摸，這樣才會讓其去做他該做的事情，也就是說去對好他的焦。這樣聽起來有一點慘，但換個角度來說 Nikon 的對焦就是這樣，而這些年來其實我也很習慣了，所以有些人提到的問題，對我來說只是他們非要逆著毛去摸，當然沒辦法照著他們的意思去運作。

錄影嘛，這方面我一直不是很喜歡用 "相機" 去做這件事情，但是這幾年的演進，相機已經算是把 "攝影機" 給吃掉了，沒有攝錄影功能的相機簡直稀有，而買了相機不用錄影功能又好像是僅用了這個東西的一半，但這次因為 Z9 的 8k 錄影以及 46MP 的高畫素，還是順手把電腦趁機升級了一下。原本對於錄影這點抱持著半信半疑的態度，畢竟看看隔壁棚的，現在還要推出專用的冷卻版才能多錄個幾分鐘，而 Z9 則是不知道裡面用了什麼高階處理晶片，只要記憶卡不去用一些號稱高級，專業，但其實很垃圾的品牌，30 分鐘的 8k 影片，可以相當穩定的錄製完成，機體既不會發熱，甚至過熱，連記憶卡拿出來測溫都是相當正常的溫度。

來説回對焦，上面提到的處理器應該是有相當好的圖像處理能力，因為這次的自動抓焦功能除了之前已經有的抓臉，抓眼睛外，還可以抓車子的大頭燈或是飛機的駕駛艙，而至於動物要抓鳥，抓狗都沒有問題，這表示說 Nikon 不只寫得出這個自動對焦的演算法，還有能跟得上演算所需的處理能力的晶片，更不用說之前就提到的處理數位錄影 8K 解析度的部分。

其實這些年下來，我個人是覺得 Nikon 好像一直都在被綁手綁腳的發展產品，感光元件與紀錄組件都被 Sony 給掐著，這個實在很可悲，當人家無反相機都賣到翻掉的時候才總算好像收到了什麼恩准似的冒了兩台相機出來，而至於這次的旗艦機，更是相當意外的好像把這幾年來的怨氣一股腦地給傾倒了出來。Z9 如此，現在放眼望去大概是自成了一個高標準，其他公司好像突然間也很意外的不知所措，或許等其他公司回神過來後，追上了 Z9 的距離，到時候數位相機又會有什麼新發展，就讓我們期待吧？