Nikon announces Z 6 and Z 7, its first full-frame mirrorless cameras

After resisting for years, Nikon’s finally launching its own full-frame mirrorless cameras, the Z 6 and Z 7, to compete with Sony’s ever popular Alpha cameras.

The new Nikon Z cameras are a big step forward for the established camera company. Though its DSLRs will no doubt continue to be its bread and butter for years, as Sony has proven, mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras that are smaller, lighter and better for shooting video are the future.

One look at the pricing for the cameras and it’s clear they’re not for amateur photographers. The Z 6 (body-only) will cost $2,000 when it’s released in November and the Z 7 (body-only) will cost $4,000 when it launches on Sept. 27.

The Z 6 packs 24.5 megapixels and has an ISO 100-51200 range. Pony up for the Z 7 and you get an even more ridiculous 45.7 megapixels and ISO 64-25600.

If you’re scratching your head at these specs, here’s a dummy’s translation: The cameras shoot really large, really high-resolution photos.

Both cameras also record 4K-resolution video (3,180 x 2,160 resolution) at 30p, 25p, and 24p, making them pretty competitive with Sony’s A7 series full-frame mirrorless cameras.

Picture and video quality are two reasons to consider the Nikon Z cameras. Another is performance. Both cameras are powered by Nikon’s EXPEED 6 image-processing engine and can lock onto a crazy number of focus points: 273 for the Z 6 and 493 for the Z 7. Furthermore, the Z 6 is capable of shooting continuously with 12 fps and the Z 7 with 9 fps.

Around back, both cameras have an electronic viewfinder with a high-res 3690k-dot OLED display inside as well as a 3.2-inch LCD touchscreen with 2100k-dot resolution that tilts.

Nikon’s new cameras also have built-in Wi-Fi to easily transfer content to smartphones and tablets.

The specs look great, but can the Z 6 and Z 7 actually compete with Sony’s established full-frame cameras? Hard to say until we get the cameras in our hands, but everything suggests they will.`