Review: Nikon Z6 III

Nikon's latest Z6 camera brings the camera maker's top-end autofocus to a more reasonably priced, mainstream camera. In nearly every way that matters, the new Z6 III matches or outperforms the company's much pricier, top-end Nikon Z8.

Although it's not perfect, the Z6 III is one of the best full-frame mirrorless cameras on the market, and it's capable of handling pretty much any photographic situation most of us are going to encounter. Landscape and wildlife pros will probably stick with their Z8s for the higher-resolution sensor, but for everyone else, this is the Nikon to get.

Leaping Forward

Nikon's new Z6 III is a much bigger upgrade than the previous version was to the original. It brings most of the flagship features of Nikon's far more expensive Z8 and Z9 to the Z6 line.

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

The body design has been tweaked, though it's not hugely different from the Z6 II. The camera weighs 1.7 pounds, which balances well even with larger lenses, and Nikon's grip is the biggest I've used, making it comfortable and easy to carry. Unlike the retro-inspired Nikon Zf, there aren't a ton of external controls here. There's a dial to change shooting modes, along with several other dials, buttons, and scroll wheels, which all give you plenty of customizable options that you can set up as you like, but it lacks that film-inspired feel of the Zf.

The flagship features in the Z6 III are the new, partially stacked sensor (more on that below), an updated, very fast and accurate 3D subject-tracking system, and ProRes encoding for video. There are also a slew of great little updates that make everyday shooting a better, smoother experience.

The Z6 III features a new 24-megapixel CMOS sensor, which Nikon calls a “partially stacked” sensor, by which it means you get some of the performance benefits of a stacked CMOS sensor, like those found in the Nikon Z8 and Z9, but not the downsides, or at least fewer of the downsides. Stacked sensors, ahem, stack the processing circuits right on top of the sensor itself (technically it's behind the sensor), which means the RAM is directly tied into the sensor, making for incredibly fast readout. This is what allows high-end cameras to shoot upwards of 12 RAW images per second without the viewfinder blacking out.

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

The downside to stacked sensors is that you run into some rolling shutter distortion with moving objects and there is often less dynamic range. The Z6 III's partially stacked sensor is an attempt to lessen those downsides and it mostly works. The dynamic range here does take a hit, about 1-stop less dynamic range from the base ISO up through 800 ISO compared to the Z6 II (based on the charts at Photons to Photos and my testing in the field). The bad news is that this seems to be true whether you're shooting mechanical or electronic shutter.

A full stop of dynamic range is quite a bit, but in months of shooting with the Z6 III, I didn't encounter any situations where I found myself wishing I'd used my Sony (which beats it in dynamic range), and that includes some very high-contrast scenes like shooting snow-covered ground in full sunlight. So there is dynamic range loss compared to, well, pretty much every other sensor in this class, but you're unlikely to notice it in most conditions.

Now the good part of the partially stacked sensor: the massive speed upgrades. The burst speed is up to 14 frames per second with continuous autofocus using the mechanical shutter and 20 fps when using electronic shutter. Those figures are both shooting RAW images. If you were to go to JPGs you can get 60 fps, and if you want to shoot JPGs at a 1.5X crop you can shoot 120 fps. There's also a new in-body image stabilization (IBIS) system that offers up to eight stops of stabilization.

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

Another huge upgrade is the 5.76-million-dot viewfinder, which has a blazing fast 120-Hz refresh rate and is insanely bright and wonderful (it supports full HDR color space). The back panel isn't bad either, with a 2.1-million-dot display and full articulation, which makes it easy to shoot video from pretty much any angle.

To my mind, the biggest reason to upgrade to the Z6 III from any of the earlier versions is the massive autofocus upgrade. Compared to the Z6 II, the successor is blazing fast and, more importantly, accurate. I shot several of my son's basketball games with the Z6 III (with Nikon's 70-200mm f/2.8 lens), and while there were a few times that subject tracking seemed to miss for a frame or two maybe once a game, it was spot-on for the most part.

What I found fascinating (and, as far as I know, unique to this camera) is that the subject-tracking works with legacy lenses as well (e.g., lenses without autofocus). I put my trusty old Nikon Series E 75-150mm lens on the Z6 III (using this adapter), and I was able to track subjects across the frame. Obviously the camera can't focus for you, but the white box around the subject turns green when you hit focus, which makes manual focusing on moving subjects considerably easier than the zoom-to-focus system I typically use. It's a bit of a niche feature, but I'm hoping other camera makers pick up on it.

Video Upgrade

Where the upgrades to the Z6 III really shine are the new video capabilities, which very nearly match the much more expensive Z8. The Z6 III is capable of shooting full-frame oversampled 4K 60-fps video. There's even an option to shoot 6K 60-fps RAW video, but to do that you'll have to use Nikon's N-RAW rather than ProRes RAW. (The only video editing software I could find that supports N-RAW is the paid version of DaVinci Resolve—for Final Cut Pro you'll need to transcode first.) About the only camera with more video editing options is the Panasonic GH7, but that's not a full-frame sensor with oversampling.

You might worry that with the loss of dynamic range from the partially stacked sensor, the video is going to be subpar. It's not. The dynamic range in video is excellent, whether you shoot RAW or H.265. One thing to keep in mind if you enable the View Assist feature—which applies a lookup table (LUT) to your live view—is that Nikon's default N-Log LUT is really contrasty, with far more contrast than you'd want in most cases. At first, this led me to believe I was losing highlights when shooting, but later, when I dumped the footage and pulled it up in an editor, it was fine, with no blown highlights. It was stunning, in fact. This is the best-looking video I've ever shot using any camera (to be fair, I haven't yet tested the GH7).

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

If you do much research on the Z6 III, you'll probably run across some examples of a strange flickering effect that happens to shadows when you shoot N-Log video at very high ISOs. To really see it, you need to underexpose and then push everything four or five stops—a situation that's unlikely to happen in the real world—but if you do that, you'll see the blacks in the image kind of pulse. It's strange. I was able to reproduce it with some effort. It is definitely an issue to be aware of, but for most people, this is never going to come up.

Finally a note on weather sealing and performance. The Z6 III does not get an IP rating, but I used it in pretty heavy rain and had no issues. Nikon's press materials say that it has “dust and moisture-sealing to the same level as the professional Z8.” It wasn't until I looked that up that I noticed the minimum operating temps are listed at –10 degrees Celcius or 14 degrees Fahrenheit. I exceeded that, shooting several early winter mornings where the temps where in the zero to 5 degree F range and well, I didn't even think about it until now, which suggests perhaps there is some latitude there. On the other end, I did not have a chance to use it at high ambient temps, but I did do a 4K 60-fps video test at room temp (72 degrees Fahrenheit) and found that the camera never overheated, though my memory card did get alarmingly hot.

If you're looking for a hybrid camera capable of great images and excellent video, the Z6 III is the best I've tested to date. The dynamic range of photos is better in competitors like the Sony A7 IV or the Canon R6 II, so that's something to keep in mind, but the video capabilities here outstrip both of those cameras. If you want one camera that's damn good at nearly everything, the Nikon Z6 III is the camera to get.