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With its strategy of unification, Nikon is making a comeback this year, showcasing the fruits of five years of innovation in the full-frame camera sector. Among other features, it incorporates the excellent sensor from the Nikon Z6 III and Nikon Zf, as well as the now famous and proven Expeed 7 processor. This compact device looks great on paper, but it faces stiff competition.
With strong rivals like Sony with its excellent A7 III and A7 IV, and Canon with its R8, can Nikon stand out and prove the superiority of its strategy?
Nikon Z5 II Technical Specifications
| Model | Nikon Z5 II |
|---|---|
| Type of Device | Mirrorless |
| Sensor Format | Full Frame |
| Sensor Resolution | 25.28 Mpx |
| Image Stabilizer | Mechanical |
| Video Resolution | 4K@60fps |
| AF-S | 30 FPS |
| Articulating Screen | Yes |
| Weight | 620 g |
| Product Sheet |
This review was conducted using a camera loaned by the manufacturer.
Nikon Z5 II Design and Ergonomics: A Strategy Reflected in Handling
With flair, Nikon offers the Z5 II as a streamlined version of its Z6 III, while retaining the formula of its predecessor.
Slightly bulkier than the original Z5, this iteration indeed measures 134 mm in width, 100 mm in height, and 72 mm in depth, weighing 700 g (630 g without battery and memory card). For comparison, the Nikon Z5 weighed 675g with almost similar dimensions, except for a depth increase of 2.5 mm. In the game of lightness and compactness, Nikon does not deliver the best performance compared to a featherweight Canon EOS R8 at 461 g (without battery) or a Sony A7 III weighing 650 g with its particularly compact dimensions of 127 x 96 x 74mm.
While at first glance, this increase in mass may seem like a disadvantage, the excellent handling and overall compactness of the body allow this Z5 II not to suffer too much from these extra grams; unlike the Nikon Zf, which was criticized for being too heavy, a major flaw.
Inheriting the design philosophy of the Nikon Z8 and Z6 III, the handling of this compact full-frame is simply excellent. Gaining depth and featuring a more generous thumb rest, the grip of the Z5 II is very comfortable to use, even for larger hands, which may find it more comfortable to let their pinky slip under the body to perfect the grip.
In terms of user interaction, the button placement is also inherited from its predecessor, with a few welcome ergonomic tweaks, such as the addition of a Picture control button on the top of the body next to the PSAM dial. While retaining its sharp and firm clicks, which somewhat reduce smoothness and increase precision, the dials remain pleasant to use without the risk of accidentally turning the one near the thumb during handling.
While not suffering from major flaws, to really nitpick, one could note a slightly more plasticky sound from the power dial compared to its predecessors; a sensory detail that obviously does not impair the overall experience with the device.
In terms of weather sealing, as usual, Nikon announces a water and dust resistant body with a magnesium alloy shell like the Z6 III; although the overall feel seems less robust. No surprises in the ergonomics and handling department, with a Nikon Z5 II that replicates the Z6 III minus a screen on its top face.
Regarding connectivity, this Z5 II features a dual SD UHS-II port under the thumb rest, as well as a microphone and headphone port on the left side, accompanied by a micro-HDMI and USB-C port that allows both data transfer and charging. As for its network capabilities, the Z5 II also benefits from Wi-Fi 2.4 and 5 GHz as well as Bluetooth 5.0 Low Energy.
As has become customary, no charging block is provided with the camera, which will make do with a USB-C cable to recharge the EN-EL15c battery, provided by the brand; it’s worth noting that the USB-C charging port allows direct powering of the device, a very handy capability during long video recording sessions, for example.
Still available for optional purchase, charging via an external block is offered by Nikon with a battery charging dock for around fifty euros.
Nikon Z5 II Viewfinder: A Touch of Z8
A pleasant surprise on this small Z5 II for the viewfinder part! Equipped with a Quad OLED viewfinder of 3.69 Mpts with a magnification of 0.8x, the compact full-frame boasts of benefiting from the excellent viewfinder of the Nikon Z8 and its 3000 cd/m2 (values achieved with the Hi 2 brightness setting of the viewfinder).
Particularly bright and effective in high contrast situations or full sun exposures, the viewfinder nevertheless skips the 60 Hz refresh rate, available on higher-range models, having only a 30 Hz refresh rate.
Although 60 Hz is a nice feature that is noticeable in use, the public reach of this device makes this technical omission less critical, and no real discomfort is to be reported in use, in the vast majority of situations that the camera encounters.
Particularly well-defined, it’s a real pleasure to enjoy such a high-quality viewfinder in this price range, enhancing and complementing well the technical capabilities of the device, which we will discuss later.
As for the rear screen, the Z5 II also upgrades to a 3-axis articulating screen like the Z6 III and Zf before it, finally addressing one of the major flaws of previous Nikon ranges. Offering a diagonal of 3.2 inches for 2.1 Mpts, this screen proves to be bright, smooth, and well-calibrated. Featuring a pivot for video capture in vlog mode and for protecting the screen during transport, this screen proves good in all use cases, even in full sunlight.
Nikon Z5 II Control and Navigation: Same Old Song
Almost identically replicating the controls of the previous Nikon Z5, this new model still benefits from all of its customizable buttons with two dedicated Fn buttons at the front of the body. Sporting the same menus as on other cameras in the range, no changes here with an operating system that subtly refines itself through minor updates without making revolutions. The experience remains intuitive and pleasant with interaction facilitated by the “i” button on the rear, allowing quick modification of certain settings during shooting.
As a modern camera should, navigation and shooting are achievable via touch, with the ability to use the screen to move the focus point during viewfinder shooting; a functionality inherited from the Nikon Zf, highly appreciated (simply set the “fn” function of the customizable screen in the menus).
An element often absent in this price range, a navigation joystick complements the classic d-pad, enhancing analog navigation and smoothing the movement of the device’s focus point.
Nikon Z5 II Image Quality: A Well-Known Sensor
As with the rest of its full-frame cameras other than the Z8 and Z9, this new Z5 II is equipped with the stabilized 24 x 36 mm back-illuminated CMOS sensor of 24.5 Mpx on 5 axes with up to 7.5 stops in the center and 6.5 on the edges (equivalent to the 8 stops of the Z6III). Once again inherited from the Nikon Zf, the semi-stacked version of this sensor is nevertheless reserved for the Nikon Z6 III of the higher range.
Providing files of 6048 x 4032 px, this Z5 II proves rather permissive and versatile with cropping. Easily allowing a crop up to 100% of the original image, one cannot, however, go to the same level as on the sensors of 45.7 Mpx found on the Nikon Z8 or Z9.
In kit, this small full-frame body is accompanied by the Nikkor Z 24-50 mm f/4-6.3, the Nikkor Z 24-70 mm f/4S (which we tested), as well as other combinations to be found in the pricing tab of the article. As for the 24-70 mm f/4S, the pair proves particularly pleasant to use. Although limited in terms of aperture compared to focal lengths opening at f/2.8 or more, the construction and quality of Nikon’s S range of optics make it a quality and bright lens that will satisfy the vast majority of users.
Providing a uniform rendering with good sharpness, it is one of the lenses that will marry perfectly with this compact body. For tighter budgets or those seeking further compactness to fully benefit from the reduced size of the Z5 II, the small 40mm f/2 is also a very good everyday companion with its good brightness and focal distance close to that of the human eye.
In terms of dynamic range, the performances prove, as expected, similar to those of the Z6III and Zf with -4 IL without any noise contribution. One will struggle to differentiate between the three cameras in many situations. As with the cameras mentioned earlier, the recovery of very bright areas can sometimes prove more complicated with color drifts past -1.7 IL.
Similarly, for the ISO range with a very well-controlled range going from 100 to 64,000 ISO extendable towards 50 to 204,800 ISO. As already noted on the Zf and Z6 III, noise increases progressively and excellently up to 1600 ISO, and even up to 3200 for some shots. Beyond this 3200 ISO threshold, noise progressively fills the image while remaining quite acceptable at 12,800 ISO. Once this second threshold is crossed, the noise progressively deteriorates the image more annoyingly up to 25,600 ISO, a range at which visuals remain usable albeit best avoided.
Obviously, once past 25,000 ISO, the mix of digital noise and chrominance creates images too deteriorated to be fully usable, reserving their use for exceptional situations.
Color accuracy of this Z5 II again proves exemplary with images straight out of the camera precise in the vast majority of situations. The quality of the Jpegs provided by the camera is particularly satisfying and true to reality.
Nikon Z5 II Performance: The Strength of Unity
Equipped with a hybrid autofocus system with phase and contrast detection also found on the other full-frame mounts of the Japanese brand, this Z5 II no longer surprises with its excellent performance. With its 273 selectable AF points (covering 88% of the vertical part and 96% of the horizontal part of the sensor), like on the Nikon Zf, it also offers the responsive 3D AF tracking already praised on the Z6 III and Zf. Effective and as reliable as on the higher range cameras, it’s worth noting an AF capable of detecting a subject up to -10 EV.
Not only replicating the technology of the Zf and its buffer of 200 images, it improves it, offering the latest innovations of the Z6 III with its deep learning-enhanced focus, allowing the recognition of humans (body, head, eyes), vehicles (bicycle, motorcycle, train, car, plane) as well as animals (cat, dog, bird), including the dedicated bird recognition mode present on the Z6 III.
In use, the system proves just as effective with occasional residual disengagements for animals (mainly dogs in motion or birds) without however causing a noticeable latency. For this AF part, the perceived performances are extremely close to those of the Z6 III, even comparable to those of the Z8, which we directly compared with this Z5 II during our tests.
In terms of burst shooting, the Z5 II replicates the characteristics of the Nikon Zf, with a burst rate of 11 fps with subject tracking regardless of the type of shutter. As for maximum speeds, electronic shutter allows reaching 30 fps in Jpegs while maintaining AF tracking or 14 fps in 12-bit Raw. Although the buffer performance is far from the best sports cameras on the market, the 30 fps burst in Jpeg with autofocus tracking proves very satisfactory and effective, with few disengagements from the AF except in certain situations with animals. Like its predecessors, we find on this new camera the pre-triggering initiated with the Z8, allowing the recording of images up to 1 second before triggering (by holding the button halfway).
Among the few flaws of this camera, the presence of rolling shutter inherent to the non-stacked sensor is to be noted here, forcing the use of the mechanical shutter to limit these effects without however ensuring shots free of deformations or distortions from rapidly moving elements. Also present without surprise, banding is relatively annoying during shooting under artificial lights. We will therefore favor the mechanical shutter for all shots to avoid these nuisances which slightly tarnish the overall quality of this Nikon Z5 II.
Nikon Z5 II Video Quality: The Arrival of N-Raw on SD Card!
Although the video part was not the strong point of the Z5 range, this second iteration is not lacking. Besides classic recording in 4K 30 fps H.265 10-bit or 60 fps (with a 1.5x crop), there is the possibility of recording at 120 fps in Full HD as on the NikonZ6 III.
An important novelty in this iteration, the possibility of recording in N-Raw directly on an SD UHS-II card in 4K 30 fps opens up new possibilities for this category of hybrid cameras for mixed use. Being the first device in this range to allow this type of recording, the Nikon Z5 II is announced with a continuous recording capability of 85 minutes, if heat is managed.
The general quality of the various video modes proves always very satisfactory with generous sharpness and a nice detail restitution. Also benefiting from the performance of the photo mode’s autofocus, the video part does not seem to be lagging and boasts the same strengths and weaknesses as the photo mode with a silent and smooth autofocus. As mentioned earlier, the possibility of filming in vlog thanks to the articulating screen is particularly pleasant to handle with this compact body.
Also featuring modes for streaming that were found on the Z50 II, the Z5 II benefits from the product presentation mode or direct streaming via the USB port as well as a “high resolution” zoom allowing to digitally resize a zoomed frame x4 in full HD, during a recording in 4K. Finally, we can unsurprisingly find a set of RED Luts, acquired last year by Nikon, allowing your camera to get closer to the rendering of these famous cameras (to be found on the brand’s website).
Nikon Z5 II Price and Availability of the Nikon Z5 II
Marketed since April 2025 at a price of 1899 euros for the body alone, the Nikon Z5 II is also available in a pack accompanied by
- the Nikkor Z 24-50 mm f/4-6.3 for 2199€,
- the Nikkor Z 24-70 mm f/4 S for 2499€,
- the Nikkor Z 28-75 mm f/2.8 for 2599 €,
- the Nikkor Z 24-200 mm f/4-6.3 VR for 2699€
- or with the Nikkor Z 24-120 mm f/4 S for 2849 €
Maya Singh is a senior editor covering tablets and hybrid devices. Her work explores how these tools reshape digital productivity and learning. She also contributes to feature editorials on emerging tech.