Nikon Z30 Opinions and Short Review

2 Apr

Written By MJ

After getting the Zf earlier this year, my Z6 has started to see very little action - it pretty much acts as a backup camera of sorts when I go on assignments (i.e. pretty much hibernating in the bag), and occasionally tagging along with me as a compact good-to-have-around set with the 40/2 attached.

Which has thus got me contemplating about downgrading the Z6 to an APS-C body for more portability for casual use.

I narrowed my options down to either the Z30 or the Z50II, with either the DX 16-50 kit lens or the DX 24/1.7 prime lens for their compact size.

NPS was kind enough to loan me a Z30 with the DX 16-50 kit to try out, and after putting it through its paces for a couple of weeks, here are some of my thoughts of the camera (and lens):

The Z30 paired with the DX 16-50 makes a really small compact set, and personally I am indeed very fond of the small footprint of the set.
Despite the smaller size, it has good ergonomics (especially in the grip), and the camera is easy to hold single-handedly.
The Z30’s 20MP DX sensor is theoretically based on the 45.7MP FX sensor, and thus the colors are actually very similar to that of the Z7 (which I prefer over the Z6/Z6II colors).
Noise performance was better than expected - while noise started to creep in at lower ISO values compared to the FX sensors, image quality still holds up pretty well until around ISO3200.
Eye autofocus works pretty much similarly as the Expeed 6 equipped Z6 in good light, although in lower light levels the Z6 is more reliable and hunted way lesser than the Z30.
The DX 16-50 definitely punches above its weight/size/price - no it cannot produce the bokeh of the faster aperture primes or zooms, but as a landscape lens (especially when stopped down to f/8 or so) it produces sharp and contrasty images, and the autofocus is reliable in good light.
The lack of IBIS in the Z30 is made up for by the VR in the DX 16-50, and for most occasions the VR is reliable and gives extra few stops of shutter speed advantage when turned on, which is definitely necessary considering the slow aperture range of the DX kit lens.

That said, the Z30 (and the DX 16-50) is not without their quirks and drawbacks:

The lack of “Battery Info” menu item means that I have to pretty much guess how much juice is left in the battery when staring at the 3-bar styled battery indicator on screen.
The rear screen does not look as crisp as the higher resolution FX bodies, and it took me some time to get used to.
The lack of IBIS in the Z30 somehow made it less resilient to dust since it does not have the sensor cleaning function - when there is a dust spot, the only way to remove it is by detaching the lens and air-blowing/wet cleaning the sensor.
The arrangement of the top buttons near the shutter button are different from the other bodies - in the other bodies the buttons behind the shutter button are in the order (from left to right) “Record, ISO, Exposure Compensation”, whereas for the Z30 the two buttons directly behind the shutter button are “ISO, Exposure Compensation”, with the “Record” button placed further away from the shutter but positioned in between the ISO and Exposure Compensation buttons. This really messed with muscle memory quite a bit.
The VR of the DX 16-50 seems to take a while to kick-in - it was not unusual to have a first shot of a consecutive burst to be slightly blurred by motion or handshake.
The SD card slot and the battery slot is literally side by side, and at pretty much identical heights - when removing the SD card I would most often be pressing down on the battery (and its spring) too. The Zf’s SD card slot has a slight barrier and height difference from the battery slot, preventing unwanted and unnecessary physical contact with the battery.

I also tried hooking up the Z30 to my own 40/2 to see how it would fare as a compact portrait set:

In the APS-C region of the 40/2, the lens is a wonderful performer, with low levels of vignetting, and very good sharpness even wide open at moderate distances. However similar to FX usage of it, when shooting at close distances spherical aberrations would creep in and rob the image of contrast very fast.
Stopping down to f/2.8 produces clear and crisp images across the frame.
The Z30 hunts less with the 40/2 (when used at wider apertures) than with the DX 16-50. I would put the AF performance pretty much on par with the Z6 in good to moderate light, but in dimmer or low light conditions the Z6 still triumphs.
With an equivalent FoV of 60mm (and equivalent DoF of f/3 when shot wide open), it translates to a nice little portrait kit, especially for half-body to 3/4-body shots. Full body shots are sharp too, but as a 60mm FoV it lacks the environmental nuances of a wider lens, and the narrower equivalent aperture makes background a bit distracting when used for full body shots.

After using the Z30 for two weeks, it definitely cemented in me that a more compact APS-C set would see more daylight than a higher spec’ed bulkier Z6, but some of its drawbacks are keeping me from jumping on getting one immediately, especially considering how the Expeed 6 AF algorithms are pretty old as of now (and evident in its haphazardous Eye-AF).

I plan to borrow the Z50II with the DX 24/1.7 next to see how that combo would fare, and if it would be worth it to top-up a little to get the Expeed 7 benefits at the expense of a larger footprint.