It's Real If You Can Touch It

Natural skeptics like myself generally hold that something is real only if you can touch it. This holds for most things - you can confirm stuff for yourself with a few sensible exceptions; nuclear warhead cores, rabid dogs, and the Canadian prime minister. We don't want to carry skepticism too far... But I was indeed wondering about the new Nikon Z series mirror-less cameras. I watched the pep rally from Japan, read the rumour sites and D P Review, but still wasn't sure when we would see one. Then a chance conversation from a person in the Nikon photographic business alerted me to this: Not a beta copy, not a plastic mock-up, and unfortunately not for delivery to West Australia quite yet. But not a phantom. the real deal. Left side, right side, back side, and front side. Forgive the slight camera shake. It's a busy body, as there are working controls filling most accessible surfaces. Styling and surface finish much in keeping with current Nikon practice. A bit better ( dare I say it? ) ergonomic feel and finish to the lenses. The adapter shows the Z to F design and the adaptability to the vast range of newer Nikon F-mount lenses. Mind you, if I know our customers, they will be trying to mount and use 1950's-1990's Nikon lenses to this. I have no idea whether this will work, but they'll find out... I daresay there will be a rush and a rash of adapters from third-party makers as well - I can hear the CAD - CAM machines humming over the northern horizon right now... Some have bemoaned the decision to use a single card slot. It's nice to have two, but heretofore we've nearly all coped with one - just like we mostly cope with one battery per camera. I'm loving the joystick - having been introduced to the idea with my newest camera. It's fast, intuitive, and replaces several other controls I used to scroll through. I cannot say when these ne Z 7's will be available for sale over the counter here in Camera Electronic - or how much they will cost. You'll have to dog the staff for this information and they might not know for a while. Patience. But you can rest assured that the new Nikon Z 7, and its sister, and the new lenses and adapter, are real working photographic gear. The finger that you see on the compensation dial of the Z 7 is a famous one and has pushed more shutter buttons than you've had hot dinners. Note: Pictures taken with kind permission of our state Nikon representative.