Nikon Z6 III Review: A Hybrid Camera for the Masses

Nikon’s latest Z6 Camera brings the camera manufacturer’s top auto combo to a more reasonably priced, flagship camera. In almost every way that matters, the new Z6 III matches or surpasses the company’s much more expensive, top-end Nikon Z8.

Although it is not perfect, the Z6 III is one of the best full-frame mirrorless cameras on the market, and it’s capable of handling almost any photographic situation that most of us will encounter. Projects and wildlife 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 flagships from Nikon’s much more expensive Z8 and Z9 to the Z6 line.

Photo: Scott Gilbertson

The body design has been tuned, although it is not very different from the Z6 II. The camera weighs 1.7 pounds, which balances well even with larger lenses, and the Nikon grip is the largest I’ve used, making it light and easy. Unlike the retro-inspired Nikon ZFthere aren’t a ton of external controls here. There’s a dial to change shooting modes, along with several other markers, buttons and scroll wheels, all of which give you plenty of customizable options that you can set up to your liking, but that film-inspired ZF is missing.

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

The Z6 III features a new 24-megapixel CMOS Not the disadvantages, or at least fewer of the disadvantages. Stacked sensors, ahem, stack the processing circuitry right on the sensor itself (technically it’s behind the sensor), which means the ram is directly connected to the sensor, making for an incredibly fast reading. This is what allows advanced cameras to shoot upwards of 12 raw images per second without the viewfinder.

Photo: Scott Gilbertson