I had a chance to handle a Z7 today (in a retailer, no card in it - but I could examine images on the camera screen). It's extremely well built, right in the same size range with other SLR-style mirrorless bodies (actually slightly smaller than some). I had my own X-H1 next to it and the Nikon is (very slightly) the smaller of the two. Controls are beautifully placed - the AF-area joystick in particular is right where I would want it. IBIS works - I was getting sharp shots at 1/20 second at 70mm.
The body feels great in hand - it's small and light, but every inch a modern Nikon. It has the controls of every high-end Nikon going back to when Guigiaro designed the F5. Sonys have always felt a bit too computer-ish to me - they have wonderful features, but nobody has really given any thought to how they are used as a camera (they get a little better with each generation). Canon and Nikon both have very nice control schemes, and Fuji's classic controls also make a lot of sense. The Z7 definitely speaks Nikonese, so Canon shooters will have to get used to it (from the looks of it, the EOS-R may feel quite Canonish, although without the traditional low-mounted wheel).
The viewfinder is impressive - I didn't think it's any better than an X-H1, but it's certainly no worse either, and the X-H1 has one of the newest and best EVFs on the market. They have a very impressive multi-axis level that actually shows the plane the camera is sitting in (it looks like an aircraft artificial horizon), making leveling exceptionally easy. I don't wear glasses, but the eyepoint is very good from what I could tell.
From what little I could tell, the 24-70 is a very sharp lens - the number of targets in a camera store is limited, so I suspect the pic that Imaging Resource posted is a better guide than anything I got - that's really quite impressive. I did photograph a flower arrangement in the store (working distance ~2 feet), and got pixel-level sharpness on the camera monitor. The MTF charts are actually better than the latest Nikkor 24-70 f2.8 E ED VR, which is slightly over twice the weight. The first sample images we are seeing tend to indicate that those MTF charts may be reasonably accurate!
The build quality on the 24-70 is good, although it is plastickier than really high-end lenses. Nikon showed a diagram of the sealing and it is excellent (made better by the fact that there are no switches on the lens). The sealing is a bunch of thick-looking ring seals around the zoom ring, the control (focus by wire - but definable to aperture or exposure compensation as well) ring and both ends of the barrel. There is quite a bit of plastic on the lens, although it has a metal barrel. It feels far better than any kit lens (except the Fujinon 18-55mm f2.8-4, which really stretches the definition of a kit lens), and somewhat better than something like a Nikkor 24-120mm f4. This is a very compact and relatively lightweight lens, especially given its capabilities. They had two different examples on display, one of which had a stiffer zoom ring than the other.
Overall, my impression was wow, that's a 45 MP camera in a tiny package. If you value portability and image quality in a rugged package, it's the state of the art. Of course, it's not for everyone - I didn't think it focused quite as snappily as an XH-1,although settings may not have been optimal, and it had beta firmware. It's certainly better than any mirrorless before the most recent generation (which I'd define as A7 III/A7RIII, XT-2/XH-1, E-M1 mk II and GH5). It's a 5.5 fps camera (significantly more if you're willing to fix exposure at the first frame, and some sources say black out the finder as well - I didn't try it). That sounds slow, but to put it in perspective:
The legendary Nikon F3HP, beloved of press and sports photographers for years, was also a 5.5 fps camera, if you used its dedicated MD-4 motor drive and the custom rechargeable battery pack for maximum speed. That was the speed demon of its day, not so very long ago.
To match or exceed the Z7's image quality in the film era, you'd be using a single shot camera - your second image was on the other side of the 4x5 film holder! The best digital sensors below medium format (and this is perhaps the best of those) fall somewhere between the best of MF film and 4x5 film, while digital medium format can exceed 4x5 quality.
All in all, I liked it enough that my name's on the list. I'll be shooting it alongside my Fuji system...
