But the Z6 doesn’t focus as well as the A73 and the A73 isn’t nearly as good as the A9. I know this because I have played with the Z7 and I own an A9.
I find the Z6 with firmware 2.01 to focus significantly better than the Z7 with firmware 2.01 and to be in a totally different league that the Z7 with firmware 1.0. The gap being IMHO larger than we used to see between 2 generations of camera in the DSLR days.
But this is beside the point actually. What is concerning is what appears to be to my mind Nikon having a little Kodak moment. I suppose you could put it down to marketing but a part of marketing is listening to the market. I’m not convinced Nikon is so good at that. For Nikon to make money they need the advanced amateur market. It’s way bigger than the handful of pro sports shooters most of whom seem to be using Canon anyway. Do you think at this stage that Nikon will lure Canon shooters currently using The 1DX to switch to a Nikon DSLR system? I think the Canon guys are waiting for a Canon pro mirrorless body. Those that have switched from Canon or are planning to switch are far more likely to go Sony, God help them.
No, the D6 is not aimed at converting Canon shooters. It is meant at a few things as I have already stated:
- keep the pro Nikon shooters happy with a significant update to the D5 one year before the Japan Olympics
- develop the technologies, AF in particular, that will be used on all the prosumer Nikon DSLRs in the 3-4 coming years (including the replacement of the D850)
- end the DSLR era with a remarkable product that they will continue to produce for many years, like the F6 that still sells today in enough numbers that Nikon can produce it without losing money
The D6 is also not a sign that Nikon doesn't understand that mirrorless is the next big thing. It is a camera they had to release for their existing user base.
Cheers,
Bernard