In this article, I’ve put together my final thoughts on the Nikon Z50 for wildlife photography, and to give you a spoiler straight away, I absolutely love it.
The Nikon Z50 is an excellent all-around camera for wildlife photography. The Z50 has a large, high-resolution touchscreen display, which makes it easy to compose shots and monitor exposure and focus. Being a Mirrorless camera, It also allows you to see and adjust the core settings (aperture, shutter speed, and ISO) whilst getting a ‘What you see is what you’re gonna get live view. This is an absolute game-changer coming from a DSLR.
Screen/EVF
The screen and EVF on the Z50 are bright and clear, so you can see what’s happening in your photos even in bright sunlight. It’s also easy to see in low-light situations, like at night or indoors. If you’re looking for a camera with a lot of features but don’t want something that’s too complicated to use, this may be an excellent choice for you.
Autofocus
The Nikon Z50 has a fast autofocus system that’s accurate in GOOD light conditions and can be used to lock on to your subject. The autofocus range is wide, too, so you don’t have to worry about missing important details in the middle distance. In low light, low contrast setting it does struggle and I have experienced some wild focus finding.
A lot of people have reported that it is slow and rubbish for BIF (bird in flight) photographs however I’ve had some good experiences and haven’t felt too frustrated with it and missed shots.
Nikon Z50 BIF (bird in flight) example shot this summer in failing light.
Nikon Z50 BIF (bird in flight) example shot this summer in failing light.
Image Stabilisation
The Nikon Z50 doesn’t have in-camera stabilisation, which is a shame but all my lenses have their version to provide up to 6 stops of compensation. This means that you can shoot handheld at shutter speeds as low as 1/15 sec without worrying about blurred images or camera shake.
Ergonomics and handling
The Z50 is a lightweight camera, with a weight of just over 1kg, which makes it easy to carry around. It has an automatic mode that enables you to capture images at a faster rate than if you were using manual settings; this can be useful when trying to capture fast-moving wildlife or moving subjects in general.
The battery life of the Nikon Z50 is good at up to 500 shots on one charge (with AF/AE tracking enabled). This means that if you’re planning on photographing many animals during an expedition then they might not have enough time between shots before having to wait for their batteries to recharge!
Oh and you can charge the battery in the camera using a USB power bank if needs be. Definitely a nice touch!
Nikon Z50 burst shooting performance
The Nikon Z50 can shoot at a maximum of 11fps, which is pretty impressive. While it’s not quite as fast as most popular Mirrorless and DSLR cameras, it’s still faster than most other cameras in this class.
Being able to use its silent mode is another game-changer and I never switch it out of this mode. Overall the Nikon Z50 is still plenty fast enough for wildlife photography!
Video and movie modes
The Z50 is a great camera for wildlife photography, and it’s also a good choice if you’re shooting video. The camera has 4K UHD at 30fps and 1080p at 60fps in movie mode, which is excellent quality for both stills and videos. The video quality is good enough to use in post-production without too much of an issue; however, if you want to do some serious editing on your footage afterward (like making it look like something special), then we recommend using a different camera model that offers higher recording resolutions such as the Nikon Z7 or Canon EOS R/EOS M6 Mark II/IX
Nikon Z50 raw files and image quality
The Nikon Z50 is super sharp and the image quality is amazing. Yeah, it’s just under 21MP but it gives you everything you need.
You may have heard that raw files are a great way to get the most out of your photographs. This is true, and it’s because they contain all of the information in an image that you can use to bring out details in high-contrast areas or bring out colours that would otherwise be lost if you converted them from JPEG to TIFF.
In addition to being able to edit them more easily than JPEGs, raw files also have a lot more detail than JPEGs do. Raw images contain all of their original data; this means there isn’t any loss in quality due to compression like there would be if you took an image straight from your camera as a JPEG file (JPG). Not only does this mean that when you look at your photos on screen or print them at home, they will look sharper than ones taken with smaller resolutions; but also allows for edits later on when editing software such as Lightroom or Photoshop doesn’t need extra space taken up by JPG compression!
The Nikon Z50 is a great camera for wildlife photography.
When it comes to wildlife photography, the Nikon Z50 is a great camera. It’s lightweight and compact, so you can easily carry it around in your bag or pocket. The battery life on this camera is also impressive — you’ll be able to take up to 500 photos before needing to recharge (or swap out batteries).
The sensor size in this camera is cropped but gives good detail when composing your shots!
If you’re shooting at ISO 400 or higher, expect noise reduction software like Topaz DeNoise help out and clean up your image.
Topaz DeNoise is an amazing piece of software and I use it on all my images. Definitely worth the investment.
My final thoughts
I love this camera!
The Nikon Z50 is a great camera for wildlife photography. It has many features that make it ideal for capturing images of birds, animals, and other wildlife in the wild. The rugged build quality combined with the high-resolution screen makes this camera ideal for those who want to capture their subject in all its glory without worrying about weather conditions or other distractions.
A quick thing to note:
All my camera gear and software have been fully paid for by myself. I have not been sponsored on this article and all opinions are mine.
A quick Summary
The Nikon Z50 for wildlife photography
I’m six months into using the Nikon Z50 now and I absolutely love it. It was an upgrade from my two Nikon D3300s which are absolute workhorses. There are quite a few options out there to choose from such as the Nikon D500, Nikon D7200, Nikon D850, and the Nikon Z mirrorless range. I didn’t have a lot of money to throw at it and I really fancied a mirrorless camera.
This is where the Nikon Z50 came in at the right price point. Coupled with the Nikon FTZ adaptor, it allows me to use my Nikon F Mount lenses.
Let’s jump straight into the good and bad aspects of the camera:
Good things I like:
- The EVF is great. A good field of view and is always bright even when it’s first thing in the morning.
- Live exposure, what you see is what you get. No more having to check the back of the camera.
- Simply to use. Settings, screens, buttons, and dials are all easily accessible.
- Really nice detail captured from the CMOS sensor.
- Lightweight and well-made.
- Switching to and from video mode is fantastic.
- Silent shutter and 11 FPS come in to use daily.
Bad things:
- The small grip gets lost in big hands.
- AF struggles in low light.
- It goes into power-saving mode too quickly.
- The memory card is in the battery compartment at the bottom of the camera.
- I wish it had Bird Eye tracking like the Nikon Z9.
So… the Nikon Z50 for wildlife photography
I absolutely love it. All my current photographs on this blog and my portfolio have been taken with my Nikon Z50. It’s definitely very capable. I’m in no doubt there are better cameras out there and I can’t say it is better than those. I always think of something I once heard from a professional wildlife photographer:
“I’ve seen terrible photographs taken with very expensive gear and the most amazing images taken with budget equipment.”