S&T Test Report by Alan Dyer
AL
L^ PHOTOS^ BY^ THEAUTHORNikon’s
Mirrorless Z6
We test this new mirrorless camera well-
suited to the exacting demands of nightscape
and deep-sky astrophotography.THE MIRRORLESS CAMERA WARS
ARE ON. With the recent introduction
of Canon’s EOS R and Nikon’s Z series,
the two major camera manufactur-
ers fi nally challenge Sony’s lead in the
mirrorless, full-frame camera market.
These new models establish the mir-
rorless design as the future for serious
consumer cameras.
Not that DSLRs, cameras that use
refl ex mirrors for framing and focusing,
are going away anytime soon. But the
new generation of mirrorless mod-
els, with their larger lens mounts and
shorter required distance from lens to
sensor, allow greater freedom in lens
design. The camera bodies are smallerNikon Z6
U.S. Price: $1,799.95
nikonusa.comWhat We Like
Low noise at high ISO settings
Long exposures free of artifacts
Low-noise 4K videoWhat We Don’t Like
Requires costly XQD
memory card
Incompatible with some control
and processing softwareand lighter, in contrast to DSLRs that,
in top-end models at least, have become
larger and heavier.
But are the upstart mirrorless
cameras as good as our tried-and-true
DSLRs for the demands of astropho-
tography? We tested Sony’s much-
acclaimed α7 III (S&T: Apr. 2019, p.
60) and found it superb for nightscape,
time-lapse, and low-light 4K videos, but
with defi ciencies when used for deep-
sky imaging.
Almost identical in key specifi cations
and price to the 24-megapixel α7 III is
Nikon’s new Z6. Using a unit on loan
from Nikon’s marketing fi rm in Can-
ada, I was able to test how well the Z6
performs at high ISO speeds on actual
night scenes and deep-sky objects. Such
tests can reveal issues that go unnoticed
in daylight photography and in reviews
by YouTube mavens.The Nikon Z6
The Z6, a 24-megapixel camera, yields
an image of 6,048 × 4,024 pixels, nearly68 AUGUST 2019 • SKY & TELESCOPE
tpAs in all mirrorless cameras, the Nikon
Z6’s sensor is set back from the new Z-mount
fl ange by a much shallower distance than with
DSLRs, in this case only 16 mm, compared to
the 46-mm fl ange distance of Nikon’s clas-
sic F-mount bayonet. Top: This stack of four
8-minute exposures of the Orion Nebula taken
in moonlight at ISO 200 through a 105-mm
refractor shows the Z6’s effectiveness for long-
exposure deep-sky imaging.