http://www.digitalcameraworld.com AUGUST 2019 DIGITAL CAMERA^109
Top 5 features
1
Two customisable function buttons
on the front panel fall naturally
beneath the fingertips.2 The electronic viewfinder is very easy on the eye and the touchscreen
has a vertical tilt facility.3
Quick access to various shooting
controls is available via the ‘i’ button
and the touchscreen.4
Simple but effective, the Z 7’s
shooting mode dial is a departure
from the button array in most Nikon
‘professional’ cameras.5
An attractive and helpful OLED info
display is positioned on the right,
along with direct-access ISO and exposure
compensation buttons.Top 5 features
1
As well as two customisable function
buttons, the S1R also has a switch
for electronic/mechanical shutter modes.2 While the Z 7’s electronic viewfinder is great, the S1R’s is even better,
and the rear touchscreen tilts sideways
as well as vertically.3 The S1R has a broadly similar array of buttons, dials and joypad
controller as the Z 7, but adds an S/C/MF
focus selector.4
The top-plate info display is more
old-school, but at least it’s relatively
large and back-illuminated.5
The more intricate top plate of the
S1R gains a dedicated drive mode
dial and a white balance mode button.Nikon
Z 7
Panasonic
Lumix S1R
lenses have so far featured optical
stabilisation, although it’s fitted in many
F-mount lenses. By contrast, two of the
three Panasonic L-mount lenses released
so far have optical stabilisation.
Autofocus is an area where mirrorless
cameras often struggle against SLRs. The
Z 7 does particularly well, with 493-point
phase-detection AF built onto the image
sensor. It’s fast and highly effective at
tracking action, especially in its Auto-Area
AF mode. The S1R uses contrast-detection
autofocus, which is more conventional in
mirrorless cameras, but it’s based on
Panasonic’s acclaimed DFD (Depth From
Defocus) system and features 225 areas
across the frame. It’s as accurate as the
Z 7 but, in theory, could be less effective
for tracking fast or erratically moving
subjects. We’ll come back to that later.
The S1R has particularly good custom
autofocus options with square and oval
zones on offer, as well as face, eye, body
and animal detection. Eye-detection was
notably absent from the Z 7 until the latest
firmware update, which also improves the
camera’s low-light autofocus ability. Even
so, the Z 7’s ability to autofocus in dark
conditions is only extended from -1EV
to -2EV, whereas the S1R is claimed
to work in -6EV darkness.
For metering, both cameras offer matrix/
multi-zone, centre-weighted, spot and
highlight-weighted options. As usual for
high-end Nikon cameras, the Z 7 enables
customisation of the centre-weighted area
and fine-tuning of optimal exposure. The
S1R’s multi-pattern metering system
is based on 1,728 zones, whereas the
figure is unspecified for the Z 7.
Both cameras offer a mechanical shutter
speed range of 30 to 1/8,000 sec. While the
Z 7 has an optional electronic front curtain
to minimise any blurring of images from
shutter-bounce, the S1R adds a fully
electronic shutter option, which
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2351341Nikon Z 7 vs Panasonic S1R HEADTOHEAD
25COMPARISON
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