Low-Light Underdogs of Modern Mirrorless Cameras: Ft. Nikon Z50 and Company

 A topic that very often comes up in the various Photography chats I am has been how "X Full Frame Camera I just spent $3000+ on is so amazing in low light!!". This phrase is nothing new and people who can afford to "Buy into" photography often feel they need to have a way to Justify their expense every single time they have a chance to talk about it.  It's a Tale as Old as Time...

Go back ten years and people would be saying the exact same thing about say a Canon 5D Mark III and how they validated themselves for "Buying the Best" and not simping and buying a more affordable Canon 70D.

In reality with every advance in photo sensor technology these advancements get applied to APS-C bodies and lower end Full Frame cameras as well. This is what people often have a hard time grasping.  

Afterall how can a $500-1500 camera be as good as the $3000+ camera I was told I needed to buy to get good?  Sorry to burst your bubble but they can and are just as good in many cases.

If you compare your new Canon R6 or Nikon Z8 to your "Old" Canon Flagship camera (let's use a 5D Mark III as an example) it is going to be a great upgrade and you will notice a difference immediately.  I think this is where people often get hung up on.  

Now I'm not saying a Canon R6 or Nikon Z8 aren't great cameras, nor was a Nikon D810 or Canon 5D Mark III at the time; but people who buy into the flagship cameras to have the better gear often overlook how small of a difference there really is in quality between a Flagship and a Enthusiast level camera of the same brand, vintage and mold.

Enter the more reasonably approachable and affordable Underdogs.  These cameras are often APS-C or sometimes FullFrame with a "lower end" sensor.  Often times they lack major features such as In Body Stabilization, have a slower FPS burst mode and overall less bells and whistles.  

They still have a range in price going anywhere from $1000-2000 new.  These are the "Enthusiast" range cameras that most people will turn up their nose at for their $3-5k full pro camera instead.

At $1000-2000 new (though you can often get them for up to half the price used depending on the model) these enthusiast level cameras are still really amazing and are still an investment, but depending on the person (such as myself) are a much more reasonable or attainable investment.

A few great cameras in this enthusiast range include the slightly higher end APS-C cameras like the Nikon Z50 (which is what I have), Canon R7, Any Fujifilm X-Trans APS-C body, any Micro 43rds Body (including the higher end G9 Mark II and OM-1) as well as the more budget Full Frame offerings like the Canon RP, Canon R8, and Nikon Z5.

When gear chasers go off about their newest $4k body they bought into it is admittedly hard not to feel a little intimidated or Jealous especially when they start pointing out "How their Flagship camera is so much better then the camera you have".  

The "camera measuring contest" is something I get really irritated with fast.  And admittedly I have a number of friends who even fall into this game.  It used to really infuriate me, and now I've learned just to take a deep breath and let it go in one ear, out the other and breathe.  But it still prompted me to vent about it on this Blog without being specific to any one person several times now.

Let's stop focusing on "How Overhyped the Flagship "Full Frame" cameras are and focus on the hidden gems of the photography world that don't receive nearly as much credit as they should.  The reasonably priced Workhorse Underdogs that can pull all of the weight at half of the price.

Enter the Nikon Z50 into the ring.  My newest and only "Current Generation" Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens camera (unless you count the Panasonic G9 classic).  But since the focus of this post is largely how good these cameras are at High ISO noise we will stick with the Z50: my low light photography Champion:

The Z50 becomes my Ace in the hole for "I don't always shoot at ISO 6400 but when I do...".  In my camera collection as the Z50 does one particular thing really well; and that is High ISO noise which isn't the end all be all most people obsess over.  But it still becomes a tool in my kit for when I need it.  

That said; I don't find any of my older Interchangeable Lens cameras as "Bad or Useless" because they can take some amazing looking photos still as long as they have a reasonable amount of light to work with.  This is a trait that often differentiates me from other photographers. Keep the ISO under 400 outdoors in street photography and they really pull some nice photos.

You can read the Full Review of the Nikon Z50 that I did last year as part of my camera review.  In that review I might have been a little harsh on calling it a "Flawed Masterpiece". Throw it into a ring for a low-light shootout however and it becomes a true Rocky Balboa style underdog story.

What blows me away just as much as how someone who has 5 times the money for something like a Nikon Z8 is just how hard it is to tell the difference between a shot taken at IS0 800 and a shot taken at ISO 6400.  At ISO 800 the camera does have some noise but it is pleasing and natural almost like a film grain.  The noise curve instead of going up from there just seems to level off until you hit 12800.  

If I shot any of my other cameras including my D7200 and G9 at this high of ISO they would either look like crap or be fixable with extensive de-noise work in POST.  

Considering I paid less then $1000 for this camera used with the Z to F mount adapter (about $1k in total if you throw in the one native prime lens seen here that I own for it) and well yeah. I can't argue with the results from this more reasonably priced champ.  

The following images were shot at ISOs between 800 and 6400 with no noise reduction applied.  Try to guess which one is 6400 and which one is 800.  The answer may surprise you...