Nikon Z FC

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Buying Guide

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The retro APS-C mirrorless camera

20 Megapixel APS-C
This is my first mirrorless camera from Nikon. Essentially this is the same as a Nikon Z50, only with a retro look.

Technically speaking this camera does everything that the latest APS-C cameras like Nikon D500 can do, but it is half the weight, and comes with a kit lens Nikon Z 16-50 that weighs also next to nothing. Combined these two weigh about a Nikon 18-200 lens. If you know how much I complain about weight, you will understand how important this can be.

The retro look essentially does away with 30 years of ergonomic evolution. If you use a modern body like Nikon D500 you realize how much thought has gone into placing the buttons and dials where they are supposed to be. Here, these have to give way to a smaller body which feels cramped, and some of the buttons that I could find blindly on other cameras simply are not even there. It is possible to adjust everything with menus, so nothing is missing, but this is a camera that excels at taking care of everything and delivering great pictures, rather than letting you fiddle with everything all the time.

Once you start taking pictures, your opinion will change. The pictures that this camera makes are great. Or rather, you will realize how little effort is required to make great pictures, and even in automatic modes you will quickly get good results.

This is a great travel companion, especially if you want to have the capabilities of a top camera (instead of a cellphone which for 95% of the cases will make a picture that is just as good), but do not want to do weight training by lugging more than a kilo of weight on your trips. It can also be a great second camera, when you use a zoom or long macro on your main camera, you could have this for your wide shots. However, if you think you can use older Nikon lenses with an adapter and use this as a replacement for a regular DSLR, don't. Especially if you are used to larger lenses, the weight gain that you have in the body will not justify the loss in ergonomics.

I have now used this camera for longer, and one annoying thing to notice is that the sensor gets dirty much faster, especially if you end up changing lenses. You will be cleaning the image sensor much more than other models.

Price

This is a brand new (2021) model, and at the moment it sells for about 1200 without a lens, not the cheapest buy you can have. The Nikon Z50 sells for 800 and is practically the same camera with better ergonomics. But you are not buying this because it is the best bargain, you buy it because it looks really cool (and it is a pretty good camera as well).

The Good

• Very very light (only 440 grams)
• Excellent picture quality
• The electronic viewfinder can display additional information and even allow you to zoom in to allow better manual focus control.

The problems

• No flash
• Not as ergonomic as the usual Nikon cameras.
• If you go for price/performance there are better deals to be had.
• It sort of looks cheaply made, this is not necessarily true, but it just looks that way

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These pages are for Amateur Photographers and not really for seasoned photographers and professionals. I have no affiliation or commercial interest with any brand/make. I write from my own experience. I ended up using mainly Nikon, so I am more familiar with this brand than others. See price for notes on pricing as well as photography related links.