While the Nikon Z6 III is quite an impressive camera and a pretty significant upgrade from the Z6 II, it falls a little short of what I was expecting and is missing a few no-brainer features.
Here are some of my thoughts on the Nikon Z6 III’s pros and cons and how it compares to the Z6 II.
Nikon Z6 III Now Available At – Amazon / Adorama / B&H
Nikon Z6 Impressions – Why It Fell Short
The Nikon Z6 III launched with new technology we haven’t seen before, like the brightest EVF on the market and this new and improved partially stacked sensor.
Partially Stacked CMOS Sensor: While this seems like a cool upgrade, what does it mean when a sensor is partially stacked? What does it give us? Supposedly, it gives us faster read-out speeds under 10ms, but why hold back 4k120p with the DX crop? And then 1080240p with a 5% crop. It’s also not a BSI sensor, so the dynamic range is a little behind the competition, according to Photonstophotons. This means the camera is essentially built first for videography and photography second.
Still Just NRAW: I’m guessing Nikon just didn’t have enough time to work with RED to implement new video codecs that will work in other software options besides Davinci Resolve.
Now, if we do get some uniformity between the Z bodies and RED, it will likely be launched first with a Z9 II or some flagship system, then trickle down to the other cameras.
Don’t get me wrong, NRAW is great, and it’s a nice RAW that actually has good compression, unlike PRORES RAW, which is a monster. But I use Premiere for work and personal projects and don’t want to switch to Resolve.
With Nikon telling Adobe to stop developing NRAW implementation, it is a bit confusing that they stuck with a codec that is only partially adopted in the post-production software industry 2.5 years after it was originally launched.
Yeah, I know that there is ProRes RAW, but it’s such a monster and doesn’t offer enough compression for actual practical, real-world prosumer use.
Hopefully, Nikon has been able to fix the color shift issue we saw in the Z8 and Z9 when recording NRAW at different frame sizes with the Z6 III.
Still No Open Gate: Why? Why is an open gate so hard to do? Again, what is the purpose of this partially stacked CMOS sensor if you can’t take advantage of it? Why do cameras like the Panasonic GH7 and the Blackmagic Cinema 6k have no problem doing open-gate, but Nikon can’t figure it out in 2024 as a multibillion-dollar company with this new partially stacked sensor?
No Shutter Angles: I’m personally okay with no Shutter Angles. This feature was a holdout from film cameras 30-40 years ago, and it’s sort of irrelevant today in the digital era. However, there are still a lot of cinematographers who are used to it, and if they were to work the Nikon Z6 III into their workflow, they would like to have shutter angles for consistency.
The menu system is still a mess: No news on any menu system overhaul. Nikon menus were never a problem back in the DSLR days, but now there are so many features the menus are just getting increasingly cluttered with little rhyme or reason to the structure of how everything is laid out.
This used to be the big problem with Sony cameras. But now Nikon has fallen into this same mess, so it will take the community constantly pointing it out and complaining about it for the next few years before Nikon decides to fix it.
What’s going on here? Why are these companies moving so slowly? Why is it so hard for everyone to implement basic features like a decent menu layout and open gate?
Those are my only big complaints about an otherwise perfect camera. Here is a look at all the new cool stuff and how it compares to the Nikon Z6 II.
What Are The Actual New Features
Compared to the Z6 II, this camera has a lot more to offer, and it’s probably the best hybrid camera right now for the price. It doesn’t beat the Sony A7sIII/FX3 with some professional video features, like the digital hotshoe for audio, dual memory card recording, and a high-end HDMI out. But it does beat it in other areas, like internal raw video recording. It also beats the Sony A7IV in almost everything except for the resolution, where the A7IV has a slight advantage.
Remember, the Nikon Z6II was basically just a baby upgrade for the Z6. It was essentially a 2018 camera. So here we are six years later with an actual upgrade.
Here are the significant upgrades if you’re coming from a Z6 or Z6 II.
New Focus System: The Z6II had some basic focus functionality, but now the Z6 III has an improved algorithm and should be stickier with the partially stacked sensor with AF that samples at 120fps.
The Latest IBIS System: The Nikon Z6 III has Nikon’s latest IBIS system rated at 8-stops. But be careful not to look at IBIS based on the rated spec. People are saying that Nikon IBIS is best with telephoto lenses and caters more to bird and nature photographers, but it is a little jumpy and clunky for video use, especially with wide-angle lenses. So vloggers haven’t been loving this new IBIS system we first saw on the Nikon Zf, even though the 8-stop spec is good on paper, and some other camera companies have configured their IBIS a little nicer for video use.
All New Video Package: Nikon’s video package is pretty amazing and probably the best out there now because of their NRAW.
Nikon has included 10-bit 4:2:2 for the H.265 and H.264 compressions. (I think this was wrong; it might only be 4:2:0 internally and 4:2:2 externally; I’ve seen people mentioning it does 4:2:2 for H.265, but there might be some confusion and that it’s external only). Which is ridiculous, by the way.
And this is from the B&H photo’s product description.

They are still offering ProRes RAW with NRAW and ProRes HQ, and hopefully, we will get an ALL-I compression with good H.264 or H.265 instead of just H.265 with the Long GOP compression.
Not many cameras offer the H.265 with the All-I encoding; I think only Fujifilm does this at the moment.
We don’t have the full spec sheet on the H264 and H265 offerings yet, so we’ll have to wait to see these settings and the data rates when Nikon posts those details.
Faster Memory Cards: The Nikon Z6 and Z6 II had a pretty slow memory card buffer speed, and even though you had amazing CFexpress type B memory cards, the camera never took advantage of those speeds. With the new bus, we can push a ton of data to these cards, enabling features like ProRes RAW and much faster buffer-clearing capabilities that allow 1000 shots per burst. Here is a guide to memory cards for the Nikon Z6 III to get you started.
New EVF: Nikon keeps upgrading its EVF in its cameras, and now we have another bump in performance over the Nikon Z9 and Z8. Not only did Nikon offer more resolution at 5,760,000 Dots at 120hz, but it’s also the brightest EVF out there at 4000 nits.
New Flippy Screen: Nikon has always offered amazing screens in their cameras, and the Nikon Z6 III still has the 2.1m-dot LCD screen, but we now get the variable tilting flippy screen.
I don’t love the flippy screens since I mostly use cameras for photography, but since this camera is such a video-focused hybrid monster, these flippy screens can make sense. They can be very useful when using the camera on gimbals and in various cage configurations where you might have top handles, mics, or lights mounted, which sometimes can obstruct the screen at some angles.

All The New Color Science: Nikon colors are amazing. They produce my favorite straight-out-of-camera JPEGs, and I love the RAWs as well. Compared to the older Z6II, you should see improved color science, white balance, new portrait color options, and skin-softening effects.
For me, being a Z6 shooter for so long and then jumping into a Z8, this upgrade was pretty significant. And you should be getting all that magic in the Z6 III.
Ton Of Other Quality Of Life Features: I won’t go into detail on these, but you have things like the 120fps AF readout, the Starlight Mode, the latest AF algos, better AF subject detection, and Pixel Shift Technology for 96MP images.
Birds are now incorporated into Animal AF, so it’s one setting instead of two.
You’ll also get improved portrait color science with some added portrait features, like soft skin and color adjustment settings, and some new monochrome features.
Nikon Z6 III Bottom Line
The Nikon Z6 III is truly an incredible camera, and it’s about time. It almost feels like it’s more like a Nikon Z6 IV, and Nikon skipped the Z6 III altogether since we’re just getting such a massive upgrade here over the Z6 II.
I’m not sure any other mirrorless camera makes sense right now at this price range, and Nikon has pretty much leapfrogged all the competition. The next few years will be exciting as we’ll get to see what the Sony A7V does and what Canon does with an R6 III as a response.
However, always remember that the specs are not everything, and the Canon R6 II and A7IV might still have other characteristics that make them better cameras for some situations.
Some people still love the Canon color science, and you might still like the Sony IBIS and compact body when vlogging with wide-angle lenses compared to the Nikon IBIS, which is still more telelens optimized.
So always get the best camera for your use case and try not to get blinded by the specs alone.