Pic of Nikon Z9’s Back Snagged at Olympics

It was inevitable: an image of the Nikon Z9 used during the Olympics was going to slip out. Here it is, courtesy of Photolari. It appears to have a (poorly-camouflaged with grip tape) tilty/flippy screen, and a generally boxy look.

It is as though someone took the Z7 II and added a grip, a second joystick for that grip, and a row of buttons along the bottom of the screen, along with a mode selector on the top left. The top left button sports the dual-dial, stacked structure that has proven popular with Panasonic cameras.

The decision to put a tilty-flippy on a flagship must have been a fraught one. Many pros eschew the movable screens as a potential build quality failure point – all evidence to the contrary. But other photographers have come to know there are shots they wind up missing for the absence of the variable-angle screens. Nikon appears to figure that the oldsters will tolerate it, and that the priority will be new photographers over time.