Nikon Day: Lens Roadmap Updated; Flash Partnerships; Firmwarey Boosted

Nikon is usually the more moribund of camera manufacturers, having reduced its operations tempo, but today we have three updates. A new firmware upgrade is boosting autofocus capacity across the Z mount bodies. An update for the Z6 and Z7 significantly helps face and eye detection, as well as handling flash use. The Z5 and Z50 updates help AF, but less so due to some functions requiring beefier hardware inside.

The lens roadmap was updated to show a couple new crop lenses, unfortunately yet-more cheap crop glass. A 24mm prime and a 12-28mm zoom, both with dark maximum apertures, will be coming soon. Nikon’s Z mount has lacked for professional-grade glass from the beginning, but the firm appears to be doubling down on narrow-aperture and crop glass. This now appears to be a deliberate strategy to move to the lower-end of the full-frame market where Sony and Canon haven’t put up as much competition.

Finally, Nikon announced that it would cooperate with third party flash makers Nissin and Profoto. The partnership appears to be a sharing of new smart shoe protocols, perhaps allowing the third party manufacturers to take advantage of in-built wireless triggering. Partnering in this accessories market may make a lot of sense for Nikon, which has been outsourcing more and more of its engineering and manufacturing.