I have missed my Nikon D5500 DX sensor sized light and simple camera since I sold it a year ago. So far the Nikon D5500 is my favorite digital camera ever. After using the Z50, which to me is the successor to the D5500-5600, this new body and lenses has a chance to take over from the D5500. But that will take longer than my one day exposure to the new Z50.
The top photo of the elephant is with the Z50 and 16-50mm zoom lens. I shot it this morning and was able to get the star burst through the plant easily because I had an EVF.
For me this camera fits into my hand perfectly. It is comfortable and many of the controls I can operate with one hand. This camera is even lighter than the D5500 but still feels like a serious tool and not a toy camera. The new kit lens 16-50mm is very light and small. The second lens I bought the 50-250mm is much larger but still light when fitted to this camera body. The Z50 also has a real working touch screen. Hallelujah. Neither my Nikon D750 or my Sony A7iii have good working touch screens. In my opinion all modern cameras should have them.
This new DX body has very good working face and eye detect auto focus. In my short testing against my Sony A7iii the Nikon Z50 is just as fast and accurate. The Z50 also has face detect for video too but not eye detect.
One of the big weight savings in this sensor size camera is that the lenses are smaller and lighter with few exceptions. Of course it would be nice to have a few more lenses to go with this new body, but I am sure some will come as time goes on.
I found that this camera had very capable and intuitive focus. When set to automatic full screen the camera seems to pick up the subject quickly and no more effort is needed than pointing it. One time this morning I had to switch to single point auto focus, but that was a simple thing to do using the touch screen.
I did a couple of simple edits as Lightroom does not seem to have this camera in their system yet.
I found the vibration reduction which is in the lenses to be very good. The older Nikon D5500 had a similar system and I never had any complaints with that system in that camera. The Z50 seems just as good.
With this camera system you get a great walk around rig that is great for travel, day hikes, or any time you want to fit everything in a small sling bag. From my standpoint as a user and the person that had to open my wallet and buy this gear I am quite happy with it so far. I will write more updates after using it for a while. I also need to use the video and see how that performs.
Bob Nuttmann 