Nikon Z30 Camera Specifications
The Nikon Z30 is a great little vlog camera for capturing 4K video daily. The controls and touch interface are easy to control, and the interchangeable lens mount offers great versatility, but has a lot of competition.
Key features
Compact design of the smallest and lightest camera in the Nikon Z series
Designed for vlogging 4K/30p video capture and full-time autofocus
APS-C sensorSame found in Nikon Z fc
LCD touch screen with variable angle hinge
Introduction
In 2022, Nikon introduced the Z30, a small, lightweight mirrorless camera designed for vlogging.
On paper, the Z30 includes all the basics you'd expect from a vlog camera, including a vari-angle display, simple controls, and support for 4K UHD video. It even has an interchangeable lens above the fixed lens provided with some entry-level vlogging cameras.
But, how does Nikon Z30 perform in the real world?
design
The Z30 is the smallest and lightest camera of the Z series
Contains an interchangeable lens and a hard grip
Sharp, responsive vari-angle display
The Z30 is the smallest and lightest camera in the mirrorless Nikon Z series, with dimensions of 128×73.5×59.5mm and 405g with battery and built-in memory card.
That's a little bigger and heavier than Sony ZV's three cameras, but much smaller and less than half the weight of our best vlog cameras, the Panasonic Lumix GH6.
Like Panasonic and Sony ZV-E10, the Nikon Z30 comes with an interchangeable lens mount, allowing you to swap DX 16-50mm lenses (if you choose to comb) with any Nikkor Z lens. You can also pair the camera with Nikon F-mount DSLR lenses provided you buy the optional FTZ II mount adapter with it.
The interchangeable lens mount also calls for a chunky grip to support larger lenses, and I found that the Z30's grip was deep enough to offer a strong camera fixation.
Besides its lightweight design, the Z30 is easy to carry in one hand, and I never worried about it slipping out of my hand.
The Nikon Z30 has a 3-inch variable-angle display. I found the LCD to be bright and sharp enough to provide a detailed preview of my photos and the touchscreen was responsive when clicked. Meanwhile, the variable angle hinge means you can turn on the screen to face yourself when recording vlogs.
As far as physical controls go, the Z30 has a good number of buttons without looking cluttered. You have the basics, such as arrow keys, menu, dial method, shutter release, as well as two customizable Fn buttons, ISO and exposure controls and a dense red record button, among others.
When it comes to ports, there are USB-C, HDMI, and mic inputs. However, the camera lacks a headphone jack for easy audio monitoring.
The Nikon Z30 supports SD, SDHC, and SDXC memory cards and there is a hot shoe on top of the camera for accessories.
Attributes
AF system works well for daily vlogs
Get some simplified results with Creative Picture Control modes
The app makes it easy to transfer snapshots to smartphone
Since the Z30 is designed for vlogging, Nikon has provided the camera with some useful video features.
This includes hybrid phase detection, an AF system for contrast detection with 209 focus points, and full-time autofocus.
Full-time autofocus allows you to lock focus on your subject while shooting. This means you won't have to worry about constantly refocusing while walking through busy streets or photographing your face. I've found that AF did a good job of grabbing quickly and staying where I wanted it, although sometimes it's hard to focus on items placed near the camera.
Meanwhile, eye detection autofocus and animal detection autofocus seek to people, cats and dogs to ensure their eyes are kept sharp. Target detection is not as advanced as in a high-end hybrid camera like the Fujifilm X-H2S, which can track transport modes, such as cars, planes and trains, as well as humans and animals, but should be enough for daily vlogging.
If you want to give your photos and videos a specific look, there are 20 innovative Picture Control filters that you can choose from. These are a bit like Fujifilm's Film Simulation filters and make it easy to get a uniform and stylized look inside the camera.
Nikon has definitely missed some tricks when it comes to vlogging features. For example, the Sony ZV-E10, ZV-1, and ZV-1F offer features such as product display, making focus adjustment smoother when carrying and removing an item in front of the camera. I found that the Z30 is very good at focusing on the items placed in front of the lens, but the camera has been slow to refocus when taking those items away.
The Z30 also doesn't offer the equivalent of a Sony bokeh key, making it possible to blur the background with the push of a button. You can get a diffuse wallpaper with the Z30, but turning it on and off isn't as easy as a single click.
When it comes to connectivity options, the Nikon Z30 supports both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. You can pair your camera with the SnapBridge app to transfer photos and videos to your phone wirelessly, making it easy for content creators and vloggers to get their content from the camera to the social media platform of their choice.
As far as the battery goes, Nikon claims that the Z30 is capable of shooting 125 minutes of video in FHD, but that figure drops to 35 minutes when facing 4K. I found that the camera was able to last a whole day while getting in and out of my bag while taking pictures around central London.
Image and video quality
The images are lifelike with just a decent amount of depth, but it's definitely the first camcorder
Bright and sharp 4K footage
No image stabilization inside the body
The Nikon Z30 takes advantage of the same 20.9MP image sensor found in the Nikon Z fc. However, unlike its fellow Nikon, the Z30 is not primarily designed to take still images. That doesn't mean it's bad at taking pictures, but I wouldn't recommend this camera if its main goal is photography and not video.
Images taken with the Nikon Z30 are sharp and saturated with a good amount of depth, but the results do not seem like a big enough step from our best phones with cameras to justify choosing one for this.
Both the 11fps burst mode and zoom features feel limited, but I liked how bright and detailed selfies appear when taken with the camera.
The camera is capable of producing powerful results in low light with an ISO range of 100 to 51,200 for still images and 100 to 25,600 for video. However, I don't recommend pushing it beyond 3200 because that's where I found noise starting to show up in my photos.
As for video, the Nikon Z30 is capable of capturing 4K video at 30p or 1080p up to 120p, putting the camera directly on a par with Sony's ZV series in quality. There is also support for slow motion capture in FHD resolution.
I found a video taken with the Z30 camera detailed and vivid as you can see in the 4K footage below.
Unfortunately, there is no image stabilization inside the body, but Nikon has included a vibration reduction setting to help slightly maintain image stability. I didn't find the results very smooth, but I tested the camera alongside the new RS 3 Mini gimbal from DJI and would definitely recommend this pairing if you want shake-free results.
Finally, there is the sound quality. The Nikon Z30 comes with a built-in stereo microphone that I found well, but there is also an external microphone port, so if you want to boost the sound quality you have this option.