Nikon Z8 vs Sony a7R V Camera Comparison - Which is Better?

nice comparison. I have left Nikon (z6ii) for Soy a7iv just for eye detection but wasn't fully happy. Tricky sometimes to catch an eye, but much better than z6ii however. Now I have a a7rv and it is amazing. It is IA ! a separate cpu to recognize body, pose, eye, animal, insect, bird,...

nikon z8 better overall camera

Both great cameras - you could also argue that Sony accomplishes most of the Z8 stuff in a smaller body with better stills quality, or say that Nikon caught up to Sony's best offering and surpassed it in video and overall handling. Plus if you're shooting a Z9, having a second body like the Z8 is a no brainer.

I don't have any problem with the Z8 battery life. Not with stills anyway, as I don't do video.

I have 2 angelbird 1tb on my 7rv…I will never experience a buffer😂 I shoot like a crazy person even the fastest sd tough cards still held up on me.

Angelbird all the way! Seriously incredible

As long as you don't need eyes in focus, the z8 is great!

nikon 😍😍😍

One more thing you may have down play the Sony with its 60 mp

I have both you can’t go wrong with either, your a amazing reviewer I would love to see a canon 85:1.2 v the new Nikon 85:1.2

Great comparison on these 2 cameras. I used the A7R V for a few months and when it comes to stabilization, the Sony can have an edge when Active stabilization is used. When paired with an OSS lens and further enhanced in their Catalyst software you can get some really smooth footage however, you could end up with some major cropping. Even with that kind of stabilization, I ended up trading the A7R V for the Z8 as the Z8 has better overall video codecs and it actually shoots up to 8K60 in 12 bit NRAW internally. It would have been great if Nikon had the multi-angle screen of the A7R V on the Z8, that’s the one thing I miss the most from the A7R V, the point and shoot sort of AF and the AI posing estimation. I feel that feature gives the A7R V a slight edge in overall AF usage.

I’ve owned both and they are both amazing cameras. That being said, I ended up choosing the A7RV. Size was really the deciding factor for me. When I need it to be small, it can be. Popping on a 40mm f2.5 makes it really nice to just casually walk around with.

Shhhh, Nikon is STILL using the Sony Video chip and Apple provides no support for Nikon… that’s why I dumped the Zs and now shoot Sony.

And - if I wanna shoot pics - I use my iPhone nowadays… and I used to only shoot chrome on my F5 with Nikkor glass.

Z8 all the way and it's not close. If it had an articulated screen all other cameras would really be irrelevant.

A7rV all day. Better AF, 4 way til screen is the best and 9.k evf

Theres always complaining about birding and battery life. Those are secondary uses of the Z8. It is meant as a stills camera. Ultimately it is a back up to those with a Z9.

Thanks for the detailed review. But I think a few very important factors are missing:
- Nikon Z8 suffers overheating from video recording. Especially at longer recording time with high resolution. Sony does not have this overheating issue at all.
- The Sony also has no time limit for video recording. Nikon has 128 min @ 4k and 90 min @ 8k.

I think above might be serious deterring factor for some.

I have both these cameras in our studio, what you didn't explain well or at all which is import imo is

The Sony has more usable DR at base sensitivity, which is what it's designed for imo, it is mostly shot at low sensitivity in good ambient or studio light, the colours are more accurate also, it has a great de-bayer high resolution mode and most importantly it has MANY more and better lenses with better autofocus, these translate to better images in good light and in a studio.

The Sony video autofocus is better, again, that means better video when autofocus is required.


The Nikon has better ergonomics, the button placement is better and this makes a difference in use.

If you're willing to put up with an adapter, all your f-mount glass of which I have dozens, work.

In silent mode which is useful. Sometimes the Nikon will behave better than the Sony, especially in artificial lighting.

So the Nikon is better than the Sony in some specific niche use cases, but for what the a7r5 is designed for, it is superior.

I owned a A7R5 for 7 months. A great camera to be sure. However you didn't see nor mention that the Sony's viewfinder has lag (terrible in lower light) and annoying moire as well. NOT an advantage. The Nikon has NO lag even at night and is sharp, clear with NO artifacting. Forget about the so called increase in shear megapixels in the EVF. It doesn't end up an advantage.