The Nikon Z9 Cat's Meow

[Rico]

"Yes, this is real: Nikon Z9 becomes Nikon feline, as the camera has a 'cat meow' shutter sound effect. Via very broken machine-translation it seems like other effects, such as trains, may also be considered. Nikon Rumors was able to ascertain that more relevant shutter sounds – namely those of the Nikon D750 and Nikon F4 – were also being looked at."

This is exactly what I don't want in a camera. The full article is here.

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/not-a-joke-the-nikon-z9-has-a-cat-meow-shutter-sound

 

 

[MDM]

12 hours ago, Rico said:

"Yes, this is real: Nikon Z9 becomes Nikon feline, as the camera has a 'cat meow' shutter sound effect. Via very broken machine-translation it seems like other effects, such as trains, may also be considered. Nikon Rumors was able to ascertain that more relevant shutter sounds – namely those of the Nikon D750 and Nikon F4 – were also being looked at."

This is exactly what I don't want in a camera. The full article is here.

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/not-a-joke-the-nikon-z9-has-a-cat-meow-shutter-sound

 

 

 

Reading the article it seems that this is intentional and not some fault with the camera. Indeed, if the article is correct, it may be possible with firmware updates to customise the sounds made by the entirely electronic shutter. Actually I imagine this could be useful shooting formal portraits to get people laughing. The video from which the rumour comes is Japanese so perhaps not entirely surprising given that Japan is the land of the Tamagotchi. So is the Z9 a very expensive equivalent of the Tamagotchi for the 21st century. I won't be buying a Z9 by the way. 

[spacecadet]

We don't know the timbre of the sound,, but my old A1's squeal is somewhat feline. More of a "stepped on my tail" than a meow. You get rid of it with a tiny bit of oil IIRC.

[MDM]

13 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

We don't know the timbre of the sound,, but my old A1's squeal is somewhat feline. More of a "stepped on my tail" than a meow. You get rid of it with a tiny bit of oil IIRC.

 

It's a completely electronic shutter so does not make any noise. It would be ill-advised to add oil to a Z9 even if one could find a suitable orifice.

Edited March 3, 2022 by MDM

[spacecadet]

3 minutes ago, MDM said:

 

It's a contpletely electronic shutter so does.not make noise. It would be ill-advised to add oil to a Z9 even if one could find a suitable orifice.

Indeed. I mean the A1 squeal. Very much a non-historical fix as the battery on mine is not flat after 19 years. I still love the weight of it.

Edited March 3, 2022 by spacecadet

[Rico]

4 hours ago, MDM said:

 

Reading the article it seems that this is intentional and not some fault with the camera. Indeed, if the article is correct, it may be possible with firmware updates to customise the sounds made by the entirely electronic shutter. Actually I imagine this could be useful shooting formal portraits to get people laughing. The video from which the rumour comes is Japanese so perhaps not entirely surprising given that Japan is the land of the Tamagotchi. So is the Z9 a very expensive equivalent of the Tamagotchi for the 21st century. I won't be buying a Z9 by the way. 

You're right about making people laugh, I never thought about that. That meow would certainly get a genuine smile.

46 megapixels and 700 shots per battery charge, not for me either.

[MDM]

Just now, Rico said:

You're right about making people laugh, I never thought about that. That meow would certainly get a genuine smile.

46 megapixels and 700 shots per battery charge, not for me either.

 

Once you have used a 45MP camera, you never want to look back, at least for stills. The battery estimates are usually way under what you actually get in my experience with Nikon cameras in recent years. It's the cost that puts me off even thinking about it. 

[Rico]

2 minutes ago, MDM said:

 

Once you have used a 45MP camera, you never want to look back, at least for stills. The battery estimates are usually way under what you actually get in my experience with Nikon cameras in recent years. It's the cost that puts me off even thinking about it. 

I think that 45MP would slow down my editing to a crawl on my 7 year old PC. That would be overkill for the kinds of things I shoot.

[MDM]

5 minutes ago, Rico said:

I think that 45MP would slow down my editing to a crawl on my 7 year old PC. That would be overkill for the kinds of things I shoot.

 

Sure - you do need a decent computer with plenty of RAM for comfort. However, I was using a 2014 Mac with 45MP cameras for a long time for stills and it was fine. The new generation of silicon Macs are something else though in terms of speed and the baseline models are not too expensive (for Macs). When I first got a 36MP D800 almost ten years ago I was using an older Mac and it was slow.

 

The best thing about the Nikon high MP cameras is the ability to do serious cropping as well as the amazing dynamic range.