Everything we know about the Nikon Z5IIC so far

A brief and quickly pulled Z5IIC listing on Nikon's German site, points to a compact, viewfinder-light rival to Sony's a7C II launching as soon as next week.

The ever-active Nikon Rumors reckons it’s spotted a new, as yet-unheralded Nikon camera being prepped for a launch announcement. A Nikon Z5IIC listing briefly appeared on Nikon’s German site before being rapidly pulled, and corroboration comes from a listing on an upcoming Japanese dealer event calendar. Combine this with some interesting under the radar rumor, and it could be one to get moderately excited about.

Targeting the a7C

The new Nikon Z5IIC seems to be tilting at Sony’s a7C line and is a rerun of what the Sony a7C II already does for the a7 IV. It takes an existing, successful camera with a full-frame sensor and autofocus system, in this case the Nikon Z5II, and repackages it in a smaller, rangefinder-style body with a reduced or absent viewfinder hump.

As far as the internals go, it’s very doable. We’ve seen a brace of new cameras introduced with established sensor and processor pairings in recent months as manufacturers struggle to keep costs under control, the Canon EOS R8 Mark II being the most recent example. Inheriting the Z5II's imaging stack rather than introducing anything new will still give decent performance via the same 24 MP full-frame sensor, EXPEED 7 processing, and in-body stabilization (the Z5II is rated to 7.5 EV).

One of the stronger rumors suggests that the Z5IIC will have "new video features”, though there are no specifics. The Z5II already records 10-bit internal N-RAW 4K60 (with a 1.5x crop above 30p), and Full HD up to 120p. That means any Z5IIC improvement would probably be about crop, bitrate, recording time, or AI processing tools rather than a wholesale spec jump. Highlighting RED color science won’t do it any harm either.

Challenges and advantages

The main challenge will be size. If it is taking serious aim at the Sony a7C II, the Z5II will have to shrink fairly significantly to match the smaller, lighter camera. That works out at around 30% across weight and over 40% volume, though ditching the EVF hump will go a long way to managing that in one fell swoop.

Where it might conceivably gain an advantage, though, is in price. This is a very price-sensitive part of the market. The Sony a7C II launched at $2199, while the Z5II was $1699. A new compact chassis tends to push the price up, but if it can get to market at under the psychological $2000 barrier, Nikon could well be onto something.

When will we know more? Perhaps next week. As we’ve said before, it wasa very slow start to the year for new cameras. We might though be in for a busy run-up to the holiday season.