The new Nikon Z8 is the D850 successor you've been waiting for

The Nikon D850 is one of the best cameras for pros and serious enthusiasts, but sadly it was the last of its breed. But Nikon has some good news for anyone mourning the demise of the D850: the new Nikon Z8 promises to deliver everything that was great about the much-loved DSLR with a whole host of new features too.

The Z8 is essentially Nikon's high-end Z9 made smaller, lighter and more affordable: it's 30% smaller than the Z9 and 15% smaller than the D850. It looks very much like a gripless Z9 (and has essentially the same control layout minus the grip-mounted controls), uses the same battery and has all the core bits of the Z9. 

Nikon Z8: key specifications

The specifications here are quite something. The Nikon has a 45.7MP full-frame stacked CMOS sensor, 8K video recording, intelligent autofocus that knows what you're looking at – dogs, people, cars and so on – and an incredibly fast electronic shutter.

The shutter speeds range from 1/32,000 to 30s, extendable to 900s in M mode; you can record 8K at 30fps for 90 minutes or 4K at 60fps for two hours without overheating; you can shoot in RAW format at up to 20fps, rising to a whopping 120fps in 11MP JPEG mode; and for the highest possible video quality you can record in ProRes RAW and N-RAW in 12-bit colour.

The Nikon Z8 is available to order now with an official on-sale date of 25 May. Prices start at £3,999 for the body-only version. When you consider that the Z9 starts at £5,299, the Z8 looks like quite the bargain.