Nikon on sale: Buy the Z8, think twice about the Z6 II

My road to the Nikon Z8 took fifteen years and a lot of patient saving. So when Nikon’s bodies drop in price on an Amazon sale day, I know what is going through a dad’s head: is this finally the moment, and is this the right camera for the money?

Three Nikon full-frame bodies tend to drop together: the Z8, the Z6II and the original Z5. The discounts look similar, but these are three very different cameras. One is the camera I shoot with every week. One is the full-frame on-ramp I lived with from December 2020 until the Z8 replaced it. And one is a previous-generation body I never owned, whose autofocus has since been overtaken by a camera that costs less.

This guide sorts them out from that vantage point. It also covers the part every deal list skips: the drives a new camera needs on the day it arrives. The Prime Big Deal Days sale on 6 and 7 October 2026 is what prompted it, but the advice holds for Black Friday and every sale after it.

One note on prices before we start: we do not write prices into the text. Sale prices change by the hour, and a number in a paragraph is wrong by tomorrow morning. The product boxes in this guide pull the current Amazon price live and show when they last checked. The text explains why a camera is worth that price. The box tells you what the price is.

1. Nikon Z8: The one discount I would actually act on

I will not pretend to be neutral here. The Nikon Z8 is the camera I use for landscape mornings, backyard birding, birthday parties and the occasional studio shoot, and I gave it 5/5 in my review for one reason: it ended my upgrade cycle. In fifteen years of Nikon, it is the first body where I stopped finding things to fix.

What it does well

It is essentially a Nikon Z9 without the integrated grip: the same 45.7MP stacked sensor, the same EXPEED 7 processor, the same subject-detection autofocus for people, animals, birds and vehicles. In practice that means the green box finds my daughter’s eye and stays there while she runs at me, and the same camera locks onto a kingfisher across a reedbed the next morning. Twenty frames a second of full-resolution RAW and a deep buffer mean I never ration shots. If birds are part of your plan, my Z8 and Z9 bird-in-flight autofocus settings are the starting point I wish I had had.

For landscape, the resolution and dynamic range let me pull shadows up several stops on a blue-hour scene without banding. Video is genuinely flagship-grade, with 8K and internal RAW, even if it is a small part of what I shoot.

Where it falls short

Weight and the wallet. At around 910g body-only, and well over 1.5kg with an f/2.8 zoom, this is a camera you feel at the end of a day at the zoo. It is also only the start of the spend: the Z8 deserves good lenses, and those cost serious money too. A sale makes it cheaper. It does not make it cheap.

Body only or the 24-120mm f/4 kit?

This is the real decision on sale day. The Z8 kit with the NIKKOR Z 24-120mm f/4 S bundles one of Nikon’s most versatile zooms. Do not assume the bundle is the cheaper route: add up the body box and the lens price before you click, because sale pricing does not always respect bundle logic.

I do not own the 24-120. My standard zoom is the 24-70mm f/2.8 S, and it lives on my Z8. So here is the honest trade-off rather than a verdict I have not earned:

• Take the kit if you have no standard zoom yet and want one lens for holidays, hikes and family days. The extra reach to 120mm is useful for portraits and kids at a distance, and f/4 is lighter to carry.
• Buy the body only if you already own a standard zoom, or if you shoot a lot indoors. One extra stop of light from the 24-70mm f/2.8 matters in a dim living room at bath time. That lens has since been succeeded by the S II version, so check both if you go this route.

Who should buy it

The dad who has been saving for a Z8 and knows why. If you shoot one discipline only, or you want a camera that goes in a jacket pocket, the Z8 is the wrong camera at any price, and the Z50 II is my answer for 90 % of the capability in a far smaller body.

2. Nikon Z5: Still the cheapest way into full-frame Nikon

The original Nikon Z5 is the camera I switched to mirrorless with in December 2020. I sold most of my F-mount lenses, bought into the Z system, and used the Z5 as my full-frame body until the Z8 took over. My Z5 review is a retrospective, and it is a 5/5 for exactly what it was built to be: a no-nonsense, value-first on-ramp.

What it does well

The 24.3MP full-frame sensor still makes lovely files: classic Nikon skin tones and generous dynamic range. It has five-axis in-body stabilisation, which let me hand-hold the 24-70 down to a quarter of a second in a dim interior. And it has two UHS-II SD slots, which is a real feature for a christening or a wedding you cannot reshoot. The ergonomics and menus are the same as the more expensive bodies, which matters more than any spec line: a camera you like holding is a camera you carry.

Where it falls short

Speed. About 4.5 frames a second and a shallow buffer mean you come back from a garden sprint with three frames where a modern body gives you fifteen. The autofocus was a generation behind even when it was new, and it hunts in low light. And 4K video has a roughly 1.7x crop, which turns a wide lens into a not-wide lens.

The Z5 II question

The Nikon Z5 II fixes every one of those weaknesses. It has the EXPEED 7 autofocus from my Z8, fast bursts and uncropped 4K. It is also a lot more expensive than a discounted Z5. So the decision is simple:

• If you photograph moving children, or you want usable 4K family video, buy the Z5 II. Do not agonise.
• If you shoot mostly landscapes, travel, portraits and posed family photos, and the price gap to the Z5 II is large on the day, the discounted Z5 is still one of the best value full-frame cameras you can buy. Put the money you saved into a lens. Lenses outlast bodies: every lens I bought for my Z5 moved to the Z8 with me.

Who should buy it

The careful stills shooter on a fixed budget who would rather spend on glass than on a spec sheet. Not the parent of a four-year-old who never stops moving.

3. Nikon Z6II: A fine camera, the wrong generation

I never owned a Z6II, so this section is a comparison rather than a long-term verdict. But the comparison is the whole point, because the Z6II’s discount puts it right next to a newer camera.

What it does well

On paper the Z6II is a big step over the Z5. According to Nikon, it has a 24.5MP BSI sensor, two EXPEED 6 processors, 14 frames per second at full resolution, and 273 on-sensor phase-detect autofocus points. It takes a CFexpress Type B or XQD card alongside an SD card, so it is quicker to clear a burst. For sport and fast action it is genuinely faster than a Z5, and the Z6II kit with the 24-70mm f/4 S is a compact, sensible pairing.

Where it falls short

The autofocus generation. The Z6II runs on EXPEED 6. The Z5 II, which sits a tier below it in Nikon’s line-up, has the newer EXPEED 7 subject detection from the Z8 and Z9. I shoot EXPEED 7 every week, and it is the single biggest reason modern Nikon bodies feel like they read your mind with a running child. For family photography, that matters more than frames per second.

There is also 4K/60: Nikon added it by firmware, but only with a DX crop. And the current-generation Z6 III exists (where it fits in the line-up), with a partially stacked sensor and 6K RAW video, for anyone who genuinely needs speed.

Who should buy it

A narrow group: someone who shoots fast sport, wants the CFexpress slot and the speed, and finds the Z6II far cheaper than both the Z5 II and the Z6 III on the day. For everyone else, compare it with the Z5 II box before you click. If the two are close, I would take the newer autofocus.

How they compare

The table says what I said above in one line: the processor row matters more than the burst row. A discount does not change which generation of autofocus a camera has.

The storage stack: What a new camera needs on day one

Here is the part every deal list treats as an afterthought. A new full-frame body produces a lot of data, and the first holiday with it is when you discover you have nowhere to put it. Our full portable SSD and storage guide goes deep. These are the three drives that tend to drop on the same sale days as the cameras.

• The travel drive. The SanDisk 2TB Extreme Portable SSD is rugged, rated IP65 for water and dust, and fast enough at up to 1,050MB/s to empty a full card in the hotel room. That is the one I would buy first.
• The fast drive. The Samsung T9 2TB reaches up to 2,000MB/s, but only on a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port. Many laptops and Macs do not have one, and on a normal port it runs at roughly the same speed as the cheaper drives. Check your computer before paying extra.
• The home archive. The WD 20TB Elements Desktop is a big, slow desktop drive. It is not for editing. It is the second copy of every RAW file you will never delete, which is the copy most of us do not have.

Speed only changes your life if you edit from the drive. For backups, capacity and having a second copy at all matter far more than megabytes per second.

If the new camera means a new editing computer too, my Mac mini for photography guide covers which configuration is worth it and which accessories belong on the desk.

A memory card warning

Some sale lists include CFexpress Type A cards, and those are made for Sony cameras. According to Nikon, the Z8 has one CFexpress Type B slot, which also takes XQD, and one SD slot that supports UHS-II. The Z6II uses the same CFexpress Type B/XQD standard. A Type A card does not fit either, so check the letter before you buy.

The family video question: Action cameras and drones

Many sale lists put pocket cameras, action cameras and drones next to the Nikon bodies. I have not owned any of these three, so this is a short pointer rather than a review. Our family drones and action cameras guide and vlogging camera guide cover the category in depth.

• The DJI Osmo Pocket 3 Creator Combo pairs a 1-inch sensor and a three-axis gimbal with a wireless mic in the box. It answers a problem the Z8 cannot: a camera you actually take to the playground.
• The DJI Neo is a 135g drone that launches from your palm and follows you without a controller. A fun first drone for a family hike, not a landscape tool.
• The GoPro MAX2 records 360-degree video and also works as a normal action camera. You film everything and choose the frame later, which suits kids who never do what you expected.

If you already own a phone with a good camera, be honest about whether any of these will leave the drawer after the first month.

How to tell a real camera deal from a decoy

• Compare against the newer model, not the old list price. The Z6II’s discount looks big against its launch price. The question that matters is how it compares with the Z5 II today.
• Check the bundle. Sellers on Amazon list the same body in a dozen bundles with cards, bags and filters. The camera in our boxes is the official Nikon USA model or kit. Third-party bundles add cards, bags and filters you may not want, so compare like with like.
• Look at the timestamp. Our boxes say when they last checked the price. If the box shows no price, the data was too old to trust, and the click takes you to the live Amazon page.
• Do not stretch. A sale is a good moment for a camera you had already decided on. It is a bad reason to buy a body that is too big, too slow or too expensive for how you actually shoot.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Buying speed you do not need. For landscapes and posed family photos, a Z5’s 4.5 frames a second are fine. For a toddler, autofocus beats burst rate every time.
• Forgetting the lens budget. Every one of these bodies needs at least one good lens. A cheaper body plus a better lens almost always produces better photos than the reverse.
• Treating a kit as a free lens. The 24-120 in the Z8 kit is a superb lens, but only if a standard zoom is what you were missing.
• Skipping the backup drive. The camera is replaceable. The photos of your kids are not.

Is the Nikon Z8 worth buying on sale?

If you have been saving for it, yes. The Z8 has the same stacked 45.7MP sensor and EXPEED 7 autofocus as the flagship Z9 in a smaller body, and it is the camera I shoot every week. A sale does not make it a sensible impulse buy, but it is the right moment for someone who had already decided.

Should I buy the Z8 body only or the kit with the 24-120mm f/4?

Take the kit if you have no standard zoom yet and want one lens for travel and family days. Buy the body only if you already own a standard zoom, or if you want the brighter 24-70mm f/2.8 for dim rooms and indoor kids.

Is the Nikon Z6II still worth it?

Only in a narrow case. It shoots 14 frames per second and takes CFexpress cards, but it runs on older EXPEED 6 autofocus. The Z5 II has the newer EXPEED 7 subject detection, so for family photography the newer, cheaper-tier body is usually the better buy.

Nikon Z5 or Z5 II: which should I buy?

Buy the Z5 II if you photograph moving kids or want usable 4K video. Buy the original Z5 only if the price gap is large and you mostly shoot landscapes, portraits and posed family photos. I owned the Z5 for years and it was excellent for exactly that.

Which memory card does the Nikon Z8 use?

The Z8 has one CFexpress Type B slot, which also takes XQD, and one SD slot that supports UHS-II. CFexpress Type A cards, which some sale lists include, are for Sony cameras and do not fit the Z8.