Overview

Share your story with stunning video quality
Elevate your content by boosting the image quality. Express your memories of a wonderful night richly, without image noise. Draw all eyes to yourself or your subject looking beautiful against a soft background bokeh. Engage people’s senses across your whole image, with sharp details and rich textures. The Z 30 gives you easy access to all these benefits. The key is the larger volume of light received by its APS-C size/DX-format image sensor — 14× larger and more advanced than that in a typical smartphone*. Further contributions come from the advanced-performance engine — the same EXPEED 6 found in higher-level models such as the Z 7/Z 6 — and the strikingly sharp NIKKOR Z lenses.
* 1/2.5-in. sensor.

Sharp focus on the eyes of friends and pets in motion
Make your video more engaging with a constant sharp focus on the eyes — whether it’s you, your friends and family or your pets. Eye-Detection AF and Animal-Detection AF are available in wide-area AF (L) as well as auto-area AF, letting the camera more reliably pick out the eyes to focus on. This makes it easy to capture your subjects’ eyes in focus even when they are moving — in both video recording and still photography. The AF-F mode dedicated to video recording enables powerful tracking of your subjects even when they are moving or composition changes. If you want a more subtle and nuanced expression, try applying slower or faster focusing, with AF speed adjustable between 11 steps. Go faster to quickly shift focus from the item you’re introducing back to your face or go slower to smoothly draw viewers’ attention from one subject to another.

Check footage of yourself in real-time with the rotating monitor
Connect better with your audience via the Z 30’s vari-angle monitor, by simply pointing the camera and rotating the monitor toward yourself. This way, you can record selfies while making sure you look good in real-time. Adjusting exposure compensation is also easy and intuitive through checking your appearance and using touch operation on the monitor. Taking further advantage of the vari-angle monitor, you can explore more creative angles, whether it’s from waist level, higher up or very low — letting you share your life from your own unique angles.

Let the camera roll for as long as you need
Keep the camera rolling for up to 125 minutes, convenient for content like makeup tutorials or product reviews. Meanwhile, connecting a portable charger or computer allows the Z 30 to record with a constant power supply, giving you peace of mind during a long take.

Compact and lightweight yet sharp and beautiful
The NIKKOR Z lens lineup offers beginner-friendly choices that are designed to be small and accessible but deliver extremely high performance. They depict every detail with superb sharpness, create soft, natural background bokeh, and are easy to operate, exceeding what’s expected from conventional kit lenses. All the DX lenses come equipped with Nikon’s vibration reduction (VR) system*, which helps stabilize the footage when recording while walking. Try using different lenses and broaden the possibilities for your content.
* As of June 29, 2022.

NIKKOR Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR
If you are carrying the Z 30 with you all the time to shoot your vlogs, this compact lens is for you. It’s perfect for selfie shots, either solo or with a friend, as well as for any of your everyday moments. Just take it with you everywhere and enjoy its high-definition rendering performance with amazing sharpness that makes your subject stand out beautifully, whether it’s you or a tasty dish you’ve just made. If you want to push your creativity, you can come right up to your subject and get striking close-up shots.

A companion you can take anywhere
As the most compact and lightweight* camera in the Z series, the Z 30 is no burden at all to take with you. The compact body fits right in your hand and weighs about 540 g** even in combination with the NIKKOR Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR — not much more than a 500-ml bottle of water. Slip it into your bag or sling it over your shoulder and enjoy going out with your camera.
* As of June 29, 2022.
** With battery and SD memory card.

A camera body that just feels right
Every detail of the camera is designed to help you tell your stories more easily. The Z 30 features a luxurious exterior design, adopting operational controls and embossed leather material commonly used in the Z series from flagship to entrance level models, offering a smooth operational feel. The deep grip ensures the compact body feels comfortable and secure in your hands, even when shooting all day long. Since you can grip the camera firmly, it helps you get steadier footage. If you want to further stabilize the camera, simply extend the camera strap taut against the back of your neck. The iconic shape of the front right shoulder means it’s also comfortable held sideways — perfect for creating vertical content.

Optimized for video recording
The Z 30 helps make all your video recording smoother. The large video-record button is easy to access in every position — whether it’s a selfie, high angle, or from the waist. When recording yourself, the red light on the front body lets you confirm that you are actually recording, so there’s no chance of getting to the end of your shot only to realize you accidentally failed to capture anything.

Effortlessly achieve your desired look
The Z 30’s Auto mode is not just simple to use but also enables higher-level expression. If you feel your video is too dark or too bright, you can tweak the brightness by easily adjusting the exposure, without even changing modes. This lets you achieve the look you want while confirming the result on the monitor, making it easy to capture yourself or your subject in silhouette, high key and low key.

Your content, your way — Picture Controls and Creative Picture Controls
If you want an instant natural look and colours, select Picture Control Auto, which is also used in the Nikon Z 9 flagship model and optimally designed for video recording — to easily enhance the quality of your video. With 20 kinds of Creative Picture Control you can instantly add colour to your content, so you can easily get the look you want. The applied effect is visible on the monitor, helping you confirm the look before shooting. You can also fine-tune the effect level, sharpness, or other parameters to help you craft that unique look you want.

Shortcut to setting change via i button
The i button offers convenient one-touch access to 12 settings via the i menu, letting you make quick changes without needing to go deep into the menus. Your setting change is immediately reflected on the monitor so you can preview each adjustment in real time. The operation is touch-sensitive, providing even speedier access to the settings you need. The i menu is customizable with your 12 most frequently used settings in the order you prefer.

Wow your audience with immersive beauty
Make your content stand out by capturing sharply detailed 4K UHD video at 30p, 25p and 24p. What you shoot will come out amazingly sharp with rich textures and immersive beauty. Since there is no cropping of the frame, you can maximize your lenses’ angle of view even in 4K UHD, letting you achieve wide-angle scenery shots or sizzling food shots with ease.

More detail to enjoy in slow motion
Add drama to ordinary moments by bringing out small details in smooth slow-motion. You can make everyday scenes feel epic, emphasizing your feelings and experiences through each subtle expression. Using the 4×/5× slow-motion options, Full-HD slow-motion videos will become automatically available in-camera with no need for editing, while Full HD/120p offers footage with sound, which you can use to create slow-motion videos in post-production.

Faster-than-life storytelling
Whether it’s your daily routine, a cooking sequence, or lights and clouds shifting across a landscape, you can bring the passage of time dynamically to life by condensing motion into a fast-paced video, all in-camera. The Z 30’s time-lapse video function automatically shoots a series of still images and combines them together in-camera to produce stunning 4K UHD or Full HD videos — easily enriching your vlog or video content.

Customize the camera to your needs
In order to make your shooting operation smoother, the Z 30 offers customizable options so you can directly access the settings you want. The Fn1 and Fn2 buttons can be customized to quickly recall assigned settings selected from 39 functions and change them as you shoot. The U1, U2 and U3 positions on the mode dial can be assigned to recall your frequently used settings just by rotating the dial. For example, set Animal-Detection AF to U1 to immediately react to your pet’s actions, or set your optimum setting for night scenes to U2 to immediately start shooting at night. Utilizing these customizable options, you can switch settings with just one click — without the need to go into the menu each time you change scenes.

Beautiful stills, anytime
Not only daytime but also night and low-light indoor images come out clean and free from image noise in still photography. This is thanks to the Z 30’s large APS-C size/DX-format image sensor, as well as its high ISO range up to 51200. Capturing more light than a typical smartphone*, the image sensor also creates a softer, more natural background bokeh, which helps you bring out exactly the part of the image you want to show.
* 1/2.5-in. sensor.

Capture the best moments in action
The Z 30 can shoot up to 11 frames per second*. Combined with the great image-making performance and advanced AF technology, each frame comes out in beautiful quality and sharp focus, letting you choose your favourite shot from multiple frames. You’ll be able to beautifully capture those striking moments of someone jumping or your pet dashing towards you.
* With a mechanical shutter, in high-speed continuous shooting (extended), in JPEG and 12-bit RAW recording.

Impressive selfies for more attractive thumbnail images
Turn both the camera and vari-angle monitor to face yourself and the camera automatically starts self-portrait mode. Create impressive selfies this way by checking how you look on the monitor and adjusting with a simple touch operation. In still photography mode, the large video-record button also functions as the shutter-release button for easy operation. You’ll be able to shoot thumbnail images in better quality and with greater ease.

Silent photography for truly candid moments
Sometimes you want to take a picture without disturbing anyone — capturing your friends’ natural smiles or your pets’ adorable sleeping face. Use the Z 30’s silent photography mode and photograph such moments in all their spontaneity or simple charm, without the sound of the shutter.

New to editing? Try the Movie Editor
Nikon’s free NX Studio software let you browse, process and edit what you have shot, while maximizing the full potential of the Z 30. Its Movie Editor video editing function is easy to use even for beginners, offering simple operation for creating an original video piece that includes both video footage and still images.

Go live with awesome video quality
Elevate your live streaming and web conferences with the Z 30. Nikon Webcam Utility turns the Z 30 into a great webcam just by connecting it to the computer via a USB cable. Even if you’re streaming in a dimly lit indoor situation, your footage will look clean with a soft background bokeh. There’s no need to worry about the battery running out mid-shoot, as power can be delivered via the USB connection.

Key Features

3’ Vari-angle touch-operation LCD screen

Up to 125mins of continuous video recording with record light confirmation

4K Video Recording using the full width of the sensor

Eye Detection autofocus in stills and video

Easy to use design featuring USB charging