Nikon Z7 & Z6 - The REAL Problem with that SINGLE Memory Card Slot 

They are 90MB/s write which is the important bit, my SanDisk Extreme Pro's manage that for even cheaper. Nikon definitely shouldn't have done XQD, they should have done dual SD and gone with USH-II since they allow up to 300MB/s which isn't far off what XQD can manage but allows for cheaper cards to be used if desired

Matt, just out of curiosity, what settings do you use on the G85 in the studio, i.e. picture style and/or contrast, sharpness, noise reduction, saturation settings. Thanks.

I believe that used xqd because of the buffer for Raw photos if you're taking a 45 megapixel raw photo continuous you need a huge buffer dump to empty the buffer into xqd I think SD would be not fast enough for that. I know that cfast is coming out and they say you won't even have to wait for the buffer to empty

I have not heard much yet about the new capabilities of the Z series regarding wireless transmission. Are the capabilities greater than with the D850? If one could use the XQD card and at the same time sending a backup to a storage device you'd have in a pocket the lack of dual cards would be irrelevant.

Art Excellent thoughts on the card issue. I'm a D850 shooter and mine is always loaded with both an XQD Card and an SD Card. The photographer has the choice of which card he/she wants yo buy and use but if dual cards are needed, both types must be used and the SD card is supposed to slow down performance a bit. I'm a landscape photographer, so write and read speeds are not number one priority: quality and capacity is. So why did Nikon walk away from this setup? Makes zero sense to me. Peter

I thought that the QXD speed was to do with buffer speed for large RAW files?

Future yelp review: The photographer was really nice and highly recommended by my friends. However, when the photographer shot my wedding, they told me they had some technical difficulties and lost all the photos of my wedding. I did not get even one single photo of the wedding. Is this photographer even a professional? I will tell everyone I know how bad this photographer is!

Hi Matt, My biggest complaint is that when any camera company gives us two slots, they tend to cripple the whole usability by making the second slot a slower card. I want 2 x Identical fast slots whether XQD, CFast or fast SD,. Nikon should have made the Z7 and Z6 bodies Tall enough to stack two cards and built in a vertical grip with a D5 style battery optimised for mirrorless use or are they saving that for the Z9? Also, after all the hype about the lens flange size, I am very disappointed with the lens road map. I expected Nikon to take advantage of the opportunity to start from scratch and build the camera and lenses of the future, starting with 24-70 F2.8 or even F1.8, and having a 35mm f1.4 and 85mm F1.4 available from day 1.

I'd have preferred dual UHS II SD slots like Fujifilm offers in their XT2. You could still use your current UHS I SD cards or if you needed the better read/write gone for the faster UHSII cards which are still cheaper than XQD. You'd have full redundancy combined with speed in a backwards compatible card type. The XQD would be better utilised in say Nikon's higher end faster FPS sports/wildlife future mirrorless ( Z9 perhaps?) just as the current D5 has now.

Hi Matt I love your videos. I have been to a store in Manhatten and they advised that the micro card is not really for cameras and cause problems. They further stated that i should use a "Full SD Card" always for shooting. Is this the case? I am also a bit weary about a single slot, but to be honest i at times shoot a single slot even with dual slot cameras. I only disappointment is that Nikon did not "BLOW AWAY" the mirror-less competition. I did not wait on nikon which is my first love. i bought the Sony A7111 and right now I am not regretting it based on what i have seen of Nikon's Mirror-less so far. Can you voice your opinion on that (the fact that Nikon just merely entered the race instead of blowing away the competition)?

I thought they did it because it will take a CF Express card when available with a simple firmware update?

You are again avoiding the real issue here Matt. Those Z cameras are not reliable for professional photographers and videographers with just one card slot. I don't care what kind of single card is in it. You just HAVE to have 2 slots. Why does the D850 have 2 card slots? Why does even the D750 have 2 card slots if they are not needed? And why did Sony have 2 card slots in their a7iii cameras if it's not about reliable backup of photos straight from the source? Im sorry, Matt but YOU will have to answer these questions. Would YOU recommend these cameras as reliable enough for event photographers? Over cameras that have 2 slots? That is what Tony Northrup was talking about. He cannot recommend this camera to professionals because of that. Because there ARE more reliable cameras out there offering pretty much exactly the same quality but better reliability for professional work. I know you are excited - But be reasonable and not stupid in your hype ;) There is a HUGE difference between RU-vidrs who consider them "professionals" making their own content and those that are getting paid huge money to provide quality and reliable photos or videos.

I may be 100% wrong, but I see a few echos of VHS, Beta and latterly Blu-ray in here. Unless I’m mistaken Nikon still rely on Sony for their sensors and Sony are looking to embed the proprietary XQD standard as the natural replacement for SD. I do wonder if Sony are starting to use their market position in sensors to “influence” others product design. And in that situation, I doubt Nikon would have had any choice but to go with a competitive sensor.

Thank you for the review

The Z series *can't be used by amateurs either* because we tend to accidentally delete images, accidentally format full cards, accidentally delete folders, and accidentally losing cards. So, amateurs need 2 card slots too. XQDs can't be found in stores if you run out of space. You can find SD cards in Walgreens, Walmart, even large gas stations in highway exits sometimes.

My hope is that xqd prices are gonna drop a lot (like it had happened with other data storage devices), so within a couple of years it's already not gonna be an issue.

Anything definite on Canon full frame mirrorless releases? Will it happen in our lifetime?

You said it was plenty fast enough. That depends on the size of the buffer. If the buffer is small, , then you need a faster memory card.

hi iam using d7200 now i want to buy aa potrate lens iam confisud b/w 1.8g or 1.4D please give me aa clarity

The Z7 fills its buffer after just 16 shots (uncompressed RAW, Jared Polen), so having an XQD card clears the buffer almost immediately, minimising delay in shooting again. An SD card would not allow this - they would’ve needed a bigger buffer.

In this day and age having a dual card slot should be mandatory in a professional camera. It takes all the worry out of shooting when you have a backup. Also I was disappointed that it was not suitable for SD cards. That would have made a lot of sense. On both counts I think Nikon missed the mark which is a shame.

hi like the video. the cost of the camera plus the cost of the adapter plus the cost of the card makes it the deal breaker for me

Good point, Matt. 4K is not an issue here - clearing of the buffer in a 12 fps 24MP, or 9 fps in a 45MP camera is. Let us see the technicalities: 4K @30p requires only 30MB/sec (8MBx30fps = 240 Mb/sec or 30MB/s) sustained transfer rate, and can be handled by SDXC U3 UHS I cards. However, for 24MP sensor full uncompressed 14-bit RAW readout, file size is 51MB. Taking 12 fps that gives 612 Mb/sec. For 45MP sensor, file size will be roughly double - say 100MB. Taking 9 fps gives 900 Mb/sec! UHS I max is 104 Mb/sec, UHS II max is 312 Mb/sec. (When UHS III finally comes out, we might have a match). XQD version 1.0 max. speed is 500 MB/s (or 4,000 Mb/sec), version 2.0 is 1,000 MB/sec. Thus we see that current SD cards will take a long time to clear the buffer - for XQD the time is very short (people who have handled the preproduction X6 and X7 might be able to verify this). When UHS III SD cards come out, they might be able to handle that issue.

Maybe you can use snapbridge to send photos to a phone as backup.

Since some card BATCHES are defective (the entire batch), *the best approach ever was in the D810/D850: different types of cards in two slots* - that's zero chances of failing - even if an entire batch of SDs is defective, your second card is different, either a CF (D810) or an XQD (D850).

Stills photographers equate fast lenses with wide aperture. A fast lens is one that gathers and transmits more light to the sensor. The side effect of this is a lower ISO is required to obtain the same exposure as a slower lens. This is T-stop. Cine lenses are measured in T-stops.

Hey Matt, they put XQD slot because they launched their own XQD Card. Bringing that business in-house.

The price of the D850 is going down quick now that the Z series came out. I have no doubt the DSLRs are on their way out.

One card slot not the problem. But the type of card and cost of XQD.

I think they are a pathway to the nrw CFAST card

I don't mind that it had an XQD slot in it. Nikon's reasoning for not putting in a second slot was space. I figure, why not combine what you're saying here with what they did. Have a primary XQD card for those who want the faster card, and have a backup microSD slot. They take up bugger all space, any engineer who couldn't figure out how to add one in that available space should be shot. And like you say, they're large and cheap. I use the Samsung Evo Plus (not select) as backup cards, and in my phones/tablets etc. They're dirt cheap and so far, reliable. Not to mention the evo plus cards get ~60mb/s write speeds which makes them half the price and 2/3 the performance of the sandisk extreme pro cards I'm using as primaries. Hell if they really wanted to go nuts they could have put in a UHS2 microSD slot and the backup card would have been fast and tiny. All of that aside, I don't think any of this is the *real* issue that has caused all the fuss. The real issue is that Nikon had years to look at what Sony was doing and come out with something that ticked every box. They didn't need to release something and listen to feedback, Sony has already been there and done it, got the t-shirt. Nikon could have released an every man camera (that lets face it, people still would have found stuff to complain about) that would have avoided this sort of debate on what for a decent portion of shooters is a serious technical shortcoming. No, not everyone needs dual cards, but some really do, so this isn't an option for them. That's a segment of the market closed to them. They could have done better, chose not to. The reality of it is, it was probably done for cost reasons more than anything else. They released a product to a price point trying to compete with Sony, instead of just saying 'we're the daddy' and releasing the best product they could. They ignored their user base, the millions of shooters with a bag full of Nikon glass that were guaranteed customers, all so they could compete with Sony in a race to the bottom. It's a wasted opportunity. That's what we should be angry about.

Xqd and associated cost would prevent me from considering the Nikon Mirrorless

In a nutshell, if one of my cards fail at one of my events...could i have Nikon's Insurance and Lawyers to respond to my clients?? Something to think about it.

They should've put an additional dual micro SD slot for non RAW shooting. After all, this is a Pro sumer camera. You can't use both the XQD + SD of course because of speed discrepancies, but they Should've put 3 slots in there (2 microSD and 1 XQD)

I have several fast samsung micro sd cards, and they are great for 4K - but my understanding is that the write speed is most important. I have xqd for my D500, but the ARE expensive. I wish they went to SD UHS ii, which have very fast write speeds and work fine for the newest sony cameras. The Nikon z card slots are also compatible with the newest really fast CF cards, which will only need a firmware upgrade. Maybe the buffer will improve with that new card, but no doubt it will be even more expensive? But then, maybe the xqd cards will come down in price once they are released :D

I totally agree. Currently, I am only using a single SD card in my D850. Using both card slots would be nice, but my thought is that I have limits when it comes to the cost of certain things. I and many others like myself would rather spend the kind of money that XQDs cost towards other things. I can get a nice flash, modifier, or lens for what these cards cost. That’s just me. And this came to mind... Between (4) and (7) 256gb XQD cards at $463 each, is the equivalence of a pro series camera body in terms of price. ISANE!

I have taken over 300,000 images over last 10 years and never had a card fail, however if I was doing event or wedding photography I would always want to use a dual card. RAW on one and Jpg on another. Its not a deal breaker to me.

i don't like neither the single card slot, nor the fact it's not for sd cards. but it's not like i was going to switch from my nikon d7200 to the z6 or z7 anyway...

The Z cameras can also support CF Express with a firmware update, says their spec sheet. I guess they were busy future proofing and missed the economics of the SD card

My personal opinion is that by using an XQD it will help them reduce the impact of having a relatively small buffer capacity on the camera when in continuous high shooting. The write speeds of the XQD cards are around 400MB/s whereas the SD cards are generally around 100MB/S. The write speed on the XQD is likely to get quickly with time, making the gap even larger. Personally if i did get one of the new cameras (unfortunately cant afford it...) i would prefer to have the XQD over the SD (or even better XQD and SD).

For people already invested in Nikon the Z6 would be a nice SECOND camera to your pro Nikon DSLR, especially if you want to get into video and use the Z6 as your primary VIDEO camera. Im thinking about a A6500 to go with my D800e and D610. Now the Z6 is on the radar. Its nice that Nikon is now on my list for VIDEO purposes, but its also sad that I am not considering any of these camera's for my primary photo work. Maybe, just maybe thats what Nikon was targeting, a great second camera for pros and a nice primary camera for regular folk.

I think it was the right move - I think it's the equivalent of a cell phone company switching charging cables or hell, even nikon switching it's mount. I believe that the XQD is undoubtedly the future especially with the future compatibility with CFExpress. While it might be more expensive now, you'll be future proofed with faster cards. ALso, as some have mentioned keeping the absolute fastest card in there allows the buffer to clear lightning fast (especially important with the file sizes from the 45 mp body) which is important when the buffer is not the biggest

In terms of the Nikon lineup i wouldn't be surprised if the Z6 and Z7 were meant to be high end consumer cameras to allow Nikon to get something usable out quickly, gauge feedback and then come out with a pro body (with dual slots hopefully) in 6-12months with as many of the issues ironed out as possible (Z9 maybe?). Dono just my initial thoughts on the matter

I keep hearing since a camera doesn't have 2 card slots, it's not professional. There's a lot of professional cameras with 1 card slot. Leica, Medium formats, Drones, Red cameras, Atomos Recorders, and a lot more... I could see that a wedding photographer might want dual card slots for insurance, but I shot many weddings and events back in the film days and there was no backups. Maybe the Z line isn't for those types of photographers yet. Maybe when Nikon releases the D5 mirrorless version it'll have 2 cards. I read on Nikon's website that they're future proofing the card slot by using the XQD card, because when CFexpress cards come out, they'll be the same form factor as the XQD cards and Nikon will do a firmware update to accept the new cards. The CFexpress speeds will be 1400 MB/s. This will allow Nikon to shoot more frames per second, while it clears the buffer in a crazy speed time. Instead of shooting the 2 card slot down, I'm excited to see what Nikon is going to do down the line. If you need 2 card slots, get a Nikon D850 or Sony...it's that simple.

This man speaking facts. Single Card Slot is the worst, wedding photographers need to avoid this camera.

That SD card is 1/4 the speed of an XQD, and throughput is necessary in the "Z" Camera's to compete. You are not comparing apples to apples with this rant.

Nikon plans, via a software update, to support CFexpress. CFexpress (1970 MB/s) has the same form-factor as XQD (1000 MB/s) and will support higher capacity. So I agree with Nikon's decision. I don't agree the the argument that the second card is a backup. The second card is useful for overflow and RAW+jpg. RAW+RAW is not an option on a D750 and I doubt for any other camera. Dual card slots required a larger body than the single slot design. Delkin will be manufacturing CFexpress cards.

At these days that prize difference with XQD and fast SD card is not much anything,almost same prize

The new Nikon is a stunner, and the XQD cards are expensive but reliable and fast, SD cards fail more, and the report from Nikon says that Nikon users has a very low numbers of reported card failure. Maybe Sony design their card slot module not well enough and forces the cards to fail. Very common issue in Sony

I agree. It effectively raises the price of the camera by $300. If they had put in a single sd card slot, I would have bought the camera. Think I'll go with the A7iii. I can use the money I would need to spend on new cards to buy a lens.

Interesting, when the Sony A7 series didn't have dual card slots it was considered completely unnecessary...

I think the opted for 1 slot XQD because they (for some stupid reason in my mind) target only existing Nikon users. By that logic the buyer of a Z6/7 would already have XQD cards, compatible batteries and obviously F mount lenses. And the single card slot would not be a big deal if the Z6/7 was a second camera body. In my mind we're seeing management in Nikon protecting the existing DSLR line because they have not yet realised that mirrorless will surpass DLSR on every single metric except battery life in the very near future (arguably Sony 3rd gen have already done that). For a pro the price of a XQD really dosent make or brake this camera, but the single slot in many cases will. For me personally neither single slot, nor XQD would be a deal breaker. I would certainly prefer SD though. SD UHS-II (like Sony supports) offers up to 330 MB/s, only 100 MB/s behind current XQD cards. For me I use UHS-I Samsung Evo like the one you've got at 100 MB/s, plenty good enough for me.

If Nikon actually believed that "pro" cameras didnt need dual card slots, then they would make all their cameras with 1 card. Oh, wait, they dont.

XQD cards are much faster than SD. It’s not just useful for 4K video. It’s also useful for fast shooting like sports and wildlife in clearing the buffer. You may think the micro or regular SD cards are fast and cheap, but 100 MB/s is slow compared to 400 MB/s in XQD. And a SD card with the same read and write speeds as a XQD card costs about the same. Plus, XQD cards are much more robust and almost never ever fail.

So that creates a market for XQD to microSD adapters..

Matt I think everyone is just hopping in the wrong stuff that is missing on the Nikon Z6 and Z7 cameras. Missing a card slot is just not an issue. When a semi pro or pro shoots there should be constant offloading onto a backup solution when shooting. 90% of Dual Card shooters DO NOT shoot RAW on both as a backup. People need to figure out the right workflow. Redundancy is not dual card slots. Redundancy is backups outside the camera, on SSD or HDD, either between shoots or while shooting. This is redundancy. I am not only a professional photographer and have been for 25 years, I am also an IT Security Specialist and believe me SD is NOT as robust as XQD. It also depends on the user not the camera for backups. Yes the costs are high on XQD however when you’re shooting in crazy weather and wearing gloves believe me SD is terrible to work with. XQD is easier to work with and even hold in your hands especially when there is major wind. So there is no need to worry about the missing card slot. What we should be worried about is more about the Autofocusing and the Focus Tracking issues. These issues will cause the camera not to be used as a camera by professionals. Professionals what cameras that can focus well and focus fast and track well. Now what grinds me is how people can complain about a camera that they have not used yet. Look at Sony. The world complained over and over and over again for years, yet Sony managed to overcome the issues and be a formidable force in this industry. Yes Nikon and Canon may be arrogant and may have a legacy however lets just see when we use the cameras to see what happens. My concerns are the following with the Z mount systems: - Auto Focus - Focus Tracking - Lenses *Nikon made a poor attempt to release these lenses I think the lenses are a disappointment because with this mount the Z mount, Nikon should have been ready out the gate with f1.2 and f1.4 lenses and not to rely on their current glass. This would have been something that PROs would love immediately and then separate Nikon from other Mirrorless makers however Nikon failed at this in my opinion. Anyway its still to early to tell so lets all just chill and wait to use the cameras and see what happens then.

I'm not a working pro anymore but when I was (and shooting film) I worried more about camera failure and if I was still working I would still be more concerned about that than a card failure. I wouldn't e shooting any important job with one body or at least not having a (minimum) second body with me. The cost of these cards will come down but it's another drop in the bucket of why I won't be shelling out for this camera in the near term. Stupidity on the part of Nikon or maybe just trying to squeeze out some extra profit from card sales?

Nikon wants you to buy the Z6/7 with one slot NOW and the Z6s/7s again with two slots LATER just like you did with all their previous DLSR models.

im just so confused by these cameras, I mean to me image quality and functionality of the camera trumps the type of card and lack of dual slots, so still waiting for reviews, not a pro but take an insane amount of pics and in 10 years of dslr never once used a card for backup, random times ive had overflow. that said im so not a fan of xqd, honestly on the random times im birding with the d500 and overflow to a SD I am not slowed down, cant see where I ever would be. they are too expensive, have had the d500 two years now and have 2 xqd cards, 30 plus SD cards all around my house, random times I forget an xqd ive always got an SD handy, either roaming around in my bag or I borrow one from another camera. I so wanted these cameras to be good

why do they need XQD they even don't have great buffer

So you add 200 USD to the price of the camera, (230 - 30) making it even more expensive right ? Nobody came up with that detail in the reviews till now :-)

I think that you’re right. XQD effectively drives up the price by hundreds of dollars without a clear benefit. If it had really high video bit rates or amazing buffering for high speed shooting it could be justified, but this camera has neither.

Hi Matt, this is an abysmal failure as these two Nikon mirrorless offerings do not compete effectively with the Sony a7 lll and the a7R lll. Pros need dual card slots for redundancy and eye autofocus for portrait and wedding photography. I have been a Nikon shooter for many years and I'm buying Sony mirrorless as they give me the tools I need for my work. I think the one XQD card slot is a deal breaker as well. Who is running Nikon and what were they thinking?

They’re trying to encourage widespread adoption of XQD/CFexpress which will drive down prices. They’re also less prone to damage and failure. By continuing to offer SD slots, many will never move to XQD.

For me I really don’t care about professional as much as casual photography and videography and I think this what Nikon are thinking of because what is the present of professional photographer out of all customers who is going to buy from Nikon in the end they are thinking of their share in the market and after when they get more understanding of the new system I am sure they will design all kind of camera to cover beginners to pros level.

I’m with you, XQD is way too expensive. Maybe it’s better if you foresee some harsh environments and do landscapes or maybe war photography. But XQD is overkill for the rest of us, especially if you do have dual card slots.

I think that most biggest reason is put XQD card ,because d850 have it,d500 have and if move from those at mirrorles ,have that card then allready to move at mirrosles Z6 or Z7,same thing like make that adapter at Z mount,can keep all nikon lenses if move to mirrorless,those i quess most reasons and need think too how many % of all world camera users are professional photographers.............that % is not much,but photographers and and who own camera have soooo much more

The hardware is probably not powerful enough to support two pci-e cards based cards. They most likely use a low power ARM SoC with pci-e.

Why expensive XQD? Because the D850/D4/D5 uses those cards and Nikon knows you will buy the Z6/7 as a backup body.

Nappa: "Vegeta, how many reviews does the Samsung 256GB 100MB/s (U3) MicroSDXC EVO card have?" Vegeta: "8,999...as of 2:40pm on August 25th, 2018."

It's amazing how people say 1 card slot isn't bad...you hear people say.." I haven't had a card fail yet"....a professional SHOULD ALWAYS use a camera with 2 slots!!!!!!!...cause as a professional you are being PAID to to a job and it's that's PROFESSINALS job to make sure they deliver their best work..key word DELIVER!!!...it just seems so reckless not to shoot to 2 cards for a PAID shoot!!... PERIOD.....And for all those "pro" shooters that think shooting with a camera with 1 card slot..."it may not have happened to you yet...but if it dose..."SORRY..my memory card failed...I lost most of your pictures I managed to save some but not all...I tell you what I charge you half price for my services...again IAM REALLY REALLY SORRY...I TRUELY AM."......THAT WILL NOT CUT IT IT WILL NOT MAKE IT BETTER IT WILL NOT MAKE THE CLIENT FEEL BETTER...AND IT WILL NOT BRING BACK TIME AND THOSE ONCE AND A LIFE TIME MEMORIES!!!....THE 2 SLOTS ARNT FOR YOU...ITS SECURITY FOR YOUR CLIENT!!!..." PROS" MY ASS

SD can fail but I never saw an XQD card fail and it is way faster! two of my sd cards failed until now

Single card slot is not an issue but xqd is the main disadvantage We need to invest on cards and card reader is the main issue

I agree with you. The xqd card is a real turn-off for me. No z6 or z7, as least for now.

I think it is a huge error on Nikon's part to go with XQD and one slot. How could they not add a fully articulating screen? Maybe the target audience for this camera is the advanced amateur and they want the pros to use the D850. I do not get it. In the end, the consumer will vote with their wallet. I was hoping Nikon would have released a mirrorless camera aimed at prosumers and pros. I would never shoot an event with a single slot. Just my opinion. Great video :)

XQD is a superior architecture also over SD. More reliable. According to Nikon the Z series will also handle CF Express which is, still yet, even faster. I think the issue is, in general, people treat SD and XQD the same for performance and reliability and they aren't. It's like saying a winter tire is a winter tire but in reality some are better than others and there's reasons for that. Sure it costs more, but when you're laying out that much for a camera the extra 100ish isn't that much more to ask for better performance and reliability.

They went with XQD for future proofing, not just for today's standards, when they go 4K at 60fps and faster like 20 shots a second in the future what then? they are starting afresh, for the future needs, try looking beyond the just now. They are.

I shoot with D7200 and I didn't bother getting D7500 because D7500 only has ONE card slot. My next camera will be D500 Anyway XQD is ideal for the 4K/8K videos that's why Sony originally created the format and the cards themselves are physically rugged. But the whole notion of having a "pro" bodies with one card slot is just baffling to me They could've just put two SD UHS2 slots on the Z6 and one XQD and one UHS2 slot on the Z7.

The REAL issue is the single card slot, not the price of the cards. You are confusing the issue to save face.

As a professional photographer, I see nothing wrong with having one card slot because I understand how SD cards work and how to avoid corruption and I've also never had any fail on me. I'm not the kind to worry about unlikely events. My only gripe is that it's only for XQD cards which are very expensive. Now don't get me wrong, two slots are always welcome, but it's not a deal breaker for me.

Card slots don't matter when I'm shooting video and recording to an Atomos. XQD and CFexpress are too $$. Much cheaper to shoot to the Atomos' SSDs and get 10 bit and log.

Leica had a single slot, always have and these are professionalll

It's weird, if "space" was really the reason for one slot, then it could have easily been 2 x Micro SD slots and the Samsung cards mentioned in the video!

Pro use it’s not, single slot is a risk you can’t take when your paid to deliver. I’ve had 2 failures in past at events, didn’t know until download point. I agree if this was aimed at consumer sdxc would be logical, this though is exactly the same reason Apple pushed all to lightning and usb-c. They want to push people over to the new format. It’s def expensive now. I asked nikon while I had hands on with Z7 about WiFi transfer, as has raw and jpeg fine option as a setting and thus the ability like d850 to send as you shoot but it was always small files, he told me raw/large file transfer has been unlocked, so there is hope, Unless he was talking BS to sell etc, didn’t have option to test this though. One thing I would say is I have never had or known anyone to have an XQD card failure, have you?

The Z cameras are fantastic and I use a 128 xQD card in my D500

It's way too much talk about the 1 card slot. I believe that there are more important issues regarding the cameras. Did anyone here watch the Nikon live video on their website with the 3 photographers. That one gentleman stated that he has shot over 800 weddings I believe and had only 2 cards to give him some trouble and he was still able to retrieve the photos from those card failures. I believe the hype is over blown about the 1 card slot.

If you were shooting a wedding, couldn't' you just have two XQD cards and shoot half the wedding with one card and then take that out and put in another that way you know you have half your shots safe already?

Yup. Nikon should have used TWO slots of UHS II speed SD cards.

Not a big deal its one slot. XQD is the future, and may become faster just as SD cards did over the years. Having the future now costs extra. Im not a pro. And I shoot tethered in my studio. Z6 pre-ordered.

The Nikon Z cameras will be fine cameras. I don't think they are pro cameras. They are more pro-sumer IMO. Where Nikon messed up is hyping these things for two months.

Can we all agree that professional news, sports and wedding/event photographers basic requirement in 2018 would be 2-card slots. Personally I'm getting bored by this.

Both single slot and the use of XQD are pretty serious issues for me. So serious in fact, that I took the decision to skip the first generation Z-cameras entirely. Nikon really lost me there, and not only for the bad recording media setup. There are other things like no flip-screen, questionable battery life, low FPS in continuous shooting with metering, no eye-detect... With some of these I could live, although its bad not to include them at the price point, but taken as a whole these cameras do not meet my expectations.

I think is a deal with Sony. Nikon mount xqd (Sony)and got sensors from Sony. No slot no sensor.

Didn't know XQD was so expensive. That is prohibitive.

It should of had 2 Micro SD cards instead of 1 XQD car NIKON made a very dumb choice No way i would ever want to shoot a once in a lifetime event relying on 1 card that is not doing your customer a great service for their event, Sure the new Z camera are a step in the right direction

I'm completely done with Nikon. I've been waiting so long, and they promised a great camera. Don't get me wrong, the camera has good specs, but for what they've promised it's disappointing. And that's the point, Sony isn't sleeping, Panasonic and Olympus are developing new technology right now. From Nikon we won't see a new camera in the next 3 years. But the technology in this camera is almost one year old. And the lenses are so expensive, 600$ for a 50mm 1.8?! 1000$ for a 35mm 1.8 and I have to buy XQD cards? No second card slot at this price point? I'm gonna sell my Nikon and buy something new, maybe Panasonic, maybe Olympus, maybe Fuji. I don't think Sony is right for needs.

XQDs are better built, so if they are to use only one card, they might as well use the more better built option.

No space for 2x sd card slots on the Nikon Z7! You will never need two slots man, U just need fast and quality in the camera! Forget the two card slots. The XQD will never fail. Because of that, the Z7 it's more fast than Sony A9 (Buffer and 4k video) and a perfect adaptation for gimball ! Nikon never does anything at random!

If you are dropping $2500-3200 for a camera XQD cards are going to be a pain but not prohibitive esp over the life of the camera. Then again I have lots of high speed SD cards. I thought the reason for backward compatibility was to retain or bring back Nikon shooters who had $$$$ invested in glass. If this is the case requiring new cards is shooting themselves in the foot! We know you can't just buy one card and call it a day. You'll (or a least I would) want 3 cards just to start. At 45MP you'll need lots of cards or big cards.

It’s as simple as this. Nikon made the deliberate choice to not include a second card slot. They admit they looked at it and said space was the issue. They feel it wasn’t an important issue for their customers. Just like if they didn’t include 4K video. Their choice and we have the right to choose to purchase or not. Me? I chose not. Simple.