It had been rumoured for some time, but now it's official: the Nikon Z5 mirrorless system camera will arrive summer 2020.

Its goal? Simple: to make full-frame photography more affordable for those wanting that bigger sensor experience. Not that the £1,719/€1,999 asking price is small, per se, it's just under that critical two grand mark with a lens included. In the USA the body-only price is $1,399.

So what do you get for your money? The Z5 is designed to sit beneath the Z7 a Z6 models, bringing a 24.3-megapixel full-frame sensor to the line-up (which is almost the same resolution as that in the Z6).

Also launching is the Nikkor Z 24-50mm f/4-6.3 lens, which claims to be the "shortest and lightest full-frame mirrorless zoom lens" on the market. That's another play of the Z5: to bring a more compact form factor compared to similar cameras.

The Z5 isn't just about stills, as it's gifted with 4K video capture too. There's dual card slots (SD, UHS-II) to capture files, which will be especially handy for large video files.

Here's a quick summary of other big selling points about the Nikon Z5:

  • Built-in 3,690k-dot viewfinder (EVF) & tilt-angle LCD touchscreen
  • 5-axis Vibration Reduction (VR) stabilisation system
  • Dust & moisture sealed magnesium alloy body
  • 273-point Hybrid AF autofocus system
  • Eye-Detection AF locks onto eyes
  • Animal-Detection AF for pets
  • Wi-Fi & Bluetooth

Sounds like a treat. The camera will go on sale "late summer" 2020 - which is probably another way of saying September. Still no word on the also rumoured Z30 model though, so expect more on that later down the line.