Here we are comparing two Nikon cameras cameras with different body types: Nikon Z5 II, which was introduced in April 2025 is a Advanced Mirrorless camera with a 25.0MP Full frame sensor whereas Nikon D6, which was introduced in February 2020 is a Pro DSLR camera with a 21.0MP Full frame sensor. As you can see, D6 is 5 years older than Z5 II. Let's see if this age difference between two cameras makes a big difference.
Despite some fundamental differences of these two body types, Mirrorless cameras are becoming serious alternatives to DSLR cameras thanks to their size/weight advantages and recent improvements in their focus speeds , which makes this comparison even more interesting. Fortunately, you can't go wrong with any of these cameras as we rank them amongst Top 10 cameras in their classes. Nikon Z5 II is ranked
#3 out of 71 Advanced Mirrorless cameras with an overall score of 85 whereas Nikon D6 is ranked
#2 out of 36 Pro DSLR cameras with an overall score of 66.
Here is a brief look at the main features of the Nikon Z5 II and Nikon D6 before getting into our more detailed comparison.
Let's read on in the following sections in order to better understand in detail how the Nikon Z5 II and Nikon D6 compare and hopefully end up with enough arguments to decide which one is better for you.
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