Nikon has taken the bold, innovative step of waiting five years to update its full-frame Z5 camera to the Z5 II, and then, instead of resting on its laurels, has now announced a variant of last year's upgrade that removes features rather than adding them. The new Nikon Z5 IIC is aimed at novice photographers who, presumably, won't miss what they never had.

While the Nikon Z5 II starts at $1,849.95, the Z5 IIC undercuts it by $450, coming in at $1,399.95. For that price, you get a refreshed design and all of the original's best core features - just not all of them.

Under the hood, the Z5 IIC retains the Z5 II's 24.5-megapixel backside illuminated full-frame sensor, the same EXPEED 7 image processing engine found in Nikon's higher-end shooters, and in-body image stabilization. It can capture JPEG images at up to 30 fps using its electronic shutter, with the option to capture images for up to a full second before the shutter button is pressed. There's also a mechanical shutter that shoots up to 15 fps in JPEG mode - a feature you won't find on the new $1,899 full-frame Canon EOS R8 Mark II, which apparently considers such things optional.

To achieve that lower price, Nikon made some cuts. The Z5 IIC loses the Z5 II's electronic viewfinder entirely. The resolution of its 3.2-inch articulated touchscreen has been significantly reduced from 2.1 million to 1.04 million dots, because who needs to see their photos clearly anyway? The camera also includes just a single UHS-II SD card slot, so there's no redundancy for captured images and videos - hope you like living dangerously. And it lacks a joystick, requiring you to adjust autofocus points and navigate menus using its multi-directional controller, which is a bit like trading in your steering wheel for a pair of pliers.

In short, the Z5 IIC is a camera for people who want full-frame quality without full-frame frills, and who are willing to squint at a lower-resolution screen while hoping their single memory card doesn't fail. Nikon calls it affordable. We call it a lesson in compromise.