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In news that shouldn’t surprise anyone who keeps up with the technology behind Nikon cameras, Techinsights is reporting Nikon’s flagship Z9 mirrorless camera is powered by a Sony Semiconductor image sensor.

It’s more or less an open industry secret Nikon has used Sony Semiconductor sensors at the heart of many of its DSLR and mirrorless camera systems. While Nikon and Sony Semiconductor are both evasive when questioned about these matters on the record, third-party teardowns and cross-referencing Nikon sensor’s specifications with offerings from Sony Semiconductor time and time again reveal that Sony Semiconductor is, in many instances, behind the pixels of Nikon camera systems.

The latest reveal, which was first reported by Nikon Rumors and based on a Techinsights analysis, is that Nikon’s Z9 mirrorless camera is using —or at least heavily based on — Sony Semiconductor’s IMX609AQJ sensor, a 45.7MP Stacked backside-illuminated sensor.

A close-up shot of the Z9’s full-frame sensor.

Techinsights provides this info as part of its Device Essentials Folder (DEF), which third-parties can purchase from the company to better understand the architecture of various tech components – in this case, the design of the sensor inside the Nikon Z9. Included in Techinsights’ DEF is a a ‘downstream product teardown, Package X-rays, die photograph, non-invasive optical photos of die features and SEM images of the pixel array delayered to the metal, transistor, and diffusion levels.’ Techinsights also provides ‘Exploratory cross-section SEM imaging of the general pixel array and peripheral structures.’ In other words, it’s pretty safe to assume Techinsights’ report is accurate and extremely detailed.

Again, this news shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention to Nikon hardware over the past decade or so, but it’s still nice to get what is more or less confirmation of a detail that’s been suspected since launch.