Not relevant to this, but I just want to say thank you for your videos and books. I was perplexed on why I could not see the histogram on Z8 monitor and viewfinder. Voila, your book gave me the answer! I struggled all day on D19 with no luck. I had fiddled around with D10 Starlight mode. You’re a genius to include tidbits like this in your book.
I programed the Cycle-AF area mode into my Z8 and Z9 I had used the last couple days while photographing Sandhill cranes in Nebraska. This configuration proved very useful particularly when I wanted to photogram a specific individual crane like the one in the foreground. Indeed this is great addition to the Z8 and Z9. Thanks for the video.
Hi Steve, have switched to Nikon from Canon (after 25 years) and just want to say your extremely clear and informative tutorials are making the process a whole lot easier with the Z8 and your lens reviews have helped me choose the right gear. I know that many other UK bird photographers feel the same way and value your opinions very highly. Thanks again!
I LOVE this new Cycle AF option - hoping it also makes its way to my button-deficient Zf 🙂 I go back & forth a little on which modes to keep in the Cycle rotation in my banks (standard, portrait, macro, action), always walking the line between keep-it-simple and FOMO 😆 I mainly keep Auto Area, 3D, Wide-L, and sometimes C1. I assign Single Point + AF-ON to Fn1 and Cycle AF to Fn2. Sub Selector Button is my quick kill-switch for Subject Detection, via RSF. Although as firmware improves, I'm shutting off SD less frequently.
Thanks for explaining this so clearly. It revealed the cause of something that was really frustrating me (missing modes when cycling through the selected AF mode menu items), the root cause of which was a small mismatch between the AF modes in the two different menus in different locations. Now it all works perfectly and, as you say, once set up correctly it is a quick and genuinely very useful additional feature that was buried in the list of Z9 FW5 changes.
Brilliant video, Steve. Customising buttons imho one of the most underrated benefits of the Z9 in particular and one of my frustrations with the Z6ii with the lack of features you can assign to some buttons.
Thanks Steve, as usual you always explain things clearly and straight to the point without all the fluff. I can see where many will forget to enable an AF area mode and wonder why they can't cycle to it. Good catch!
After watching your video, set my AF area modes accordingly, and I took the Z9 out for a test. I was blown away. Cycling through the AF modes was like magic. Huge thanks, Steve. 💯💯 🤜🤛
Brilliant idea to program the AF Area Cycle to the "RECORD" button instead of a Function button. The Fn1, Fn2 and Fn3 can ba a little akward to select when you are working fast. I had my Z 9's initally set to Fn2. Having the AF Area Cycle easily accessed with your index finger on the "Record" button is the way to go!
What I really like about this feature (example): If I have bird subject selected, when I cycle through, it will keep bird subject selected. Also, I like assigning it to the record button because it is raised up more than the other buttons. It makes it easier to find. For some reason it is awkward for my fingers to reach Fn1, Fn2 and Fn3. What a game changer for me and would not have noticed it without your video. Thank You!!!
Thanks Steve! I'm retired, but I still shoot a bit of freelance work as well as dabbling in wildlife photography. I also have a lot of other hobbies, so I may not shoot anything for a week or more, so my camera button muscle memory isn't what it was when I shot full time. More than once when a decisive moment presents itself and I want to change the AF Mode I have pushed the FN1 button and inadvertently turned the rear dial, cycling through MF/AF-S/AF-C, the time lost getting back to AF-C and then turning the front dial has caused me to miss a few shots. I'm confident reconfiguring the video button to cycle AF areas will be a better option for me. :)
I think a video that might be useful is just reiterating that you still are in full control of your exposure settings even if you are in an auto exposure mode. Not exactly sure why, but seems like there is a misconception that in manual you have control but the auto settings you don’t, when really the different modes are just different ways of arriving at a particular combination of exposure settings. I know you’ve covered this ground before. Always know you’re going to give correct info
I have it set up to my portraits needs and it has really been a game changer . I assigned mine to movie rec. button as I shoot mostly portraits and my longest lens is the 200mm f2 . I selected , wide area small , C2 (1x7) and auto area .I still have a button set for single point to be able to respond in the most demanding of situations. I advise you check all the af options in limit af ,then go to cycle options and pick precisely the ones you fancy.
Thanks Steve. I love this change. I like the video button for this because of its location and because it is raised. My handoff set up works great, but this is extra gravy. I hope that cycling through subject matter detection will be added next. The need to change subject modes is frequent, and disruptive.
Thanks for that very handy. Especially when out shooting birds, where one moment you are trying to get a photo of a bird in a tree, then all of a sudden another bird flies by. I've mine set up on the Fn1 button as I find it more convenient.
Oh, love this. Most certainly for use when in cold weather when I use glomitts and with only the end of my index finger peeking out of the 'finger' of the mittens, into the cold, having the cycle through AF option under that finger tip is going to be great -- no way to hit my function buttons with any precision or at all with second and third fingers nestled in down mittens :) Of course, I think cold weather is over for the season, but think how used I'll be to using this feature by next winter :)Thanks as always, Steve. Great stuff.
Hi Steve, This old timer had all sorts of trouble , thought I would take off the long glass and put on my 20mm 1.8 while I set it up, Just could not get it working? Finally after going backwards and forwards, this 79 yo , noticed theglaring at me in the viewfinder! I'll blame it on my anaesthetist, I'm sure he has removed too many brain cells :) Works a treat now, thank you for your continuing support Much appreciated, Regards , Gary ......................... AU
I set mine up for this after watching your other video. It is faster. I set mine to the function 1 button because I have the FX/DX on the record button in case I need to crop in real quick. My 180-600mm usually stays on my z8. I just got my L bracket in yesterday. I haven't even used my z8 for landscape yet. I mostly use it for sports and wildlife.
So glad they added it to the Z9. I still left spot foucs on Fn2 so I can press it and immediately be in spot focus as long as I hold it down. Now if they would let us cycle from bird to animal detection on a button it would be great.
Thanks Steve. Such a life saver. This was driving me nuts as I couldn’t recycle auto area AF using my custom button in photo shooting menu. However I could do that in video menu!
Thanks for sharing your tips and suggestions on the new AF cycle capability. After watching this, I feel your recommendations supersede my setup, so going to give it a try. Thanks Steve!
You can use Recall Shooting Functions to switch to one or the other. For instance, you can have the camera set to People and have it switch to Vehicles when you press the assigned button for Recall Shooting Functions. Not perfect, but it works.
This is a great idea for that function and I'm going to change my to this. I've had the record button for 100% zoom forever and rarely use it. normally i use it to look farther to locate something. This is a much better use of that button for sure. Changing both 9's and the 8 later after work. Thanks Steve! Great info per usual
yeh i set that on rec button with rotational dail as of old way, now moved to this one and it does feel better, between that FN 2 return 3D and single point on lens i have my 3 options on Z8 with the 600 plus rotational also.
Steve taught me to use this on my Sony A9ii via one of his excellent Sony set up videos. Cycle AF area mode has been on Sony cameras for a long time. I am not a Sony fanboy.
Very useful setting. Thanks for taking the time to make this video. I think you'll point me in the direction of another video but as a sports shooter, I like to have Auto-Area without face detection and a narrow upright area with face detection. I'm still trying to get my head around the Z9's many settings! 😳
Thanks for this, I'd thought 5.0 was nothing much for me, but I'll definitely install it now and do what you suggest as it will makes things a lot easier when you need to change settings when the action kicks off.
I have ended up using a workaround to switch detection modes. It is inelegant and a pain to set up or modify, but at least it works. I use the shooting bank function to set up 3 banks with three different subject detection modes (birds, animals, people). Obviously you could use other or additional modes. I leave the other settings in each mode the same, but they could be tailored to the particular detection mode. Then I use a custom button setting to let me instantly choose the different shooting banks.
I use RSF to toggle Animal on and off (I keep it set to Bird). I also have Fn2 programmed to go to the first item in My Menu, which is Subject Detection - then I just pick what I want. Lots of work arounds, none of them great though IMO.
awesome! pretty confident I would have never found this! That said solves a longtime frustration fore me personally trying to quckly change before the subject does something that requires a NEW quick change in the wrkflow11
I would not have guessed someone as experienced as Steve would have lenses so close to the edge of a 3- or 4 level bookshelf. an some lenses without the rear cap (just behind him).
I shot this video as I was in the processing of packing for Africa and had gear all over. Sorry if that disappoints you. FWIW, no lenses were harmed in the making of this video.
Thanks Steve. Great input. I think I'll move AF area cycling to my AF-ON button, instead of the video button. For some reason, in the field, even after owning the Z9 4 months and using it intensively, I have to take my face out of the viewfinder if I want to shoot video, because often my index finger just can't find the darn vid button. I have to find it visually, place my finger on it and carefully keep it there while I scoop the camera back into my face. Often needing to reframe the shot, moment gone, inspiration gone. Clumsy. It's my bad. Not so with the AF-ON button that my thumb can find and often finds. I'll think I'll sacrificy the unpairing of focus and click that the AF-ON button gives (I feel that I have that with half-press and press, I really don't see the point of AF-ON, but I'm getting off-topic.). Anyway :). Thanks.
Great video Steve! As usual...Off this topic I was wondering if you could do a video on the Atmos monitoring and why and how it works for you. I think I would like it just to check my images before I shoot. Especially landscapes. I don't know maybe I'm crazy, but it just seems like a good idea. If you could show what you use would be great. Your videos and work are fantastic and like below you ARE The Nikon Guy to go to...Thanks for sharing your time and knowledge with us all. Peace
The human factors of these lists are horrible. Its a computer with a camera NOT a camera with a computer! I have been shooting Nikon for 50 years and love the z8, just not the lists. Great video.
Thanks for sharing your great knowledge. My Z 7II look so simple, but I do mostly landscape. Sharing your knowledge is so important to offset the likes of “the arrogant guy with the Afro” and the husband sad wife due that obviously won’t give any credibility to Nikon.
The Z7ii is my #1, hands-down, no questions about it, pick for landscape work. It has an amazing sensor and is really compact. When I do landscapes, I often have to hike quite a bit and a small, light, high quality camera like the Z7ii is perfect.
The fact that Nikon allows an AF area to be selected under cycle when it's disabled under the other menu, that's simply poor coding on their part. They should have either overide the other, or grey it out and have a help tip showing why, or a pop-up when you toggle that under cycle that says it's disabled, would you like to enable it yes/no and then do it. Thank you for pointing it out, hopefully they will fix that to something that's coded as it should be.
Thank you for another fantastic tutorial, Steve! Please keep them coming 🙏 With this new feature, maybe I can free up the AF-area mode selection on the i-Menu and use that location for something else. I can always add "a8" to "My menu" for quick access should I ever find the need for one of the "unselected" modes. What do you think? And a special request for you Steve: Though you are not a videographer per se, it would be wonderful if you could make a tutorial on the very basics on how to shoot the occasional video - given that your guides don't discuss this at all for obvious reasons. Thank you so much!
One thought is just to leave the Focus Mode Button for AF modes. It's not in a great spot, but it would still allow you to access the AF areas you don't have checked with Cycle AF. Not sure if I'll do something on video - I know just enough to get by and I always dislike it when someone on YT comes across as an "expert" on something they don't fully understand (and I'm aware that approach is more the rule than the exception). I don't want to tell you stuff I really don't know that well. If I dive deeper into video down the road, it'll probably happen.
Steve you should go and sit on the naughty chair, you have a lens on the shelf behind you with no lens cap on its rear! ☹️ little bugs love to crawl into dark small places like lenses, once had a thunder bug get into the mirror box of my old D5 it was very annoying , lol 😀 Quality video and information as always! Have a great Easter weekend 👏👍😀
Great video Steve, can you use your power to suggest a real time highlight alert function in the LVF pleeeaase! Every time there's a new update I pray that it's on there.
Another excellent learning video, Steve. Thank you. I have held off on the Z9 upgrade because I have read that the camera essentially resets to factory settings when the 5.0 update is done. If that is the case, what do you recommend for saving my settings before the update. I don’t use menu banks, just the basic “control” button changes and copyright settings, etc. Thanks in advance for any guidance you provide. Don
I wish I had options like this on my Z7 II... Or even just the option to use different AF modes by holding specific buttons. Would just take a firmware update. Nikon already does a LOT with updates but this would be such a great feature to add to all cameras. Anyway, I set up my Z7 II so I can cycle between AF modes by holding one of the function buttons and turning the dial. It does allow to limit the selection to the modes you need so it is kind of similar to what you set up with the record button. But it still feels limiting.
Hopefully they'll add it one day, but I kind of feel like if they were going to they would have by now. Never know with Nikon though - they seem to really like FW updates :)
I wonder why the update not allowes copying pictures from the memory card to ssd by usb-c port. There is a copy menu which allows to copy from card 1 to card 2 and works quite well. For me this would be a very appreciated update.
