The Nikon Z8 is an amazing camera, the number of things you can change and the options you have when you do so are quite remarkable compared to my Nikon D850. This camera was my go-to for nearly everything, the D850 and I had a great working relationship because we understood each other completely. I didn’t think that the D850 could be beaten but I’d heard so much about the Z8 and Z9 that I was finally tempted, after 18 months of nearly pressing the ‘buy now’ button, to add a Z8 to my camera collection. Going from a classic DSLR like the D850 to a futuristic mirrorless camera like the Z8 was a bit of a leap to say the least, everything looked very similar on the face of it but, underneath, it was a different world.
As I knew so much about the functions and settings of the D850 (or thought I did) I got to grips with learning everything I could about the Z8. Over a three month period I trawled through menus, experimented with the Shooting Menu Banks, Custom Settings Banks and Extended Menu Banks until my brain hurt. I changed all the Camera Button Assignments to suit each of the four Shooting/Custom menu banks I’d created and set up iMenu’s for each one, my Z8 was now a real beast of a camera which could do anything so long as I remembered what button, setting or option I needed for that particular shot. Most of my photography is Wildlife, I do some Landscape and Astro shooting but it’s safe to say that insect macro’s, animals and birds take up 90% of my time. Maybe I’m getting a bit too old for a camera like the Z8 but I found I was getting completely wound up by trying to remember where I’d put the metering option or what button to press to change the View Mode etc. and I went back to using my D850 just to make life easier. This was a great break from the complexity of the Z8 and in one of those ‘epiphany’ moments I realised that I needed to take a completely new look at the way I had set up the Z8 and bring it back down to earth.
Now that I had realised that I didn’t need a formula one racing car, when most of my travel was on dirt tracks, things got a lot easier. I carefully focussed on my needs for each of the types of photographs I took and worked from there. I set up only one set of Camera Button Assignments to incorporate my photography needs, and make it easier to remember what each button did. I set up two Shooting Menu Banks (General and Astro), which I only use to store iMenu’s for each option. The iMenu is accessible from the ‘I’ button on the back of the camera and is a customisable menu which gives you information about up to 12 changeable settings. Any other menu items that needed to be actioned quickly were put in the ‘My Menu’ section of the main menu so I could easily access them from the camera’s Menu button.
As I enjoy bird photography, particularly in flight, I was astounded to come across a rather quietly promoted option in the menu called ‘Recall shooting functions (hold)’. This menu option can be attributed to a button and, when pressed, will instantly switch the camera to some preset settings. See my blog for full details - https://www.naturakerkyra.com/post/nikon-z8-recall-shooting-function
The following are the full list of camera settings I have found to be perfect for my Wildlife, Landscape and Astro photography…….
Nikon Z8 - Default Settings for My Menu:
📷 AF subject detection options
📷 Auto capture *d10 Starlight view (photo Lv)
*a12 Built-in AF-assist illuminator
*d3 Pre-Release Capture options
Focus shift shooting
Pixel shift shooting
Multiple exposure
Extended menu banks
*f1 Customise [ i ] menu
*a20 Custom viewfinder shooting display
*a19 Custom monitor shooting display
*f2 Custom controls (shooting)
Nikon Z8 - Default Settings for the iMenu - Custom menu bank ‘A’ (Default)
Row 1:
Shooting menu bank
ISO settings
Af-area mode/subj. detection
Focus tracking with lock on
Metering
Silent mode
Row 2:
Custom menu bank
Exposure delay mode
Monitor/Viewfinder brightness
Choose image area (FX/DX)
Pre-release Capture Options
Pixel Shift
Nikon Z8 - Default Settings for the iMenu - Custom menu bank ‘B’ (Astro)
Row 1:
Shooting menu bank
ISO settings
Af-area mode/subj. detection
Multiple exposure
Metering
Silent mode
Row 2:
Custom menu bank
Focus peaking
Monitor/Viewfinder brightness
Warm display colours
Long exposure NR
High ISO NR
Nikon Z8 - Default Settings for Custom Camera Button Assignments:
Fn1 - AF-area mode + AF-ON (single point)
Fn2 - Recall shooting functions (hold) - see: https://www.naturakerkyra.com/post/nikon-z8-recall-shooting-function
Fn3 - View Mode (photo LV)Focus mode button - Focus mode/AF-area mode
Record Button - Cycle selected AF-area modes
WB - Cycle FX/DX
Joystick Button - Reset focal point
OK button - 100% Zoom on/of
The ideas in 'NIKON Z8 - My Default Settings' are, in no way, cast in stone, as I get more and more used to the way the Nikon Z8 works, and I work with it, these could well change. At the moment, I find that I know exactly where everything is on the camera and rarely get those moments of panic when a great photo passes by and I’m desperately trying to change settings before missing it. I cannot stress that the Nikon Z8 is an absolutely fantastic camera and has just about everything I could possible want for the photography that I do. It also contains loads of settings that I will probably never use, and I’m ok with that because what I do use works perfectly for me. This camera is far too easy to overthink and, if you do, your photography will suffer for it.
תגובות