Banks & User modes

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SBurkholder

SBurkholder

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Got my Z8 yesterday. Way more complex than my Z6. Haven’t even taken a shot with it. Going through Steve’s setup guide. Now
I’m trying to wrap my head around Banks.

It seems to me that I can duplicate the Z6 setup by giving up one bank to current shooting mode say Bank A. Use the other 3 banks setup to my preferred settings. Then setup a copy button in the i menu to copy Banks B, C, & D settings to my designated shooting Bank A. Then I could have a way to transfer known settings back and forth. As long as I only shot on A and don’t make changes to the others unless I wished to update or change my settings. And you could save everything to a SD Card for a backup. Am I missing something here? Seems like an obvious choice to permanently setup a set of choices that you don’t want to inadvertently change.
 
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SBurkholder said:
Got my Z8 yesterday. Way more complex than my Z6. Haven’t even taken a shot with it. Going through Steve’s setup guide. Now
I’m trying to wrap my head around Banks.

It seems to me that I can duplicate the Z6 setup by giving up one bank to current shooting mode say Bank A. Use the other 3 banks setup to my preferred settings. Then setup a copy button in the i menu to copy Banks B, C, & D settings to my designated shooting Bank A. Then I could have a way to transfer known settings back and forth. As long as I only shot on A and don’t make changes to the others unless I wished to update or change my settings. And you could save everything to a SD Card for a backup. Am I missing something here? Seems like an obvious choice to permanently setup a set of choices that you don’t want to inadvertently change.
Click to expand...
That's an interesting workaround to the lack of persistence and inability to lock the baseline settings in a shooting bank compared to say the U1, U2... settings in other Nikon cameras.

That said, it sounds like a lot to remember when out working in the field. Maybe that works fine for you and you can keep all that straight, not just what's stored in each bank but the process for transferring from your 'saved banks' to the active bank so you don't alter those baseline settings. Personally I find the custom banks just adds complexity in the field and more stuff to remember in the heat of the moment when my attention is on the: wildlife subjects, the scenics in front of me or changing light levels.

I've played with both Menu Banks in cameras that take that route and the U1, U2, etc. settings in cameras of that style and in the end come back to just keeping tabs on my current settings and make adjustments as needed for changing camera uses rather than try to keep preset configurations for different scenarios. Maybe that's just me, but these cameras are complicated enough and there's plenty to remember like how custom buttons are programmed without layering on a whole bunch of other stuff to keep in my head when I'm out in the field. My gut feel would be to master all the new stuff like AF Area modes and subject/eye recognition features as well as any custom control programming you perform first as that's already a lot to adjust to coming from a Z6.

But if you really want to use Memory Banks and want them to maintain baseline settings the way the U1, U2, etc. memories work on other cameras then your method seems interesting though it relies on good habits.
 
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SBurkholder said:
Got my Z8 yesterday. Way more complex than my Z6. Haven’t even taken a shot with it. Going through Steve’s setup guide. Now
I’m trying to wrap my head around Banks.

It seems to me that I can duplicate the Z6 setup by giving up one bank to current shooting mode say Bank A. Use the other 3 banks setup to my preferred settings. Then setup a copy button in the i menu to copy Banks B, C, & D settings to my designated shooting Bank A. Then I could have a way to transfer known settings back and forth. As long as I only shot on A and don’t make changes to the others unless I wished to update or change my settings. And you could save everything to a SD Card for a backup. Am I missing something here? Seems like an obvious choice to permanently setup a set of choices that you don’t want to inadvertently change.
Click to expand...
I don’t find banks useful. Exception: I have one bank set up for my most used settings. I save it each time I reformat a card. Otherwise I just dial in the settings I want.
 
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DRwyoming said:
That's an interesting workaround to the lack of persistence and inability to lock the baseline settings in a shooting bank compared to say the U1, U2... settings in other Nikon cameras.

That said, it sounds like a lot to remember when out working in the field. Maybe that works fine for you and you can keep all that straight, not just what's stored in each bank but the process for transferring from your 'saved banks' to the active bank so you don't alter those baseline settings. Personally I find the custom banks just adds complexity in the field and more stuff to remember in the heat of the moment when my attention is on the: wildlife subjects, the scenics in front of me or changing light levels.

I've played with both Menu Banks in cameras that take that route and the U1, U2, etc. settings in cameras of that style and in the end come back to just keeping tabs on my current settings and make adjustments as needed for changing camera uses rather than try to keep preset configurations for different scenarios. Maybe that's just me, but these cameras are complicated enough and there's plenty to remember like how custom buttons are programmed without layering on a whole bunch of other stuff to keep in my head when I'm out in the field. My gut feel would be to master all the new stuff like AF Area modes and subject/eye recognition features as well as any custom control programming you perform first as that's already a lot to adjust to coming from a Z6.

But if you really want to use Memory Banks and want them to maintain baseline settings the way the U1, U2, etc. memories work on other cameras then your method seems interesting though it relies on good habits.
Click to expand...
On my Z6 I had one user mode setup for BIF. A second one for less active birds. Only used those two. Haven’t gotten far enough along in Steve’s book on the various A/F settings yet. So I really don’t even know at this point whether or not I’ll still want to use them once I begin to understand the capabilities of this beast.
 
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I think I now understand Nikon’s reasoning for not changing the settings back to baseline and I believe it makes sense. If you’re in a session and want to change lenses or even just to power down to save battery life, then quickly getting back to where you were just before the lens change or power off makes a whole lot of sense. I’m liking my method more and more.
 
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SBurkholder said:
Got my Z8 yesterday. Way more complex than my Z6. Haven’t even taken a shot with it. Going through Steve’s setup guide. Now
I’m trying to wrap my head around Banks.

It seems to me that I can duplicate the Z6 setup by giving up one bank to current shooting mode say Bank A. Use the other 3 banks setup to my preferred settings. Then setup a copy button in the i menu to copy Banks B, C, & D settings to my designated shooting Bank A. Then I could have a way to transfer known settings back and forth. As long as I only shot on A and don’t make changes to the others unless I wished to update or change my settings. And you could save everything to a SD Card for a backup. Am I missing something here? Seems like an obvious choice to permanently setup a set of choices that you don’t want to inadvertently change.
Click to expand...
Interesting workaround…but once you get used to banks vs modes they’re just different, not better or worse. I did like the idea that it goes back to base when selected or turned off/on…but I also like the banks save more options thing. Using 2 bodies, one with banks and one with modes is…really confusing. I would like an option in the menus to make banks work like modes for reset to a known condition…a simple Yes/No setting would work nicely on Setup menu. Having used both…I think I would slightly prefer modes if they remembered everything banks do for the reset to base thing. I don’t switch banks much in the field anyway…unless I’m going to do a landscape or waterfall in which case I switch to the bank or mode for that and time isn’t an issue there, and that bank/mode isn’t all that different than the Action one anyway.
 
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Much depends on one's genres and subjects. I have a pair of Photo and Custom banks setup for Wildlife, Action and Landscape/Macro. It's useful to have different Recall Shooting Functions in each Custom Bank, which are setup towards capturing sudden events. RSF is always on the Fn3 button, so Fn2 if I had a Z8.

If needs arise, I can setup yet another for flash settings.
Switching via iMenu is fast and I often tweak their respective settings; but the primary layout remains fairly static.
I've found this strategy on the Z9 works well, as it has with earlier cameras, D500, D850....

Learning the Nikon Z9 Shooting and Custom Setting Banks

This is for people who have used or are learning to use the Nikon Custom and Shooting settings banks. I've never used the Setting Banks before but with this camera the focus settings are so specific I can see the benefit of using the Setting Banks. I've read up on the subject and watched a...
bcgforums.com bcgforums.com

Z9 Argument for and against banks wth RSF

As I wait for my seventh month for my z9 I am looking at the merits of both of the above. I gather there are many with their Z9's who use a particular way of shootig. Yes, I have Steves book and its very good but each comment shows a different flavor for the camera use in, for me, BIF, Landscape...
bcgforums.com bcgforums.com



SBurkholder said:
Got my Z8 yesterday. Way more complex than my Z6. Haven’t even taken a shot with it. Going through Steve’s setup guide. Now
I’m trying to wrap my head around Banks.

It seems to me that I can duplicate the Z6 setup by giving up one bank to current shooting mode say Bank A. Use the other 3 banks setup to my preferred settings. Then setup a copy button in the i menu to copy Banks B, C, & D settings to my designated shooting Bank A. Then I could have a way to transfer known settings back and forth. As long as I only shot on A and don’t make changes to the others unless I wished to update or change my settings. And you could save everything to a SD Card for a backup. Am I missing something here? Seems like an obvious choice to permanently setup a set of choices that you don’t want to inadvertently change.
Click to expand...
 
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Having used banks for years on my D cameras, I quite liked the U settings o my Z6ii, but as I do power off the Z more than the D cameras to save a bit of battery (now letting it sleep) I did get caught out a lot with the settings going back to base.

There are pros and cons both ways.
 
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I wish banks included the release mode setting (maybe they do and I'm not doing it right)?

Say I have Bank A set to 'General', B to 'Wildlife', C to 'Tripod'. Even when I switch between banks the release mode stays the same. I don't need 15fps in 'General' and I'd rather have single shot default there yet I'm forced to switch to it every time I move between banks (and back to 15-20fps when moving to 'Wildlife' bank).
 
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lukemeup said:
I wish banks included the release mode setting (maybe they do and I'm not doing it right)?
Click to expand...
First of let me say I don't use banks so I'm now expert on the subject by a long shot. I believe modes will be included if you turn on "Extended Menu Banks" in the Photo Shooting Menu....
 
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Having tried various ways of using Banks, I now save my base case settings to the memory card in slot 1. If I change settings in shooting and want to return to the base case, I load the settings from the card. When I have downloaded the photos from the card, I load the settings from the card, thereby restoring the base case, format the card as usual and save the settings back to the card. As Load/Save Settings and Format are close together this is a quick and easy process. I keep the settings backed up on the computer to cover the inevitable error when I get the process wrong. So far, so good.
 
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