Shooting Banks setup for Z9

[jcgamble]

I have never setup banks on my D500, and would really like to setup those on my Z9 when it arrives. Is there a good video or other material that would explain setup and operation of shooting banks? The Z9 manual is a little lacking in detail of how to setup and use.

 

[Anjin San]

I have never setup banks on my D500, and would really like to setup those on my Z9 when it arrives. Is there a good video or other material that would explain setup and operation of shooting banks? The Z9 manual is a little lacking in detail of how to setup and use.

From what I understand…shooting banks are like the User modes only better…Ty remember more settings and also have reference settings or something like that to instantly return you to a set of settings…presumably the default bank A or whatever settings but I’m not faniliar with them. I do use User modes but wish they recalled more settings…for instance having one that was wide small AF and another single point…on the Z7II it’s a lot quicker to go from U1 to U2 than through the I menu.

 

[Steve]

Photo shooting banks are really only useful if you find yourself frequently changing things in the Photo Shooting menu. Once I have that menu set, I don't change things too often so see very little need to jump in and make adjustments. Part of that is because I use M + Auto ISO. If I were using something like A + Auto ISO, I could see having different settings for different shutter speeds in the Auto ISO menu. Or if I were using different file formats all the time - maybe Jpegs for events and RAWs for landscapes, maybe I'd setup a couple of banks to jump between those as well. For me though, I so seldom change things in that menu there's very little need to use it - at least for me. YMMV

 

[MartyD]

There are two sets of banks I believe, The Photo Shooting Bank and the Custom Settings Bank. If you access the Photo Shooting Menu and have Bank A selected then any changes in the Photo Shooting Menu become the settings for Bank A. There is no save process needed. If you have Bank B selected in the Photo Shooting Menu then changes to anything in the Photo Shooting Menu becomes part of Bank B. The same is true of the Custom Setting Menu. If Bank A is selected than any changes to that menu become part of Bank A, no save option necessary.

If Extended Shooting Banks is On then the exposure settings and flash settings become part of the Photo Shooting Bank. Since there are 4 different banks for Photo Shooting and 4 different banks for Custom Settings you could have 16 different programmed settings groups.

I like the fact that you can give a descriptive name to the Photo Shooting Banks and Custom Settings Banks.

There is always lots of debate about which is better User Modes or Custom Banks. Some like the User Modes because you have to choose to save any changes to a User Mode, so if you don't save changes to a user mode and then power the camera off and back on the User Mode will return to the last saved settings. If you make changes in a Bank there is no way to return to the way the previous bank settings, you can only restore to defaults.

I am not getting a Z9 and I have not read all of the Z9 manual yet so there may be some specific changes for that camera.

 

[jcgamble]

I regularly shoot wildlife, landscapes and astrophotography. Those are quite different for setting and I have used User Modes on my Z6 II. My thought is to set up my Z9 with banks similar to the User Modes. I'm getting too old to remember all the changes when bouncing between those types of photography.

 

[jeffnles1]

I regularly shoot wildlife, landscapes and astrophotography. Those are quite different for setting and I have used User Modes on my Z6 II. My thought is to set up my Z9 with banks similar to the User Modes. I'm getting too old to remember all the changes when bouncing between those types of photography.

At least on the DSLR's shooting banks do not work at all like user modes. With user modes (like on my D7200), when I go from U1 to U2 and back, I establish a baseline and can make changes such as exposure mode, focus mode, etc, and when I move off of the U1 or U2 and go to another one and come back, my baseline remains. In Banks, any changes you make are remembered not only by the bank you're in but some of those settings carry over to other banks too.

Personally, I found banks useless. On my D500 I just configured some buttons to allow me to make the changes that the U1 and U2 did on my D7200.

Hopefully the banks act differently on the Z9.

 

[dabhand16]

If you make changes in a Bank there is no way to return to the way the previous bank settings, you can only restore to defaults.

Not my experience. But that is I know what each bank is set to as my working base so when I'm done I reset the banks I've been using to my original settings so next time I have the base settings that I tweek as needed.

 

[Anjin San]

I regularly shoot wildlife, landscapes and astrophotography. Those are quite different for setting and I have used User Modes on my Z6 II. My thought is to set up my Z9 with banks similar to the User Modes. I'm getting too old to remember all the changes when bouncing between those types of photography.

Yeah…I’ve not had a body with shooting banks but use User modes a lot…and from what I’ve read since a flagship body doesn’t meet my needs or wants…banks are similar to but store more things than a user modes…but I’m happy to get educated if somebody wants to do a simple comparison. Like you…I shoot wildlife and waterfalls/landscapes…and have set up Iser modes for each. I wish they would rememberer things like frame rate, AF mode, and self timer and bracketing settings as well as what they do remember though. I frequently change the default shifter and aperture in the U modes…but know that cycling power or switching mode and back will return me to my defaults.

 

[frodoboy]

Photo shooting banks are really only useful if you find yourself frequently changing things in the Photo Shooting menu. Once I have that menu set, I don't change things too often so see very little need to jump in and make adjustments. Part of that is because I use M + Auto ISO. If I were using something like A + Auto ISO, I could see having different settings for different shutter speeds in the Auto ISO menu. Or if I were using different file formats all the time - maybe Jpegs for events and RAWs for landscapes, maybe I'd setup a couple of banks to jump between those as well. For me though, I so seldom change things in that menu there's very little need to use it - at least for me. YMMV

I set my D850 up for Birds in Flight, sitting birds, Astrophotography/long exposure and normal shooting. I shoot a lot of different subjects so that is why. For instance, on long exposure or night photography, I usually have shutter delay at a few seconds to reduce camera shake. For astro I also have long exposure noise reduction. I can have all my settings for astro on a bank. I have my birds in flight set to 3D mode on the F3 button and another bank. I have sitting birds F3 button set to 25 point AF (I think). So I've customized my banks for specific functions for different subjects. Maybe this is redundant but it does help me switch from one subject to a completely different one quickly. Of course if you just shoot birds or wildlife all the time, this probably wouldn't help you at all.

 

[Pam Jensen]

I have never setup banks on my D500, and would really like to setup those on my Z9 when it arrives. Is there a good video or other material that would explain setup and operation of shooting banks? The Z9 manual is a little lacking in detail of how to setup and use.

If I may - I would like to clarify something. The 2 “banks” serve different purposes. This is taken from Nikon:
The “Photo shooting menu bank” is found in the “Photo Shooting Menu” (the little camera icon). You can assign up to four of these (A,B,C,D) to have unique settings in each. You can also name these banks to be something meaningful: “Sports”, “Landscape”, “Manual”, and “Live View”. Here’s where you save your unique setups that you configure for things like Auto-ISO, default ISO, Manual shooting mode, picture controls, shutter speed, aperture setting, etc.

The “Custom settings bank” is found in the “Custom Setting Menu” (the pencil icon). What you save here are button assignments. You also get four of these (also named A,B,C,D).

This creates confusion. Fortunately, you can give these banks names, too!

 

[Steve]

I set my D850 up for Birds in Flight, sitting birds, Astrophotography/long exposure and normal shooting. I shoot a lot of different subjects so that is why. For instance, on long exposure or night photography, I usually have shutter delay at a few seconds to reduce camera shake. For astro I also have long exposure noise reduction. I can have all my settings for astro on a bank. I have my birds in flight set to 3D mode on the F3 button and another bank. I have sitting birds F3 button set to 25 point AF (I think). So I've customized my banks for specific functions for different subjects. Maybe this is redundant but it does help me switch from one subject to a completely different one quickly. Of course if you just shoot birds or wildlife all the time, this probably wouldn't help you at all.

For what you're doing, photo shooting banks make perfect sense - heck, I'd use them too if I were in your shoes!

 

[Roy]

I have never setup banks on my D500, and would really like to setup those on my Z9 when it arrives. Is there a good video or other material that would explain setup and operation of shooting banks? The Z9 manual is a little lacking in detail of how to setup and use.

I use the banks for different types of shooting - studio portrait landscape wildlife etc...

 

[RichF]

Photo shooting banks are really only useful if you find yourself frequently changing things in the Photo Shooting menu. Once I have that menu set, I don't change things too often so see very little need to jump in and make adjustments. Part of that is because I use M + Auto ISO. If I were using something like A + Auto ISO, I could see having different settings for different shutter speeds in the Auto ISO menu. Or if I were using different file formats all the time - maybe Jpegs for events and RAWs for landscapes, maybe I'd setup a couple of banks to jump between those as well. For me though, I so seldom change things in that menu there's very little need to use it - at least for me. YMMV

Could photo banks be used to switch between high speed action and pleasing blurs?

 

[Roy]

Could photo banks be used to switch between high speed action and pleasing blurs?

That sounds like a good use..

 

[Steve]

Could photo banks be used to switch between high speed action and pleasing blurs?

I believe only if you're using Aperture Priority (or Program) with Auto ISO since you can specify a shutter speed. Otherwise, there's no prevision in the shooting menu for setting a shutter speed. If there were, things would get more interesting.

 

[fcotterill]

Not much has changed since I compiled this over a year ago, except I replaced a D780 with a D5, for several reasons including the Shooting Banks. Although I'm still waiting on a preordered Z9, I plan to set it up similarly for Landscapes, Macro, Wildlife_Static and Wildlife_Action. I find it very useful to switch a camera over from its action shooting settings to capture a chance landscape scene - thus 1/60, f8, ISO64, delayed shutter, AFS etc
If not already, you may find Brad Hill's recent blog posts useful: as he's also a big fan of Nikon's Shooting Banks. One useful feature is it's now possible to copy the settings between banks on the Z9
Also see this older article

 

[John Woodworth]

Not much has changed since I compiled this over a year ago, except I replaced a D780 with a D5, for several reasons including the Shooting Banks. Although I'm still wafting on preordered Z9, I plan to set it up similarly for Landscapes, Macro, Wildlife_Static and Wildlife_Action. I find it very useful to switch a camera over from its action shooting settings to capture a chance landscape scene - thus 1/60, f8, ISO64, delayed shutter, AFS etc
If not already you may find Brad Hill's recent blog posts useful: as he's also a big fan of Nikon's Shooting Banks. One useful feature is it's now possible to copy the settings between banks on the Z9
Also see this older article

Thank you for this. I found the descriptions for these banks very useful. And, the chain of articles this post pointed was most educational.

 

[RichF]

I believe only if you're using Aperture Priority (or Program) with Auto ISO since you can specify a shutter speed. Otherwise, there's no prevision in the shooting menu for setting a shutter speed. If there were, things would get more interesting.

so I can not set up different bank each having their own manual exposure (Shutter speed, aperture, ISO)? Too bad if I can not do that

 

[Steve]

so I can not set up different bank each having their own manual exposure (Shutter speed, aperture, ISO)? Too bad if I can not do that

I don't see how. The banks only adjust what's in the Photo Shooting Menu and there aren't any options for Shutter Speed or F/stop - although there is for ISO.

Edit / Correction - it looks like you can do ti with the Extended Banks turned on - see the posts below.

 

[fcotterill]

It looks like we can configure the Z9 like a Pro DSLR. Set Extended Banks to [ON] in Photo Shooting Menu and the Photobank will store the Saved exposure settings (flash included) - and revert to these Saved settings when this bank is selected. So switching the camera off then on should keep the modified shutter speed, aperture etc as long as you do not switch Photo Banks.

So one can theoretically setup the 4 banks for respective sets of exposures, but the power of a Shooting bank lies in it storing a much larger group of selected settings, which can be called up by scrolling between Banks in the i-Menu.

pg 496 - Z9 Ref Guide

 

[Steve]

It looks like we can configure the Z9 like a Pro DSLR. Set Extended Banks to [ON] in Photo Shooting Menu and the Photobank will store the Saved exposure settings (flash included) - and revert to these Saved settings when this bank is selected. So switching the camera off then on should keep the modified shutter speed, aperture etc as long as you do not switch Photo Banks.

So one can theoretically setup the 4 banks for respective sets of exposures, but the power of a Shooting bank lies in it storing a much larger group of selected settings, which can be called up by scrolling between Banks in the i-Menu.

pg 496 - Z9 Ref Guide

You nailed it!

Full disclosure, I never messed with the Extended Bank option before and I should have. I just tried it and that's exactly what it does. So, if you turn it on you can save everything and pop between them. Cool - I have a new feature to try!

The only downside is that it also saves any settings you make, so if you change your shutter speed in Bank A, that's the new preset for that bank. Still, it's handy.

Thanks!

 

[RichF]

You nailed it!

Full disclosure, I never messed with the Extended Bank option before and I should have. I just tried it and that's exactly what it does. So, if you turn it on you can save everything and pop between them. Cool - I have a new feature to try!

The only downside is that it also saves any settings you make, so if you change your shutter speed in Bank A, that's the new preset for that bank. Still, it's handy.

Thanks!

Speaking of setting the camera, when I was shooting Canon, when I turned the camera off and then back on, bracketing would be turned off. with my Nikons bracketing stays on. Is there a way to set the Nikon so that bracket is turned off when the camera is turned off?

 

[dabhand16]

Speaking of setting the camera, when I was shooting Canon, when I turned the camera off and then back on, bracketing would be turned off. with my Nikons bracketing stays on. Is there a way to set the Nikon so that bracket is turned off when the camera is turned off?

I've been there! Took a while before the penny dropped though.

 

[Steve]

Speaking of setting the camera, when I was shooting Canon, when I turned the camera off and then back on, bracketing would be turned off. with my Nikons bracketing stays on. Is there a way to set the Nikon so that bracket is turned off when the camera is turned off?

I don't use auto bracketing very much (I prefer just to manually bracket when it's needed). As far as I know, there's not an auto reset for bracketing and I didn't see anything quickly going through the Z9.

 

[fcotterill]

Thanks Steve, my mistake on how the Photo Shooting Bank saves settings
I checked my D5 and D850 and they also store the last settings and pull these back up when the respective Bank is selected.

Nikon could do some urgent yet simple fixes to give all the more flexibility, especially to allow recalling a pair of Photo and Custom banks. This problem persists in the Z9, as highlighted in Thom Hogan's latest.

You nailed it!

Full disclosure, I never messed with the Extended Bank option before and I should have. I just tried it and that's exactly what it does. So, if you turn it on you can save everything and pop between them. Cool - I have a new feature to try!

The only downside is that it also saves any settings you make, so if you change your shutter speed in Bank A, that's the new preset for that bank. Still, it's handy.

Thanks!