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Handles erratic subjects heading at me.
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Johan Schmidt said:
This update improves the best camera Nikon has EVER made, yet still not good enough for some people who call themselves photographers, but don't want to develop their craft skills. If photography was simply access to perfect equipment that takes perfect images by reading your mind, the craft would die a quick death. The camera is still only a tool that the craftsman needs to use well.
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I think there was so much pre-release hype that some people had/have unrealistic expectations. And of course those pre-release youtube videos don't include the mistakes. And a lot of "upgraded" to a pro body for the first time with the Z9 and expected magic. After all pros only get the shots because of the camera so why can't I?
 
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I'm wasting time and frustration trying to update to 2.1. I have formatted CFexpress card in a card reader. It is open on my desktop iMac. I have downloaded Z_9_0210.bin. Normally I just drag and drop it onto the open Z9 folder, but this time the .bin file will not drag or copy to the folder. I have even changed CFe cards.
What's wrong?
 
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Bud Ralston said:
I'm wasting time and frustration trying to update to 2.1. I have formatted CFexpress card in a card reader. It is open on my desktop iMac. I have downloaded Z_9_0210.bin. Normally I just drag and drop it onto the open Z9 folder, but this time the .bin file will not drag or copy to the folder. I have even changed CFe cards.
What's wrong?
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You described what I did and all worked as usual. It sounds like you opened the Z9Update folder which brings up the zip file Z_9_0210.bin and then did the drag and drop to your CFepress card.
 
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Ken Miracle said:
You described what I did and all worked as usual. It sounds like you opened the Z9Update folder which brings up the zip file Z_9_0210.bin and then did the drag and drop to your CFepress card.
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I dragged but it did not drop. I copied, but it would not paste. I even tried doing that into the DCIM folder, but that would not accept the Nikon .bin file either. I have never had this problem before and can't figure it out. o_O
 
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Five months ago I got my Z9 and I have been learning as much as I can about its autofocus system even since. I shoot BIF twice a week and I have yet to figure out the ins and outs. Nikon should publish some education materials regarding BIF autofocus best practice!!
 
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Bud Ralston said:
CANCEL _ I finally figured it out! The computer would not transfer the .bin file to a Delkin CFexpress Power card. When I gave up on all my CFe cards and switched to an XQD card, the file transfer worked. My Z9 now has 2.1 up and running!!!!
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I used Delkin CFexpress Black ... who knows why it did not like the Power ?
 
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Not sure how many here follow Alex Phan on facebook. He tested the latest fw 2.1 and was very positive about the AF improvements. He says there is a noticeable improvement in tracking against busy BG or above water surface.

He is also posting some amazing action shots using the Z9+Sony 400/600GM combo! Apparently the Sony lenses work seamlessly with the Z9 using the ETZ adapter.
 
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ZWade photo posted a vid - clearly just having had a severe issue with human eye tracking since upgrading to v2.1 - worked great before upgrading now, not so much.

Be aware if you watch the video ZWade is hot and so is his language.
It is unclear what AF settings he was using.

Others including me just report goodness across the board.
I can also confirm the same - even on a comparatively very hot day - AF tracking Animals, Humans and Vehicles with AF set to AF-C and C1 set to a large area and also 3-d tracking - I encountered no issues.

Some Z9 shooters are finding that Af behaves slightly differently between v2.0 and v2.1 - but there is no systematic evidence yet.

It would be useful to understand if Nikon expected AF tracking across each subject type to behave differently or just better - we need more details. Or are we to wait for the shouty voices with their own agenda to dominate the news cycle over more systematic testing.

QQ very specific question to Z9 shooters - "Have you notices a change in human eye AF after upgrading to v2.1 and when setting tracking to PEOPLE only?"

(Please do not just respond unless you have a Z9 and have specific experience since upgrading to v2.1)
 
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I do remember seeing someone else mention that the 200-600G works very well. Will try to find the post/video. In my opinion, no matter how good these work, unless you are using a dual system set up shooting Nikon and Sony, it just doesn't make sense to use an adapter. 200-600 Z lens is just a matter of few more months, most likely before the end of this year so it'd be better to wait.
RockvilleBob said:
Thanks for posting. Have you seen anything regarding the SONY 200-600 on the Z9? I am getting very tired of waiting for NIkon to announce theirs and even more tired thinking about how long the wait will be to actually get the lens once it is introduced.
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ccyeung said:
Five months ago I got my Z9 and I have been learning as much as I can about its autofocus system even since. I shoot BIF twice a week and I have yet to figure out the ins and outs. Nikon should publish some education materials regarding BIF autofocus best practice!!
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Just get Steve's book.......more than enough data there! LOL!
 
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Bud Ralston said:
I'm wasting time and frustration trying to update to 2.1. I have formatted CFexpress card in a card reader. It is open on my desktop iMac. I have downloaded Z_9_0210.bin. Normally I just drag and drop it onto the open Z9 folder, but this time the .bin file will not drag or copy to the folder. I have even changed CFe cards.
What's wrong?
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You did open the .dmg file on the Mac and then copy the included file over to the root directory on the card…right? That's the only thing I can see that might be the issue.
 
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thelordofthelight said:
I do remember seeing someone else mention that the 200-600G works very well. Will try to find the post/video. In my opinion, no matter how good these work, unless you are using a dual system set up shooting Nikon and Sony, it just doesn't make sense to use an adapter. 200-600 Z lens is just a matter of few more months, most likely before the end of this year so it'd be better to wait.
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Yes, you are on the money. It is just frustrating dealing with long overdue announcements coupled with extraordinary long delivery times.
 
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Bud Ralston said:
I'm wasting time and frustration trying to update to 2.1. I have formatted CFexpress card in a card reader. It is open on my desktop iMac. I have downloaded Z_9_0210.bin. Normally I just drag and drop it onto the open Z9 folder, but this time the .bin file will not drag or copy to the folder. I have even changed CFe cards.
What's wrong?
Click to expand...
Try restarting your Mac…when routine functionality on a Mac is not working as expected, a restart will almost always restore your computer.
 
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thelordofthelight said:
Not sure how many here follow Alex Phan on facebook. He tested the latest fw 2.1 and was very positive about the AF improvements. He says there is a noticeable improvement in tracking against busy BG or above water surface.

He is also posting some amazing action shots using the Z9+Sony 400/600GM combo! Apparently the Sony lenses work seamlessly with the Z9 using the ETZ adapter.
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Learned something new I did not even know that the Megadap ETZ21 existed thanks for the info.
 
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arbitrage said:
Why such hate for this video?
He was very clear about what he was testing and what he was not testing.
His previous videos described his #1 problem with the Z9 is that it was not even attempting to drive to a near, OOF target when previously focused further out.
He used this video to see if FW 2.1 had improved this.
He found that it had.
I actually don't even think the FW notes were directed at this issue but it is good that it has improved.
He already has a video out showing how to use the recall prefocus point to help with this problem

For this specific test, that yellow leaf is a very suitable proxy for a bird.
Maybe using just a single AF point without tracking/eye-af would have been useful to test also.
But please don't tell me the Z9 fails AF just because it is in 3D Animal mode and no animal is in the frame? Does it? Because that would be a garbage AF system if you have to keep turning on/off AF depending on if there is an animal/bird around or not. I don't recall that you had to do this in my testing.

Anyways, he said his next test is to get out in the field, explained why he hadn't done it yet, and explained why this test was suitable to test this one particular issue (and I believe it was suitable for this). Again though, I don't think the FW notes were addressing this particular issue but good to see improvement. This looks more like how A1 performs for driving into a near oof subject.
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Thank you. Scott is one of the best bird photographers around (his warbler photos have been a huge source of inspiration), but this video was just a simple demonstration of the Z9 AF performance after the 2.1 firmware update, and he explained it as such. Some people can be unnecessarily critical and nitpicky, especially in YouTube comments.
 
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I've only had 3 days and over a thousand frames so far and it feels like a good autofocus upgrade for BIFs to say its a minor (2.0 > 2.1) step. Whilst its always tracked easy stiuff in the sky (in good light all day long) I reckon, on the more challenging BIFs/backgrounds at 20fps, I'm getting one or two more sharp frames at the start of a burst (aquisition) and the tack sharp (eye) rate out of 20 has also increased by a couple of frames. I cant say its in the realm of no longer having to zoom in to select the best image from a burst (because they will all be good) but its going in the right direction.

I hope Nikon keep listening and giving us incremental improvements like this on a regular basis.
 
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Celticursa said:
Try restarting your Mac…when routine functionality on a Mac is not working as expected, a restart will almost always restore your computer.
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I was going to say the same. With the latest Mac OS updates, I'm finding I have to restart some Epson and Adobe applications more frequently than ever. Much more often.
 
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