Advice on shooting wildlife and landscapes while using menu banks.....

[Iowayankees]

On my Nikon Z8 I have set the 4 shooting menu banks per a photographers workshop advice where A= Street & Travel, B= Action AF Hybrid, C=Landscape and D=Point and Shoot. I always shot manual before and when out in a national park I like to walk and shoot landscapes but also be ready for a moose or other wildlife.
My request for advice is... what is you approach on settings when out in the wild. We are heading to Glacier and other parks soon and I would love to get comfortable with being ready for the unexpected wildlife ) hoefully the bear is not too close!). Thx everyone.

 

[Anjin San]

Landscapes don’t require quick setups. I keep 1 bank set for wildlife with bird subject detect and an Fn button to swap to animal if needed. Second bank is the same except it’s animals with birds on the Fn button. Third bank is the default set I can copy back if needed since banks remember the last set of settings and not the way they were originally set (and I wish Nikon gave us the option to make them like user modes on other bodies). If I shot many landscapes any more I would set the 4th bank for that.

 

[ajrmd]

On my Nikon Z8 I have set the 4 shooting menu banks per a photographers workshop advice where A= Street & Travel, B= Action AF Hybrid, C=Landscape and D=Point and Shoot. I always shot manual before and when out in a national park I like to walk and shoot landscapes but also be ready for a moose or other wildlife.
My request for advice is... what is you approach on settings when out in the wild. We are heading to Glacier and other parks soon and I would love to get comfortable with being ready for the unexpected wildlife ) hoefully the bear is not too close!). Thx everyone.

Based on what you are saying since you are out shooting in one mode (landscapes) you should program a button for recall shooting function which would include settings for WL. That way, if a critter pops into view, press the button and you're settings are there (I think this was first introduced on the D5?).

 

[DRwyoming]

Whether or not you choose to use shooting banks I'd keep the default camera setting action oriented. IOW, as posted above if wildlife is an interest the starting point for the camera should be to capture fast action as in other slower situations it's much easier to take time and decide which settings to use and then after those slower moments set the camera back to the default action oriented settings. I wouldn't personally set things up for landscapes or slower photography and then hope to remember to switch to an action mode on the fly as action is happening.

I personally don't use banks as I prefer to just go out the door with default settings of a fast shutter speed, wide open aperture and action oriented AF mode and then just switch things for static scenes or when I need more DoF, want a precise AF point need changes to exposure comp, etc. Then I reset to my default settings after shooting that slower or static subject.

No problem with banks and many folks prefer working that way but to me the banks and what they represent is just one more thing to remember and since they get overridden when I make field changes and don't retain their default settings I don't find them that useful compared to just running a set of basic camera settings and deviating from them when I shoot different kinds of subjects. I'd likely use the banks if they were more like the user U1/U2/U3 modes of other less professionally oriented Nikon cameras where the saved settings are retained after making field changes so they can act as a quick reset to default settings for different situations but as the banks idea is currently implemented I don't find them that useful.

YMMV...

 

[MrFotoFool]

I have had a few instances now where the menu banks switch without me knowing it. I don't have any others set up so I don't know how it happens. I set up everything the way I wanted it when I got the camera, which I found out later only sets up Bank A. I found this out when it inadvertently switched to another bank and I was suddenly shooting JPEG only (which is the camera's factory default). When I posted it here someone told me how to copy Bank A to Banks B,C,D so now if it switches I do not lose my settings. Considering it has happened a few times since, I would not trust having different settings.

(And yes, I know I must be hitting something to make it happen, but I don't know when I do it so FOR ME it's safer just to duplicate all settings. My suspcion is I am hitting the i menu button and I wish there was a way to disable that button completely, but I have not found a way to do that.)