Nikon Z6iii

[RussellT]

Hi,
I went to the zoo today to put some of what I had learnt to the test
I have two questions
1. The battery lasted about 4 hours, I did not take any video. I shot about 166 images in RAW and JPG (Total 166+166=332)
Is that the battery life I should expect or do I have something set incorrectly that is consuming the battery.
I do try turn off when not shooting
2. Please see the attached image (I had to resize the jpg to upload)
I obviously messed up and did not acquire the face of the cheetah
How would you have set the camera to get it to acquire focus on the face when there is foliage in front of , around and behind the animal

I'm on about page 160 of Rick's book so I'm sure he will provide some guidance when I get to it

Thanks in advance
Russell

 

[John Navitsky]

the en-el15c lasts about two hours power-on time in the z8. that is to say it doesn’t matter a huge amount if you take zero or 20,000 images during that time

i suspect the z6iii will be similar

 

[John Navitsky]

with regard to the focus issue, did you have subject detection enabled and did it have a box indicating it has acquired a subject? that is to say, a little box around the face - NOT a pattern of little squares

 

[RussellT]

with regard to the focus issue, did you have subject detection enabled and did it have a box indicating it has acquired a subject? that is to say, a little box around the face - NOT a pattern of little squares

Yes to both, animal and a rectangle. Maybe I need to play around with the size of the rectangle/square?

 

[John Navitsky]

no, this can happen with obstructions due to some of the details of how the subject detection/af system works. the box tells us it figured out the subject, but it appears the branch got in the way of the actual af.

shooting through foliage can be hit or miss
generally speaking if you have portions of the subject’s face visible, this is a good situation to switch to single point focus. a lot of us have single point assigned to a button for these kinds of situations

 

[JAJohnson]

1) Settings which impact battery drain
- Brightness of rear screen and EVF: set the brightness to the minimum needed to allow you to see clearly
- Network settings: Turn on Airplane mode unless you’re wirelessly transferring images
- Power off Delay: Set the four options to the minimum time durations which work for you

If it’s a hot day, the camera might get warm. A warm battery will drain faster than a cool battery. Having said that, four hours isn’t unreasonable even though you shot less than 200 photos.

2) With foliage obscuring the Cheetah’s face, autofocus and subject detection won’t work well, if at all. In that case you’ll need to manually focus. Set subject detection to Animal. Set MF subject detection area (photo shooting menu) Auto area, Wide-L, or Wide-S. You may need to experiment to see what works best. Use the focus ring to manually focus until the face is sharp. If the Cheetah is moving around, this will be a challenge! Perhaps it’s better to find a composition in which the face is unobstructed.

 

[RussellT]

no, this can happen with obstructions due to some of the details of how the subject detection/af system works. the box tells us it figured out the subject, but it appears the branch got in the way of the actual af.

shooting through foliage can be hit or miss
generally speaking if you have portions of the subject’s face visible, this is a good situation to switch to single point focus. a lot of us have single point assigned to a button for these kinds of situations

Thanks, I think I'm going to assign Fn2, then I just need to remember to use it

 

[MrFotoFool]

I use a Z8, but I am in the habit of turning off the camera when not in use. If you were doing this I would have thought the battery would last longer, but four hours is not unreasonable. Just get an extra battery if you don't have one.

Even though both of our cameras have animal face/eye detect, I have found it often gets fooled if there is foliage in front (as you had here). I am not an autofocus expert, but what works best FOR ME is just to put it in single point focus and use the wheel to manually place the focus point on the animal's head or eye.

 

[hef19898]

As others pointed out, turn off things like wifi and so on. Also make sure to have any displays off, I use view finder only unless I want to use the rear screen for whatever reason.

An EN-EL15c in my Z6 lives for a couple of hundred shots, up to a thousand, which means a couple of days during travel.

What drains battery as well is looking at the images at the rear screen, something that also happens with phones, the screen uses battery the most.

I agree with single point AF for the cheetah face.

 

[RussellT]

I use a Z8, but I am in the habit of turning off the camera when not in use. If you were doing this I would have thought the battery would last longer, but four hours is not unreasonable. Just get an extra battery if you don't have one.

Even though both of our cameras have animal face/eye detect, I have found it often gets fooled if there is foliage in front (as you had here). I am not an autofocus expert, but what works best FOR ME is just to put it in single point focus and use the wheel to manually place the focus point on the animal's head or eye.

Thanks for the responses from everyone.
Just ordered a second battery, and have two from my D7500, not EN-EL15C's, earlier versions, so should be good
With regard to the autofocus, I'm reading Steve's new guide on the Z6iii and think I will try the customized focus zone, made as small as possible. This allows for the animal detection, so as Steve says, think it will be better than single point, any thought's on that?

 

[Lee R]

My first battery on my Zf went fast until I realized I had all the standby settings set for long durations. I also keep mine in airplane mode when not actively using SnapBridge. Battery on the Zf is about 2.5 hours of constant use. I would think Z6iii is somewhere between the Zf and Z8, 2.25 hours or so. Short delays to standby will keep the camera from burning that runtime at idle. You get used to a shutter half press to wakeup by habit and it’s ready by the time it gets up to your eye.

 

[JAJohnson]

Thanks for the responses from everyone.
Just ordered a second battery, and have two from my D7500, not EN-EL15C's, earlier versions, so should be good
With regard to the autofocus, I'm reading Steve's new guide on the Z6iii and think I will try the customized focus zone, made as small as possible. This allows for the animal detection, so as Steve says, think it will be better than single point, any thought's on that?

My AF recommendation was based on the Cheetah’s face being obscured. Single point isn’t going to help you because of the face has something in front of it. AF is likely to grab the obstruction first, no matter what you do. Sometimes you can try to focus on something farther behind the face or at approximately the same distance away as the face, which might help AF to grab the face, but I’ve not had much luck with doing that. If the face can be seen without obstruction you have lots of options, depending on light levels, distance, background, other possible subjects in the frame, etc. In that situation, I’d use Wide-S, Wide-L, or Auto area with subject detection, unless SD is struggling for some reason. Then I’d use single point.

 

[hef19898]

The cheetah isn't running, so use single point and focus on the right side, unobstructed, of the cheetah's face, try get the eye in the focus box center. No need for animal recognition amd automated eye detection in cases like this, assuming proper technique.

 

[Dusty Pane]

Hi,
I went to the zoo today to put some of what I had learnt to the test
I have two questions
1. The battery lasted about 4 hours, I did not take any video. I shot about 166 images in RAW and JPG (Total 166+166=332)
Is that the battery life I should expect or do I have something set incorrectly that is consuming the battery.
I do try turn off when not shooting
2. Please see the attached image (I had to resize the jpg to upload)
I obviously messed up and did not acquire the face of the cheetah
How would you have set the camera to get it to acquire focus on the face when there is foliage in front of , around and behind the animal

I'm on about page 160 of Rick's book so I'm sure he will provide some guidance when I get to it

Thanks in advance
Russell

re 1: that matches my experience with the Z6iii. Especially when shooting wildlife, I have little use for the LCD screen and turn it towards the camera to conserve battery power (I assume that the camera is smart enough to turn the screen of when it is pointed inwards).

 

[Len Shepherd]

1. The battery lasted about 4 hours, I did not take any video. I shot about 166 images in RAW and JPG (Total 166+166=332)
Is that the battery life I should expect or do I have something set incorrectly that is consuming the battery.
I do try turn off when not shooting

Short answer - a definite yes - on the assumption you were shooting in a similar way to the one I often do.

Several have done testing and (from memory) Thom Hogan who is very reliable estimates about 3.75 hours with the camera permanently on but no pictures.
The camera on with the monitor or viewfinder on consumes a lot of power.

Shooting rapid sequences for several seconds consumes (perhaps contrary to logic) a lot less power and dramatically increases the number of shots - often to well over 1,000.

For me photographing wild flowers using a tripod and waiting for the breeze to stop subject movement I can take a minute or more between shots. Going back to my film days when the wind speed increases I tend to switch off until the wind drops again and then switch back on - probably not very ML battery efficient.
Occasionally I get as few as 120 shots shooting this way – though many more shooting "normally" at relatively high fps.

A second Nikon battery is not expensive. While other brands are cheaper they tend not to work if/when you upgrade your camera.

 

[fcotterill]

1. Focusing through clutter.... The Z6 III uses a derivative of the Z9 AF system, and I find the 1*1 custom area mode supersedes single point mode for birds and mammals within/behind vegetation. I've been relying on this new mode in a hybrid AF setup on my Z9 for over 2 years. However, I don't hesitate to switch to manual focusing with focus peaking whenever the AF struggles.

2. The standardization by Nikon on USB C PD charging support is one of their best decisions in many years. The new standalone chargers are lighter and compact and can be carried outdoors connected to a power block, or charged on car 12v power plugs etc. this is in addition to charging in camera (which I avoid). The MH-34 is pricey but there are 3rd party options. It pays to buy high quality cables such as Anker and capable PD power blocks/AC chargers. Most 12v car chargers don't support PD charging but this Anker PD charges my ENEL18d batteries on the MH-33; and this Model looks even better

https://www.anker.com/products/b2731?ref=search_result_usb%20c%20pd&variant=42753546354838

 

[Ken Miracle]

I bought the Nikon MB-N14 Power Battery Pack for battery life since I am used to the big battery in my Z9's and I also like the feel and balance of the new battery pack, especially with the Z600 and Z800 pf's but that is personal preference. The new battery pack is the best add one I have used easy to install and lock, control switch requires pushing a button to turn the switch on so no accidental turn on of the battery pack controls. It also has a simple easy access port and process to charge the batteries in the batter pack and it works great.

Because you were at a zoo was there a barrier (glass plexiglass) between you and the cat?

There is not exif data in the image you posted so hard to guess some of the issues that could be coming from your settings. You can check out how to post to the forum so the exif shows up. How and size are important. https://bcgforums.com/threads/exif-info-is-here.15078/