Nikon Z9: Features That Crank Up The Keeper Rate!

[Steve]

One question I’m constantly asked is, “How are you using your Z9 in the field for wildlife work?”

This video answers that question.

I was originally going to do “just another Z9 review,” but the truth is I think at this point a video that talks about how the state-of-the-art features of the Z9 are helping me in the field is probably more useful.

So, in this video I’ll cover how I’m taking advantage of some of the flag-ship level features of the Z9 and how it’s helping me send more keepers to the cards. Take a look, I think you’ll really like this one!

 

[dupcak]

Thanks for another great video. I guess I'll have to experiment with turning on/off subject detection - so far I have been just using Dynamic on the joystick to get out of annoying situations.

 

[DaveR]

Interesting video Steve, thanks. I've been using the Z9 since Feb and was interested in your thoughts and experiences. The long, thin custom AF area is something I haven't tried. I got your recent book but didn't find much that I didn't already know. It's a well written and informative book which I wish I had when I first got the camera. I would recommend it to any new user.

I didn't quite get why you turn subject detection off. I tend to leave it on all the time. Exactly what behaviour in the AF leads you to turn it off?

 

[Steve]

Interesting video Steve, thanks. I've been using the Z9 since Feb and was interested in your thoughts and experiences. The long, thin custom AF area is something I haven't tried. I got your recent book but didn't find much that I didn't already know. It's a well written and informative book which I wish I had when I first got the camera. I would recommend it to any new user.

I didn't quite get why you turn subject detection off. I tend to leave it on all the time. Exactly what behaviour in the AF leads you to turn it off?

I turn it off when it's not going to where I want on the subject. It's prone to going for the body instead of the eye at times.

 

[RichF]

Steve you have done it again. Great video. Extremely helpful. I'll need to listen to this again and make a "cheat sheet" so I can cross reference the video to your Z9 set up guide.

BTW I set shutter button to wide area either large or small and the back button focus to 3D. F3 toggles 20 FPS on/off. Don't always need it Wish I had another toggle button to switch to 30 FPS/pre-capture (or better yet, precapture worked w/ raw images)

 

[DaveR]

I turn it off when it's not going to where I want on the subject. It's prone to going for the body instead of the eye at times.

Ok. Doesn't it still go to the body with subject detection off?

 

[StefanSC]

Thanks a lot Steve... now you made me want a Z9... And I had just sworn off any gear acquisitions until April 2023 .

Joking aside, I for one really enjoyed the clip more than a traditional review. The information in it felt much more relevant to the target audience of the Z9 than most reviews out there.

 

[bsinc1962]

Nice video Steve. I agree that Nikon needs an easier way to shut off subject detection on the fly without work arounds.

 

[Woodyg3]

I have to say that all the focus options are a bit confusing to me. If I had a Z9 in my hands and could play around with all the settings, I'm sure this would be more clear to me. I think you've done a great job in a short video, and this will be of great help to those who are new to the camera, and also to people who have had it a while and are trying to get the most out of it. It's of interest to me because mirrorless is somewhere in the future for me, and I want to be aware of the features and advances as they come. Thanks very much.

 

[Tibor Hrnko]

Very nice summary of Z9 features IDD.
The best hint for myself was the one about turning the face detection off/on by using recall shooting functions - hold assigned to a function button. Great idea IMO.

 

[Steve]

Ok. Doesn't it still go to the body with subject detection off?

3D or Auto may, but Wide will stay where you keep it.

One problem I've had in the past is when I had Wide AF on the face of a flying bird with subject detection on. It wouldn't see the face or eye but it did see the body. So, instead of keeping focus where I actually had the Wide AF area, it moved focus to the body instead, causing a 100% failure rate. Shutting it off fixed that issue in that scenario.

 

[DaveR]

3D or Auto may, but Wide will stay where you keep it.

One problem I've had in the past is when I had Wide AF on the face of a flying bird with subject detection on. It wouldn't see the face or eye but it did see the body. So, instead of keeping focus where I actually had the Wide AF area, it moved focus to the body instead, causing a 100% failure rate. Shutting it off fixed that issue in that scenario.

Ok, I get it. Thanks. I went to your book and read the section where you talk about this. It's something I will experiment with. Mind you my skills in keeping Wide AF on the head of a flying bird with the 800 PF will need some improvement I think.

BTW a video on how you progarm your buttons and controls on the Z9 might be interesting.

 

[John_DE]

Great video.

I wish Nikon would allow focus shift shooting to be set up to use the shutter button to start it. That way we could hand hold a few when the lighting is good. Think OMD already has this feature.

 

[BrianMM]

Thanks, Steve.

Great video and some useful information/clarifications in your follow-up to questions above.

Also, many thanks for the update to your Z9 Setup book!

 

[Chris K]

Clever tip on the tiny Custom1 AF area! I'm definitely going to try that out for those times I need to pick a certain face out and the camera gets over-excited about all the faces. Sounds like that might be useful for people, too.

 

[ElenaH]

thank you, for the video, @Steve
Perhaps, I will try to use a small custom2 AF area (eyes). I was using horisontal area for hippos and birds succesfully. For birds in flight I am much better with my D850 (no one bird escapes ;-). But I think, I just need to practice with z9. The other bad points I noticed: z9 had troubles to focus on an object in dust-clouds and in the dark. I warked it over searching and focusing on a horn of a buffalo in the dust. To focus on buffalo's body didn't work becasue it got less contrast than a horn.
For shooting in a very low light I switched to D850. It has a phase AF and woring better for low contrast.

One question I have. When you photograph macro with stucking do you use some Z macro-dedicated lens? or it works with any lens?

 

[Chris K]

Macro stacking on Z bodies works with F-mount lenses. I suspect some older lenses with less-precise AF motors might be a bit dodgy, but I've personally used the 105VR and 105MC and both seem to work equally well.

(I just wish the LCD/EVF wasn't blacked-out when it was capturing focus-shift shots!)

 

[Steve]

thank you, for the video, @Steve
Perhaps, I will try to use a small custom2 AF area (eyes). I was using horisontal area for hippos and birds succesfully. For birds in flight I am much better with my D850 (no one bird escapes ;-). But I think, I just need to practice with z9. The other bad points I noticed: z9 had troubles to focus on an object in dust-clouds and in the dark. I warked it over searching and focusing on a horn of a buffalo in the dust. To focus on buffalo's body didn't work becasue it got less contrast than a horn.
For shooting in a very low light I switched to D850. It has a phase AF and woring better for low contrast.

One question I have. When you photograph macro with stucking do you use some Z macro-dedicated lens? or it works with any lens?

The Z9 does use PDAF - it's just on the sensor. The problem is that it's essentially using line sensors (not cross type like your D850) and doesn't like horizontal lines. If the fur was all going horizontally, it would be tough to lock on. One trick is to rotate the camera 45 degrees and try again - often it'll lock on and you can rotate back and shoot.

Also, as Chris says, stacking works with any lens. However, when you have a macro subject and the new 105, you gotta use it

 

[ElenaH]

The Z9 does use PDAF

Oh, I thought it uses only Contrast AF. Thank you, @Steve , for clarification.
But then if it uses PDAF it must focus on the closest object. Am I right? But it doesn't. I am still better of BIF of small birds with D850 than with z9. For z9 the bird must take a big part of the frame. D850 works always. Perhaps, it is becasue of cross-sensors... Birds normally fly horizontally and z9 doesn't know where to focus. I have no idea.

The next point is focusing in the dark. D850 works always, even when I don't see anything. With z9 I see the sensor pattern but not the subject. perhaps, I just need to go for +3EV or so? But if I want low key? Huh... it is a problem. Normally such situation comes by the waterhole which is poorely lightened and sometimes by spot-lighting on animals. But spot-lighting works and animals on the bad lightened waterhole - not. For example, for elephants. Line sensors must cope with it, right? Then overall amount of light is not enough for z9...? D850 and D500 cope with it whothout any problem. I am just thinking what can cause that issue on z9?

 

[Steve]

Oh, I thought it uses only Contrast AF. Thank you, @Steve , for clarification.
But then if it uses PDAF it must focus on the closest object. Am I right? But it doesn't. I am still better of BIF of small birds with D850 than with z9. For z9 the bird must take a big part of the frame. D850 works always. Perhaps, it is becasue of cross-sensors... Birds normally fly horizontally and z9 doesn't know where to focus. I have no idea.

The next point is focusing in the dark. D850 works always, even when I don't see anything. With z9 I see the sensor pattern but not the subject. perhaps, I just need to go for +3EV or so? But if I want low key? Huh... it is a problem. Normally such situation comes by the waterhole which is poorely lightened and sometimes by spot-lighting on animals. But spot-lighting works and animals on the bad lightened waterhole - not. For example, for elephants. Line sensors must cope with it, right? Then overall amount of light is not enough for z9...? D850 and D500 cope with it whothout any problem. I am just thinking what can cause that issue on z9?

There are a lot of variables in play with both of your questions and no single answer. It really depends.

For focusing on the background instead of the subject, if you're using, say, a Wide AF area that's larger than the subject, the camera might go for the background since that's under the AF area too and much easier to focus on than a flying bird. Think of PDAF as always trying to focus on the first good AF target. It also helps with mirrorless to pre-focus at or slightly closer than a tricky subject.

As for focusing in the dark, I can't really say. The Z9 hasn't really proven problematic in that regard for me. In those scenarios, you can try dialing in your preferred exposure and setting D9 for Adjust For Ease Of Viewing. That's give you a brighter viewfinder without affecting your exposure and might help with AF. Additionally, if it's really dark, the Z9 has Starlight Mode you can try. It's sort of like the D9 setting but on steroids.

 

[Chris K]

If you want to experiment with PDAF and directionality, it’s pretty easy to test, and I think learning exactly how it works is pretty helpful when you find yourself in a situation where your camera is seeking. (Any camera, not just the Z9!)

This is super nerdy and not solicited, so skip if you aren’t the sort of person who must know how all machines work.

First, try to find something that has a real crisp brightness change between dark and light. Maybe the edge of a dark door and white trim, or a black TV frame and white wall.

Set your camera to single point and center that edge inside the AF point. Defocus manually to too-close and then press your AF button. The camera should snap to focus.

Then try rotating the camera to portrait orientation and retry. The camera should have no issues if it has cross-type AF points, or fail if it doesn’t. Sometimes it’ll work anyway, if there’s a ton of contrast, if you’re not centered, or if the camera does AF point expansion.

Now try rotating the camera diagonally. The camera should work, but possibly less well than before due to a “less sharp edge”. Try playing with room light levels to reduce effective contrast, and see at what point you start to have issues.

Finally, try sticking the single AF point on something featureless and black. It shouldn’t matter what you do, the camera will seek all over the place, just like if it’s lens cap were on.

For an SLR, also try an f/2.8, f/5.6, and slower lens, and off-center points and you’ll see how the high/low precision AF points work. Most SLRs have issues with off-center AF points with slower lenses. Especially f/8 (ie: 500PF + 1.4x).

For a Nikon Z camera, try Single vs Pinpoint. Single uses CDAF+PDAF, while Pinpoint uses CDAF only. Note the “CDAF wobble” and speed difference.

Where this knowledge becomes useful in the real world to me is when you’re not in subject detection, and have issues focusing. Imagine a Canada Goose. I’d place the center AF point perpendicular to the black/white area on its head and focus/recompose. I’d also be very sure not to center a single AF point within the solid black or white part of the bird where there’s little contrast.

Subject detection makes this arcane knowledge less useful than in the DSLR days, but I still find sometimes my cameras (especially my older Fujis) get very confused in low contrast AND very low light, and grabbing perpendicular contrast will usually save the day. And as Steve explained, always pre-focus “too close”, cause PDAF algorithms seek near-to-far, and stop when they arrive at contrast.

Apologies if this is well-known. Learning how this works was revelatory for me when I was shooting nighttime short track auto racing with a 5D and had maybe one second to get a useful frame out of my glacial 3fps and antique single cross-type AF point, and the lesson has served me well ever since!

 

[Whiskeyman]

This is a great video that quickly and simply gets the point across; the point being how to increase the keeper shots you get using certain settings on the Z9. I've bookmarked it to watch/study it again and again.

Thank you once again, Steve!

 

[Calson]

Thanks for putting this video together Steve. I found it very helpful in its workflow for setting up and using the Z9 focus options in tandem. With the D850 I had an excellent Group AF mode and the ability to switch AF modes based on the vertical/horizontal orientation of the camera and miss this with the Z9 camera (along with the 5:4 crop option).

 

[fcotterill]

Thanks for putting this video together Steve. I found it very helpful in its workflow for setting up and using the Z9 focus options in tandem. With the D850 I had an excellent Group AF mode and the ability to switch AF modes based on the vertical/horizontal orientation of the camera and miss this with the Z9 camera (along with the 5:4 crop option).

The wide area custom modes - C1, C2 - are the closest to the Group Area in a Nikon DSLR; albeit closest focus priority in not as robust as the DSLRs AF system.

It's simple to setup the Z9 to recall AF settings, under Custom, a5. Store Points by Orientation also recalls the AFmode: in Steve's new book, pg 220

 

[Drbobcameraguy]

If you want to experiment with PDAF and directionality, it’s pretty easy to test, and I think learning exactly how it works is pretty helpful when you find yourself in a situation where your camera is seeking. (Any camera, not just the Z9!)

This is super nerdy and not solicited, so skip if you aren’t the sort of person who must know how all machines work.

First, try to find something that has a real crisp brightness change between dark and light. Maybe the edge of a dark door and white trim, or a black TV frame and white wall.

Set your camera to single point and center that edge inside the AF point. Defocus manually to too-close and then press your AF button. The camera should snap to focus.

Then try rotating the camera to portrait orientation and retry. The camera should have no issues if it has cross-type AF points, or fail if it doesn’t. Sometimes it’ll work anyway, if there’s a ton of contrast, if you’re not centered, or if the camera does AF point expansion.

Now try rotating the camera diagonally. The camera should work, but possibly less well than before due to a “less sharp edge”. Try playing with room light levels to reduce effective contrast, and see at what point you start to have issues.

Finally, try sticking the single AF point on something featureless and black. It shouldn’t matter what you do, the camera will seek all over the place, just like if it’s lens cap were on.

For an SLR, also try an f/2.8, f/5.6, and slower lens, and off-center points and you’ll see how the high/low precision AF points work. Most SLRs have issues with off-center AF points with slower lenses. Especially f/8 (ie: 500PF + 1.4x).

For a Nikon Z camera, try Single vs Pinpoint. Single uses CDAF+PDAF, while Pinpoint uses CDAF only. Note the “CDAF wobble” and speed difference.

Where this knowledge becomes useful in the real world to me is when you’re not in subject detection, and have issues focusing. Imagine a Canada Goose. I’d place the center AF point perpendicular to the black/white area on its head and focus/recompose. I’d also be very sure not to center a single AF point within the solid black or white part of the bird where there’s little contrast.

Subject detection makes this arcane knowledge less useful than in the DSLR days, but I still find sometimes my cameras (especially my older Fujis) get very confused in low contrast AND very low light, and grabbing perpendicular contrast will usually save the day. And as Steve explained, always pre-focus “too close”, cause PDAF algorithms seek near-to-far, and stop when they arrive at contrast.

Apologies if this is well-known. Learning how this works was revelatory for me when I was shooting nighttime short track auto racing with a 5D and had maybe one second to get a useful frame out of my glacial 3fps and antique single cross-type AF point, and the lesson has served me well ever since!

Yep I have done the same games. Lol. Major got to know geek here. I also know that my d500 focus point is actually on the bottom left of the square in the viewfinder. My old d7200 was top left. It comes in handy when trying to shoot a bird in heavy branches to keep from focusing on branches. I actually think Steve mentions that in one of his books.