Hi, New here but looking for others that have their Nikon Z9 freezing also, I found your forum.
I shoot very high volume sports and runway fashion 5000 to 10,000 shots a day for SI and others and my Z9 has frozen on many occasions during important shoots.
Im shooting full size RAW and JPEG to same card. All my cards are on Nikon's approved list for the Z9.
I was recently with over 50 fellow professional photographers at an event and those with Z9's I spoke with all had the freezing problem and since this was recent, all of us have ver 5 firmware.
Has anyone else contacted NPS? They know of the problem but no fix as of yet.
Anyone here here back from NPS?
Thank you, Tony
This freezing matter is not brand or camera specific, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, Canon and so on have the issue.
Today avoiding issues is like a lucky dip, some loose many win, when that ratio tips the wrong way manufacturers may act.
The issue is a combination of camera design and card manufacturing design, in both areas QC is a critical component, and sometimes it lapses on both sides.
Is it a faulty card or the camera synergy imperfection cause the card to become corrupted, is it unreasonable to ask why should the customer need to deal with all this and the consequences ??
Bottom line there shouldn't be an issue at this level of product and price point, sorry many will disagree with me and that's perfectly fine.
I feel many users simply have been desensitized to the issues and tolerate freezing as that's what computers do or computer oriented cameras do, Z8, Z9, A1, Fuji, Canon, yada.
Its not till a disaster hits you that hey things really matter, living in fear going forward that the moment your waiting for may suddenly be effected, that's the real issue.
Excuses, ignorance, perceptions, don't fix things. Your Clients ask you why did you miss the key moment, OH why did we have to do several video takes over again because you camera froze, Or we cant re do our wedding vows again...........
The issue clearly is
1) the camera's
2) the cards
3) a combination of both
The common element is they both need to work together, In Nikon s case i have been led to believe that they did their card research and development work with Pro Grade, unless i misunderstood. After a while they gave approval to some other brand cards to be used in Nikon cameras.
The issues of the Z9 turning to a brick has diminished with significant firmware updates, some cards have had their share of hit and miss issues.
The problem is Not the camera or card as much as its the customer being effected at a critical moment.
Ok the camera manufactures say its the cards and user protocol or card quality, HMMM.
Card manufactures keen to keep the reputation in tact a quick to give a replacement card HMMM.
Pro Grade has a Refresh Pro card tool, FREE as i was told in BCF, its a very clever tool.........
Will it fix my issues, time will tell.
Has card use protocol changed, well i learnt a lot, Using this tool the health check was clear and clean, the cards where fully sanitized stripped back to OM specification, then the latest update was installed, Pro Grade even has the same tool for the card reader with firmware updates.
the latest firmware was updated, a tick of success.
Importantly the cards then installed in the camera, then formatted to that camera before taking a photo, this all gave the cards a new refreshed life.
Ok from here on in if there is any issue with freezing or issues reoccurring etc going forward, would it not then point the issue is in the camera, a reasonable assumption i feal.
Regardless of the issues being the card or the camera or a combination there of, it shouldn't be up to myself or the customer to be dealing with the issues and consequences or even subjected to the issues especially at this level of product and price point, sorry its unacceptable.
The public over expects so politicians over promise, what actually eventuates is a lucky dip.
Use your camera follow carefully the protocol’s reformatting cards and cameras, learn to pull batteries to unlock you high end pro camera, offer all the excuses to your clients or rebook your $15 K trip again next year when either the camera or card company may have firmware fixes for you.
A customer spending a lot of serious money in high end gear wants to be able to simply make photos.
Only an opinion