Problem with Firmware 2.0 Z8 + Z800 pf

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S

simo

Well-known member
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Hi all
I updated my firmware yesterday, and went out for a shooting with some Gang Gang Cockatoos.
The recognition of the eye detection was great in the VF, but 80% of the shots were, or blur, or soft. I'm talking of bursts of 3 sec on perched bird bet 1/500 and 1/800.
Usually I have the oppsite result. And I can go much lower than that 1/500.
I swapped with my F mount 600 f4 E FL, same settings, and most of the shots were tac sharp.

Went home I tried "normal shots" on objects, and was same problem, most out of focus.

I re loaded the firmware 1.1 and photos on objects are tak sharp again.

Tonight I'll give a go again with the 1.1 on some birds to see if is the lens that has problems, but from the first check everything is back to normal sharpness.

Any of you got the same problem?

I apologise if someone talked about it in another post.

Thanks in advance
 
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I was shooting all afternoon, albeit in low light with the Z8/800 PF combination FW 2.0/1.11 and it was focusing just fine. Are you using the latest FW for the lens? Did you check the focus limiter switch?
 
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ajrmd said:
I was shooting all afternoon, albeit in low light with the Z8/800 PF combination FW 2.0/1.11 and it was focusing just fine. Are you using the latest FW for the lens? Did you check the focus limiter switch?
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Hi,
Yes, Firm 1.11 on the lens already. Limiter switch in Full.
Thanks to check here
 
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marc said:
I trust you are using Bird SD?
Can I suggest trying just Single Point AF, to see if you can isolate the issue.
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Hi mate
Yes, that was the setting on the camera. I don't use the camera for any else than birds when I'm out, so was never moved from the new bird setting :)
I moved to "normal" AF when I was testing it on some objects at home. And yes, single point in AF-C was giving same results.
Cheers
 
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simo said:
Hi mate
Yes, that was the setting on the camera. I don't use the camera for any else than birds when I'm out, so was never moved from the new bird setting :)
I moved to "normal" AF when I was testing it on some objects at home. And yes, single point in AF-C was giving same results.
Cheers
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That is puzzling indeed.
I would suggest you contact Nikon Australia and let them know of your issues, and hopefully there will be a FW fix soon.
Unless one of our members here can shed more light on your problem. , :unsure:

Good luck with getting it sorted, as the closest I have is a Z9 and 400TC & 600PF, so can't dive into replicating anything here.
 
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If you've checked everything on the lens, try downloading and reinstalling the firmware again (maybe from the US site). Perhaps the file/install was somehow corrupted?
 
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marc said:
That is puzzling indeed.
I would suggest you contact Nikon Australia and let them know of your issues, and hopefully there will be a FW fix soon.
Unless one of our members here can shed more light on your problem. , :unsure:

Good luck with getting it sorted, as the closest I have is a Z9 and 400TC & 600PF, so can't dive into replicating anything here.
Click to expand...
where is the Nikon Australia contact?
 
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Ok, I think I solved the issue so far, still under testing.
I decided to load again the 1.1 without change anything of the settings. Like it is. Stepping back all my setting of course were removed, and camera in P mode etc.
From there I loaded the 2.0 , and I called on the balcony some sparrows. Camera with bird mode, but P and jpg so far. Looking great.
I'll test more after lunch
 
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All working good after some shooting in the afternoon.

Another thing.

I'm using the cycle option for the AF, and I love it.
Before that, I was using to set my REC button to recall the area modes and with the gear on my thumb cycle through to chose one.
With the C1 and C2 I was able , keeping pressed the REC button and pressing the arrows, to change the size of those.
I assigned the cycle to the REC button and I can cycle, but doesn't look like i can change the size in the same way.
Do you know if is possible again without open the menu?

Cheers
 
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Other members have reported this issue, you are not able to change the size of the custom boxes when using the Cycle feature. Def report it to Nikon so that they’ll hopefully add it back in a future update.
 
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Hello Again to everyone.

I didn't have much time to go out for birding lately , but finally I spent the last 4 Saturday going out and.. The quantiy of photos out of focus (at any shutter speed) with the 2.0 was embarassing.
SOmetimes, and I'm talking of no more than 30/40% of the times, shots were tack sharp. The rest of the times, even at close distances, was a frustrating time.
Not only. With the Firmware 1.11 I was confident to can handheld shots at 1/125 - 1/80 - 1/60 and with a burst have at least 50% sharp shots of a static bird.
With the 2.0 at 1/200 I was already done. No way to can stay lower than that (and still have a huge amount of bad shots).

For many reasons I had to let it go my nikon 600E FL f4, so is not part of my tests unfortunatelly and I don't have any other long lens.

Meantime, because my partner bought the Sony 300 f2.8 with the TC2x , after I had beautiful experiences with her sony lenses and the megadaptETZ21, I decided to give it a go, and...
A full disaster. So bad that I thought at the fairy tail of "is a new lens".

Friday, considering the defeat, I downgraded to the 1.11 again and everything went back to the amazing killer combo that my Z8 + 800 is. Absolutely fantastic.
Not to mention that I checked again the Sony 300 2.8 + TC2x and worked almost flawless (so sharp that lens, is amazing), with most of the shots in focus.

A Polish friend of mine told me that in the Nikon Z9 group, one guy, complained of same issue, softness/out of focus.

2 in the whole planet can be called "bad luck"? LOL
 
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I shoot frequently with the z800mm pf on the Z9 and have never had an issue with that lens. It has always been amazingly sharp.

I would get Nikon to take a look at this something is very wrong.

The only other thing I might suggest is shooting the 800 at faster shutter speeds. Steve Perry recommends shooting much higher speeds even when shooting perched birds.
 
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wotan1 said:
I shoot frequently with the z800mm pf on the Z9 and have never had an issue with that lens. It has always been amazingly sharp.

I would get Nikon to take a look at this something is very wrong.

The only other thing I might suggest is shooting the 800 at faster shutter speeds. Steve Perry recommends shooting much higher speeds even when shooting perched birds.
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Hi, thanks to answer.
I understand Steve's point of view, but the issue I'm reporting is showing out at any speed. And what I wrote about the ability I had in be so low with the 1.11 is only to mention that with the new firmware 2.0 (after thousands of photos) this ability is vanished and looking like the problem isn't me :)
 
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