Save settings question

[Fly 1]

Hi guys,
for a couple of years now I have saved settings to an old 64 GB xqd card,
Just spent 2 months in hospital, get home to find the old card corrupted and settings all over the place, I'll blame it on the poltergeists !
got the settings sorted now,
Question
Should I just save settings to my Prograde cobalt cards in the camera rather than use a separate card?
I guess the only word of caution is to save and load settings prior to formatting the card?
Regards,
.................. Gary

 

[Mark Garfinkel]

I would keep a separate card and off load the file to your computer.

 

[Charles Loy]

Agree, save on your computer.

 

[DRwyoming]

Should I just save settings to my Prograde cobalt cards in the camera rather than use a separate card?
I guess the only word of caution is to save and load settings prior to formatting the card?

Yeah, that's the problem. I format cards after every upload to my computer, if you do that you'd have to save to somewhere else every time. Saving to a separate card is a better idea but periodically saving settings to computer storage is also a very good idea.

 

[JAJohnson]

Should I just save settings to my Prograde cobalt cards in the camera rather than use a separate card?
I guess the only word of caution is to save and load settings prior to formatting the card?
Regards,
.................. Gary

Those darn poltergeists!

I save my settings to a card which I only use for that purpose. And I copy the settings file to my laptop and to cloud storage.

In your case, yes, save to your regular card before formatting the XQD card. Don’t be surprised if there are write errors when formatting the XQD card. If that happens, I recommend sending the XQD card to live with the poltergeists (in the nearest waste bin) and use or buy another card for saving your settings.

 

[CoyoteCreationsNW]

I have some old XQD cards 64 and 32 that go back to my DSLR 850 days. Most are still reliable but two died on me. I use them the same as you but I make two copies of the settings. I do not use all four banks. When I go on destimation trips, I copy Bank A Wildlife to Bank D W Copy. Same for extended banks. If I change settings through the day it is easy to start each morning with my base settings.

 

[Fly 1]

I would keep a separate card and off load the file to your computer.

Thank you Mark,
good point about loading the file on to my Mac !
Much appreciated, the first op of 10 hrs scrambled this old timers brain a little
Regards,
............... Gary

 

[Fly 1]

Those darn poltergeists!

I save my settings to a card which I only use for that purpose. And I copy the settings file to my laptop and to cloud storage.

In your case, yes, save to your regular card before formatting the XQD card. Don’t be surprised if there are write errors when formatting the XQD card. If that happens, I recommend sending the XQD card to live with the poltergeists (in the nearest waste bin) and use or buy another card for saving your settings.

Thank you JA,
XQD gone to poltergeist heaven !
Regards,
.................. Gary

 

[Fly 1]

I have some old XQD cards 64 and 32 that go back to my DSLR 850 days. Most are still reliable but two died on me. I use them the same as you but I make two copies of the settings. I do not use all four banks. When I go on destimation trips, I copy Bank A Wildlife to Bank D W Copy. Same for extended banks. If I change settings through the day it is easy to start each morning with my base settings.

Thank you James,
Regards,
.................. Gary

 

[CB Robertson]

I am brand new to this forum and to much of what you are talking about. I am also sort of new to this level of photography having recently purchased a Z6III. I watch lots of YouTube videos including many of Steve's. I bought Steve's book on the Z6III. I have learned (maybe not) all about settings and how to set the camera up and which settings to use and why. I know to save settings and know how that is supposed to happen. But how do I know if the settings are actually saved on my SD card? I have extra old cards from other cameras and formatted to Z6III and Save in the SETUP MENU > Save/load menu settings. I put the card in my computer and see it but don't see anything on it but it does show there is something there in properties because it shows 128kb used. But I don't know how many kb I should expect to see. Or what else I should expect to see. I could test by loading that card to the camera but if it is wrong I will lose all my settings. And then you talk about saving to the computer etc. But I am not sure how to do that either since I don't see any files on the card. The SD card that I normally use in the camera shows a file NCSET014.BIN and is about 348kb so I am assuming that could be the saved settings file? If I don't see that on my old SD card I am assuming I did not save the settings to that card so probably a bad card. I tried two other cards and one shows 160kb and the other shows 896kb but not a .BIN file. I formatted all these cards in the camera. Is there any way to know the settings are actually saved? Some of the things you talk about are above my pay grade. I have been fooling around with computers and both video and still cameras for some years but pretty new to this level of camera stuff. Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[CB Robertson]

A follow up on my question above. Checking the cards I see the two results below. Both cards were formatted in the camera. All I think I did was try to save settings to these cards. As far as I know I did the same thing to each card. Obviously different numbers.

 

[CB Robertson]

Here's a look at the SD card that has been in the camera for awhile. The second one shows the size of the .BIN file.

 

[Fly 1]

I am brand new to this forum and to much of what you are talking about. I am also sort of new to this level of photography having recently purchased a Z6III. I watch lots of YouTube videos including many of Steve's. I bought Steve's book on the Z6III. I have learned (maybe not) all about settings and how to set the camera up and which settings to use and why. I know to save settings and know how that is supposed to happen. But how do I know if the settings are actually saved on my SD card? I have extra old cards from other cameras and formatted to Z6III and Save in the SETUP MENU > Save/load menu settings. I put the card in my computer and see it but don't see anything on it but it does show there is something there in properties because it shows 128kb used. But I don't know how many kb I should expect to see. Or what else I should expect to see. I could test by loading that card to the camera but if it is wrong I will lose all my settings. And then you talk about saving to the computer etc. But I am not sure how to do that either since I don't see any files on the card. The SD card that I normally use in the camera shows a file NCSET014.BIN and is about 348kb so I am assuming that could be the saved settings file? If I don't see that on my old SD card I am assuming I did not save the settings to that card so probably a bad card. I tried two other cards and one shows 160kb and the other shows 896kb but not a .BIN file. I formatted all these cards in the camera. Is there any way to know the settings are actually saved? Some of the things you talk about are above my pay grade. I have been fooling around with computers and both video and still cameras for some years but pretty new to this level of camera stuff. Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Cannot really help but here is my take,
If you make an obvious setting and then opt for the option "load settings" it change should be there
Regards,
................ Gary

 

[CB Robertson]

Now I am a little more confused. I thought you us "save settings" to save to a card and "load settings" to move settings back from the card you saved them on to the camera. Are you saying if I save to a card and then click "load settings" I am going to see whatever is on the card?

I guess my quandary is that when I click "save settings" nothing much happens so I have no way of knowing if anything happened - no way to know if the settings were actually saved. Nothing says "saving" or "saved" or bing or bong or any kind of indication that anything actually happened. So my question has to do with how you would know if your settings are actually saved?

So I have been trying a bunch of cards. I have 3 CFexpress - 128 - 64 - 64 and these all show a .BIN file. I have a number of SD cards but of 5 I have tried only one shows any BIN file or anything else after I format and save. That is the one that has been in the camera since new. The BIN file I see appears to be 349kb (see below) on any card it shows up on. The newest SD card I have is SanDisk Extreme Pro 280mb V60. Other Extreme Pro is similar but does not have the V60. 3 SD cards are older still so maybe don't work as older could be incompatible.

I can only assume this 349kb file is the saved settings and would only know this if I check the card as I have below. Anyone have any ideas about how to ensure that settings are actually saved?

 

[JAJohnson]

Now I am a little more confused. I thought you us "save settings" to save to a card and "load settings" to move settings back from the card you saved them on to the camera. Are you saying if I save to a card and then click "load settings" I am going to see whatever is on the card?

I guess my quandary is that when I click "save settings" nothing much happens so I have no way of knowing if anything happened - no way to know if the settings were actually saved. Nothing says "saving" or "saved" or bing or bong or any kind of indication that anything actually happened. So my question has to do with how you would know if your settings are actually saved?

So I have been trying a bunch of cards. I have 3 CFexpress - 128 - 64 - 64 and these all show a .BIN file. I have a number of SD cards but of 5 I have tried only one shows any BIN file or anything else after I format and save. That is the one that has been in the camera since new. The BIN file I see appears to be 349kb (see below) on any card it shows up on. The newest SD card I have is SanDisk Extreme Pro 280mb V60. Other Extreme Pro is similar but does not have the V60. 3 SD cards are older still so maybe don't work as older could be incompatible.

I can only assume this 349kb file is the saved settings and would only know this if I check the card as I have below. Anyone have any ideas about how to ensure that settings are actually saved?

View attachment 101527

NCSET014.BIN is the file containing the camera’s settings which you have saved. If you’re not sure about that, reset your camera to factory settings (it’s in the Setup menu), then load the settings fIle. The camera will have the settings you saved previously to the NCSET014.BIN file.

 

[CB Robertson]

Thanks JA - and Fly - You say "load the settings file" - do you mean from a card or is it in the camera somewhere? If I reset the camera to factory settings won't I lose all my settings? So are you saying this NCSET014.BIN file saved somewhere in the camera? Or do you mean to save it from a card? If I don't know this BIN file is saved on a card and that it has my settings I am not going to reset to factory until I know I can recover my settings. I have written down all my settings and pretty much know what they are but I do not want to go through the process of entering all the settings again so I am trying to find out how we know that our settings are saved to a card before we risk losing our settings in the camera. I can find no way to ensure my settings are saved and can be recovered. Are we just to assume if we tell the camera to save it is going to save and the saved settings will be on whatever card we have put in place to save the settings is going to have the settings saved? I am trying to find out if there is a way to determine that our settings are saved to a card. People on the forum say to save to more than one card or save to a computer and even save to the cloud. What I am trying to learn is how to do these things and how we know our settings have actually been saved. I could save to a card and then reset to factory and then load from the card to see if it works but if the settings did not get saved I am back to square one of having to re-enter all my settings. That is a test I would prefer not to do. Along with this I also wonder why some of my cards do seem to be able to save this BIN file but other cards do not seem to have that ability. Is there some way to know if only certain cards can be used to save the settings? Just trying to find out if there is anyway to clarify these things.

 

[JAJohnson]

Thanks JA - and Fly - You say "load the settings file" - do you mean from a card or is it in the camera somewhere? If I reset the camera to factory settings won't I lose all my settings? So are you saying this NCSET014.BIN file saved somewhere in the camera? Or do you mean to save it from a card? If I don't know this BIN file is saved on a card and that it has my settings I am not going to reset to factory until I know I can recover my settings. I have written down all my settings and pretty much know what they are but I do not want to go through the process of entering all the settings again so I am trying to find out how we know that our settings are saved to a card before we risk losing our settings in the camera. I can find no way to ensure my settings are saved and can be recovered. Are we just to assume if we tell the camera to save it is going to save and the saved settings will be on whatever card we have put in place to save the settings is going to have the settings saved? I am trying to find out if there is a way to determine that our settings are saved to a card. People on the forum say to save to more than one card or save to a computer and even save to the cloud. What I am trying to learn is how to do these things and how we know our settings have actually been saved. I could save to a card and then reset to factory and then load from the card to see if it works but if the settings did not get saved I am back to square one of having to re-enter all my settings. That is a test I would prefer not to do. Along with this I also wonder why some of my cards do seem to be able to save this BIN file but other cards do not seem to have that ability. Is there some way to know if only certain cards can be used to save the settings? Just trying to find out if there is anyway to clarify these things.

Hello CB,

Here's the procedure:

1) Be certain that your camera has your settings entered into the menus.

2) Go to Setup menu ==> Save/load menu settings ==> Save menu settings. The settings are now saved to the card in your camera. The file name will be NCSET014.BIN. If you want to check that the file exists, turn off your camera, eject the card from your camera, and insert it in a card reader connected to your computer. Use file explorer to open the card and see its contents. You'll see that the file NCSET014.BIN is there. Eject the card from the card reader and insert in you camera.

3) Turn on your camera. Go to Setup menu ==> Reset all settings ==> Reset. This will reset the settings in your camera to factory settings, and will not overwrite anything on the card in your camera.

4) Check any of the menu settings in your camera to be sure that they are different than the settings you entered.

5) Go to Setup menu ==> Save/load menu settings ==> Load menu settings. This will reload your menu settings from the NCSET014.BIN file on your card.

6) Check the menu settings on the camera to be sure that they are the settings that you entered in your camera.

Regarding the cards on which the .BIN file can't be written, are you getting an error message of some kind? You'll have to describe what's happening.

I hope this is helpful.

 

[CB Robertson]

Thanks JA for your detailed reply. Sorry to cause so much trouble here as a newby. I do understand everything you explain above. I do know how to do all these things now. I get it. Apparently there is nothing in the camera to say "saving" or "saved" to indicate the settings are saved. The only way apparently is to read the card with my computer to make sure the BIN is there. I don't think I will be intentionally resetting just to see if this worked. I was looking for some way to do this to know the system works without risking losing all my settings. I guess the trick would be to check the cards first before doing any settings (new camera) by making a couple changes and then save and reset and load and check to see if minor setting changes were saved and work on that specific card - if all goes well and the card and the process seems to work then proceed with doing all the settings and then save to the card again and then maybe save to other cards and/or computer and/or cloud.

As far as the cards I used that failed - I put screen shots above in my second post which show the results of the chkdsk in my computer that show the cards appear to be good. I think the fact that the chkdsk shows them as Z6_3 means the cards may have formatted but then I could not get them to save the BIN. All indications from chkdsk from my understanding is the cards are good but I could not get them to save the BIN for reason I do not know. The only thing different I see about the SD that did work and the ones that didn't is the one that worked says V60 and the others don't. I ordered another V60 SD from Amazon and may get to try that tomorrow. All the CFexpress cards also seem to work - no problem there. All my cards checked out with chkdsk.

I have all my settings written down with all the changes from default I have made highlighted so I wouldn't have huge problems doing it all again but prefer not to if possible. I made my main setting changes with camera set to M and then saved all of those settings to U1, U2, U3, and then went to each of the U stops and made changes to each but not changing any settings that I will still use in all positions. At this point I am not making a great many setting changes from M to each of the U stops. It's a process that took some doing but now I have it figured out and could do it again without too much trouble but loading from a saved card would be much easier. Thanks again to all for all your help. I will try to find a way to be of some use on this forum.

 

[JAJohnson]

Thanks JA for your detailed reply. Sorry to cause so much trouble here as a newby. I do understand everything you explain above. I do know how to do all these things now. I get it. Apparently there is nothing in the camera to say "saving" or "saved" to indicate the settings are saved. The only way apparently is to read the card with my computer to make sure the BIN is there. I don't think I will be intentionally resetting just to see if this worked. I was looking for some way to do this to know the system works without risking losing all my settings. I guess the trick would be to check the cards first before doing any settings (new camera) by making a couple changes and then save and reset and load and check to see if minor setting changes were saved and work on that specific card - if all goes well and the card and the process seems to work then proceed with doing all the settings and then save to the card again and then maybe save to other cards and/or computer and/or cloud.

As far as the cards I used that failed - I put screen shots above in my second post which show the results of the chkdsk in my computer that show the cards appear to be good. I think the fact that the chkdsk shows them as Z6_3 means the cards may have formatted but then I could not get them to save the BIN. All indications from chkdsk from my understanding is the cards are good but I could not get them to save the BIN for reason I do not know. The only thing different I see about the SD that did work and the ones that didn't is the one that worked says V60 and the others don't. I ordered another V60 SD from Amazon and may get to try that tomorrow. All the CFexpress cards also seem to work - no problem there. All my cards checked out with chkdsk.

I have all my settings written down with all the changes from default I have made highlighted so I wouldn't have huge problems doing it all again but prefer not to if possible. I made my main setting changes with camera set to M and then saved all of those settings to U1, U2, U3, and then went to each of the U stops and made changes to each but not changing any settings that I will still use in all positions. At this point I am not making a great many setting changes from M to each of the U stops. It's a process that took some doing but now I have it figured out and could do it again without too much trouble but loading from a saved card would be much easier. Thanks again to all for all your help. I will try to find a way to be of some use on this forum.

CB, everyone on the forum was a newby at some point in time. Please don't worry about that! What I like about the forum is that most everyone here tries to help one another. There are debates at times, but all in the spirit of better understanding how to use our photographic tools to capture the wildlife, nature, and landscape images and videos we desire.

You're not troubling anyone. You are welcome here!

 

[CB Robertson]

Just a follow up that may or may not be of use. I got a brand new V60 SD card and put it in and tried to get it to save the BIN but I couldn't get it to go. I was successful with another V60 SD card but not with all my other SD cards. Then I had a thought and went to PHOTO SHOOTING MENU and set the Primary Slot to SD instead of CF and tried again and now I see the BIN on the new SD card. So maybe to save to an SD the primary slot has to be set to SD - at least it worked for me this time. I know it is just as easy to just use a CF to save but I just wanted to see what could be done to save to more than one card and/or to see if an SD can be used to save settings. Whichever card is used it may be necessary to set the Primary Slot to whatever card type is being used.