Z8 back button focus and battery duration.

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D

DW Stone

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Hi all, first post to the forum!

I am a Z8 shooter, currently using the 600 pf, primarily for wildlife and had a couple of points I wanted to seek advice on.

First - back button focus. I have been using this for years and I just wanted to confirm a point that has never really been clear to me but may make sense when I cover my second point. When I am tracking an animal (usually for me, a bird in flight), should I be holding the AF-ON button down while tracking and shooting the animal, or do I acquire focus and then release, and continue to shoot? I have always kept the button pressed down when shooting, usually with decent results.

Now onto my second point. I am finding that batteries on my Z8 are lasting approximately 2hrs in the field, and I am not shooting all that much! This seems quite a short lifespan, though I recently moved to mirrorless from a D850, so perhaps it is the norm. Anyway, I wondered whether holding down the AF-ON button while tracking an animal may be making the camera work harder and use more battery power to do so, hence wanting clarification on the above point - if I don't need to keep my button pushed down, maybe I'll be saving some battery.

Any tips or advice on the above from folks with experience of my system would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks,

D

(Any Instagram users can find me on @dwstone if they want to see examples of my photography)
 
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Hi, thanks for the welcome and comment!

Airplane mode is on, and EVF is the only one I go with. The back button focus button hold query was one I was hoping for specific advice on as it's been on my mind for a while since shooting with the new system (and previously too!). I'm in the habit of holding it down now, and just wondering if that might be contributing to the battery drain.

I have a few of Steve's books now and am currently working through the new update to the Z8 guide - all great resources!
 
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You need to hold the bbf button down as you track the subject. Trying to keep the subject close to the pattern area of focus. I use both, trigger and bbf :) keeping focus on subject.
I too am shocked that some suggest a thousand or more photos per battery, I can't get that. I never leave without a back-up battery, or two. Maybe cause I save NEF to the CF card and JPG to the SD, but that is how I want it. Carry on
 
If you release your bbf button, it is like switching temporarily to af-s. It's useful sometimes if you want to freeze focus and recompose or if you want to manual focus, but to keep adjusting focus on that moving target, even if it is just fidgeting while still, you keep holding down the bbf button. If you release the bbf on a still target the target's eye can still be moving a little, but you might also be rocking or swaying which also changes the focusing distance, so it's better to keep tracking and keep it held down all the while even when pressing the shutter to take photos.

Get a backup battery, but also dig into your menus to see which power saving options you can tolerate. Maybe you want to auto sleep after a minute for example, or auto power off after 10 minutes.
 
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Welcome to BCG
One the batteries subject, we have the useful means to use compact, portable USB C PD chargers in the field for the newer versions of the ENEL15 (as can the larger ENEL18b-d versions).
Their respective chargers - MH-34 or MH-33 respectively - can be connected via a PD cable to a handy powerpack. Together with carrying a spare battery, this is a big bonus when out for a long day or on a hiking trip. A USB C PD plug in a 12v car socket can also charge the battery in the charger or directly to the camera.

Little to add on BBAF, besides sharing these two videos :-


 
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DW Stone said:
First - back button focus. I have been using this for years and I just wanted to confirm a point that has never really been clear to me but may make sense when I cover my second point. When I am tracking an animal (usually for me, a bird in flight), should I be holding the AF-ON button down while tracking and shooting the animal, or do I acquire focus and then release, and continue to shoot? I have always kept the button pressed down when shooting, usually with decent results.
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Yes, you'll definitely want to maintain active AF for fast moving subjects like flying birds. If you let go of the AF-ON button (using BBAF) your camera will just stop at the latest focusing distance all but guaranteeing additional shots of your flying bird will be out of focus.

And yes, mirrorless battery life isn't anywhere close to what we were accustomed to with our DSLRs though if you follow the tips in this thread (e.g. consider camera sleep time settings and perhaps go to Viewfinder only or one of the viewfinder priority modes that doesn't automatically activate the rear panel LCD every time you pull your eye away from the viewfinder) it can help.
 
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From a Z8 shooter, the battery life on the camera really does suck and what you are experiencing is normal for that camera. I have two and I love the camera, just don't love the very short battery life. I simply carry a couple of spare batteries in my pocket and I have a lot of batteries. Nikon says to use the C battery but I have not really seen a big difference and I use all versions of the battery. I quit using BBAF, after using it for many years, as it simply did not seem necessary with the mirrorless cameras.
 
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I use a battery grip and have 4 plus hours of use. It doesn’t add that much weight and I like the extra size. I have shot all day and never run out of battery. I also turn the power off in between shots when the subjects are sparse. Never missed a shot. I carry extra batteries but have never had to use them.
 
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RickL said:
I use a battery grip and have 4 plus hours of use. It doesn’t add that much weight and I like the extra size. I have shot all day and never run out of battery. I also turn the power off in between shots when the subjects are sparse. Never missed a shot. I carry extra batteries but have never had to use them.
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4 hrs with grip = 2 hrs/batt which is about what seems to be the norm and pretty much sucks. Sure, you can go through all sorts of “fixes” like turning off camera in between shots or disabling either evf or screen to try to squeeze more time out of battery, but it’s time to face reality. Compared to the dslr nikons, the Z8 battery life is just terrible. Some suggest carrying AN extra batt; I never leave home without at least 3 extras. Love everything about the Z8 other than poor battery life.
 
They are just different animals, dslr and mirrorless. The get the display that shows the histogram and the focus areas and show the tracking takes a video feed to the viewfinder, which eats power compared to the passive mirror. You can't have both. And in mirrorless either pay for the space and money of the better battery in the more expensive camera or adapt to the less robust one.
 
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bleirer said:
They are just different animals, dslr and mirrorless. The get the display that shows the histogram and the focus areas and show the tracking takes a video feed to the viewfinder, which eats power compared to the passive mirror. You can't have both. And in mirrorless either pay for the space and money of the better battery in the more expensive camera or adapt to the less robust one.
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Wasn’t arguing the “why’s”. Just stating the obvious - that the battery life in the Z8 is its weak point.
 
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Welcome!

I shoot musical events. This often involves continuously following, and focusing on, performers for hours at a time.

I use both a Z8 and a Z9. The Z8 will last for about 1 hr or so of this kind of torture before exhausting its battery. Sometimes it will come close to overheating, although I have never had it shut down.

With the Z9, I have had no issues, and it will happily last for several hours. On Friday night I shot from 6p to 10:30p, including three sets of about 50 minutes with two 10-minute intermissions, mostly with the Z9. At the end of the evening, I had about 1081 images on the Z9 with 29% battery. The Z8 probably would have needed three batteries and might not have made it through the entire evening without overheating.

I use Delkin Black CFExpress cards and the music hall was at room temperature.

Hope this helps.
 
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To echo what others have said, keep focus engaged with BBAF - only let off when you're tired of having sharp images :)

As for battery life, it's not just about the shots, it's about the time the camera is on and being used. In fact, in the video below I demonstrate that I was able to get over 5000 shots and still have 93% of my battery left.

 
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Steve said:
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As for battery life, it's not about the shots, it's about the time the camera is on. See this video:
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Yes. But doesn't continually focusing an active scene also burn more battery? In my experience, you get more heat and less battery but, of course, I have never just sat there continually waking up the camera and taking no pictures as a control experiment.
 
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John Woodworth said:
Yes. But doesn't continually focusing an active scene also burn more battery? In my experience, you get more heat and less battery but, of course, I have never just sat there continually waking up the camera and taking no pictures as a control experiment.
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Yes, and I should have phrased that better :) Basically, using the camera is what drains it. Shooting actually has a very minimal impact on battery drain compared to many of the cameras operations. In the video I demonstrate how I got 5050 shots and still had 93% of my battery left :)
 
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