Z9 Argument for and against banks wth RSF

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wassa1957

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As I wait for my seventh month for my z9 I am looking at the merits of both of the above. I gather there are many with their Z9's who use a particular way of shootig. Yes, I have Steves book and its very good but each comment shows a different flavor for the camera use in, for me, BIF, Landscape and Astro. Any nice suggestions.
 
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I generally do event photography which includes sports but I did go out and shoot burrowing owls a few time including in flight. I found out auto area with eye detection works best even at a distance but there were some issues with lighting. On an overcast day, there were no problems. The same was true when using direct sunlight. I had problems when attempting to shoot backlit subjects. The focus would jump to the background. The out come was hit and miss. To be precise, it was a high contrast day with a grass background. All shooting was done in the same setting with the same backgrounds.

As far as RSF I have found to be a nice feature to accommodate outside sport photography when my position can change from direct sunlight to back lit. I still have to get used to it, however.
 
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I make use of them (U modes) on my Z7II and D7500 before that…and shooting banks work differently as well as the RSF than the U modes do…but whenever my Z9 arrives will use them. Not sure if I will set them up as different shooting scenarios or have one set that is the base and copy it to the other 3 banks and then modify and save the results to the card…but there’s a lot to be said for having a default setup you can always go back to…as well as just reloading the settings before every outing to get all back to the current baseline which will evolve over time…both are good suggestions and I imagine my thoughts will vary a bit as I learn the new body.
 
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I honestly have never used the banks on any of my Nikon camera. I always thought it was strange that if you change the settings while using the camera they update what is saved for the bank that you were using. That never made sense to me. Unless I was using them wrong and didn't realize it. If they worked more like the U setting on cameras like the Z6/7 series I would more than likely use them more.
 
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Tanks for that. I confess I'm torn as the Banks are stored in external card. Having been used to DSLR I FDISK the card. I know what would happen. Also, as said, when you change the "original" settings you either change in camera or reload the stored settings. That's my understanding. I like Steve's approach which uss the KISS system. As I have said in other blogs in Australia we get no idea of Z9's ariving nor can, read won't, tell us the last date of ordering that was filled. This is Nikon Australia.
 
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I had never used banks before I got the Z9. On the Z9 they are a vital part of using it well.
The Z9 has so many options it can be quite difficult to move from a configuration which suits action to a portrait or to a landscape setting. Banks solve this issue quickly.
I have 4 banks and 3 get used regularly. The last one is now my ”manual/special” mode.Which I alter as I need to.
To maintain some compatibility with the U1, U2, U3 set up on the Z6ii, I make Bank A about Portraits and People.

Settings for colour balance, Fps, focus mode, subject detection and especially what ‘RSF hold on Fn3‘ does and others, are all aimed at how best to deal with portraits. To drop into Bank A and Custom together, takes me about 3 seconds. This is something you do as you pick up the camera.
Bank B settings are all about Action
Bank C is about Landscape
BankD is about Manual settings only.

PALM

It is essential on a Z9 to have a lot of settings correct for scenarios which arise. Banks let me do that.
With a similar scheme on the Z6ii I can switch cameras and have little time adjusting.

Is it worth the effort? Yep. Is it easy to set up? Nope. Is it easy to save and reset? Yep. Does it make the photographic process and experience better?

ABSOLUTELY!
 
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I do have a smallish XQD card which I use as backup for the settings.

I have not lost any of the settings at any time. Erasing cards is not an issue really. On the Z9 you also have the option in the delete menu to select: “Erase all images”. This deletes all the images on a card but nothing else.

I also believe that if you erase a card then go to the “Save/load menu settings“ menu, then choose: “Save menu settings”, the Z9 will save the existing settings back to the card. (I still keep my Xqd back up copy just in case.)

My RSF hold on Fn3 does different things on each bank:
On Bank A (Portrait/People) Fn3 RSF hold changes to aperture to F4 and the shutter release to 12 fps and 3d tracking. If normal for Bank A is Single frame, Wide area L and Aperture F2.8, for people being still, then it makes sense to have Fn3 RSF can be for a burst when people are actively moving etc. Or you could set it up the other way round, so that Fn3 RSF hold dropped out of burst and continuous autofocus to S and set the aperture to F2.8 and Wide- S for a person posing.
On bank B (Action)
Normal settings are: Animal subject detection, 15fps, Wide Area L. FN3 RSF changes it to 20 fps, 3D tracking.

In the process of setting it up I set up a table on a Word Document so I could work out what I wanted. I do keep refining the settings. Having a physical print out in a spreadsheet or table is a good way to look at it all and work out what you are aiming at.

The info button is handy to switch and see where you are. It is essential for changing Custom Settings. I go to Shooting A and CustomA OR ShootingB and CustomB. etc.
 
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wassa1957 said:
Tanks for that. I confess I'm torn as the Banks are stored in external card. Having been used to DSLR I FDISK the card. I know what would happen. Also, as said, when you change the "original" settings you either change in camera or reload the stored settings. That's my understanding. I like Steve's approach which uss the KISS system. As I have said in other blogs in Australia we get no idea of Z9's ariving nor can, read won't, tell us the last date of ordering that was filled. This is Nikon Australia.
Click to expand...
Banks are stored internally just as the U modes re…but both can be (except for the Z50 and maybe the Zfc)backed up to the card. The difference is that U modes are fixed until you change and save them internally where the banks are fixed at whatever you last left them at unless reloaded from saved settings on card. For instance…my U1 is for action and is 1/2000 speed…but if I’m in U1 and low light I’m as likely to just change the SS as I am to shift to Uw which is designed for landscapes and starts at say 1/250. But I can cycle power or shift to air and back to U1 to restore the original settings…but if I change bank 1 the action ban from 1/20l0 to 1/800 it stays that way but it’s still the action bank and I need to crank SS back up when I see the kingfisher or ivory billed woodpecker approaching. It’s a different way of approaching the problem…not better 9r worse, just different and needing new muscle memory to be developed.

Hudson uses a couple of different approaches with banks and talks about a couple he doesn’t use. He also thinks…and I agree…that settings should be allowed to be saved in camera as well as to the card…and said that restoring the settings before an outing gets all the banks back to your default settings. I don’t recall if he uses U modes on his Z6 and Z7 variants…but imagine he did as they allow you to quickly change a bunch of setti. Banks allow you to quickly change more settings…but aren’t a baseline that is easily returnable too
 
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It's interesting how many people don't use them sometimes because of the time / number of steps it takes to switch through them (not just comments on this thread) The argument 'for' would get a tremendous boost if only we would be allowed to link a shooting bank and a custom bank together and then change them as a pair with a single button toggle (no command dial required - just a toggle 1,2,3,4,1.... and so on) Imagine the power of that. I wrote to Nikon about it and they responded as though nobody had ever asked for this before. I'm sure I'm not the first ?
 
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The shooting banks work just fine, but they are not compulsory. Understanding them is not designed to be easy, but it is possible. Let’s see what firmware updates bring. What’s not so easy is deciding what you really need for your photography. Not everyone needs a whole lot of options and controls.

I use them happily, but they do require a willingness to make the effort to understand them. Once you do, they are really useful.
 
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As a longtime Nikon user I never used the Banks nor the My Menu options. It was easy and quick, for me, to simply turn whatever dials or buttons to get what I wanted. Enter the Z9...in some ways an entirely different camera than all the other Nikon cameras I've had (all prosumer models). There are so many specific options on the Z9 that, to me, makes it essential to set up a couple of Banks, both Shooting and Custom. For example, there is a specific setting for type of focus, People, Animal, etc. that would not be needed for a landscape shot, although I don't know that it would actually interfere in any way (I'm still learning about the camera). The same goes for the type of Focus Mode and AF Area Modes, a lot of options depending upon what you are shooting. Since these options are there on this high-end computer that happens to be a camera I want to use them. So, I needed to learn how to set up the Banks and have been doing that. There are so very many buttons you can also set up and then there is the I-Menu that you can also set up, it can get overwhelming at times. I've set up three banks and several buttons on the Wildlife bank but still have more work to do. I've written down on paper what I did set up so that I can study and remember it, setting up a minimum number of buttons at this point. I'll be testing all this in Africa in about a week. There are many ways to set all this up and there is no one way for everyone so it's best to read up on it and then shoot some and figure out what works for you. The options are truly endless!
 
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wassa1957 said:
As I wait for my seventh month for my z9 I am looking at the merits of both of the above. I gather there are many with their Z9's who use a particular way of shootig. Yes, I have Steves book and its very good but each comment shows a different flavor for the camera use in, for me, BIF, Landscape and Astro. Any nice suggestions.
Click to expand...
I've gotten…sorta…used to the shooting banks and have them set up functionally similar to what I have on the z7II…action, waterfall/landscapes, and walking around. Banks have pros and cons compared to U modes…pro is they store more settings especially with extended turned on, con is that they don't go back to a default when you switch to them…but the latter can be sorta worked around by loading saved settings before each outing but it doesn't solve the 'changed while on the outing' issue and I keep finding myself saying with both of the bodies…oh yeah, works the other way on this body.

That said…I have RSF set up on both action and landscape for quick reaction BIF shots. Bank A action gets modified as I go along through the outing and might in some situations have been reset to 1/400 or single point focus or whatever…then the Ivory Billed Woodpecker flies past so I've set a RSF to go to auto area/eye recognition on the shutter and tracking on the rear button, 1/1600, and f2.0 which ensures the lens is wide open. Haven't used the RSF yet because pickings are slim here in SW FL in the summer.

And I'm still not smart enough to quickly remember what the Fn buttons do on each body because the options aren't the same between the two and I didn't want to buy a 2nd Z9. If we ever see a 7III or 8 or whatever that is essentially a grip-less pro model that is mostly feature/menu matched with exceptions to meet marketing guys needs then I could see myself changing the 7II out for that model simply to get 2 bodies that work the same.
 
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For some reason I like the banks much better than the U-modes on prosumer models. It may be because they can have a more significant impact/have more options. I don’t know exactly. I can swap and reset comfortably.

Using a table to record what bank does what and what each button does in each bank is pretty much essential, even if it is just a way of helping to memorise them as you construct the table.

I do find that I need to audit the table to update small changes I have decided to make permanent.
 
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wassa1957 said:
Tanks for that. I confess I'm torn as the Banks are stored in external card. Having been used to DSLR I FDISK the card. I know what would happen. Also, as said, when you change the "original" settings you either change in camera or reload the stored settings. That's my understanding. I like Steve's approach which uss the KISS system. As I have said in other blogs in Australia we get no idea of Z9's ariving nor can, read won't, tell us the last date of ordering that was filled. This is Nikon Australia.
Click to expand...
Banks are stored internally just like U settings are… ut both get saved out to or loaded from the card if you choose to do so. The difference is that U are static and if you are in U1, change a setting and power cycle or go to U2 and back the original settings for U1 are restored. Banks remain at whatever you last set them to unless you saved the original settings to card and then reload them…and banks remember more settings. I’m getting happier with banks as I use them because all bodies I had before had U modes and not banks…and U was what I was used to.
 
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However, with so many options, the versatilities of the flagship pro ILCs are in a different league. This is true of the Z9 with its 45mp sensor ideal for a wide diversity of genres : eg macro and landscape vs active sports and wildlife.... all the different RAW (or jpg) and Exposure settings let alone Focus and frame rates etc. We're dealing with a D850 on steroids.

I agree fully with @Griffym it is essential to learn to put the Shooting Banks to productive uses. They are unavoidable if you want to get the value out of a Nikon pro camera. AS noted already, one pertinent example is how Custom banks enable up to 4 different RSF setups on the Z9. It sounds like some owners of the D500 and D850 avoided doing so, and so be it. I cannot understand how one can switch across all the settings between BIF and Landscape, although this assumes these are optimally setup in each case.

Since upgrading to a D500 in 2016, i've found the quickest setup is via MyMenu to change Photo and Custom banks : set as the top 2 items. I still have these items in MyMenu on the Z9 (pressing Fn4), although it's quicker to get at these as the 2 icons on the right edge of the i-Menu. I've come to appreciate MyMenu is also the fastest way to tweak the C1 and C2 AF modes, and also Focus with LockOn (a3) - quicker than using i-Menu. I find MyMenu to be ideal to tweak any one of a diversity of Settings [20 in total] which otherwise hide buried deep in its Menu. I suggest it pays off to trawl the Z9 Menus from top to bottom: using the Add Items eg GPS, Sensor Shield, Focus-Stacking, Battery Info, RAW Recording.... and more.

So actually there's more to configure and optimize in the Z9 besides the Shooting (Photo+Custom) Banks! One has to invest the time in experimenting to tame not only the Shooting Banks for your styles of photography, but also the i-Menu and MyMenu. IME, compared to the prior generations of Nikon Pro/Prosumer ILCs, the expanded options in Custom controls, the maturation of the i-Menu in the D6 and especially the Z9 are major innovations in their right. In combination with Customized buttons, I find almost all changes are very quick on the fly, but only with the camera is setup for its tasks.
 
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