Z9, F Mount Lenses & Auto Fine Tune

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… I enquired of Nikon on this and was told they don't recommend focus fine tune. OK, why did they put it in the menu ???
Nikon included the capability to fine tune the AF system for the reasons described in the post #4 link above which should be very rare situations. Unless the camera and lens combo shows consistent back or front focusing there’s no reason to use that feature and needing that feature is much less likely but not impossible with mirrorless cameras.

IOW, it’s there because it could in some cases be useful but as folks have pointed out above those cases are pretty rare.

There are several camera fine tuning features like exposure fine tune and white balance fine tune that can be useful in very specific situations but Nikon would likely suggest that most folks shouldn’t use them as unless the photographer knows exactly why they need to make those adjustments it’s probably best to leave those fine tuning options alone. AF fine tuning is similar, unless there’s a clear and repeatable front or back focus problem it’s best to leave that alone and that’s even more true with mirrorless cameras.
 
Does anyone fine tune their z lenses on their z9 and if so do you get good results. I had heard that fine tuning wasn't necessary with the z9, z lens combo but have recently read some reviews saying it make a pretty good difference. I have been pleased with the results I've been getting but every little improvement helps.
Fine tuning a lens was more important with DSLRs where the focus mechanism was seperate from the sensor ... 🦘
 
Does anyone fine tune their z lenses on their z9 and if so do you get good results. I had heard that fine tuning wasn't necessary with the z9, z lens combo but have recently read some reviews saying it make a pretty good difference. I have been pleased with the results I've been getting but every little improvement helps.
When I got the Z9 when it was released, I decided to spend the money on Reikan Focal fine tuning software to get the most from the camera and be confident it is at its sharpest as I only had F-mount lenses at the time (get Focal PRO if your lenses are longer than 400mm). The Z9 allows you to have AF Fine Tune values at BOTH ends for zoom lenses which the D series cameras didn't and you always needed to compromise with an average value.

From the list below, you can see very little if anything is needed for Z lenses, but F lenses can be improved (even though some might argue en these values aren't 'too bad / noticeable'

I found with the FTZ2 adapter most F-mount lenses were fine-tuned with values -2 to -3 range after running the software.

16-35 f4: W-1, T-2
200-400 f4: -4,-1
400 f2.8: -1
400 f2.8 + 1.4TC: -2
70-200 f2.8: -3,-4
24-85: -3,-3
24-70 f2.8: -3,-3
70-300: -3,-4

Z 24-120 f4: -1,0
 
I previously owned a D500, D810, and D850, and had a 16-35mm f/4, a 70-200 f/4, a 105mm f/2.8 macro, a 200-500 f/5.6, and a 500mm f/4 G. I had to fine tune every single one of those lenses to each camera, and the 70-200, 105 macro, and the 500 f/4 a second time each with my TC14. On a whim, I bought a Z6II one day on my way back from an outing, and haven’t looked back. I have since streamlined my kit quite drastically…suffice it to say, I’ll never get on the NPS list, lol.
Mirrorless is it for me.
I had to do quite a bit of fine tuning as well with my F mount stuff. It got to be a real PITA to dial in each lens when a new DSLR arrived. Thankfully those days are over!!!
 
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