Z9 View Finder Blackout

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AtTheLake

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From what I have read I thought one of the advantages with the Z9 is that when shooting continuous low (10 frames per second) the viewfinder is not supposed to get blacked out. My memory card is Extreme Pro CFexpress 256 GB with a write speed of 1200 MB/s.

Any insight would be appreciated.
 
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It's shouldn't black out, but there are a couple of possibilities. First, if you're shooting at shutter speeds under 1/8th of a second. The second reason is if you have the camera set to Type A under d14, Release timing indicator.
 
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Hmm. Type B should only flash white bars around the edges, not black out the frame. Shutter speed is fast enough too. With those settings on mine I'm not getting any blackout. Does it still do it with d14 off?
 
Just throwing out a question, does lens corrections in camera have an impact. I remember from Canon that turning digital lens optimizer to high in camera slows writing down a lot. I assume Nikon has similar?
 
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AtTheLake said:
Steve: That was the problem. It works like it should now. I cannot express my appreciation of you taking time out on your Sunday to help me. Also, I cannot wait for your new book on setting up the Z9 to come out.

Again, Thank You
John
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Glad to help :)

In fact, you've helped me. The book, coming out Tuesday, didn't have that item covered since the book only covers what I change (or what others may want to change) for wildlife work. However, I think I'm going to add that menu item as a cautionary note :) Set to default, it's not an issue, but if it's accidentally changed, then it's an issue. It's sort of a weird option - I can't image why anyone would want to turn it off and Nikon doesn't offer any explanation either.
 
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Just curious, I like to keep my continuous drive at around 5 fps, which means that I'm shooting on Continuous Low Drive mode. Though I don't seem to be able to achieve a blackout free viewfinder when shooting at that speed. Do I have to shoot in Continuous High Drive Mode for blackout free shooting?
 
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pjoswald82 said:
Just curious, I like to keep my continuous drive at around 5 fps, which means that I'm shooting on Continuous Low Drive mode. Though I don't seem to be able to achieve a blackout free viewfinder when shooting at that speed. Do I have to shoot in Continuous High Drive Mode for blackout free shooting?
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I had a similar issue and what I've noticed is that you need to have the "Photo flicker reduction" setting turned OFF under Photo Shooting Menu to get blackout free shooting experience.
Warning; Having that setting turned on, you will almost certainly have at least some blackout unless you're shooting at a really high frame rate (approaching 20). I'm not sure what the real benefit of that setting is, I'd have to do more research. But these are my findings.

But make sure the setting for "View all in continuous mode" is turned ON as well, as Steve pointed out. It seems there are two ways to be getting blackout in shooting. I'm on firmware 4.0

Hope this helps!
 
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fwiw, if you see blackout while flicker reduction is enabled it means it’s kicking in, which means it was needed. i just leave it on. it stays out of the way when not needed, kicks in when it is
 
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Hi John,
I appreciate your sharing that information. I just did some pics indoors, some with and some without the flicker reduction on.. with LED lighting in this room and I literally can't tell any difference between the pictures.
Please note I have "high-frequency flicker reduction" enabled, but the setting I turned on and off was the "flicker reduction" we've been talking about.

What do you make of this?
 
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The blackout is noticeable.. I'd say for when I'm not on a job it wouldn't really bother me but it would be nicer to be without it when I'm in the thick of it, if you catch my drift.
I was trying it at 1/60 as well as 1/125
 
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i don’t know at what point slow shutter speeds cause blackout, but it’s possible you’re seeing blackout due to shutter speed.

also, typically slow shutter speeds mask led flicker which is probably why your images with flicker reduction turned off looked ok
 
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if you have access to that location, you might do some experiments.

behavior at higher shutter speeds (like 1/1000s) with and without flicker reduction enabled

behavior with flicker reduction disabled, start at higher shutter speed, then observe behavior as you slow the shutter speed
 
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Here's something I stumbled on checking out my Z 8 that just came back from the mount repair today. I took it out with the 70-200mm F2.8 and was taking shots of my dog and all was going well and working fine. I then put on my 100-400mm and I started to notice a slight dimming or flicker in the viewfinder for a millisecond on the first shot of a burst and the rest of the burst no dimming or flicker between shots I started to think what happened to my Z 8 it was working fine, then I noticed on the 100-400mm I had the F stop set to F9, I put the 100-400mm back on the Z 9 at F9 and sure enough the first shot of the burst dimmed or flickered. So after playing around more with the Z 8 and 70-200mm F2.8 what i found is that if I shot at an aperture from F2.8 to F5.6 I wouldn't see the dimming or flicker on the first shot of a burst, but If I stopped down further I would start to see the dimming or flicker on the first shot of the burst. I usually shoot wide open so I never noticed this before but above F 5.6 you start to see it and at smaller apertures like F 9 and F 16 you can really see it, it's only the first shot of the burst so what I think is happening is when looking thru the viewfinder before you hit the shutter button you're viewing wide open on the 70-200 it's F2.8 but if you have the lens set to say F9 as soon as you press the shutter the lens stops down to F9 and the viewfinder dims for a millisecond on the first shot of the burst but then is fine for the rest of the shots.
 
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