NEW Z9 Auto Focus Firmware - Bird & Aviation Photographers Will Be Especially Pleased | Matt Irwin

[@SwanSycorax]

I heard about this release from Steve Perry early this morning, and, as I am off to Botswana on safari in two days time, was grateful for the heads up. I installed the new release and then spent the morning with my Z9 and my Z 800 PF out on a Nature Reserve dedicated to birds. The difference this new release offers was immediately noticeable and I have no hesitation in recommending it. The bird detection autofocus was noticeably faster in locking on and really stuck to the selected subject. I was particularly impressed with how it locked onto the black eye on a black headed Canada Goose when the eye was impossible to see with the naked eye. Absolutely brilliant. There were a couple of Little Egrets chasing each other around the sky so the backgrounds went from glittering water to solid reed-bed to trees with light filtering through to open skies but the autofocus remained locked onto the subject(s) giving loads of pinsharp images. Brilliant. Thank you Nikon.

[@TonyHedges]

As a bird-photographer I am over-the-moon with the update. Went straight up to the cathedral in Norwich and photographed the Peregrine falcon there. My 400/4.5 was just a little bit short but it was so much easier to take the photos. The falcon took off and the autofocus grabbed it straight away and never let go. Easy peasy.

[@izzieb]

This is cool AF... I mean... Bird AF.

[@Gr1ff1D0]

Updated yesterday. Just a short opportunity to test. I saw an Eastern Rosella in a tree. The sun was setting and the light was low. The bird was watching me but not planning to move from the branch. Eye detect was instant and very sticky indeed. It looks very promising.

[@MattIrwinPhotography]

Thanks so much for sharing

[@ronaldpollard8990]

Matt this is again a very professionally made presentation!! Thank you for the clear reasoning on this latest FW Update!!!

[@danbrown8979]

Just went for a spin around my neighborhood here in California with my Z9+180-600 and I am very happy with the "bird" recognition! Seems to be much faster finding the bird and then the eye and seems very sticky, compared to the previous firmware version! Super!

[@JayBlue2U]

That’s been my experience, too.

[@timurhant469]

The last footage was insanely good Matt! Thanks!

[@MattIrwinPhotography]

My pleasure!

[@jserenity]

the nice thing about Z9 is unlike sony A1, Nikon really treats the z9 as a flagship camera and gives all the bells and whistle it develops via firmware

[@MattIrwinPhotography]

Yes. Flagship is flagship is flagship.

[@jackbrumby1892]

Thanks Matt. Watched Steve Perry's video. I tried the new firmware immediately on my Z9/180-600mm. Very good results, albeit with overcast/windy conditions here in Sydney yesterday. Most noticeable was how camera detected small bird's (Noisy Miner) eye through some wayward branches. Cheers, John.

[@MattIrwinPhotography]

Thanks so much for sharing.

[@MrJason8957]

I have a Z7II and I got what I paid for and don't have complaints. It would be nice, but I understand that the Z9/Z8 are a step in technology.

[@mfd-germnl6059]

that was the final nail in the coffin... I'm switching to Nikon😄

[@GordoFriman]

You won't regret. Their lens line is very well balanced and you can already find some masterpieces, like this new plena, the 20mm 1.8, the 50mm 1.8 (probably some more). Not saying that the 1.2's are not good enough. but these 1.8's are superior to whichever lens one could randomly mention, trully superior. While on sony and Canon you get one or two parameters very good, and the rest just average or even poor.

[@mfd-germnl6059]

and their 1.8s are weather sealed... I was not able to use my 35/50 1.8 from Canon due to anxiety caused by the lack of weather sealing in conditions I would've loved to use em...

[@josephsworkshop75]

BIRDS! I never noticed it was an issue. I’m looking forward to seeing/feeling what has changed/improved. I’ll be testing it out tomorrow. Thanks for the good news. 👍🏻

[@MattIrwinPhotography]

Please do!

[@christinetanner4631]

Matt! Your teaser video on the Plena is just insane! Although I have no need for the lens, I want one now! The separation between the kangaroos and the background looks surreal. I can’t wait to view the rest of your video. You are an amazing photographer/videographer and I appreciate all the hard work you put into these videos. Thank you.

[@derrickm9808]

Excited about the present and future with my Z8, the firmware updates are another benefit of mirrorless. I'd like to see high res mode , spot exposure , exposure delay added to custom controls

[@Weyco23]

I shoot aviation all the time and even with the Z9 I am still using the old school single focus point with the surrounding points active. It is remarkable. I have tried the other modes and not found them useful. I also shoot motorsports and use the same method, no car detect for me. The Z9 AF is so good, the old school methods work just fine.

[@DaveR997]

Same here, means I can shoot Z9 and D6 exactly the same when I use them together for motorsport.

[@jldelcuv]

The way they are delivering updates seems to demonstrate that they do have one software development team that works on new features for a target pilote reference (Z9, and but can be Z8 or Zf) , and a team (hopefully another team) that works on deploying and adapting the new features towards other reference models, at least to the ones having the required hardware capabilities.

[@davidmurphy7847]

Very excited about this update. Steve Perry’s review looked good.

[@stuartmeador8993]

Expect this will be on my Zf when it arrives......

[@acronymphotography]

Ordinarily -as a wedding photographer - this would mean little to me BUT my daughter is parachute jumping on Sunday! 😂

[@JRodPhotoArt]

Well done Nikon, but wow, this should be yet another big improvement. Thanks for the update Matt ! Steve's video was also very informative.

[@gaucphotography]

Matt the footage with the Plena at the end of the video was fantastic. Indeed we are getting better and better tools to express our individual creative needs. It is morning here in Denver , so it is now time for me to try firmware 4.1. Keep the good work.

[@chrislekhavanija]

Updated. I am very please with the results!

[@mikedavis1110]

I agree with the comments from Steve Perry and your review on your bird photos! I have tried it out in birds and will try airplanes this weekend to test out the new functions. Great reviews on the Nikon gear!

[@mike.592]

Would be nice to see Nikon release an update to allow different Raw image sizes. 45MP is not always needed, i ususally revert to my z6ii for 13.7MP images for Social Media.

[@oyxogphd69]

It would be cool if they later added support for “high-resolution mode” like in Zf. But if they add it, then in z9 it will already be more than 96 megapixels. I would find this feature very useful for landscapes and 360 panoramas

[@kevc.2958]

zf pixel shift has no motion compensation, only good for still subject.

[@JuanRojas956]

So no more updates for the z8? The z9 has now two big updates and is caught up with the z8. And now the z8 is still missing the z9 update to change the shutter sounds and such

[@oyxogphd69]

I set it to 4.10. Without touching birds and airplanes, it obviously became faster to focus on the Viltrox, it became immediately noticeable) and on plain surfaces such as dark walls of the same color, etc.

[@bubbavonbraun]

Nice to see the Z8 differences come to the Z9.. Sadly I really needed the Airplane mode two weeks ago, but shall be testing this on the weekend. Its clear there are two code bases though, so its not just a plug-in module between the Z8Z9 so there must be subtle differences in the platforms that needs to be accommodated.

[@AMGOSUK]

Thanks Matt.

[@thomastuorto9929]

Plena intro vid is great. Any guesses out there as to what they said to get the Roos to stop pose all at once?😎

[@dance2jam]

Tested out Z9 new firmware today (4.10) for bird detection. Unfortunately, only had about an hour to do so. I found with small birds the wide area modes (including custom) found the eye insanely fast and "stuck like glue" most of the time. 3D - which you would think would be better, remains a bit less reliable. I found that when WA-anything kept the box on the head/eye of the bird almost all the time, 3D would jump to the body or somewhere else, back to the head, and back to the body (when the head might be turned a bit). My overall impression was it grabbed the bird eye very quickly, and stayed on it much better. Steve noted that with long neck birds, it still would jump to the body (i.e. egrets, herons, etc. - but stuck with sandpipers). I, like SP, need to shoot more and test this out, but on first glance, it did seem like a significant improvement.

[@MattIrwinPhotography]

Thanks so much for sharing.

[@robinguess1704]

Looking forward to trying out 4.1 on some planes this weekend.

[@dominiclester3232]

Thanks! I’m so looking forward to the Plena video 😮 It’s occurred to me that now we have Airplane AF detect on at least three cameras, it would be helpful to re-name Airplane mode where wireless is disabled...

[@uaebifvideo5472]

Thank you for the information!!.

[@duncanwallace7760]

I heard about this while travelling and drove to a city with camera stores, so I could borrow one of their card readers, so I could copy it onto one of my cards. This evening I tried it on seagulls, specifically crossing from sky to land background and it was VERY sticky. Tomorrow I have a boat trip to find albatross, so it will get a mega-workout! One of the most exciting updates for me so far!

[@MattIrwinPhotography]

Awesome Duncan. Let me know how you with the albatross

[@duncanwallace7760]

@@MattIrwinPhotography Hey Matt, I went on a VERY bumpy trip to see the Albatross. There was swell coming from two directions and when the boat was moving the only way I could actually hold the camera and look through the viewfinder was by pushing my legs against the bulkhead and my back against the seat. I still managed to hit my head on the side of the boat a number of times! I was hoping I'd get some shots of flying birds in focus, but I was blown away to get about 90% in focus, with about 80% in very sharp focus on the eye. I am still a little stunned to be honest. When the boat was still almost everything seems to be in focus. I did this same trip 9 years ago with my D4 and got a few nice shots with good focus. Today I took over 1.4k shots and I'd predict more 1.2k at least are very sharp. It's astounding!

[@coled463]

Will this come to all expeed 7 cameras, even a full frame as entry level as Zf?

[@RetiredEE]

Morning! Did the Zf come with either bird or plane detection?

[@jotwee63]

Zf has Airplane (like Z8) up to now, Bird will come (at least Z8 is confirmed) in 2024

[@RetiredEE]

@@jotwee63 thank you, I wonder if anyone has tried using the birds setting on photographing airplanes and vice versa? Outside of scale, and slightly more vigorous wing movement, they're sort of the same thing...

[@RonSkinnerPhotographer]

Updated the firmware last night and the bird tracking works great, it sticks to the eye of the millions of sparrows I have in my backyard

[@mikebartow9415]

I watched the Steve Perry video earlier and was quite impressed. I did not update to the firmware 4.01 but will definitely update to 4.1.

[@photographydiscourse1185]

Hi Matt - Nice video - everything I am writing here you already know, but I thought you might enjoy the read and also it might benefit some of your viewers: This is a VERY IMPORTANT moment for Nikon - they are turning the corner on Canon and Sony RIGHT NOW! Two major breakthroughs in some much as the last 2 weeks: 1) Plena - a lens that is specifically designed to take advantage of the Z mount - by all accounts, it is an optical masterpiece that displays optical qualities that will NOT be achievable by the Sony E mount for example - and probably not by the RF mount either. Nikon proclaimed in 2018 that the Z mount was their future and what would set them apart from the rest, and although we have seen solid evidence of this in the past with the exceptional IQ, aberration control, and focus breathing control of the Z mount lenses (especially S line), we have yet to see something (until now) that we could definitively say was only made possible by the Z mount itself - Plena seems to be just this thing. It begs the question of what is possible for future lenses from Nikon. I have been saying this for a long time: as soon as Nikon get out the "basics" for their lens line up (which I think is now largely the case), they would then be able to focus on more exotic lens designs - the likes of which we have not seen before from any manufacturer, and now it seems we have arrived at step 1 of that process with Plena - can't wait to get mine in the next couple weeks! And can't wait to see what is yet to come! 2) Firmware 4.10 for the Z9: obviously the subject of your video today, and perhaps much more important that its name implies (only a .1 improvement in FW). This definitely shows that Nikon AF has caught the likes of Sony and Canon. This is very bad news for Sony. In reality, the only thing Sony had over Nikon traditionally in the mirrorless space is 2 things: A) superior AF and B) more lens selection. A: Let's break it down: Superior AF is becoming a thing of the past. Even before FW 4.1 the AF on the Z8/9 is fully competitive with the Sony and Canon systems - maybe in certain nuanced situations the Sony and Canon would still be slightly ahead, but for any competent practitioner (not the typical YT point and shoot photographer) these differences have become largely meaningless. That said, in the case of FW 4.1, the difference is now immaterial as there appears to be NO difference. The stickiness on the eye of the bird that Steve Perry showed through that actual view finder is in every way on par with Sony and Canon. With equivalent fine tuning in the rest of the AF system, very soon (next 6 months perhaps) there will be no appreciable difference between Nikon AF and Sony/Canon AF. So this advantage has effectively been eliminated. B: More lens selection: with the 41+ lenses that Nikon has now released for the Z mount, all the F mount lenses (some 90 that work with full functionality with the FTZ) and finally the official introduction of both Tamron, Sigma, and Voightlander to the Z mount - not to mention the myriad of other 3rd party options that are on the market including, but not limited to, Viltrox and several others, this advantage for Sony is now also largely a moot point. I would take it a step further: yes Sony has many lens options - but the majority of them are lower quality off brand options - there really is no advantage to shooting Sony when it comes to lens choice at this point, not to mention that with adaptors the Nikon Z mount can utilize any Sony lens, but the same is not and can never be the case in reverse due to the short flange distance of the Z mount. In a sense, one of Sony's greatest strengths is now turned against it as the Nikon has access to all lenses made for Sony, but also the vastly superior line of Z mount S line lenses etc. As for Canon- they are the most lens challenged of the three, and still are stubbornly not supporting 3rd parties - enough said. Great time to be a Nikon shooter - but then again, it always was :) -PD

[@ronaldpollard8990]

VERY Well Stated combined with Exceptional Insight @Photographydiscourse

[@mozzman]

Just one minor note, Canon just recently announced they would be allowing 3rd party lenses by 2024.

[@photographydiscourse1185]

@@mozzman Hi Mozzman - been a while since we have interacted - hope you are well. Good to know - still, I would say that it does not change the fact that Nkon S Line glass is superier to RF glass - better build quality, better focus breathing control, better aberration control etc. Nikon RAW files are straight up better than Canon RAW files - this is generally accepted, and the build quality of Nikon pro bodies is superior to Canon - just compare a Z8 to an R5. So, although I did not spell out the case for Nikon versus Canon as much in my initial comment, and in spite of their realization that they literally need 3rd party glass, I still feel that Nikon has them beat in virtually all relevant categories and by any important metric. To be clear, for anyone else that may be reading - none of this means that you cannot get amazing images with any system - be it Sony, Canon, Fuji, Panasonic, Nikon, or even Pentax (and any others that I inadvertently left out). This is just to say when it comes to a comprehensive system that is built for the demands of professional use, and is literally designed from the ground up to facilitate the capture of top level images, Nikon is finally re-taking its place at the top of the pack - as it was just prior to the introduction of the Canon EOS system and EF mount in 1987. At that time, Canon broke out due to its superior mount, and now in the mirrorless world Nikon has the best mount and we are now seeing the inevitable results of that fact. -PD

[@mozzman]

@@photographydiscourse1185 Lol nobody can accuse you of not being thorough. I just wanted to correct that minor point as it was just only recently announced.

[@photographydiscourse1185]

@@mozzman Thank you Sir! :)

[@uhoh7541]

Anyone having issues with 3rd party batteries after 4.0(what I'm still on)? Put my wasabi in today and body said it was dead, but charger read it as over 80%. Believe this is my first attempt at using it since updating to 4.0. Any advice appreciated.

[@RaymondParkerPhoto]

Tried it out today on a few birds.. Seems like an improvement for sure ... but bears won the day.

[@starbase218]

Where are the Z6 III and Z7 III...? Pretty sure Nikon is working on them. But honestly, they're kind of overdue. With the ZF having been released, I can't imagine many Z6 IIs in particular are being sold right now. But if you send me a Z9, I will let you know when I've installed it. Or better yet, send me a Z8. I'll let you know once it becomes available. Yes? ;)

[@tanmay110]

I saw Steve's video where he critically analyzed that update.

[@julienlabell73]

thanks matt

[@selianboy8508]

Nikon HAS Matt... Nikon has... there is only one Nikon and there will only ever be one Nikon. Whilst all others are about the scream... Nikon is the dream cream! 😉 Nice vid...

[@PerratheSwede]

I noticed that the Bird-option doesn't work in Auto-Capture mode. Does anyone have any solution on this issue? It works i Animal-detection.

[@davidgambin2551]

Improved as fcuk, or improved autofocus? Or both?

[@kainlestad]

Is there going to be a z8 update too?

[@ptg5377]

First half of 2024

[@mikelyon5595]

Good for Nikon!

[@Nickkettt]

Thank you Matt for this video. They still haven't enabled the 'pre-release RAW.' That's what I would most like to see on this amazing camera, and I wouldn't be upset if they even go up to 30fps RAW. 😜

[@jpdj2715]

4.10 - Great news for birders. But I'm not one of them. It's great that Nikon understand that collectors of bird images are stakeholders in the market segment of long telephoto lenses, especially the expensive ones. But my thoughts go out to the wedding photographer with a Z 8 that complains (in YT) about eye-AF and focus jumping to other people in a group with difficulties to get the camera back to where it needs to be. They likely need to wait to next year before they get an upgrade that probably does not fix their problem. (a) because Nikon is working on feathered birds, not the ones in bridal gowns. (b) because - it seems - Nikon has different teams working on Z 9 firmware then on Z 8 firmware than on Z f firmware. From a computer science/software engineering perspective this is hard to understand and even harder to appreciate. In the meantime, Nikon has publicly promised that they will drill down what they learnt in development for their top camera(s) to the firmware of cheaper/older cameras as well. Collectors of images of trains (aka trainspotters) may be candidates for buying very expensive zoomlenses and they may want new AI as well. Air plane spotters. The biggest market segment still will be commercial, portrait, wedding, event, lifestyle, concerts, street - altogether in today's world and economy dependent on great eye-AF, including and especially in lower light with lower contrast. The Nikon man of the promise did not mention a date, or criteria. Mañana?

[@solar-e-bike-touring-europe]

Nikon should not forget Z6.. and Z7.. users making it somehow usefull via firmware updates (bird AF???)

[@hondahoon2479]

Not into “birding” but….any improvements on the AF is welcome

[@Youtuber-ku4nk]

Great. But, no, there is no chance there will be similar updates to the Z6/7 ii

[@shadow479]

Too much focus on the 4K and 5K $ bodies. That's Nikon as of now, just the top of the line has real presence and competitivity on the market.

[@MattIrwinPhotography]

Zf ... ? and more will follow

[@GiuseppeMalacasa]

Nikon says today that it cares about its customers by constantly updating the FW...This is really beautiful! Of course!? With the Z7II where are we as FW? At 1.60? Among other things, ridiculous updates! Yes, yes...now I'll write it down! Z second series: children of a lesser God! But we have the dual processor which, as the various ambassadors promised at the presentation, would have caused havoc with subsequent updates! The second processor could be useful for something... we could perhaps put it in salt and keep it for the cold winter... And thank goodness that the ZII cameras can get away with it. I really don't see all this attention to buyers of the Z 6/7, especially the second series! Perhaps Nikon forgets that with the proceeds of the gullible of the first Zs it was able to survive and develop the Z9/8... nice gratitude! I just hope they prove me wrong by studying an update worthy of the name... I still want to hope so.

[@csc-photo]

The original 6/7 and the mark II's are still tremendous cameras. But we are not (not) going to get the level of tracking performance of the 8/9. The Expeed7 is literally 10x more powerful than the dual-Expeed6 processors in the 6/7 mark II's. That aside, as someone that has owned both 6 and 6 mark II bodies - there is a clear and noticeable difference in AF tracking performance / features. That second processor is also contributing to more than just AF (see Matt's video on this topic from last year).

[@ericusjtm28]

Heyyy please remember us the guys who bought the Z8... We also need this update

[@JayBlue2U]

From Nikon: “Furthermore, in a firmware update planned for release in the first half of 2024 for the Nikon Z 8, the dedicated bird subject detection option will be added, alongside the airplane option available from the camera’s initial release. Other improvements in functionality are also planned.”

[@jettubby17]

None of these updates for the Z8? I wish I’d known maybe I should’ve bought the Z9 instead? 🙄

[@MattIrwinPhotography]

Z 8 already has plane. And bird coming in an update to Z 8.

[@jettubby17]

@@MattIrwinPhotography thanks, Matt

[@ryantang8146]

Where about is this location ? The birds are interesting 👍

[@paulburt8222]

What it looks like to me is Nikon lured those of us that wanted a slightly more compact version of the Z9 by producing the Z8 and leading us on to think is was a smaller, lighter Z9 with the same features. Now, they are enhancing the Z9 and leaving the Z8 out of all of these enhancements. Was the Z8 just a big money grab by Nikon? Will the Z8 ever get firmware updates to bring these features to the Z8 or will Nikon just screw all the Z8 owners? If the Z8 was really supposed to be the D850 replacement, it should be getting these AF enhancements as the D850 was the nature/wildlife king of the hill. It just seems to me, Nikon pulled off a fast one on Z8 owners… I guess time will tell… I hope I’m wrong.

[@philcampbell5827]

As a Z8 owner I share your sentiments. It's seems unlikely that the FW updates made recently to Z9 couldn't be just as easily rolled out the Z8 as well. I understand wanting to differentiate the Z9 from the Z8, but simply holding back FW updates seems like a bit of a devious way to do that. As you said, time will tell.

[@JayBlue2U]

From Nikon: “Furthermore, in a firmware update planned for release in the first half of 2024 for the Nikon Z 8, the dedicated bird subject detection option will be added, alongside the airplane option available from the camera’s initial release. Other improvements in functionality are also planned.”

[@mozzman]

That’s an extreme pessimistic view that has no basis in reality. Nikon released the Z8 with functionality the Z9 still doesn’t have and they update firmware with new features more than any other manufacturer.

[@derrickm9808]

I think you are being too emotionally negative if you read all the info and comments , I own a Z 8 also

[@paulburt8222]

Matt Granger just released a video stating exactly my concern. Time will tell, but I think Nikon is making a clear statement here. Auto capture and now AF enhancements on the Z9 not on the Z8. They should not have called the Z8 the Z replacement to the D850 when they are making it clear that the Z9 is truly the D850 bird and Wildlife replacement.

[@roybixby6135]

So many Nikon updates - I'm losing track of the features on the Z8 and Z9 ... 🦘