Setup your Nikon Z8 and Z9 for wildlife photography | Customise your camera like a pro!

[@fatboystrongphotography7951]

Fantastic video never even knew about the recall so useful - number of times I have switched subject and forgot a setting.

[@Jessehermansonphotography]

I never get anything good from these types of videos… except this video. I changed my settings to include Dynamic area small. Works really good in my backyard. Excited to try it out in the field

[@TomMasonPhoto]

Well that makes making these videos all rather worth it! Dynamic is certain great to have when you're shooting close in subjects but also want control of compositions for AF accuracy!

[@Jessehermansonphotography]

@@TomMasonPhoto I had a lot of issues with that and was manually focusing back. This looks like it is fixing my frustration. Cheers

[@gabeatv]

Very useful advice, Tom. Love your no-nonsense content. Thank you!

[@TomMasonPhoto]

My pleasure! Glad you enjoy the videos, cheers, Tom

[@bruceleventhal3292]

Nice video Tom and thanks for sharing your thoughts. I appreciate you sharing that you still use dynamic AF mode. I abandoned this when eye-AF became available, but I have had a recent shoot with wet otters that just baffled the animal detect system. I will give dynamic a go again. I'm going to offer you a radical suggestion. I've set the exposure compensation button to FX/DX and programmed the Video Button to change shooting banks. I have four banks and this allows me to instantly vary my exposure mode and ISO parameters based on the conditions. Bank D is all manual and base ISO for landscapes. Bank C is ISO 800 w/ wide area AF for mammal photography. Bank B is auto ISO 64-6400 bird eye, Aperture priority, w/ goal of hitting 1/4000 for birds in flight, and Bank A is auto ISO 64-800 / shutter max of 1/800, aperture priority, animal eye detect for lumbering animals. While my shooting bank settings will be (should be) different from others, as they are catered to my goals and subjects, I find this the quickest way to reprogram my settings without having to do so. By pushing down the video button and flipping the rear dial, I can instantly change my banks. Finally, you may want to consider programming one of you function buttons to cycle through the AF patch... this is a new firmware feature that allows me to quickly move from single point, 3D, Custom Wide, and now I'll add dynamic small. cheers, bruce

[@jasonfraser3572]

Excellent, not tried recall function but looks good. Put it strait on F2...thanks.

[@TomMasonPhoto]

No worries, its a real handy feature for when the action kicks off!

[@GeorgeMarmaridis]

You should've put out this video before our Iceland trip! 😄Awesome vid Tom!!

[@TomMasonPhoto]

Haha indeed! Although hopefully it will help for the next one! Editing is coming together on those videos 😉👌

[@GeorgeMarmaridis]

@@TomMasonPhoto can’t wait!!!

[@mirkoputignano7734]

Interesting and helpful, thank you😉

[@TomMasonPhoto]

No worries!

[@adamhprs]

Cracking video Tom. Keeping it simple. Most people say don’t bother with dynamic focus. Can you explain a little about that mode?

[@TomMasonPhoto]

I find Dynamic mode really handy, because it pushes the camera to look for what's "at the front" for focus, this means when you have birds on small branches or really close subjects with long lenses, the camera won't look to the background constantly or "focus though" subjects that can be annoying! I find it very useful day to day!

[@richgarner7870]

Very similar to the settings I use, although I use the joystick for FX/DX and fn2 for 3D tracking/AF on - I find the joystick push can be a little hit and miss so I prefer to keep my AF modes on the back button and fn buttons. My recall shooting settings is on the record button. Cheers Tom! :)

[@TomMasonPhoto]

Awesome stuff, sounds good to me, I opted for the FX/DX on the movie button as I find it odd trying to hold it down to recall whilst hitting the shutter!

[@DaveR997]

Tom, just a thought. Have you tried using a custom focus 1x1, (C1) or (C2) instead of single point auto focus. The benefit of the 1x1 being that it also allows for subject/eye autodetect to be enabled during focus.

[@TomMasonPhoto]

I haven’t yet! But I shall try that out and see if it fits with my shooting style, I find I don’t always want eye AF, but that could be a good one to try!

[@SundayRacers]

I've not used the recall shooting function, but I will now - thanks! My Z9 has struggled a bit with getting an AF lock in heavy rain. I've kept my old D5 because of this. Any tips to improve AF performance when it's chucking it down?

[@TomMasonPhoto]

The recall function is rather sweet! I. regards to heavy rain, I find single point and dynamic better, the tracking modes seem to latch on to the moving raindrops and or/ lock to backgrounds for fixed textures! A

[@SundayRacers]

@@TomMasonPhoto I tried dynamic and that wasn't great, but I haven't tried single point

[@stripes_in_raw]

You can turn on the shutter button AF-ON and set it to Auto Area AF. The trick is that, when you use any other Back Button AF or Fn button AF, it will automatically over-ride the Shutter Button AF and will not try to focus when the shutter button is pressed. The Auto Area AF comes in handy when suddenly a mammal like a bigcat or a large bird comes infront of you, out of nowhere.

[@TomMasonPhoto]

Yes I understand what you mean, however often I'm shooting in situations where I don't want ANY focus to initiate before an image is taken, so in those situations where I'm on a static point I'm basically manually assessing focus and triggering an image without any in camera AF lock-on. But yes for some people who don't really shoot like this having an extra AF mode can certainly be handy!

[@stripes_in_raw]

@@TomMasonPhoto yes 👍

[@philnind6702]

I've put cycle AF modes to the video record button, I'm able to cycle through my pre selected af area modes within seconds. This leaves other buttons for other functions. Fn2 is set to access "My Menu" and favourite functions for example Focus tracking with lock on and AF subject detection options. Ive also set Fn3 on my Z8 to access Shooting banks which ive set for different scenarios.

[@TomMasonPhoto]

Sounds good! Having all the customisable buttons is just great for everyone to really dial in their own needs!

[@ManchmalGaming]

A bit off-topic but as an amateur I sometimes think about going full manual (ai-s lenses). Might be fun. ☺

[@TomMasonPhoto]

Definitely! I have A gorgeous AIS 28mm lens in my bag, that I have for a very specific reason, but I love it, gorgeous rendition of colours, I often take it out for fun!

[@ManchmalGaming]

@@TomMasonPhoto Cool! Will have a look at that one! I have the 200mm F2 AI-S and I think it's the last lens I would get rid of. Amazing bokeh!

[@Rob.1340]

👍📷😎

[@TomMasonPhoto]

Thanks for watching!