I took the plunge... Nikon Z8 and now I need help.

[pluton]

Long discussion about Z8 + stuck cards here: https://bcgforums.com/threads/cf-express-type-b-card-stuck-in-z8.50806/page-5#post-570175 All I got from it is that it'd be a good idea to test a variety of cards in your Z8 before the camera warranty expires.

[Les Olson]

Cards meeting the 4.0 standard may help transferring data from a card reader to your computer, but AFAIK no current camera can write to the card at 4.0 speeds - they fit and work fine, but you don't get the 4.0 speeds. That may just mean a firmware update, but as of today a 4.0 card won't help the camera so there is no rush. Plus, the peak power consumption allowed by the 4.0 standard is higher, so overheating small cameras will be a bigger problem than it is now. Some manufacturers are advertising card controlled "thermal throttling" for 4.0 cards - as the card gets hot it slows down - rather than camera-controlled throttling as at present.

[pluton]

Some manufacturers are advertising card controlled "thermal throttling" for 4.0 cards - as the card gets hot it slows down - rather than camera-controlled throttling as at present.

Hmmm. I never thought about throttling in relation memory cards, but it makes sense. 

[ColinM]

Just to park the question on memory cards David....

Can you tell us

• How you're getting on with your Z8 overall?
• Two or three things you're really pleased by?
• Anything you don't yet find as "good" as on your previous gear?

[David H. Hartman]

Can you tell us

• How you're getting on with your Z8 overall?
• Two or three things you're really pleased by?
• Anything you don't yet find as "good" as on your previous gear?

There is a lot to learn with the Z8 given that there are more options for customizing controls. I'd like one more programmable button for locking the shutter speed and aperture. I've assigned the auto bracket button to that function. I found with my D850 that I sometimes accidentally changed the shutter speed when shooting on camera flash in a PJ/PR fashion as photographing guest at a reception. The flash might go into PF sync mode due to a short shutter speed, e.g. 1/500, 1/1000 and recycle times were too long for my style of shooting.

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I had a weird problem with manual video where aperture preferred (A) was fine but switch to manual (M) the shutter speed was 1/3200? Rolling the command dial to select a slower shutter speed was normal down to 1/1000 but then it was read out something like 9983.3 (e.g.) and the increments were very small. My thumb got tired rolling down to a setting of 60.3 or such. I tried to find what setting I might have changed that caused this. Then I tried Photo Shooting Menu "D" and when I switched to the D bank and changed the mode to "M" the shutter speed was 1/30 and I could change it to whatever I wanted e.g. 1/60. I've solved the problem but have no idea what caused it.

The Manage feature allow not only renaming but copying a bank so I copied the D bank to A. I really like the Manage feature.

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With video set to 8-bit, 4320p at 30 frames sec. at room temperature I was able to record 11 min. 30 sec. before a warm card indicator was displayed. The card felt warm but not hot. what ever the sustain write speed of the SanDisk 128GB card is it's just OK for that amount of data. When I can afford to I'll pass that card to my D850 which isn't a demanding as the Z8. One video I viewed suggested shooting video in M with the shutter speed of 1/60 for 30 fps.

I definitely want a faster sustained write speed than my current SanDisk 128GB. I bought it because if the second Z8 had a problem with EXexpress card sticking I wanted only one merchant involved.

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I'm bird sitting a pesty cockatoo just now and she wants a head scratch. I hope this post makes sense.

Dave

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Does anyone here know of any good tutorials for, I guess mid-level video shooting?

[pluton]

I had a weird problem with manual video where aperture preferred (A) was fine but switch to manual (M) the shutter speed was 1/3200? Rolling the command dial to select a slower shutter speed was normal down to 1/1000 but then it was read out something like 9983.3 (e.g.) and the increments were very small. My thumb got tired rolling down to a setting of 60.3 or such. I tried to find what setting I might have changed that caused this. Then I tried Photo Shooting Menu "D" and when I switched to the D bank and changed the mode to "M" the shutter speed was 1/30 and I could change it to whatever I wanted e.g. 1/60. I've solved the problem but have no idea what caused it.

This could be the "High Frequency Flicker Reduction" which is found in the Photo Shooting menu and the Video Shooting menu. Set it to OFF for normal stills shooting. Then you will get "normal" shutter speeds without all the in-between speeds. The HSFR setting is only possible with shutter speeds set between 1/1000 and 1/30 which explains why it "came on" when you dialed down past 1/1000. If you elect to shoot video with G13 set to "Shutter Angle" instead of normal 'Shutter speed', the HSFR will inactive and grayed out.

[David H. Hartman]

Thank You Keith!

[David H. Hartman]

Can you tell us

• How you're getting on with your Z8 overall?
• Two or three things you're really pleased by?
• Anything you don't yet find as "good" as on your previous gear?

I'm getting on quite well with the Z8.

Things I'm pleased with are related to low light shooting and manual focus...
   No moving mirror to blur the image at slow shutter speeds and in body stabilization (IBS).
   I like the view of an optical finder of my D850 but in low light it gets dim so the Z8's EV is so bright it is much better.
   I've set EV magnification to 100% by pressing the remapped red video record button and magnification is cancelled for framing with a half press of the shutter button.

Not as good would be the FTZ and FTZ II not giving full aperture viewing with AI and AIS lenses and AF-D lenses become MF lenses. Also the focus indicator doesn't change red to green with non-CPU lenses. It does with AF and AF-D as they have a CPU. The Red/Green focus indicator seems quite accurate, quite useful. I hope Nikon will release an FTZ III that is more functional with with AI, AIS, AF and AFD lenses but I doubt that they will.

I would like one more programmable button to make it easy to lock the shutter speed at 1/200th for PR/JP style, on camera flash shooting. I've given that function to the auto bracket button on the left.

Dave

[Jürgen Pfeiffer]

Hello Dave,

If you frequently use manual Nikkor lenses, there are also ways to use focus confirmation. I have compiled an overview of different types of manual lenses for the Zf here. The same applies to the Z8.

https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=11247.0