U1-U3 best practices (Z cameras or otherwise)

[RobOK]

I have shot Nikon for a long time on some bodies that have User banks and some not. I am now mainly on Z6 and want to invest some time in setting U1-U3.

Maybe U1 General, U2 Low Light, U3 ?

I would love to hear how others use this and how they think about the user banks. I think there are some settings that don't get saved into the user settings.

I mostly shoot on M with auto-ISO.

[Nasos Kosmas]

I am using Z50 as follows: U1 for BW photography where EVF and screen are BW, U2 for birds with Auto ISO etch, Aperture priority for every day photo the same for my D750

[Luc]

For me it's U1 AF-S, U2 AF-C, U3 MF.

[Akira]

I assign one of the user (custom) settings for the panorama work for which I need to set everything to manual: shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focus and white balance.

[Matthew Currie]

The D7100 has two U settings, which I use mainly when traveling.

U1 is the "hand off" point and shoot mode, for when someone offers to take a picture, etc.  Rather than explain various things, I just set this one for P, Iso 400, shutter button focus, and so on. 

U2 is a rough duplication of my usual starting point, and when I am in unusual circumstances, or experimenting, and need to shoot at some odd ISO or mode, I start there.  Since U settings revert to their starting point when switched out, and since they don't affect the normal settings, this avoids the occasional issues when I get up in the morning, forget that last night I forgot to switch back out of 6400 ISO or drastic negative compensation or whatever. 

If I had a third U, I'd be inclined to copy Akira's panorama setting.

[RobOK]

I am using Z50 as follows: U1 for BW photography where EVF and screen are BW, U2 for birds with Auto ISO etch, Aperture priority for every day photo the same for my D750

So your "normal" shooting is not in one of the presets?

For me it's U1 AF-S, U2 AF-C, U3 MF.

So Luc, you are most of the time in one of those three?

I assign one of the user (custom) settings for the panorama work for which I need to set everything to manual: shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focus and white balance.

Sounds like Akira you are normally not in a User setting bank, only when going full manual.

The D7100 has two U settings, which I use mainly when traveling.

U1 is the "hand off" point and shoot mode, for when someone offers to take a picture, etc.  Rather than explain various things, I just set this one for P, Iso 400, shutter button focus, and so on. 

U2 is a rough duplication of my usual starting point, and when I am in unusual circumstances, or experimenting, and need to shoot at some odd ISO or mode, I start there.  Since U settings revert to their starting point when switched out, and since they don't affect the normal settings, this avoids the occasional issues when I get up in the morning, forget that last night I forgot to switch back out of 6400 ISO or drastic negative compensation or whatever. 

I like the "hand off" concept. I wonder if i can turn of Back Button Focus (AF-ON button) saved into a bank?

[Akira]

Sounds like Akira you are normally not in a User setting bank, only when going full manual.

Normally, I shoot in the aperture priority mode with the AWB and AF activated.  To me, there is no "standard" ISO setting, so I try to set its value for the next shooting opportunity, revert the exposure compensation to zero and hope I haven't forgot to do that.   

[Jack Dahlgren]

To hand off to others I flip the camera to "P"
I use U2 as a base. Has everything the way I usually start.
If I'm doing something different I will make appropriate changes to U2 and then save to U3.
When there is something that is a big departure (pano, HDRI, night work, sports) I may save that to U1.
If it is a new day and there something is important enough to require its own settings, I usually want to go through and set them up fresh instead of relying on what is stored in U1 or U3.
So U2 as a base, U3 and U1 as variable overrides to that. Mostly I get by with U2 and U3 only.

[David H. Hartman]

Is there a way to save the U1~U3 groups to an *.BIN file on a memory card? If there is one, one could easily load their defaults for all user groups for easy restore on the spot when needed. It's really important to pickup and camera and have it set to "Your" defaults irrespective of U1~U3 group you choose. If you know what the camera is going to do when you set U2 you set it and start shooting with confidence.

The D800 and D850 use a different system to save settings. I access these through 'My Menu." I save a *.BIN file to both Card 1 and Card 2. I write protect the *.BIN file on Card 1 to protect it from accidental over-write. The *.BIN file on Card 2 can be over-written if I removed Card 1. Being able to restore "MY" defaults in a moment was such a relief after my D2H which had no such feature.

Hopefully something here gives useful ideas. 

Dave

[Nasos Kosmas]

So your "normal" shooting is not in one of the presets?

I like the "hand off" concept. I wonder if i can turn of Back Button Focus (AF-ON button) saved into a bank?

my normal shooting is A aperture priority and I make the necessary changes for each shot
I also like the  "hand off" concept, I ll  keep it for the U3 (not exist in Z50)

[Luc]

So Luc, you are most of the time in one of those three?

That's correct, about 80% U1 AF-S / 5% U2 AF-C / 10% U3 MF.

[MILLIREHM]

So far I am using U2 and U3 as replacement for the Individual cofigurations A -D that unfortunately have not been included in the Z-Series like some other SLR-interfaces.
Both are set that AF is only activated by AF-ON key. So i am never using AF-S mode just C and never switch to a dedicated manual focus mode as I can always manual focus and AF can not interfere when i don't want it to do.
in U2 i have configured FN1 to stop down
In U3 FN1 is activating Group-AF, FN2 ist switching to Spot Metering.
Thats the main settings

Generally i find the U1-U3 concept somewhat annoying - the recall shooting functions the D6 provides give a better overview of what has been set.
One has to invest a lot of anticipation in setting it up - if you dont save a change it is gone soon so it requires me a lot of concentration to improve, its setting range goe s in depth (and for instance saves whether one is shooting raw or Jpeg (which I'd prefer not to be hard-linked to a shooting mode).
in contrast to this in depth range it is not possible to set shooting mode (may it be S or CL or CH), worse you can't assign this to any FN button nor first place in MY MENU thus being reduced to a misplaced small button or the also slow Info_menu i also prefer not to use.

Another downside in the same category  that there is no way to set up PSAM via menu (there just the dial wheel on the left that bettter should be replaced with a mode button) and thus cant bechanged and resaved when you are in one of the preconfigured U modes - you have to redo everything from scratch