A Year and Change with the Nikon Zf
Two weeks ago, I announced my 2026 Destination and Minnesota Photo Workshops, which are now open for registration, and this week I want to be a gearhead. I often feel like I need to be more instructive or philosophical, but now and then I want to talk gear.
The Nikon ZF.
Back in December 2023, I wrote a “review” about the Nikon Zf. I put review in quotes because I have a hard time writing reviews about photography equipment. It’s either going to work for me or not. The Nikon Zf works for me for what I use it for, so that would normally be all I need to say about the camera.
But…
I’ve fallen in love with this camera, and I haven’t fallen out of love with it. There were/are quirks with it that I could do without. It needs another button, and I wish it had as many megapixels as a Z8. But, that’s okay that it doesn’t. Nothing is, was, or will be perfect. Perfection is an imaginary utopia forced upon us by the idea that flaws are problems, and, hey, if you can fix a flaw, why not? Or maybe the philosophical question is, why?
Well, Nikon did fix a few problems. They released firmware version 2.0, and it fixed an issue that I had with the camera, and it added a feature that I wanted plus a bunch of other goodies.
First, the fix. The camera now allows the “C” stop on the ISO dial to be set with separate settings from the ISO stops on the dial. So, you can now have “C” be Auto-ISO and the other stops are just their ISOs. Or you can continue to use it in the old way with Auto-ISO on and the ISO stops setting a minimum ISO.
Second, the feature. It added the ability to assign “Cycle AF-area mode” to a button. This has been a great function to have on the Z8, and I’m glad to have it on the Zf. If you haven’t used this on a Nikon yet, it allows you to push a button and have the AF area change to the next area mode. You can limit the modes that you cycle through when setting up the custom button. It makes it so fast to change the AF-area.
My setup is currently the front button is assigned Cycle AF-area mode with these areas: Single-point AF, Wide-area AF (L), 3D-tracking, and Auto-area AF. I do wish this had the ability to switch the camera in manual focus with the Cycle AF-area mode (utopian desire noted).
I have to make some choices about this though, because I’m devoting my front button to Cycle AF-area mode, my AE-L/AF-L button to 3D-tracking, and my shutter button to Auto-area AF. The way I typically use this camera is handheld with Auto-area AF as the default and then I override that with 3D-tracking. I’m almost always in AF-C (continuous autofocus) with this camera. In the past my front button was devoted to Single-point AF.
Now I can get to 3D-tracking from Auto-area AF with three button pushes. One button push gets me back to Auto-area AF. It’s slower than just pushing the AE-L/AF-L button to get to 3D-tracking, but it isn’t that much slower.
Messing around with the buttons led me to mess around with the shutter dial. I have/had/will have(?) my record button set to access the top item in “My Menu,” which was/is/will be(?) Flash sync speed. I do that because I like to have the option to go to high speed sync and back to 1/200th quickly. But I can set the “X” stop on the shutter speed dial to high speed sync. I can switch to 1/200th by turning the dial to 1/3steps, but I’m not sure if that drops me out of high speed sync. I need to mess around with this and figure it out. If it does, then I free up a button.
Why high speed sync? I was recently photographing a protest (example photo below) in bright sunlight and used high speed sync on my flash to add a little fill flash without having to micromanaging the camera to stay under 1/200th of a second. I was at 1/1000th here at ISO 100 and f/8. It was bright out! But when doing portraits I often end up going between shade and sun, so I like to be able to switch it when in the shade to get more power out of the flash.
Losing that from a button would be a big loss for me with how I use this camera, but if the dial trick works…
With a free button, the record button would then become “Cycle AF-area mode” and my front button would become Switch Eyes. But then I’d lose really quick access to the My Menu which I love.
And I need just one more button!
Utopia!
The perfect camera.
Phew.
Delusions of grandeur.
This firmware update was grand.
It also included the ability to download image recipes into the camera. This is something that Fuji shooters have loved about their cameras. They could get a custom look out of their cameras by inputting a recipe that someone made. For Nikon, the process of getting it setup wasn’t as easy as I would have liked, but it worked. And instead of having to slowly type in all the parameters that make an image recipe, you can just download them into the camera.
I tried a few of Nikon’s influencers’ image recipes and didn’t like any of them, so I’m not sure if I’ll use any. I could make my own or wait to see what other people do and add those looks to my photos. But I’m simple, and Nikon’s Rich Tone Portrait works great for what I’m using this camera for. For my black & white photos, I have Deep Tone Monochrome dialed in on the b&w/color/movie switch. But other people will likely love this feature, especially jpeg shooters.
I’d be swayed if I could get someone to make the recipe for the look I got below using one of Lightroom Classics retro presets.
There are a lot of other features included in this update, but I haven’t messed around with them. It’s a better all-around camera after the firmware update. It was already great. It got better. Well done, Nikon, well done.
Well, that’s my update to loving this camera.
Now I have a few decisions to make. I’ll make them as I use the camera and arrive at something that works for me. I love that cameras have this ability to become customized tools. If you haven’t tried customizing your camera, it is worthwhile to think about it.
As an example, I have the Z8 setup using custom setting banks for Landscape Shooting, Night Photography, and Action. At night, I just switch to Night Photography and I get a button that sets focus, one that recalls focus and one for Starlight View so I can see the Milky Way and foreground in the viewfinder. I use it like this: I get my stars in focus, then I set the focus using the button. I take a picture of the sky, and then focus on the ground, and then take a photo of the ground in focus. Then to get back in focus on the stars, I just have to hit the recall focus button and my focus is perfect again. At the end of the night, I change back to my landscape custom menu setting bank and call it a night. Perfect, right?
But, alas, the Nikon Zf lacks custom menu setting banks.
Now, I just wish that I had at least two custom setting banks in this camera. I’m not asking for much.
I’m not asking for perfection. Just a sprinkle of utopia, please.
Regardless, I still love the camera. I can’t imagine it getting much better than it already is, but I hope Nikon can surprise me again.
Until next time
My gearheadiness has been satisfied, and I hope you enjoyed this gear post. I’ll see you again in two weeks.
Here’s the parting shot.
Like most technology, I don’t think I use even half of my cameras capabilities. Thanks for the reminder Bryan to play around and get more out of it.