Nikon Z System News and Commentary (2024)

First this:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bW3-eNw1Eo

Text says:

If we could capture that moment just before the shutter clicks, surely the world would change. (Pre-capture?)

If we can see clearly even in dazzling environments, we can take better pictures. (EVF change?)

How exciting would it be would be to express all the beautiful colors with a small camera. (New Picture Controls?)

Then this from Steve Perry:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz2QI6GMcto

So it appears that we'll have a Z6 III announcement next week.

This topic comes up with regularity, and the landscape is constantly changing, so it's probably time for me to once again update my current suggestions for Z System users.

Free is Okay

If you don't want to spend money, are only editing one image at a time, and don't mind some modest delays for some operations, then Nikon NX Studio is the raw converter you should try first. Based upon Silkypix, a well established Japanese raw converter, NX Studio is also the only raw converter that will guarantee that your raw conversion looks just like a JPEG would with your current camera settings.

The drawbacks to NX Studio are multiple: (a) it's slower than other converters at most basic operations; (b) it is still on the buggy side, and crashes are more commonplace than they should be; (c) if you're looking for AI and other advanced features, you won't find them; and (d) the documentation is poor and the UI is amateurish by modern standards.

That said, Nikon knows how to get Nikon results out of raw files. The "black box" of Nikon raw conversion in NX Studio is exactly the same as in the EXPEED chips in the cameras, and this results in really good results if you understand Nikon Picture Control Speak. The recent addition of pixel shift support (Zf and Z8) is arguably cleaner, simpler, and better than the other makers have managed.

Adobe's Lead Widens

Adobe has been using that US$10/month you've been sending them wisely. They're not just sitting on their hands watching your money compound at their bank. More so than any other company doing raw conversion, Adobe seems to be pushing all aspects of their product with regular and substantive updates.

Yes, AI is all the rage and that's getting added into Lightroom and Photoshop these days, but some of what Adobe is doing in this regard has made the clone tool a thing of the past, which produces better, more convincing touch-up results. Masking is now top notch and reliable. Two deep and broad products have gotten deeper and broader in their available tools and capabilities, pretty much exactly what any photographer who wants to keep current wants. Another benefit of using Lightroom or Photoshop: ubiquitous and excellent third party tutorials and documentation.

The primary drawback I find with Adobe's two converters is this: the color model and speed-oriented math they use in the background doesn't product the best possible results without some user tweaking. More so than any other raw converter I find myself adjusting color in my Nikon NEF files when using Lightroom or ACR.

If you're going to spend money on a raw converter, US$120 a year nets you a really good one (Lightroom and Photoshop's ACR). One that gets better with time. I know some of you dislike subscription models, but if you add up how much you've been paying for yearly updates to other non-subscription products trying to keep up with Adobe, you're going to find you're getting less for, in many cases, more money.

The Other Reasonable Contenders

I've been impressed with DXO recently. Their PhotoLab product is an excellent choice for someone who wants a really good default conversion (that they can still tweak). Coupled with the excellent built-in noise reduction choices and the library of lens corrections that go further than the maker defaults, you can go a long way with only a bit of fiddling with PhotoLab. Performance isn't the fastest in the world, but is acceptably fast on my MacBook Pro 14" (M1).

Capture One has long been a leading raw converter, mostly because of their consistent and excellent color model. At one time, I would have put Capture One a bit ahead of the Adobe converters simply because the results without having to tweak were better. However, it feels like Capture One now is asking for more money for less useful updating, so my recommendation has gotten more lukewarm over time. Still, it's a strong, well-supported product.

If you're looking for a bargain, Affinity Photo 2 is the clear choice. Essentially a Photoshop clone—without the AI—you can benefit from all the Photoshop instruction on the Internet for a very modest entry price (US$70). Serif, the maker of the Affinity software, is now part of a much bigger company, which is good news on the longevity front, which is where most software eventually has issues.

Macintosh users should also check out Raw Power (MacOS Mojave or later) or Nitro (MacOS Ventura or later). Created by the gentleman who headed up Apple Aperture, the US$100 Nitro is very modern converter that's nicely done, and can link in with Apple Photos to make for a true Lightroom challenger.

Whattabout?

Yes, I haven't mentioned a large number of other possible products to consider. They've all now fallen out of favor with me for one of a number of reasons: incomplete implementations, over reliance on AI features, burying the most used controls, constant upgrade nags, bugginess, performance issues, constantly changing UIs/choices, sloppy masking, and a host of other issues.

Just a reminder that zsystemuser.com is a dynamic, living Web site: content is constantly added, updated, added to, and even modified.

I mention that because in creating the 28-400mm f/4-8 VR lens review, I realized that a number of the articles in the lens section needed some updating. Thus, I spent the time recently to re-edit all and modify some of the articles in the lens section. Specifically, I've updated my Best Telephoto options and Second Safari Lens articles to include recent lens releases.

Meanwhile, I've also been adding new options in the Accessories section of the site as I find out about them. I do still need to re-work the card section, and I'll get to that as soon as possible.

It seems my work is never done. Of course, that also means that your reading is never done, either ;~).

For some time now I've been collecting thoughts from readers of this site about what they think an eventual Z6 III might look like. Here's what the data I've been collecting and collating currently says you anticipate:

In general, the consensus seems to be that the Z6 II replacement will be slightly higher in cost, but also sport a number of tangible improvements, particularly in the focus, video, shutter, and viewfinder arenas. Given Nikon management's stated intent that they wish to bring Z9 technology downwards in the lineup, much of what you're anticipating is exactly that: an EXPEED7 doing a lot of new heavy lifting.

The interesting thing to me is how many expect a boost in pixel count, probably because Sony is at 33mp with the A7 Mark IV, as well as the fact that APS-C cameras have been creeping upwards in pixel counts, too (Canon 33mp, Fujifilm 40mp, Sony 26mp).

We're not far from the Z6 III launch now, so it won't be too long before you'll know whether what you anticipated is what you'll get. I simply wanted to put this out there prior to any launch leaks as a bit of a strawman. Discuss amongst yourselves...

Nikon updated the firmware to version 1.01 for the 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR lens to deal with an issue that happens at low temperatures: infinity focus may not be reached.

Lens firmware updates are available atNikon's download center.

Nikon today announced that they've now produced a total of 120 million lenses over the course of both the the F-mount and Z-mount.

What that looks like what graphed out properly:

The blue diamonds represent Nikon announcements of lens production volume (left axis), which were made at various points in time (bottom axis). As you can see, the numbers rose quickly just after peak DSLR production was achieved (leftmost point), but have slowed considerably since.

By way of comparison, Canon hit the 120 million lens mark in August 2016.

In an interesting development, the Nikon download center now has a section for Self Service manuals. The first Z System component that now has a PDF self repair manual is the recently launched 28-400mm f/4-8 VR lens.

While Nikon doesn't currently sell parts to users that I know, the 28-400mm f/4-8 VR lens repair manual includes not just a full list of parts inside the lens—some are a unit with subassemblies—it also identifies the tools, glues, and lubricants needed for a repair. The manual also gives a better description of how the lens is sealed against weather (doesn't quite work the way you'd guess, and involves sponges as well as seals). Simple instructions for verifying focus are also given, using a tool similar to the old Lens Align one.

Right to Repair laws have been popping up in the US for some time now, with differing variations across states. Many of these laws specifically target auto makers, who were among one of the earliest to establish "certified" repair standards. The first state to establish a Right to Repair law for consumer products was New York, back in 2022 (Digital Fair Repair Act). The New York law specifically mentions right to manuals and diagrams, and it might have been the trigger that started Nikon down the line of producing self service manuals. Since then, we've had four other states enact various legislation that affirms a right to repair.

Probably the most watched bill was California's SB-244 (Right to Repair Act), which goes into effect this summer (July 1, 2024). But it, like several other recent bills is watered down in ways that limit the overall impact. That said, the trend is clear that regulators are looking carefully at "captured repairs", manuals, and parts availability.

Find out what happens when 36 (!) Z8 and Z9 cameras (and a couple of D500's) descend upon Botswana during the month of April.

Thom Hogan (byThom) and Mark Comon (Creative Photo Academy) will host a free webinar session on June 6th at 5pm PST that details their experience teaching together in Africa this past April. Thom spent over a month photographing in the Kalahari as well as the Okavango regions, and Mark joined him for the Okavango portion of the trip. We experienced it all: dogs, cats, migrations, and pretty much all of the Big Five and the Little Five (though we won't be sharing photos or locations of any endangered species). Thom even had an African Wild Cat show up at his tent.

Both safari instructors will show you images, talk about lessons learned/relearned, and discuss the basics of technique while photographing on safari. As usual, Thom and Mark will also answer pretty much any and all questions you might have about the Nikon gear they used or Botswana safaris in general.

This event requires preregistration. You can join us by clicking here and filling out the required information. Video of the event is available to those registered usually within a day of the event, but be aware that the recorded video is at a lower video resolution than the event itself.

Don't miss out. This planetary alignment of Thom and Mark only occurs occasionally.

I've got a ton of Z9 experience now under my belt, and a large amount of Z8 experience, as well. Both cameras have been through significant firmware updates to get them to where they currently are two of the best camera options available from any maker.

That said, Nikon has left a lot of fruit on the tree that needs to be picked and put into the Z8/Z9 pies. What follows is my basic view on the things that are still left undone.

• Rationalize the menus. I'm going to start with this one because the firmware updates to the Z8 and Z9 showed just how poorly Nikon is thinking about menus. We have long scrolling lists where we don't need them, modes that set the available other modes, lack of logical grouping, unclear hierarchies, and much, much more. It's not that Nikon hasn't noticed and done nothing: we now have a NETWORK menu instead of jamming all those options into SETUP. We also have seen RETOUCH move to playback only, where it belongs. Still, overall, it doesn't feel like there is a clear, guiding effort being done to clean everything up. Moreover, each new feature that appears seems to just add new clutter where someone had just done a little bit of tidying up and pruning, as HEIF proved.
• Complete the customization options. Why subject detection, metering, and a small number of other items don't have an immediate button customization—other than abusingRecall shooting functionsfor something it wasn't intended for—I don't know. As I've reported to Nikon several times now, these are big items to a working photographer in journalism, wildlife, or sports, and still significant items for everyone else. Look at the Nike logo, Nikon, and Just Do It.
• Provide a real load/save option. Another item I've reported to Nikon several times. The current save/load (and even U#/Banks) options are badly conceived, poorly executed, and absolute nightmares for users. All of that would be fixed by simply providing named settings files, and then adding a customization option to pull them up via button or button+dial. Indeed, this option would also make banks more useful, as that allows sub-customization within a customization. 10 named settings files and four banks means one heck of a lot of depth to the on-the-fly reconfiguration options.
• Add a raw Pre-release capture option. We know it can be done. We don't know what the maximum frame rate would be, but it wouldn't matter, we'll still take it. The real issue here is that Nikon is taking a shortcut for the Pre-release option choices, where they reconfigure the camera into a "video" mode behind the scenes. I want FX and DX raw options in the list, and I don't care how they're created behind the scenes. Even 5 fps Pre-release capture would be useful, but I'm pretty sure that Nikon could do 10 fps and even higher if they'd just get their brains around the demand for this function.
• Better address strobe/speedlight usage. The Z8 and Z9 are professional cameras, which means that a number of us use them in the studio, and in situations where we are trying to control the light. I can't believe someone influential in this respect such as McNalley hasn't behind the scenes chastised Nikon on this and set them to task. Light is one of the fundamental elements of what makes a photo a photo (let alone a great photo). Trial and error coupled with focus misses in strobe managed light is not what we want. Thing is, a modern Nikon camera knows when a trigger or flash is in the hot shoe and active. Why doesn't that automatically reconfigure the camera to be optimally set for that situation (with user customization, of course)? We know that low ambient studio light might make the focus system struggle, so where's Nikon's solution for that? Is Elvis (that flash-y guy) still in the building?
• Clean up the multiple image release modes. The options that deal with multiple images, such as Focus shift shooting, Multiple exposure, HDR (overlay), Interval timer shooting, and Auto capture are all a mess of random settings, have no ability to create custom sets you can instantly load, have had features come and go for no apparent reason, and are buggy. These are supposed to be useful shortcuts (tools) to do something beyond a basic image capture. What's happened is that they've become random "almost ready for prime time" thoughts that give Nikon users headaches every time we dip into them.

While I see others asking for things like more EVF resolution, higher frame rates, and global shutter, those things are probably more Z8 II or Z9 II items. Those will come with time. However, the things I list above are clear "misses" with the current cameras. There's no reason why they can't be done with a firmware release to make the current iterations near perfect.

I should point out that we had a total of 36 (!) Z8 and Z9 cameras in Botswana at work during my two recent workshops in April. With that big a sample in a demanding environment, it's pretty easy to see what users are complaining about and struggling with. As it turns out, most of those were things I've been complaining about since day 1 with the Z9.

Here are the Z System news bits that happened while I was off the Internet:

• 4/9 — Z30 and Z50 firmware updates. The Z30 firmware is now at version 1.11, the Z50 version at 2.51. The only published change has to do with encryption keys and passwords associated with the wireless connection.
• 4/11 — 7Artisans 50mm f/1.8 announced. 7Artisans announced their first autofocus lens for the Z System (the lens had been previously available on the Sony FE mount).
• NAB — Viltrox 16mm f/1.8 shown. This autofocus lens first appeared for the Sony FE mount, and now will have a Z-mount option available.
• NAB —Z9 Firmware 5.0 had a secret. The Z9 5.0 firmware update had a function in it that wasn’t revealed until the NAB convention. Basically, this function allows ATOMOS external recorders to create a proxy video via HDMI whose name matches what is recorded internally on the camera in ProRes, ProRes RAW, or N-RAW. Your ATOMOS device may need a firmware update to support this.
• NAB —Nikon officiallly finalized the acquisition of RED. This includes appointingKeiji Oishi, formerly of Nikon Imaging, as the new co-CEO of RED. While I still expect Nikon and RED products to be separate for the foreseeable future, the appointment of an imaging-savvy Japanese executive at RED indicates to me that Nikon is very serious about making an impact in the video industry, and consolidating RED under the Nikon Imaging umbrella.
• NAB —Atomos announced the Ninja Phone. This small, new, US$399 accessory essentially turns your iPhone 15 Pro into an external HDMI video recorder that records in 10-bit Apple ProRes and H.265. The caveat is that it is only records up to 1080/60P. Most of Atomos’s usual Ninja capabilities are present, and Atomos points out that the iPhone’s screen shows essentially zero latency.
• NAB —New cards appear. A number of new storage cards have appeared, including Lexar’s new Armor series of SD cards (basically their version of Sony Tough). SanDisk, meanwhile, introduced a 4TB Extreme Pro UHS-I card, which pushes the SD capacity bar up one. OWC expanded their CFexpress 4.00 card series to Type A (not important to Nikon Z-mount users, but does show OWC’s full support for the latest CFe standards). ProGrade is also showing off both Type A and Type B CFexpress 4.0 cards with maximum and sustained speeds well above what the Z8 and Z9 require (and are rated VPG 400 for video). These new Type B cards are named Iridium and come in 400GB, 800GB, and 1.6TB sizes. Meanwhile, a new Gold 256GB card also is available with CFe 4.0 support.
• 4/12 —More High Efficiency raw support arrives.RawDigger and FastRawViewer are now in public beta with support of Nikon High Efficiency raw files (both types). Note that you need to be on a current modern OS. For example, 32-bit Windows is not supported. Also, Nitro (from the makers of Raw Power) now supports HE formats.
• 4/17 — Z5 firmware updated to 1.43. The only changes apply to Nikon’s updated security keys for wireless communication.
• 4/23 — Z8 firmware updated to 2.01. The new version applies Nikon’s new security changes for wireless communication, as well as five fixes.
• 4/25 — Viltrox introduced the 40mm f/2.5 autofocus lens, TTartisans introduced the 50mm f/1.8 autofocus lens for the Z-mount, andKase introduced the 200mm f/5.6 manual focus mirror lens.
• 4/29 — Zf firmware was updated to versions 1.20. This update forces automatic white balance to remain the same for each image in a pixel-shift sequence, makes the security key changes of the other updates, and fixes three bugs.
• 5/6 — Nik Collection version 7 was released. Because the U-point technology and Viveza corrections were first part of Nikon Capture, this product still has appeal to Nikon users, even after it first passing to Google and now to DxO. Indeed, it's those two attributes—the full product has many more modules—that have gotten the most attention in the new version.
• 5/7 — Viltrox announced the 16mm f/1.8 lens for the Z-mount. This lens is now one of two wide angle full frame autofocus lens prime lens available for the Z-mount that go beyond where Nikon has gone.
• 5/9 — Nikon announced fiscal year results. As expected, Nikon beat the last forecast it made for the complete year ended March 31, 2024, and that was true of the Imaging unit, as well. Sales were up 52.6% and profits up 4.3% year to year. ILC market share finished at 12.9%. The forecast for the coming year is an increase in sales of 7.2% in revenue and an increase in market share by about 1%, but a decline of 5.5% in profit. That decline in profit is partially attributed to the acquisition of RED, for which Nikon paid about US$85m. Be careful of the sites citing the RED purchase as "the deal of the century," as the actual sales, profit, assets, and liabilities of RED are still unknown, and you'd need to know those numbers to make a proper assessment. It's more likely that there was some distress within RED, which resulted in the lowish acquisition price. One likely problem, particularly given the interviews that have been given since the deal was announced, is that the investment cost of future silicon options at RED was starting to exceed their resources. Nikon provides deep pockets and shared tech that would help with that. For what it's worth, Nikon's Imaging forecast seems a bit unusual to me, with a strong year to year increase in sales for the first half of the fiscal year, but a modest increase in sales with a significant hit to profit in the second half. This would indicate a new camera (or more) before October, but some sort of big R&D cost after that. But also note that Nikon, like a number of other camera companies, shows a significant increase in inventory that's built up, too. To Nikon corporate's chagrin, Imaging is still the biggest pipeline of sales and profit at the company (39% of sales, and greater profit than the company overall). I say that because corporate just keeps saying "just sustain the Imaging business" while growing other businesses, with the Precision unit is still "expected" to be far bigger by 2026 (it won't be). R&D is forecast to go up for Imaging and down for Precision next year. Oops. Finally, it's been hypothesized by other sites that Nikon didn't need to release a new camera in Q1 of 2024 because sales were great, so they could delay any new camera. That's not evident in the data: while Q1/2024 sales were above last year, they were weakest quarter of the year, and below those of years where Nikon was said to be "in trouble." The reason Nikon didn't introduce a camera so far this year is that no new ones are ready to release yet. Nikon isn't alone in this; I've now gotten confirmation from three different companies that there is are still parts shortages that are forcing them to choose between producing existing models or new models. Given in Nikon's case that almost any new model they'd introduce this year is going to cost less than a Z8 or Z9, those parts are better used in the higher priced camera, even if you discount them some.

Update:Added some lenses to the database that were shown in Asian countries but haven't yet been officially announced in the US, yet (e.g. Laowa).

As many of you know, I have a software developer background that dates back to 1976, including a number of sophisticated things that have been built into today's modern OS's (e.g. Ram Doubler's memory encryption trick is now adopted by macOS; Microsoft bought Virtual from my company). Along the way I've created a number of software products that needed to exist, but at the time weren't available in any form (you have me to thank for true table making features as well as linking spell and grammar checks into word processors, for instance).

If you know my Silicon Valley background, it's probably been surprising to you that I haven't yet created (or helped create) any software product for digital cameras, particularly the Nikon ones that I spend most of my time with.

Frankly, the software business is treacherous, and I was glad to leave it behind after the turn of the century. Still, as you've probably noted I've been critical of a lot of digital software features, including those built into cameras. A couple of times recently I've tinkered with ideas with some of my developer friends, including an unreleased monochrome-only raw converter program we called RawTriX (pronounced raw tricks). I also often suggest (and test) things for my friends who are still putting out products of their own.

Well, today I get back in the software game.

In a big and highly unexpected way.

Ever since the introduction of the Nikon Z9 I've been digging into the physical aspects of that camera as I tried to understand what Nikon had actually designed, and how it was different. The quad-core nature of the EXPEED7 processor seemed underutilized, and as we've seen from subsequent firmware updates, the original firmware left a lot off the table.

My work on the Z9 firmware included disassembling and using customized test equipment to monitor what was happening on the main digital board within the camera, and in particular, how the EXPEED7 processor was utilized. That led me to a couple of surprising revelations. It turns out that there is a way to pass new processes into the ARM processors within the EXPEED7 chip and have them execute; the trick was to not step on what Nikon was doing. However, I found that I could easily piggy-back on what Nikon did. As it turns out, I couldn't decipher all of Nikon's "black box" API (Application Programming Interface), but I did crack enough to be able to get the EXPEED7 chip to execute code I sent to it, as well as get access to the menus and information advisories.

Once I figured the control bits out, the real issue became getting past the encryption and verification procedures Nikon uses in creating their firmware files and the individual modules within them. As others before me have discovered, you not only have to be able to understand the instructions and data registers used in the various computing components—there's more than just the ARM cores in an EXPEED7 chip—but you also have to figure out how to add your code into the camera's firmware without the camera's built-in self-protection systems kicking in and bricking the camera, and also not stepping on privileged processes as you do it. Moreover, you also have to hook into the menu and control response systems, though as it turns out, Nikon left those hooks exposed.

One thing that I was able to isolate and understand early was how the Voice Memo system got invoked and interacted with the other hardware in the camera (e.g. microphone and speaker). This led me to one of those Aha! moments: back in the early 90's a friend shared with me a small speech recognition process he created (which was being tested on the old EO 440 PenPoint machines I helped design and evangelized, which were also ARM-based). What if I could stick that routine into the Voice Memo hooks?

And thus was born Hey Nikki.

Yep, just like Apple's Hey Siri, only you say Nikki (neek-ee in Japan ;~) to invoke the system. With my mods in place, you will now see a new Voice memo option of Hey Nikki appended to the voice options menu. It uses the simple Z9 toggle on/off construct.

When you use Hey Nikki via a button programmed for Voice memo, this is what you'll initially see:

...and after a brief moment, you'll briefly see the following message:

I'm still trying to figure out a better way of doing this. There's a brief delay between the messages as I try to get my displays into Nikon's usual sequences, and the final completion message is actually happening a fair amount of time after the change has already been made. I also use a generic error message should Nikki not understand what you said, and I'd like to make that more specific in the future. Also in the current implementation it's possible to press the shutter release before the second message appears, and it will be indefinite as to whether the change was actually made or not: too close to the original message and it wasn't, but closer to the second message and it was, but you won't know which is which at the moment. Yucky. I'm working on another approach that should fix this.

So, starting today, Just talk, say the magic words, and your Z9 will change its settings! At least the ones I've deciphered and added so far.

This first version of Hey Nikki will probably seem a little strange and toy-like. That's because I'm still trying to figure out what things I can control and which things I know the Nikon API for. Here are the very first words that Hey Nikki understands:

• Hey Nikki 15 frames (or 10, 12, 20) — sets the Continuous High frame rates (camera must be set to CH to work, otherwise in the current implementation nothing happens; I'll work on that ;~)
• Hey Nikki Luxos — turns the AF Assist Lamp on or off ;~) (Yes, a Harry Potter reference. Imagine your child learning that your camera understands wizardry!)
• Hey Nikki mark 5 (or delete, protect, mark 1, 2, 3, or 4) — tags the currently displayed image with the desired rating; if in composing mode, nothing happens (at the moment Nikki doesn't provide feedback, but I'll work on that, too)
• Hey Nikki send — marks the currently displayed image for Send to smart device
• Hey Nikki Aperture (or Manual, Shutter, or Program) — sets the Exposure mode (MODE button equivalent)
• Hey Nikki SHOOTING A (or B, C, D, or CUSTOM A, B, C, D) — changes the camera to the named SHOOTING menu bank (or CUSTOM SETTING bank) This was the big win on this first iteration of Hey Nikki: you don't have to dedicate a button to banks; I'm now working on allowing the combo you can't do with buttons, e.g.Hey Nikki SHOOTING A CUSTOM A

(Full documentation comes in a Read Me file with the installer. You'll need a copy of Nikon's C5.00 firmware to create the full Hey Nikki install binary.)

Yeah, not a lot of meat on the bone in this first version. But as I discover and understand more of Nikon's API and add that to my code base, I'll be updating the program. Uh, firmware. At least until we hit the second full version of Hey Nikki, updates will be free.

Right. That brings me as to how you load Hey Nikki into the camera.

I'm piggybacking my code onto a copy of Nikon's current firmware binary (fortunately, there's plenty of space in the camera for my routines, at least so far). Which means that you get it in the camera by installing the Z_9_0511.BIN file you create from my installer (I'm using 5.11 as the version number because Nikon might update firmware files again for the Z9, and I don't want to use a number they're likely to use soon). Unfortunately, the camera only recognizes Nikon's own firmware file name specification, so I can't rename the file something like Z9_HeyNikki_0511.BIN.

The drawback to the firmware installation is that if Nikon updates the Z9 firmware, you'llhave to wait for me to convert Hey Nikki to the new firmware binary. (Interestingly, you can install a new Nikon firmware update over mine, which I was just able to test with several of the recent Nikon updates, but it will remove Hey Nikki.)

As many of you know, one of the my long-standing requests for digital cameras has been programmability. I'm still trying to figure out Nikon's Z9 Menu Settings file (NCSET010.BIN [sic]). I have hope that I can fully decipher that file soon so I can create a computer-editable version that Hey Nikki can then trick the camera into loading instead (e.g. Hey Nikki load BIF). But the other thing that would be interesting is to string multiple commands together (e.g. Hey Nikki Lossless compressed Auto ISO Incandescent), or to set all the options for one of the more complex methods (e.g. Interval timer shooting, Focus shift shooting, or Auto capture) without dropping into the menus. Yeah, this sort of extension would be geeky, but I'm looking for rapid camera reconfiguration methods, not simplicity. So Nikki is a geekess. Don’t expect her to chat with you (that would be a possible future software product, NikkiChat ;~).

Okay, by this point you're either in for some geekdom or not (hey, you bought a Z9, which has hundreds of geeky settings to start with!). Price for Hey Nikki is for a limited time just US$19.99 for all 1.x versions I come out with (long term the price needs to be higher to support all the iteration work and support that needs to be done, so get it at this price while you can).

If you'd like to purchase the 1.0 version of Hey Nikki for your Z9, use the following link to start the purchase process:

Nikon today announced the 28-400mm f/4-8 VR lens, a 14.2x superzoom, which they're promoting as a travel lens. At 1.6 pounds (725g) in weight and 5.6" (141mm) in length, it's a bit on the large side, though Nikon press release points out makes this new lens is the lightest 10x+ superzoom currently available for full frame (FX) sensors.

The lens will be available in mid-April for US$1300.

Commentary: This lens is a bit big and ungainly on a Zf, and it's not exactly the spec level the serious Z7 II, Z8, or Z9 user is likely to be interested in. So that leaves you Z5 and Z6 II folk looking for an all-in-one solution. The problem with that is that it is not quite "all-in-one," as the 28mm wide side leaves you a little short for a lot of travel situations.

While Nikon plays up the close-up ability (8", or 0.2m), they do so at 28mm, where they also note that you should beware the lens hood hitting the subject. In the initial material there's no real indication of how maximum magnification works at the longer focal distances, nor is there any data supplied that would allow us to calculate focal length breathing (the fact that the close focusing distance is 48" (1.2m) at both 300mm and 400mm suggests the lens focal length breaths, though.

While it may sound like I'm being harsh here, I'm not trying to be; I'm just trying to set some expectations. I actually find it good news that Nikon is continuing to avoid clear lens duplication for the most part, and instead continue to broaden the range of choices as they add new lenses. I do have to wonder whether or not there was a body pairing Nikon had in mind for this lens, say a budget FX body with a hand grip, as I suspect that most readers of this site and a majority of theexisting Z mount owners probably would be better served by other two lens solutions (I'm a little surprised Nikon didn't mention the 14-30mm f/4 in conjunction with this lens. That would be a natural two lens travel solution with a broad range. The fact that they didn't seems to indicate that they think this lens is the only lens that goes on some bodies. So the question then becomes, what bodies will you be able to get it in a kit with?)

Meanwhile, in a bit of a surprise, Tamron introduced their 28-75mm f/2.8 G2 lens for the Z-mount. The surprise here is that Nikon licensed the earlier model to create the Nikkor 28-75mm f/2.8, and now Tamron is bringing the newer model to market under their own name at a lower price than the Nikkor (US$999 for the G2 versus Nikon's US$1199 price for the original design.

There are differences between the two: Nikon opted to let their version focus a little closer at the long end and is using a stepper motor, while Tamron has a variable close focus distance and uses a voice coil focus motor.

Commentary: This appears to answer a question that came up back when it became clear Nikon was talking to other companies about mount licensing, which is whether Nikon would allow third party lenses on the mount that competed with their own offerings. The answer is a clear yes (now waiting for you to get off the pot, Canon). Frankly, if this is where we were always headed, I'm not sure what the real benefit to Nikon was to license the three f/2.8 Tamrikon zooms in the first place. Are we now going to get Tamron's own versions of the trio?

It's also unclear to me why Tamron would pick the 28-75mm f/2.8 to be their next Z-mount lens. The 20-40mm f/2.8 seems like it would be a more unique offering to pick from the current Tamron lineup, and would slot in nicely for the Zf through Z6 II crowd who wants to stay compact and light.

Meanwhile, where is Sigma? Tamron now has four Z-mount full frame lenses, while Sigma is still just fiddling with their original mirrorless APS-C trio when that's not the strong portion of Nikon's Z System camera lineup.

Sometimes I just don't get Nikon. They don't appear to be getting information from the right users, let alone be able to relate it back to other similar users. This has been true in the past, and now we have another example.

The previous problems had to do with Nikon's Professional Setting Guides as they pertained to sports, all the way back into the DSLR era. There was also a marketing brochure on how mirrorless AF-area modes mapped to DSLR ones. I ended up having to write my own "corrections" to what Nikon put in those documents.

Now we have a new one to contemplate: Z9/Z8 Professional Setting Guide — Wildlife Edition. After using almost half the pages talking up their lenses, we get to the "nitty gritty"—I'm tempted to write s**** gritty—and boy are most of us working wildlife photographers going to not only ignore Nikon's advice, but we're going to have to now teach people why Nikon's "advice" is mostly wrong.

On page 16, Basic Camera Settings, we start to get our first taste that whoever wrote and edited this document doesn't actually use Nikon gear to take wildlife photos: White balance of Auto. First of all, it almost certainly should beNatural light auto, since very little wildlife photography is done under artificial light. But if it's going to be Auto, which version of that should it be? It's kind of important to get animal colors correct, after all ;~).

Next up we have the recommendation of RAW + JPEG normal. Hmm, are they not aware that there's a perfectly usableJPEG basic image already in the raw file, or that the camera can squirt over a JPEG automatically to SnapBridge if all you want to do is have something to share quickly? Again we're missing useful detail, such as whether that should be optimal quality (star) or size priority (no star). In essence, Nikon is saying here to "just use a slightly better compression if you're going to add a JPEG image." I'd argue that if you're going to go to the trouble of using something other than what's already in the file (again,JPEG basic), you need to swing further. It should probably be RAW + JPEG fine (star), otherwise you're not achieving much.

Nikon also recommends 3D-tracking. I guess building subject detection into the camera was a waste, eh? Hybrid button focus techniques, which most of us are using in some form or another aren't even mentioned. Oh, but wait, they suggest you use subject detection after all! This gets a little tricky with3D-tracking, which is why most of us use a Hybrid button method. I suspect they're trying to avoid the multiple subjects problem. But the way the wildlife pros do that is with a custom Wide-area AFbox. Later on, Nikon suggests you add AF-area mode > 3D-tracking to a custom button. What? You want me to override 3D-trackingwith 3D-tracking?

Next up, we're told to use Auto capture. I guess the new feature gets all the attention, but the guide really should have spending time on suggesting some Pre-release captureuses and issues. I did particularly enjoy the phrase "This allows the photographer to capture the natural expressions of wildlife without having to be present at the shooting location." Got it,Auto captureis necessary to capture "natural expressions," and I don't need to go out in the field any more except to set up the camera once. By the way, Nikon, do you know what happens if you set up an unattended camera in lion territory?

I'm not going to tear every word to pieces, it's just not worth it. My suggestion is you ignore this new PDF from Nikon. It doesn't teach you anything, it has misguided, misleading, and inconsistent info in it, and I fail to see how it's going to make you a better wildlife photographer. Oh, it's a long way from "technical."

I mentioned it in my previous commentary on software updates, but during my revisions of the Z8 and Z9 books for recent firmware updates I'm noticing that Nikon is creating branches of change that are out of sync with one another.

For example, I had complained about the use of the word Start in the Auto capturefunction when it appeared in the Z9. It's the same in the Z8, but then a few days later, it appears that someone in the Z9 firmware update chain got my message and changed it to the more appropriate Set. If you look carefully at the history of Auto captureyou see an original option, a Z8 2.0 fork, and now a Z9 5.0 fork. This function isn't the only place I've noticed the problem, too.

I'm a little worried about this as functions get added to or changed in various cameras. From a product management standpoint, you don't want forked code like this (even if it's just things like labels, though it's more than just labels in the recent updates).

I catch these things because I have to do a deep dive that moves word by word, menu item by menu item, screen by screen as I update my books. I usually have them open side-by-side because I sometimes find that in updating one I want to "fix" some wording, grammar, or structure in others. Thus, I immediately see forks. What's worrying is that Nikon themselves is not seeing them (or is ignoring them). That means that they're either in too much of a hurry, or they don't have someone carefully watching and managing differences.

Oh, and another thing: can we please stop using Type A and Type B as options? Even Nikon recognizes that this isn't useful, as they're now adding automatic "help" to functions that have those option names. Unfortunately, whoever's writing the help—remember, it has to be done in dozens of languages—isn't helping ;~). For example, the new High ISO NR mode function gives you two choices: Nikon's traditional noise reduction; and some new, undefined noise reduction routine. So why wouldn't Original (or Traditional) and New work as mode names? That would tell users a lot more than what they get from the menu system right now.

One of the things I did in Silicon Valley through almost all my career is write the manual for a product before we developed it. If during development we found that something couldn't be done or needed to be changed in the manual, we discussed it, resolved the difference, and I updated the manual. Help and documentation are being done well after the fact at Nikon, and it doesn't seem as if there's a useful feedback loop to catch these silly bits. I'm almost surprised that the Z8 wasn't called the Type B and the Z9 renamed to Type A. /SARCASM OFF

Meanwhile, you can see how Nikon has tied themselves into a pretzel with something as simple as Image quality. With the Z8 2.00 and Z9 5.00 firmware things are being renamed and the consistency of those setting options is a mess. Let me try to fix it for Nikon. Here are the Menu Items and Options as they should be:

Image quality
JPEG (forces Tone mode change to SDR, maximizes Picture Control choices)
HEIF (forces Tone mode change to HLG, minimizes Picture Control choices)
RAW
RAW + JPEG
RAW + HEIF
Image size
FX image size
Large
Medium
Small
DX image size
Large
Medium
Small
Off
Image compression
JPEG
Optimal quality
Size priority
RAW
Lossless compressed
Optimal High Efficiency
Standard High Efficiency

No scrolling menus, no extra menus, clarity. And this ain't rocket science. Image quality isn't the only place in the menus where we're now seeing unneeded scrolling, extra unnecessary options, disorganization, and lack of clarity. Instead of someone in design enforcing rationalization andhierarchy, it appears that engineers can just willy-nilly add (and name) things. I'd like to sneak into the automobiles they drive and do the same thing to their controls and see what happens ;~). The problem is simple: the folks making these things up simply can't be using the cameras themselves.

And while we're at it, if you're going to grey out a menu item, tell the user why. I've discovered a few more of those recently (which I document in my books), and it took me a while to figure out why. For example, it turns out that using Creative Picture Controls can do silly things like turn off Auto capture.

Yes, I get in a sour mood when I'm going through hundreds of Menu Items and thousands of pages trying to find all these anomalies and documenting them. Okay, I'm going to my happy place now...

As everyone is just now figuring out, the recent Z8 2.00 and Z9 5.00 firmware updates still don’t conform the two cameras to the same exact configurations, options, or functions. The Z8 now has Pixel shift shooting, the top-of-the-line Z9 does not. The Z9 now has High frequency flicker reduction presets, the Z8 does not. The list of differences goes on, and on, and on.

Many years ago I used to believe that Nikon’s firmware updates were constrained by some internal memory constriction. That belief stemmed from my knowledge of how the film SLRs used a form of EEPROM, and then later how Nikon sometimes took a feature out of a DSLR to put a new one in. I suppose it’s possible for some form of memory limitation still to be in effect, but I no longer believe that’s the driving issue for these differences.

Nikon uses an independent team approach to cameras. It’s not the same team working on all cameras, it’s individual teams for each camera. These teams cycle and hop scotch. For instance, many from the D3 team including the leader went on to be the Nikon 1 team. That was partly because Nikon back in 2008 already knew that the future of autofocus was centered on the image sensor, not a separate component, and they wanted a top team working on that.

Each camera team within Nikon seems able to make many of its own design decisions, which explains some of the odd things and differences that have happened along the way.

I don’t have any issues with a team approach like this. However, this does bring into play how the teams are managed. Who’s doing the work trying to keep the teams on the same basic path?

At Nikon, that management tends to be financially driven, not customer driven. The management above the teams is more worried about costs and profit margins, which suggests part reuse and rationalization, then they are customer-driven choices, which suggests function/UX reuse and rationalization.

As I’ve written before, I was trained for and performed product line management for most of my career, and I believe that this requires more attention to the customer side. Products need to be clearly defined and organized, otherwise customers get confused.

Should you buy a Z8 or a Z9? I don’t know. The dynamics of that choice seem to vary with firmware update! Even with both cameras now recently updated, I don’t understand why a Z8 user would need HEIF and Pixel shift shooting over a Z9 user. And why would a Z9 user need the Profoto A10 support and high-frequency lighting presets over a Z8 user?

The devil’s in the details, too. The Z8 firmware added programmability to a lot of extra buttons. The Z9, not so much. I’m still trying to figure out if I can make my Z9 controls exactly match my Z8 ones. There seem to be some key differences, still.

While making all these significant firmware updates is getting Nikon a lot of props from its users, at the same time it is also introducing questions that don’t seem answerable, and which also confuse those same users. Moreover, it makes marketing more difficult. Quick question: what’s Nikon’s best mirrorless camera? Well, that would be a Z9. Unless you need Pixel Shift Shooting or HEIF. Uh, what? Aren’t those things I’d expect in the “best” camera and not so much lower in the lineup?

So I have a question: does Nikon even have a chart somewhere that tracks all of the features they do on one axis and cameras that have those features on the other? Yes, I know it would be a whopper of a chart. But it would quickly point out the issues from the marketing/customer side with the current situation. To me, what I see is a somewhat random jumble on that chart, not a logical progression. Even accounting for differences in model age, the chart is a mess right now.

Bottom line: only Nikon knows why they’re making these seemingly random feature choices. Except I’m betting that they don’t actually know why they’re doing it. Which would be a problem, right?