Great article and critical insight into what can create hugely impactful brand and product engagement, loyalty, and market growth for smart product/solution organizations!!!
I was in a very similar situation. The update dropped the evening before a wedding I was going to photograph with my Zf bodies. The temptation to upgrade right away was real but I made sure to save it till after the wedding.
Lots of fantastic and much anticipated additions in this one. That being said, I think Nikon still has a long way to go with the image profiles. I played with adjusting my own in NX Studio this past weekend and outside of monochrome, I couldn’t put together anything I was particularly happy with for color, nor could I find anything I was enthusiastic about from the shared ones online.
It’s a good step, but I hope they do more with it going forward.
There are so many truly valuable features in this update!
One of my favorites is the ability to use the "C" position on the ISO dial to quickly enable Auto ISO. For me, one of the biggest advantages of having a camera with physical dials is being able to look down, even when it is powered off, and know what my settings are. With the previous setup, when Auto ISO was enabled, the value on the dial didn't reflect your working ISO 99% of the time. With the new method - which is how Fujifilm has been doing this all along with their X-Pro, X-T, and X100-series cameras - what you see is what you get.
Many Zf shooters - myself included - felt this is how Auto ISO should have worked from Day 1, and now it can.
To get the Zf to work like this, set the ISO dial to any value other than C, then go into the Auto ISO menu and set Auto ISO to Off. Exit the menu. Turn the ISO dial to C, go back into the Auto ISO menu, and set Auto ISO to On. Now, when the dial is set to C, it obeys the parameters set in the Auto ISO menu for minimum and maximum values as well as minimum shutter speed. When the dial is set to any other value, you're in manual ISO and the dial setting is your actual working ISO.
If you prefer the original method, leave Auto ISO on when the dial is set to C, then go to any value other than C and enable Auto ISO there as well. The ISO dial now acts as a sort of "maximum override" control; if the dial setting is equal to or less than the maximum ISO set in the menu, it essentially does nothing, and the Auto ISO settings are in control. If the dial setting is higher than the maximum ISO set in the menu, it will use the setting on the dial as your actual value.
Of course, you can still program one of the buttons as your ISO button, so that when you press and hold it, the (front) command dial toggles Auto ISO on and off, while the (rear) sub-command dial sets the actual ISO (providing Auto ISO is disabled). This duplicates the behavior of Nikon cameras that have a dedicated ISO button.
Great article and critical insight into what can create hugely impactful brand and product engagement, loyalty, and market growth for smart product/solution organizations!!!
I was in a very similar situation. The update dropped the evening before a wedding I was going to photograph with my Zf bodies. The temptation to upgrade right away was real but I made sure to save it till after the wedding.
Lots of fantastic and much anticipated additions in this one. That being said, I think Nikon still has a long way to go with the image profiles. I played with adjusting my own in NX Studio this past weekend and outside of monochrome, I couldn’t put together anything I was particularly happy with for color, nor could I find anything I was enthusiastic about from the shared ones online.
It’s a good step, but I hope they do more with it going forward.
There are so many truly valuable features in this update!
One of my favorites is the ability to use the "C" position on the ISO dial to quickly enable Auto ISO. For me, one of the biggest advantages of having a camera with physical dials is being able to look down, even when it is powered off, and know what my settings are. With the previous setup, when Auto ISO was enabled, the value on the dial didn't reflect your working ISO 99% of the time. With the new method - which is how Fujifilm has been doing this all along with their X-Pro, X-T, and X100-series cameras - what you see is what you get.
Many Zf shooters - myself included - felt this is how Auto ISO should have worked from Day 1, and now it can.
To get the Zf to work like this, set the ISO dial to any value other than C, then go into the Auto ISO menu and set Auto ISO to Off. Exit the menu. Turn the ISO dial to C, go back into the Auto ISO menu, and set Auto ISO to On. Now, when the dial is set to C, it obeys the parameters set in the Auto ISO menu for minimum and maximum values as well as minimum shutter speed. When the dial is set to any other value, you're in manual ISO and the dial setting is your actual working ISO.
If you prefer the original method, leave Auto ISO on when the dial is set to C, then go to any value other than C and enable Auto ISO there as well. The ISO dial now acts as a sort of "maximum override" control; if the dial setting is equal to or less than the maximum ISO set in the menu, it essentially does nothing, and the Auto ISO settings are in control. If the dial setting is higher than the maximum ISO set in the menu, it will use the setting on the dial as your actual value.
Of course, you can still program one of the buttons as your ISO button, so that when you press and hold it, the (front) command dial toggles Auto ISO on and off, while the (rear) sub-command dial sets the actual ISO (providing Auto ISO is disabled). This duplicates the behavior of Nikon cameras that have a dedicated ISO button.
Thank you so much for this write up. I’m going to make that change right now.