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Z6/7 firmware AF update coming soon

Darin Marcus

Well-known member
From DPReview's CES 2020 interview with Keiji Oishi, Department Manager for Nikon UX Planning, Imaging Business Unit:
We want to do regular scheduled firmware updates to keep the products up to date for a long time.
I am really looking forward to that!
 

Paul2660

Well-known member
Always looking forward to improvements but so far, not found anything lacking current AF Z7, both in low light/low contrast and fast action shots. For me not concerned about Face ID.

Paul C
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Paul,

They're apparently enhancing the eye and face lock performance. Agree it's pretty good now, and frankly excellent for the kind of photography you and I do, but Sony kicked their butt in a head-to-head comp of moving people, so I think Nikon took it sort of personally :LOL:

More though I think, will be the CF-Express compatibility in that same update. The CF-e cards are here now, and performing faster at lower cost than XQD. Also, I believe they're putting the raw video FW in as well -- I don't shoot video, but that's apparently a big deal for the serious video folks.
 

tcdeveau

Well-known member
Crossing fingers!

IMHO and for my uses, the Z would be just about perfect with some improvements to face AF and tracking.
 

Photon42

Well-known member
It did not brick mine :grin:

I like the new AF tracking operation when in AF Field mode. Assign tracking to one of the FN buttons, hit the very button and the tracking field appears. Initiate AF and it keeps sticking where you placed (as expected). Hit the same FN button again and it is gone. No idea however why this cannot be done when in other AF modes.

Did not check potentially improved face/eye detection and - due to the absence of cats in this household - could not test out the animal face detection ....

Overall I really like they put out functionally enhancements. Hope that does not stop.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
I went ahead and did it too, didn't brick my cam either ;) I immediately noticed faster boot and improved low-light AF with my slow telezoom -- sweet!

Need a subject to try the new focus tracking, but agree with Photon, the new assign tracking capability is awesome. Only nit is you do lose whatever functionality you had assigned to that button before, but in my case no biggie as I can get to it quickly in my "i" menu.

Way to go Nikon!!! :clap: :clap: :clap:
 

Darin Marcus

Well-known member
Don't forget to download the updated manuals for the Z6 and the Z7 from the same site.

Since the Z50 firmware update is minor, there is no updated manual for it.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Discovered one more nit, and a somewhat irritating one: You cannot set the face/animal AF tracking selection to a Fn button NOR can you put it in the quick *i* menu, so you have to dig through the menu to get to it... You can set it as the default in one of your User sets, but mine are already used up for other purposes. I think was an unfortunate oversight. :wtf:
 

KeithL

Well-known member
Discovered one more nit, and a somewhat irritating one: You cannot set the face/animal AF tracking selection to a Fn button NOR can you put it in the quick *i* menu, so you have to dig through the menu to get to it... You can set it as the default in one of your User sets, but mine are already used up for other purposes. I think was an unfortunate oversight. :wtf:
Can you access it via 'my menu'?
 

Paul2660

Well-known member
Updated smoothly,

Curious, I noticed the LF (Lens firmware is 1.0) for the 24-70 F 2.8S, went back to the main downloads site for Nikon but did not see any firmware updates for the S lenses.

Has anyone seen any notice from Nikon for updates to the lens firmware past 1.0?

Thanks
Paul C
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Hmmm, IDK -- I don't use that. let me check...

Yes you can, so that is a decent workaround! Thanks Keith! It's now set as my top item there.
Tada! You can also assign a custom button to the "first item in 'My Menu'" -- so there is a workaround should it become an issue for me :D
 

jduncan

Active member
According to Nikon rumors. SO will we get AF on par with Sony after this update? I for one believe so -- Nikon is not one to let moss grow on their newer systems -- but we shall see: https://nikonrumors.com/2020/02/15/...-autofocus-rumored-to-be-announced-soon.aspx/

Hi,*
This is a good review. I ask him about the pictures on the computer. We know that the box being in the subject eyes does not mean focus on the eyes (it could be the eyelashes). Even so a magnificent update.*Usability seems to be better. I am still debating if I am going to stay with Nikon once I move to mirrorless, but I will love to do so.*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxXvNBZLLYU&t=621s

Best regards, *
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
I can't say AF is better than Sony now, but only because I don't own a Sony to compare it to. But I can say that with this update, my Z7 AF's better than anything else I've ever owned -- it's flat out spectacular.
 
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