The Z9 just keeps getting better. Nikon is listening to photographers, and improving or fixing issues that people bring up. Firmware 3.0 is pretty major, adding a lot of new features to both still and video. I won’t get into video much, but one update caught my eye. You can now zoom in-camera …called High Res Zoom. With the Z9 being native at 8k, you can now zoom 2x in-camera for end use 4k video. In the past you had to create zooms from 8k to 4k in editing, but now you can do it right in the camera…very nice. Also Nikon has added more adjustments to control flicker issues when shooting both video or still under fluorescent lights. You can fine tune frame rates to eliminate banding issues that may occur when shooting under these lighting conditions.
For still shooters, a few things seem minor, but were huge in my mind. Probably the thing I am most excited about is the ability to change the focus square to the color red when using 3D autofocus. I use 3D a lot, but trying to find the white focus box on snowy scenes (and even brown grassy scenes..i.e. Africa) is very difficult. Now go to A11 in custom settings and change the box to red. It still turns green when in- focus, but is red when you are moving it around. This is huge for me! Another nice new addition…in high frame rate shooting you can now choose 60FPS which produces a 19MP jpeg file, nice middle ground from 30 and 120FPS.
Nikon has also improved autofocus including not staying stuck on the background when searching for focus, a half stop lower ability to focus in low light, better low light autofocus in general, and better subject tracking of erratic subjects. Fantastic, better autofocus is always a good thing! Don’t wait on this update, get it installed and start enjoying the new features and better performance.
Cree and I have heard from a lot of folks wanting to travel with us, but that we don’t have many trips that are open. We still have four spaces open on our winter Lofoten Norway trip. Come join us for stunning landscapes and photographing Aurora right off the back deck of our cozy lodge!