Nikon Z7 User's Guide

(Z6 User's Guide)

<— back to Nikon Z7 Review

Charging   Power Conservation   Memory Cards

Viewfinder   Monitor Control Button   Fn Buttons

Lens Ring Functions

Lenses   FTZ Adapter   Adapted Manual Lenses

Autofocus   AF Tracking   Rear-Button Focus

Shooting   Silent Mode   Bracketing

Electronic First-Curtain Shutter

Metering   Image Crop Modes

Flash   Studio Strobes & Flash-Only Shots

Auto White Balance   Sharpening

Self-Timer   Time Exposures   Movies

U1, U2 & U3   My Personal Setup Files

Downloading from the Z7   Playback

Video Verison of this Guide

Z9   Z8   Z7 II   Z6 II   Zf   Z7   Z6   Z5   Z fc   Z50   Z30

Z System   Z Lenses   All Nikon Lenses   Flash

Nikon Z7

Nikon Z7 and Nikon Z 24-70mm f/4 S. bigger.

I got my Z7 at Adorama. I'd also get it at Amazon, at B&H or at Crutchfield.

This 100% all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to my personally-approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Nikon does not seal its boxes in any way, so never buy at retail or any other source not on my personally approved list since you'll have no way of knowing if you're missing accessories, getting a defective, damaged, returned, non-USA, store demo or used camera. Get yours only from the approved sources I use myself for the best prices, service, return policies and selection. Thanks for helping me help you! Ken.

 

June 2021   Nikon   Mirrorless   Mirrorless Lenses   All Nikon Lenses   Nikon Flash   All Reviews

See also Nikon's own printed Z7 User's Guide.

Nikon Z7

Nikon Z7. bigger.

 

Nikon Z7

Nikon Z7. bigger.

 

Nikon Z7

Nikon Z7. bigger.

Please help KenRockwell.com

Adorama Pays Top Dollar for Used Gear

Amazon

B&H Photo - Video - Pro Audio

Crutchfield

I buy only from these approved sources. I can't vouch for ads below.

Battery Charging

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Plug the camera into any USB outlet with any generic USB-C cord and leave it turned off. You'll see an orange CHARGE LED above the USB socket, which goes out when done. It may take six hours to charge a completely dead battery with a regular 99¢ USB cord.

It charges faster if you use the included USB-C charger (or the optional EH-7P Charging AC Adapter), or use any generic USB-C PD (Power Delivery) charger. I use this $22 generic USB-C PD 3.0 charger which charges from completely dead to 100% in 2½ hours.

You can use the included external battery charger, but I'd only bother if I had two batteries to charge at once (one in-camera via USB and one in the external charger.)

The newest included EN-EL15b battery charges in-camera. The older EN-EL15 and EN-EL15a batteries work fine, but you'll have to charge them externally.

The optional MH-25a external charger has been used for years. It has a bizarre flipping socket which requires either an awkward short US plug, or a standard "figure-8" charger cord. The optional charger is clumsy, requires you slip the battery into the hole instead of popping it in from the top like most good chargers, and is useless unless you also bring a cord or plug with you traveling.

The MH-25a charge LED blinks slowly while charging and goes solid when done. There is no indication of charge percentage while charging.

Nikon MH-25a charger

Nikon MH-25a charger. enlarge.

 

Nikon MH-25a charger

Bottom, Nikon MH-25a charger. enlarge.

 

Power Conservation

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Nikon is tops here: you can leave your Z7 ON and it's always ready to shoot with a second's notice. It goes to sleep and wakes automatically. Of course it does take a second to wake up so you need to remember to tap the shutter as you're bringing the camera to your eye, and otherwise it sleeps properly as you carry it around all day shooting.

 

Memory Cards

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You will need an XQD card. This is the only kind of card that works. I've resisted buying one until this camera came out because they start at about $90 each. They were invented by Sony for video recording.

While you can read photos directly from the camera with a USB-C cord, you will eventually need to get an XQD card reader to write firmware update files to your card to update camera firmware.

When buying XQD cards and readers, I'd stick with Sony, who invented them and controls the technology. I bought this cheap reader and it usually works fine, but I don't plan on using XQD cards much.

 

Viewfinder

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Automatic brightness control is poor. It varies as you point the camera up or down, or change apertures on adapted manual-focus lenses.

You may prefer to set the finder brightness manually.

 

Monitor Control Button on Finder Hump

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The Z7 has automatic EVF/LCD switching, so what does the little button on the left side of the finder hump do?

It lets you shut off the rear LCD to save batteries or be less noticeable while shooting in the dark. Press it and the finder only turns on when your eye is on it.

 

Programing Fn Buttons

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Nikon Z7 Lens Mount

Fn1 and Fn2 Buttons. bigger.

We can program what the Fn1, Fn2 and other buttons do.

Assign these at MENU > CUSTOM SETTING MENU (pencil icon) > f Controls > f2 Custom control assignment.

I set my Fn1 button to AF Mode and my Fn2 button to (Depth of Field) Preview, and you may do whatever you like.

 

Lens Ring Functions

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Normally the lens' big focus ring is a manual focus ring, however you can reset it to control Aperture, ISO or exposure compensation — or disable it entirely at:

MENU > CUSTOM SETTING MENU (pencil icon) > f Controls > f2 Custom control assignment > click right and down to Lens Control Ring > and chose what you want it to do: Focus, Aperture, exposure compensation, ISO or NONE.

 

Lenses

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The Z7 uses a brand-new Nikon Z mount optimized for Nikon's new Z-mount mirrorless S lenses.

Get the excellent Nikon Z 24-70mm f/4 S for day-to-day use. It's super sharp, small and compact.

Get the kit with the discounted 24-70mm f/4 and FTZ adapter.

The 24-70mm f/4 is the perfect lens for this camera, and you undoubtedly will want the FTZ adapter to use other Nikon lenses you probably already own.

Use the FTZ adapter for your other Nikon lenses, for instance the excellent 28-300mm VR or the 16-35mm VR and/or your choice of telephoto (I use the 28-300mm VR as my telephoto).

Use the FTZ adapter only with Nikon's newest lenses with a built-in AF motor (AF-S and AF-P). These are the only lenses that autofocus with this adapter.

Don't get the FTZ for use with traditional AF-D, AF or manual-focus lenses. Traditional AF-D and AF lenses do not autofocus on the FTZ. Nikon still sells many of these lenses new today, and they work much better on any FX DSLR like a D750. Poo!

Manual-focus F, AI , AI'd, AI-s and adapted rangefinder lenses works poorly on the FTZ with no automatic diaphragm control, poor exposure control, poor finder brightness control and no EXIF or in-finder aperture data — and you have to open-and-close the diaphragm manually for precise focus for each shot!

 

FTZ adapter

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I have an entire page on what works and doesn't work with Nikon's FTZ adapter, which lets Nikon's F-Mount lenses mount on Z cameras.

In short, all the newest AF-I, AF-S and AF-P lenses work fine, while there is no autofocus with any other lenses, and especially no autofocus with older AF and AF‑D lenses, many of which Nikon still sells new today!

Manual-Focus F, AI converted, AI and AI‑s don't work very well, with no communication or control of aperture. Manual-focus lenses work much better on any FX DSLR than on the FTZ, and these lenses gain nothing by being used on the expensive $250 FTZ rather than just using a cheap ($15) passive Chinese adapter tube.

See all the details at Nikon FTZ Compatibility & Review.

 

NEW: Fringer EF-NZ Adapter

Adapts Canon EF lenses with often better results on my Nikon Z cameras than Nikon's own lenses give on this crappy FTZ adapter! It also works with other brands of lenses in Canon EF mount, adapting them to Nikon Z.

 

Adapted Rangefinder & Manual-Focus Lenses

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Nikon Z7 with 1950s Rangefinder Lens

Nikon Z7 with W-NIKKOR•C 3.5cm f/1.8 (1956~1964). bigger.

You don't need and can't use the FTZ Adapter with rangefinder lenses. These lenses have to get closer to the sensor, and are the original mirrorless lenses. This is good, because we can get basic adapters cheap direct from China over eBay for just about any kind of lens.

In fact, we now can use even Nikon's original 1940s-1960s rangefinder lenses on the Z7!

LEICA's lenses for the LEICA M3 with goggles work great, too!

See Use with Adapted Rangefinder Lenses for more.

Palm and Storm, 29 November 2018

Palms and Storm, 6:21 PM, 29 November 2018. 2018 Nikon Z7 with 1956 W-NIKKOR•C 3.5cm f/1.8 (see Adapting Rangefinder Lenses to Nikon Mirrorless), f/4 at 10 seconds at ISO 64, shown exactly as shot. bigger or camera-original ©  file. The palm tree is blowing all over in the wind; don't expect it to be museum-sharp.

 

Autofocus

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The Z7 has a serious design flaw where RED AF BOXES sometimes mean GO!

In AF-S, single AF, it's fine: GREEN means LOCKED - GO and RED means UNLOCKED - STOP! Perfect.

The problem is in AF-C, continuous AF, where RED means IN FOCUS - GO and YELLOW means UNLOCKED, STOP!

In Continuous AF (AF-C) there are YELLOW boxes around found faces, and RED boxes around whatever's being tracked. In AF-C, red is good.

Good luck if you expect to use both AF modes: RED means GO in AF-C and GREEN means GO in AF-S. Good luck remembering which AF mode you're using so you can know if red or green means GO today.

Face recognition is awful because while it finds faces well, the Z7 focuses on random faces, rarely the one you need. Therefore if you have more than one person on the frame you may need to click the rear controller left or right several times until you manually direct it to the correct face. If you don't, you'll get a lot of out-of-focus pictures where it's focussed on some random face in the background

Sadly there has to be a "Low Light AF" option at MENU > Custom (pencil) > a11 Low-light AF. I leave it ON; the default is OFF.

 

Autofocus Tracking

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While the Z7 should do this magically, it doesn't. This is why Sony is much better for tracking action; Sonys have the smarts to do this automatically.

You have to tell the Z7 very manually to assign, track and stay focused on one object as it moves all around.

To do this, set AF-C and All-Area AF [▆] as shown above, then tap the rear OK button. You'll see a gray square on the screen with four directional arrows.

Point the camera so that the box is over your subject (the hard way is to move it with the four-way rear controller), and then hold the shutter button halfway to start and keep autofocus running. The box will now stay on top of your subject and keep it in focus as it moves in and out, up and down and left and right. You can take pictures, or take your finger off the shutter and start again; the system keeps tracking your subject.

To grab another subject, tap OK to freeze the box, put it over the next subject, and half press the shutter again.

Tap the touch panel's (-)/? button to cancel this.

 

Rear-Button Autofocus

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If you want to press a rear button to activate autofocus, rather than having it autofocus whenever you've half-pressed the shutter button, first deactivate the shutter button from autofocusing:

MENU > CUSTOM SETTING MENU (pencil icon) > a Autofocus > a7 AF activation > AF-ON only > OK.

Now assign the autofocus function to the button of your choosing. Most people would use the top rear AF-ON button, but hey, it's your camera:

MENU > CUSTOM SETTING MENU (pencil icon) > f Controls > f2 Custom controls (shooting) > (select a button) > OK > choose AF-ON > OK.

 

Shooting

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I leave everything set to automatic, which gets me the sharpest pictures the fastest. The key is I set my camera very carefully in advance to have it make all my settings exactly as I would do manually (see my Settings File above).

I don't use the AUTO position on the top dial because it locks-out many of the advanced settings I use. I set P on the top dial ("Program" or "Pro" exposure mode which selects aperture and shutter speed automatically) and leave everything else in auto: Auto focus, Automatic AF Area selection, Auto ISO, Auto White Balance, Auto minimum shutter speed in Auto ISO, etc. I do this because I've taken the time to program my camera to set all these as I would do manually so I can concentrate on my picture and not my camera while I'm shooting. My camera can make all the ISO and exposure and focus adjustments faster than I can, once I've programmed the camera to do this itself.

I take a setting off auto only if it's not doing what I want it to do.

I never set a manual ISO. The only time I use manual ISO is in my studio under controlled lighting, or when I'm on a tripod when I'll set it to ISO 64.

Set your camera the way I do (see my Setup file above) and you'll always get the sharpest pictures. 99% of the time when people ask me to diagnose their soft pictures it's because they set their camera manually — and set it wrong. Amateurs too often use too high an ISO, too high a shutter speed and too small a lens aperture, all three of which lead to softer pictures:

1.) ISO 64 is sharpest. As in all modern cameras, each higher ISO gets softer due to noise reduction.

2.) Apertures smaller than f/8 dull the image due to diffraction unless you really need more depth-of-field; and you won't need that much depth of field if you set up your shot properly. Don't use f/16 or f/22 unless you really need it.

3.) Higher shutter speeds require you use a higher ISO, which makes the image softer. 1/500 to 1/1,000 stops sports and easily freezes fast-moving water. 1/125 stops people in anything other than sports. Don't use 1/2,000 or higher unless you really, really need to or have enough light to be shooting at ISO 64 — or need it to shoot at very large apertures at ISO 64 in daylight.

Shoot with the all-auto settings I use (settings file above) and the Z7 does all this all by itself with no need to change any settings from shot to shot. The Z7 will shoot at the optimum ISO and shutter speed and aperture under every condition from daylight to moonlight for photos of things (U1), photos of people (U2) and sports (U3). Easy!

HINT: Mirrorless takes a second to turn on or wake from sleep, which can seem like a long time if you don't tap the shutter until you have already brought your camera to your eye while walking around at an event. No worries, I make a point of tapping the shutter to wake my Z7 every time before I bring it to my eye and thus it's always ready to go. For the first time in 15 years since we all went DSLRs we now have to learn new tricks with completely different kinds of cameras, and this is one of them.

 

Silent Shooting

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Set this at the last item at MENU > PHOTO SHOOTING MENU (camera icon) > Silent photography > ON.

Like all cameras, you can't use flash, flicker reduction or HDR while in silent mode, and like all cameras other than the Sony A9 you can expect some occasional weird effects under flickering light or with objects moving across the frame due to the rolling shutter.

The ISO range in Silent is limited to ISO 25,600 maximum. There's no limit to the minimum, shoot at ISO 32 if you like, but for ISO 51,200 (Hi1.0) or 102,400 (Hi2.0), you'll have to use the regular shutter.

Silent modes works at all frame rates and exposure times from 1/8,000 down to minutes in TIME exposures.

 

Bracketing

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Z cameras no longer have BKT buttons for setting exposure bracketing.

Better, they offer your choice of Exposure (total, flash or ambient), White Balance or Adaptive Dynamic Range bracketing.

Set this at MENU > PHOTO SHOOTING MENU (camera icon) > Auto bracketing > and choose which kind of bracketing you want.

By default, Number of Shots is 0 Frames, meaning no bracketing. To activate bracketing, set Number of Frames to anything other than 0.

If you do this a lot, program one of your function buttons to this feature.

 

Electronic First-Curtain Shutter

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In addition to the regular mechanical and silent electronic shutter options there is a third "Electronic First Curtain" option at MENU > CUSTOM SETTING MENU (pencil icon) > Shooting/display > d5 Shutter type.

This means the shutter opens silently, and makes a mechanical click when it closes. This is great for eliminating camera shake on a tripod, and lets you know when your exposure is done.

 

Light Metering

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Leave it set to MATRIX.

Press the rear 𝒊 button, select the bottom row and then the third box from the left, and it should be at Matrix metering.

The Center-weighted and Spot modes are obsolete static modes from the 1970s. Nikon leaves them in to satiate old-tymers, and the only time I see people with exposure problems is when someone actually uses these old modes, but doesn't know and apply the Zone System which is required to use these properly, as we did in the 1970s.

The Highlight priority mode is an idea if you intend to twiddle with your images on a computer later; this mode prevents anything from overexposing, but can lead to overly dark images that need to be cleverly lightened with software like Perfectly Clear later for optimum results.

Matrix usually gets everything right, and if your images are too dark or light, press the top +/- (exposure compensation) button, click the rear dial left or right a click or two and you should be able to get perfect exposure.

 

Image Crop Modes

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It's easy to set the Z7 to shoot square photos, which I find very useful for people shots as I never miss anything while rotating my camera between vertical and horizontal. Square shots are also great for submission to photo editors as this lets them pick whatever crop fits their layout, increasing your chances of a sale.

Likewise I usually shoot in 4:5 mode as it best fits most of what I shoot.

16:9 mode isn't very useful unless you're shooting stills to edit into video.

You set these at MENU > PHOTO SHOOTING MENU (camera icon) > Chose image area.

I find this mode so helpful I sometimes set one of Fn buttons to it.

 

Flash

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The SB-400 is the ultimate mirrorless flash. It works flawlessly with the Z7, even turning on and off with the Z7's power switch.

Even more than it was on DSLRs, it's tiny as you want on mirrorless, and it's powerful and recycles fast and the Z7 balances it for fill perfectly.

The SB-400 was discontinued; no worry, you can get them on eBay for under $100 (see How to Win at eBay).

The SB-400 is much better for mirrorless than today's bigger, crummier and more expensive SB-300 and SB-500. The SB300 is bigger, junkier, lower powered and takes too long to recycle from it's pathetic AAA cells, and the SB500 is too darn big and costs more than twice as much for about the same performance as the tiny SB400.

Of course the Z7 works with the larger and excellent SB-700 and SB-5000, just that they are bigger than the camera and you probably don't need all that power. The SB-400 has more than enough power and fits the camera's size better.

 

Studio Strobes & Flash-Only Exposures

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By default the Z7 shows you the effects of your exposure and picture control settings (contrast, color etc.) in the finder as you shoot. This is great, unless you're shooting with manual exposure by studio strobes or regular flash at a fast sync speed indoors where the final exposure is only lit by flash, and not by ambient light. In this case the finder image is black, because the ambient light isn't contributing anything at, say, 1/200 at f/22 indoors.

There's an easy work around: be sure to set MENU > CUSTOM (pencil) > Shooting/display > d8 Apply settings to live view > Disable and you'll always see a finder image so you can focus and compose — but it won't show you your exposure or picture controls until you play back.

 

Auto White Balance

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There are four Auto White Balance modes: AUTO0, AUTO1, AUTO2 and AUTO ☀(Natural Light Auto)

You select these depending on the light under which you're shooting.

These first appeared in the Nikon D850, and I have complete descriptions at how to use the D850's Auto White Balance modes.

 

Sharpening Settings

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Sharpening is set at Picture Controls, at MENU > Shooting (camera icon) > Set Picture Control > (select your choice of picture control) and click right.

Now you'll see four choices:

 

Quick sharp: I don't touch this; this is a one-stop way to adjust all of the settings below with one control.

 

Sharpening: I usually peg this at +9.

 

Mid-range sharpening: Leave this at its default of +2.

"Mid-range" means an unsharp mask with a very large radius. In English, it means it's sharpening coarse details, not the usual fine details we expect.

If you set it too high it increases overall contrast in nasty ways that put dark shadows under people's eyes, puts white halos around things and make things look generally cruddy. For instance:

Desert Palms, 18 November 2018

Desert Palms, 9:27 AM, 18 November 2018. Nikon Z7 w/FTZ, Nikon 500mm f/5.6 E PF, f/5.6 at 1/400 hand-held. bigger, full resolution or camera-original © JPG file.

This shot looks ugly as I had the Z7's midrange sharpening set to +5, which is way too much because it overemphasizes some contrasts in nasty ways.

Experiment with this one, but go easy on it until you master it.

 

Clarity: I leave this at its default of +1.

 

Self Timer

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Thank goodness, the Z7 finally is smart enough to reset to Single advance mode after you turn off the power.

No more will you turn it on the next day and still be in self-timer mode from the night before.

 

Time Exposures

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Nikon Z7 Time Exposure

California Desert Home, 22 June 2019, 8:50-8:52 PM. Nikon Z7, Nikon 14-30mm at 14mm at f/11 at ISO 64, 104 second time exposure, Perfectly Clear v3.7 "landscapes" mode. bigger, full-resolution or camera-original © file.

Just set TIME in manual exposure mode between X200 and BULB settings. Easy! Press the shutter and it stays open until you press it again. Use the self-timer to start and put your hand or a hat over the lens to stop and you don't need a remote release.

Oddly there's no built-in timer even though the top OLED stays on. Weird. Use the stopwatch or timer on your phone.

Even better, the Z7 II has manual exposures settable out to 15 miunutes! Enable these at MENU > PENCIL > d6: extended shutter speeds (M) > ON.

 

Movies

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To shoot movies, flip the rear DISP lever to the movie position, then press the red button near the shutter to start and stop.

 

U1, U2 & U3

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These are settings on the top mode dial which we may program to recall our own choices of camera settings for different conditions that we personally encounter. I use U1 for places and things, U2 for people and U3 for action, and yours will be for whatever you prefer to shoot.

You can update any of these modes by changing anything you like about them, then saving the result at MODE > WRENCH/SETUP > Save user settings > Save to U1, U2 or U3 > Save Settings.

If you change anything while in any of these U1, U2 or U3 modes, the Z7 resets to however the U1, U2 or U3 preset was originally saved when you turn the camera back on, or when you select away and select U1, U2 or U3 again. Two weird exceptions are that shifted program never resets unless you manually move the rear dial until it's back to defaults, and that distortion correction takes at least several seconds to reset to the previously saved value. Weird but true!

I've programmed my Z7 U1 mode for nature, landscapes and all photos of things.

I set my U2 mode for people photos.

I use my U3 mode for sports — or maybe for manual-focus lenses.

 

U1: places & things

U2: People
U3: Sports
Picture Control
VIVID
STANDARD
STANDARD
Saturation
+3
+1
+1
Sharpening
9
9
9
Mid-Level Sharpening
2 (default)
2 (default)
2 (default)
Auto ISO Maximum ISO
25,600
25,600
25,600
Auto ISO Minimum shutter speed
AUTO (or AUTO Slower with VR)
1/125
1/500

 

Picture Control

I use VIVID for wild colors, and STANDARD for natural shots of people.

I don't use Nikon's AUTO Picture control, which does its best to guess what you're shooting and set itself accordingly.

Everyone has different tastes for people photos, feel free to experiment with the PORTRAIT setting if you like.

 

Saturation

This is set as a tweak inside any of the main picture controls.

I set +3 for the most saturated colors of places and things.

I set +1 to get slightly more colorful shots of people in the STANDARD setting. People start looking bad with too much saturation; just as often I'll leave it at 0.

 

Sharpening

This is set as a tweak inside any of the main picture controls.

I prefer to set mine to the maximum, but leave "mid-level sharpening" at its default.

 

Auto ISO Maximum ISO

This is the highest ISO speed to which the camera will set itself in Auto ISO.

ISO 25,600 looks fantastic (and H1 ISO 51,600 is almost as good), so if it needs it, I'd rather shoot at ISO 25,600 (or 51,200) and have a sharp picture than a blurry one at ISO 12,800.

 

Auto ISO Minimum shutter speed

This is the slowest shutter speed to which the Z7 will set itself before Auto ISO starts increasing ISO to ensure that it doesn't shoot at slower than this speed. It only shoots slower than this speed when it's shooting at the highest ISO just programmed above and the light gets even darker.

This is critical as this setting is what defines the ISO at which my Z7 shoots, which then defines the aperture and shutter speed.

I rarely change aperture or shutter speed directly, and always change Auto ISO Minimum Shutter speed depending on my subject.

If my subject holds still, I set AUTO, which sets the minimum shutter speed to 1/focal length. If I have a VR lens I set it to Auto Slower, because I can hand-hold at even slower speeds. If snapping people, I set 1/125 as that keeps them sharp. If shooting sports, I set 1/500 as that keeps runners sharp.

 

My Personal Setup Files

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WARNING: At least as of firmware 2.1 in December 2019 (over a year since the camera was released), the complete camera settings backup and restore to the card function is still defective. While you can save and recall the entire camera setup (custom settings, image settings, copyright data & etc.), paradoxically the U1, U2 & U3 user preset modes are not saved or recalled! In other words, the complete camera-state backup to card function is defective in that it does not restore the content of the U1, U2 and U3 modes as every other Nikon with this feature does, except also the sister Z6. This makes this feature mostly worthless if you use it as I do to provision my fleet of Nikon Z7 and if you choose to use my settings file here. This is inexcusable and could be fixed in firmware —  but only if Nikon bothers. I haven't tried to see if firmware v2 fixes this or not.

If you'd like to set your Z7 exactly as I set mine, simply download my personal NCSET001.BIN file (11 July 2019, v2.0 firmware) on your computer and copy it to the top-level of an XQD card in a card reader (don't put it in the DCIM or any other folder), then put that card in your Z7, set your Z7 to P, S, A or M mode on the top dial, and press MENU > Wrench (Setup) > Save/Load settings > Load settings > OK. Your Z7 will be a carbon-copy of mine, complete with my personal information programmed into the EXIT of each of your files.

Be sure to set your own personal EXIF information in your camera if you choose to use my settings. Set these at MENU > Wrench (Setup) > Copyright Information > and MENU > Wrench (Setup) > Image Comment, and be sure to set all of the IMAGE COMMENT, ARTIST and COPYRIGHT fields.

This NCSET001.BIN file won't do anything on your computer and certainly won't do anything here in your browser; you download it from that link to your computer and then use your computer for no other purpose than to copy it to an XQD card from which the camera can copy the firmware.

Before you put my settings in your camera you might want to save your current settings first by pressing MENU > Wrench (Setup) > Save/Load settings > Save settings > OK, and then copy that file to your computer for safe keeping or reference.

Here's a setup file from my reset Z7 if you need to reset your camera. You can do the same thing by going to the various menus and resetting each of them.

Remember, this only works if the camera is in P, S, A or M mode and only if the file isn't in any folder but is in the top-level directory of the card, the same place as the DCIM and NIKON folders.

 

Downloading from the Z7

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If you're too cheap to buy an XQD reader, on Mac, connect the Z7 via USB. Turn on the Z7 and use Apple's Image Capture program to download directly from the card.

Even my base-model 2007 iMac on Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard easily reads and downloads images via the USB cord in its Image Capture app, no reader required.

Remember to turn off the camera when you're done, otherwise the battery will be dead tomorrow as the camera doesn't turn off automatically when connected this way. Turn off your camera and it will charge over the USB-C connection, but leave it on and it will run down.

You can't write to the card to update firmware this way; you need a card reader. Also Image Capture gets very slow if you have thousands of images on your card as it has to read them all before it lets you start working with any of them.

 

Playback

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Since the finder sets its brightness mostly based on the light coming in the lens, I often point my Z7 at the sky just before I hit the PLAY button to brighten the finder display.

 

I got my Z7 at Adorama. I'd also get it at Amazon, at B&H or at Crutchfield.

 

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This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Nikon does not seal its boxes in any way, so never buy at retail or any other source not on my personally approved list since you'll have no way of knowing if you're missing accessories, getting a defective, damaged, returned, non-USA, store demo or used camera. I use the stores I do because they ship from secure remote warehouses where no one gets to touch your new camera before you do. Buy only from the approved sources I use myself for the best prices, service, return policies and selection.

Thanks for helping me help you!

Ken, Mrs. Rockwell, Ryan and Katie.

 

© Ken Rockwell. All rights reserved. Tous droits réservés. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

 

Help Me Help You

I support my growing family through this website, as crazy as it might seem.

The biggest help is when you use any of these links when you get anything. It costs you nothing, and is this site's, and thus my family's, biggest source of support. These places always have the best prices and service, which is why I've used them since before this website existed. I recommend them all personally.

If you find this page as helpful as a book you might have had to buy or a workshop you may have had to take, feel free to help me continue helping everyone.

If you've gotten your gear through one of my links or helped otherwise, you're family. It's great people like you who allow me to keep adding to this site full-time. Thanks!

If you haven't helped yet, please do, and consider helping me with a gift of $5.00.

As this page is copyrighted and formally registered, it is unlawful to make copies, especially in the form of printouts for personal use. If you wish to make a printout for personal use, you are granted one-time permission only if you PayPal me $5.00 per printout or part thereof. Thank you!

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Mr. & Mrs. Ken Rockwell, Ryan and Katie.

 

 

 

18 June 2021, 07-08 Dec 2019, 15 Nov 2019, 03, 12 July 2019, 24 June 2019, 09 Apr 2019