NIKON Z8 - My Button Settings

The Nikon Z8 is an amazing camera, the number of things you can change and the options you have when you do so are quite remarkable compared to my Nikon D850. That camera was my go-to for nearly everything, the D850 and I had a great working relationship because we understood each other completely. I didn’t think that the D850 could be beaten but I’d heard so much about the Z8 and Z9 that I was finally tempted, after 18 months of nearly pressing the ‘buy now’ button, to add a Z8 to my camera collection. Going from a classic DSLR like the D850 to a futuristic mirrorless camera like the Z8 was a bit of a leap to say the least, everything looked very similar on the face of it but, underneath, it was a different world.

As I knew so much about the functions and settings of the D850 (or thought I did) I got to grips with learning everything I could about the Z8. Over a three month period I trawled through menus, experimented with the Shooting Menu Banks, Custom Settings Banks and Extended Menu Banks until my brain hurt. I changed all the Camera Button Assignments to suit each of the four Shooting/Custom menu banks I’d created and set up iMenu’s for each one, my Z8 was now a real beast of a camera which could do anything so long as I remembered what button, setting or option I needed for that particular shot. Most of my photography is Wildlife, I do some Landscape and Astro shooting but it’s safe to say that animals, birds and insects make up 95% of my photos. Maybe I’m getting a bit too old for a camera like the Z8 but I found I was getting completely wound up by trying to remember where I’d put the metering option or what button to press to change the View Mode etc. and I went back to using my D850 just to make life easier. This was a great break from the complexity of the Z8 and in one of those ‘epiphany’ moments I realised that I needed to take a completely new look at the way I had set up the Z8 and bring it back down to earth.

The following are a list of camera button settings I have found to be perfect for my wildlife photography…….

Z8 - Custom Button Assignments:

AF-ON - Back button focus

Fn1 - Cycle AF-area modes

Fn2 - Recall shooting functions (hold) - See: https://www.naturakerkyra.com/post/nikon-z8-recall-shooting-function

Fn3 - View Mode (photo LV)

Record Button - Release mode

WB - Silent mode

Joystick Button - Reset focal point

OK button - 50% image zoom (on/off)

The ideas in 'NIKON Z8 - My Button Settings' are, in no way, cast in stone, as I get more and more used to the way the Nikon Z8 works, and I work with it, these could well change. At the moment, I find that I know exactly where everything is on the camera and rarely get those moments of panic when a great photo passes by and I’m desperately trying to change settings before missing it. I cannot stress that the Nikon Z8 is an absolutely fantastic camera and has just about everything I could possible want for the photography that I do. It also contains loads of settings that I will probably never use, and I’m ok with that because what I do use works perfectly for me. This camera is far too easy to overthink and, if you do, your photography will suffer for it. Good luck!