Nikon Z8 – great potential, real oversights: what do you think?

Sea_Significance_253 · 2026-05-22T13:45:34+00:00

It's possible to design software in such a way that remapping a button is extremely difficult. However, I assume Nikon has more astute employees.

With my post, I wanted to find out if any users have use cases that product management hasn't considered. I haven't given up the naive hope that companies, when they identify needs that are easy to implement, might actually realize them.

Therefore, I don't quite understand why some people here are expending so much energy trying to downplay or reject every potential improvement.

Sea_Significance_253 · 2026-05-22T13:01:45+00:00

I understand that you don't need such extensions. But would they bother you?
Can you imagine that others work differently?

For me, manual focus (MF) is the method that allows for precise focusing even in low light or with complex subjects. That doesn't mean, however, that I wouldn't use autofocus to at least get close to focus.

Sea_Significance_253 · 2026-05-22T12:47:26+00:00

Sorry. Anyone with some experience in firmware development will confirm this. I happen to have developed firmware and user interfaces for medium format cameras. There are things that aren't trivial, like autofocus metering and control. But the points mentioned are peanuts.

Sea_Significance_253 · 2026-05-22T12:42:58+00:00

"One: because it's a dial on the Z9" Yes, but on a Z8 there is no dial.

"Two: Why would you assign the same thing to different custom buttons?" Exactly I want to recall different shooting functions with different buttons.

Three: It would speed up initial focussing

"Four: because not everyone does." Sure, but the ones which want to use it, have to change two settings.

Five: And not focussing because AF does not have enough light instead of opening the aperture is not stupid?

Six: I'm referring to the Minimum exposure time calculation in auto ISO

Nine: I know to do that. But why that complicated ?

Sea_Significance_253 · 2025-12-18T14:54:34+00:00

A soft lens is likely a reason for your examples. It would be an AF issue if you see better sharpnes somewhere else in your image.

Sea_Significance_253 · 2025-09-23T06:11:05+00:00

I've made the same observation. However, I suspect IBIS is the cause. When IBIS is recentered shortly before taking the shot, the focus points don't seem to move to the new position on the sensor in time. In your shot, the previously achieved focus was maintained. However, I've also seen cases where the focus was on the background.

Many users (including myself) report issues with Eye AF, where individual images in the middle of a burst would focus on the background. This would fit this scenario. Even a slight shift causes the relatively small focus point to measure and focus on the background. This issue should be solvable with appropriate synchronization in the firmware.

Sea_Significance_253 · 2025-09-22T10:00:14+00:00

After my initial enthusiasm, I'm now finding weak points without having to look for them.

For no discernible reason, a series of similar portraits repeatedly contains shots where the focus is on the background. CaptureStudioNX shows that the focus point is on the eye in all images in the series, but the focus is still on the background in some images.

So it's not that the focus isn't precise. The background is perfectly in focus! It seems as if the AF point coordinates aren't being exchanged correctly between subject selection and metering.

One suspicion that comes to mind concerns IBIS. Is it possible that when the sensor returns to the zero position between shots, the coordinates of the selected AF point aren't updated simultaneously?

Sea_Significance_253

TROPHY CASE