Today, Nikon announced its first major firmware update to the Z8 mirrorless camera.
Nikon has been on a roll of late. Not only have the last three cameras they’ve announced, the Z9, Z8, and Zf all hit the bullseye for their intended targets (in my humble opinion), but they’ve taken their firmware game up a level as well. As someone who owns a pair of Z9s, a couple years in, I already feel like I’ve received multiple camera upgrades without having to spending a dime. As the Z8 shares many similarities to its big brother, it’s no surprise that Nikon has set about bringing this process of routine firmware updates to the Z8 as well.
In today’s announcement, the company has added a handful of useful features. Primary among them may be the new AF subject detection option dedicated for birds. This feature should improve autofocus performance for photographers whose subjects are of the winged variety. They also now support the Auto Capture function, which enables automatic shooting depending on preset criteria.
For those in search of exacting detail, the Z8 now includes pixel shift. This feature blends multiple high-resolution raw images to create a 180 MP final image, allowing you to take your image quality to the next level.
A handful of additional new features include:
- A new preset for portrait photographers called Rich Tone Portrait Picture Control
- Increase in the number of functions that can be set using custom function buttons
- Users can now exit zoom with a half press of the shutter button when focus mode is set to manual
- New shutter sounds and volume settings
- Ability to alter width of focus borders
- Users can choose not to record shooting orientation in EXIF data if desired
- When scrolling through playback, an option has been added that can center the display on the face when one is detected to ensure sharpness
In conjunction, the company has also announced updates to their NX Tether software designed to work with Nikon mirrorless cameras such as the Z8.
The firmware updates for the Z8 are free and can be downloaded here.
