Nikon's User Settings still confuse a lot of folk. Some firmware updates zero out the User Settings and restore the camera to factory defaults.
So, the procedure for firmware updates is:
- Save user settings (and Save menu settings) to card.
- Remove card from camera.
- Put firmware update on card using your computer.
- Put card back in camera.
- Perform Firmware update.
- Load user settings and/or Load menu settings from card.
It's possible that some firmware updates might break the settings file formats in the future, but this currently works.
One problem I have with the one slot cameras (Z6, Z7) is that I can't dedicate an old, small SD card for firmware updates and settings files. What also happens is that some people on those cameras format the card each time they put it back in the camera and then lose their settings files. You can keep a copy of the settings files on your computer, but it's a pain to be moving those back and forth.
As I've pointed out before, not only does Nikon mess us up with the crude settings file formats they use (one encrypted file, dedicated name that isn't intuitive), but that they no longer support keeping settings files in Camera Control Pro (CCP) and being able to load them across a cabled hookup (or in SnapBridge, if you want go wireless). Nikon needs to completely rewrite CCP and redo how settings files are created (user named files, and multiples please). We need the ability to move those files via cable, wireless, or card.
Considering that CCP is the only Nikon software that is still sold, you'd think that someone at Nikon would have figured out that the reason why they don't sell many is that its usefulness keeps going backwards, not forwards.
I've written it before but I'll do so again: Nikon seems to have focused virtually all their engineering resources on just camera body and lens design. In so doing, they've left accessories, software, flash, and a host of other "system" things out to dry and wither. The reason for this is that upper management—which must approve all decisions—and bean counters are in charge, and don't have a photographer-focus anywhere I can see. No one making the decisions is actually a photographer any more. It shows.
