Thom Hogan

Yes, I know I was gone for more than twelve days and used the camera for more than twelve days. Because of safari scheduling, my daily blog notes slowly fell out of sync with actual days ;~).

I've pretty much exhausted the safari portion of the trip. I won't be sharing images from the wedding portion, as I don't have the releases from 140 people that would be necessary ;~).

I will say this about the rehearsal dinner, wedding, and reception: the Z9 performed pretty much as I wanted it to. Subject detection worked well, and when dealing with so many people, using the Wide-area AF modes with human detection was the preference, as it gave me back some control over who I wanted the camera to focus on (without having to constantly press the Direction pad to change boxes).

Some summary information I obtained during the trip that may be of use to you follows.

I took about 11,000 images with the Z9 on the safari portions of the trip, and my teaching assistant borrowed the camera to take another 1500 or so. Battery performance looked like this:

• 57% 652 EN-EL18D
• 33% 1176 EN-EL18C
• 75% 772 EN-EL18C
• 72% 519 EN-EL18C
• 11% 2506 EN-EL18D
• 36% 1536 EN-EL18C
• 69% 1090 EN-EL18D
• 21% 680 EN-EL18C
• 47% 917 EN-EL18C
• 78% 499 EN-EL18D
• 42% 1902 EN-EL18D

I wasn't specifically trying to figure out how many images I could get per charge. Moreover, at times I was testing features such as GPS logging, which might distort the numbers some. There were also long sequences where the camera was on—Standby Timer set to infinity—that distort some of the numbers. At no time did I need to switch batteries, even though we out for four or five hours at a time. 

In terms of buffer, I used only Lossless Compressed NEF as a file format, and I hit the buffer maybe four times with the ProGrade Cobalt 325GB card, and even then only when I was pressing hard on photographing doing some form of AF follow test. Even in those buffer full moments, the camera was more "stuttering" than stopping. 

In my more normal photography style on safari, I doubt I would have ever hit the buffer. I'll have much more to say when I have a production Z9 to verify some numbers with, but if you use 10 fps or even 12 fps, you're not going to have buffer issues with the largest file size the camera can produce using fast CFe cards. At 20 fps you should get about four solid seconds with the Cobalt card worst case (and remember the High-Efficiency NEF formats would do better; I was reluctant to test those with a pre-production camera because I didn't have time to test how reliable they were before leaving for Africa, nor was I sure I could convert them reliably). 

The camera got bounced around off-road every day. And when I say off-road, I mean we spent a lot of time each day driving well off the rough two-track in each area; the areas I was in allow off-track exploration, and so we did just that. I did nothing special to protect the camera, it rained numerous times, and the camera was also subjected to small plane vibrations more than a half dozen times on the trip. It shows no wear. 

Now, on to two final bits: (1) what I didn't like about the camera; and (2) my wish list for changes to the camera.

These lists may get a bit long, but they don't reflect that the camera is poor. Just the opposite, the Z9 is a great camera, the best mirrorless camera Nikon has made to date, and arguably one of the best cameras you can buy at the moment. That doesn't make it "perfect." I see evidence of rushed engineering, and I also see that Nikon still hasn't clearly heard a number of things that we photographers have been asking for or would prefer.

What I Don't Like

• The grip and hand position isn't optimal for me (I have medium-sized hands, though shortish fingers). I feel a bit stretched when holding the camera, but I quickly adjusted to that. My D6 grip feels slightly better.
• The tilting LCD is fiddly and has a minimal amount of adjustment. You've got plenty of adjustment if you're holding the camera below you (flip up, or flip right), but when holding the camera above me I'd like more tilt.
• The card slot door mechanism feels cheap for the rest of the build, and even having used the camera for a couple of weeks I was still fighting it when I was in a hurry. 
• Likewise, the Shooting Method dial feels flimsy. The positions have indents, but those are awfully poor at telling you when you're set. It is absolutely possible to get the dial in an intermediary, non-indent position. 
• We've got a lot of handling dissonance to talk about in my eventual review. Moving the PLAYBACK menu below the three primary ones we use makes sense, but not if you're using another Nikon body. Likewise, the playback button moving to the button quartet makes sense, but we again get dissonances when using multiple Nikon bodies. My second body on most of this trip was the Z50, and the button quartet in particular became a real pain for me (zoom in, menu, zoom out, playback versus i button, menu, playback, delete!). Even the Z7 II was different enough that I was stopping to think which button I needed to press. Expect Nikon to address this with future mirrorless models, but it's a pain point for those juggling current ones. It just shows that Nikon didn't think through the original Z UX enough prior to launch, as we're seeing lots of variation as the models change.
• The autofocus system seems not fully developed. As good as it is—and it's really good—trying to take control from the system isn't as straightforward as it needs to be. Lots of small points here (some are in my Wish List, below). 
• The matrix metering following the focus point needs to be tamped down (e.g., add an option to turn that behavior off).
• Too many arbitrary or paternalistic changes (see Wish List, below). It doesn't feel like Nikon spent enough time talking to working photographers who push the system.

Wish List

1. Ability to change AF Subject detection options via button. You can kind of do this, using banks or Recall shooting functions, but this is very sub-optimal and uses up functions that I want more flexibility with. Also, allow subsets other than All. I can think of times when I want vehicle/human or human/animal, but not the third category. Of course, I suspect Nikon's response will be that eliminating one category wouldn't make any difference in performance. I'm going to respond by saying I'll bet I can find a situation where that isn't true.
2. Need a Recall shooting functions (hold) option, as well, as per D6.
3. However, both #1 and #2 bring up another issue: there are things hidden in Recall shooting functions that you'd want to assign to a button on their own. AF subject detection options, specific AF-Area modes, specific Metering modes, and more. This is a major miss by Nikon, and those options need to be added to button customization. 
4. A subpoint to #3: there's no ability to change to a specific metering mode via a button (requires button+dial). The specific thing we want is spot metering available on a button, but it's gone. Bring it back, please. And give me both temporary and hold versions!
5. Named Save/Load menu settings files. The Sony A1 has this, the Z9 needs it. Yes, banks are good, but the Z9 is an "all-around" camera. I want a settings file for safari, another for sports, another for events. Within those settings files I want to use the banks to better configure the camera for the type of photography I'm doing, not leaving them set for a type of photography I'm not doing at the moment (e.g. a bank for Sports, a bank for safari, etc.). Realistically, the whole Customizations/Banks/Settings construct needs a lot more thought and refinement. For example, why can't I save a bank to a named file? That would give me more banks to work with.
6. We still have the silly setting file naming convention that comes from the 1980's, where one letter is what designates which camera the file is for. Gee guys, how is it that I'm supposed to remember NCSET010.BIN stands for Z9 (10 stands for 9?) and NCSET008.BIN stands for Z7 II (8 stands for 7?). This nonsense has to stop. If you don't see the solution, let me give you the example: Z9SET###.BIN gives us plenty of settings files. Heck even Z72SET##.BIN gives us plenty. So if we don't get #5, give us this, please.
7. Speaking of banks, we still don't have the ability to combine SHOOTING and CUSTOM SETTING banks. There are times when I want SHOOTING bank A and CUSTOM SETTING bank C, and others when I want SHOOTING bank B and CUSTOM SETTING bank B. I can't immediately reconfigure the camera with one command for either case. Named settings files would partially solve this, but on-the-fly-via-button changes aren't possible across the entire customization set the way things stand. Of course, adding VIDEO RECORDING banks compounds the issue of combinatorial bank setting.
8. The i menu is missing a whole bunch of potential options. Connect to Smartphone being just one of them (and which appears on other Z cameras).
9. Not sure why Auto ISO sensitivity control has been removed from being a MY MENU option. Specifically, the issue isn't turning Auto ISO on and off, it's setting a new maximum or a minimum shutter speed as quick as possible. 
10. We need a return of Group AF, with a consistent closest subject priority. Allowing user-chosen groups, ala the D6, would also be highly welcome. Dynamic-area AF is less useful on the Z9, and having three such options clutters up the AF-Area mode menu, which is problematic. Indeed, the whole hierarchy of AF-Area modes is now broken when you scatter in Small, Medium, Large options. Single-point, Dynamic, Wide Area, 3D, and Auto-area. Within Dynamic and Wide Area we have sub-choices for size/shape, but they're not sub-choices, they're choices. Changing this requires a rethink/rework of a lot of menus, but it needs to be done.
11. The new On/Off quick set from the menus is nice, but I think Nikon could go further. For example, High ISO NR has only four obvious options. Why do I need to drop to another page to change the value? Why not right press to get to the next value (ala the On/Off options)? Color space only has two choices, why another menu page for that instead of a toggle? The On/Off menu option was a good choice, but not thought through entirely.
12. Related to #9: items no longer have a > at the end to indicate that there are further options. Big UI mistake. I've already talked with two other photographers who weren't aware of this. It comes up in particular with Custom Setting #D8 (View mode (photo Lv). That's because the Adjust for ease of viewing option has a sub-menu! And within that sub-menu, the Custom option has another sub-menu! But neither sub-menu is indicated by anything on the display. Multiple examples of this abound throughout the UI. Bad, bad, bad.
13. Where's Portrait impression balance? The II's have it, why didn't the Z9 get it? This is callous behavior on Nikon's part. A photographer with a Z7 II and Z9 simply can't make the images match without that function (assuming they use it, which people/event photographers should, otherwise it doesn't need to be there at all).
14. Kill the Type A/B/C and Mode 1/2/3 naming before it gets out of control. Release timing indicator should have Dim Display, Four Border Reminder, Two Border Reminder as the named options. Virtual horizon type should have Cockpit Style and Edge Style options, and so on. 
15. Bring back the 5:4 Image area.
16. Let the camera record full frame for DX lenses. As I've pointed out many times, even a number of Nikon DX lenses cover the full frame.
17. Right edge of on-screen histogram should be colored when hit. We can't tell the white edge of the frame from a white edge overexposure bar in most cases.
18. Why can't we have Zebra patterns in still photography?
19. Why is Custom monitor/viewfinder shooting display in the G Custom Settings for video, but in D for stills? 
20. Custom Setting #D17, Custom monitor shooting display, simply doesn't go far enough in terms of customization. Moreover, you can't create another display option in addition to the ones Nikon gives you, you can only customize the five you get.
21. The Drive button and Shooting Method dial seem redundant. If I can set everything via the button, why do I need the dial? In essence, Nikon seems to think that some users want to restrict the button to just the mode they're using. Perhaps. It doesn't really speed me up, though.
22. And speaking of Shooting Method, why is it that the shutter sound is mostly the same at some different frame rates? Not a very good simulation.
23. Likewise, why is it the camera can create JPEGs at 30 fps but not NEF? Yes, NEF data is one additional step EXPEED has to make, but I can't imagine that is anything other than a buffer issue (e.g., smaller buffer to do NEF at 30 fps). Even if the buffer were down to two seconds, I'd take it.
24. Given that we can take long bursts of images easily, we need more ways to "evaluate/process" them in camera. If I mark a keeper in a burst, why can't I delete the rest of the burst? Why can't I delete a burst that didn't yield a useful image? We also need burst stacking (ala Sony), so that we can navigate between images faster by jumping from burst to burst.
25. Speaking of which, if I turn off Connect to smart device, I can no longer mark an image Select for upload to smart device via the i button. Has Nikon actually seen what we sports/event photographers actually do? Many times we have to turn off the connectivity (congestion, battery use, etc.), but still want to mark which images will upload. 
26. Silent photography (now Silent mode) has moved to the SETUP menu. Nikon needs to pick a lane.
27. The Focus Mode button is not positioned well for vertical grip use, and there is no equivalent button in that hand position. Given the more limited number of buttons you can utilize in the vertical grip position, this is not optimal. Which of the few would I change to Focus Mode?
28. NX Mobile Air needs to allow sharing to "normal" destinations as well as FTP ones. Badly needs this. I suppose you could add an option for Album Settings that is "Add to Camera Roll," but that's a workaround (and not present!). And why do I have to subscribe for additional albums that are stored on my phone (and server)? Just charge a one-time fee, not a monthly one, for feature embellishments. Also, NX Mobile Air doesn't work for raw files.
29. Is Nikon ever going to do Pixel Shift? Apparently not. The Z9 was the camera (all-around camera) that would have most benefited from it. 
30. In-camera Help has a number of typos and errors. Plus the usual number of "X function does X" meaningless help. Many new functions don't have help and should.

This is not a complete list. This is just the list that piled up with my contemporaneous notes while using the pre-production camera. I'm pretty sure I'll be adding to the list ;~). I also note that Brad Hill, who was testing a pre-production unit at the same time as I was, came up with a related set of firmware wishes, as well.