Nikon Z8 BIF Shooting.

Anthony Medici wrote: The one thing that bothers me the most about the settings you list is the shutter setting. It seems to me that if you have the shutter active for focusing then it will ALWAYS use what you have set there for focusing since you always need to press the shutter to take the picture.

Questions: what is OF-ON? Is that the AF-ON button? Are you in AF continuous or AF single? (I can't tell from what you state.)

Side note: To my knowledge, if you have subject tracking on for one setting it will be active for any mode that uses subject tracking. (ie: 3D and AF-Wide small but not single point in the modes you have listed.)

Kim wrote: Hello Karl. Have you looked at Steve Perry's video on how to set up the Z8?

https://backcountrygallery.com/my-z8-an ... otography/

I am waiting to get my Z8, it is on back order so I am reading all I can find on the settings for birds.

Anthony Medici wrote: I verified that the shutter does NOT have priority so when using other buttons along with the shutter button, the camera will only use the shutter button's assigned focus if no other buttons are overriding it. So the decision to keep the shutter button active is not interfering causing your problem. I tend to keep the shutter button inactive since I find times when I really need to drop into manual focus and leaving the shutter inactive is the fastest way to get into manual focus mode on these cameras.

I tend to use subject tracking with the large box rather than the small box for my default focusing mode since there is less chance of the subject leaving the larger box with my tracking skills. Note that using 3D tracking as a followup mode requires acquisition with subject tracking with the box to either the head or the eye level prior to switching over to 3D tracking. If you don't have the smaller boxes and you switch over, 3D is not likely to be following what you want to follow. Most people don't start with 3D focusing to begin with since it is very much like single point focus. You need to get the single box on the head and keep it there when you start focusing or 3D will pick up the wrong point.

I've also been known to use a custom box rather than large or small. I have used a long slim strip in some circumstances (horizontal more than vertical), a larger than large box and finally a single point sized box. The larger the area used, the slower the initial acquisition will be. But since you need to keep some of the subject in the box for the camera to maintain the subject, you need to watch tossing focus because you failed to keep the box on the subject.

Lastly, I've found that 3D is not an end all mode. I've seen it lose focus because the bird turned its head to a bad angle while the bird was perched on a lone branch with only sky behind the bird.

Anthony Medici wrote: The camera needs a properly exposed area to focus on. If the area you are trying to focus on is very dark or very bright, enough to loss detail, the camera would definitely have problems focusing. It might also have a problem if there was too little contrast in the area.