Firmware History

A video tutorial filmed in the camera's first autumn cannot show you how to set the video shutter as an angle, because that setting arrived with version 1.10 in February 2025. One filmed that spring cannot show you the focus limiter or bird detection, because both arrived with version 2.00 in August 2025. Advice about a camera has a date even when it does not print one, and the firmware it was written for is usually the thing that dates it.

This page lists every firmware release for the Z6III's body, from the version it launched with to 2.00, with what each one added, changed and fixed. The rest of this guide describes version 2.00. Firmware and Updating explains how to read the version inside your camera and how to install an update.

01.The Releases at a Glance

As of 1 October 2026, version 2.00 is the newest. Nikon's download page for the Z6III lists nothing later, and its index of 2026 updates has no Z6III entry.

Every update is cumulative: each one contains everything in the versions before it, so a camera on 1.00 goes straight to 2.00 without stopping at 1.02 or 1.10 on the way.

Nikon's pages raise one practical difficulty. The Download Center keeps a page only for the current version, and each older version's page disappears when it is replaced. Versions 1.02, 1.10 and 1.11 are therefore documented here from copies of Nikon's own pages kept by the Internet Archive, listed among this page's sources. Each later download page, 2.00's included, keeps a short history of the versions before it, and that history is the only record of version 1.01.

02.Launch Firmware

Nikon announced the Z6III on 17 June 2024. Nikon USA expected it in shops in late June, and Nikon Japan scheduled its release there for 12 July 2024. No Nikon page says in so many words that the camera shipped with version 1.00, but every later update names 1.00 as the oldest version it installs over, which is enough to settle the point.

03.Version 1.01

Its one change made the Nikon Imaging Cloud service available in the Chinese Mainland. Nikon's 2.00 page records the change but no date, and no archived Nikon page found while preparing this guide supplies one. Outside the Chinese Mainland it changed nothing a photographer would notice.

04.Version 1.02

Released on 24 September 2024, version 1.02 fixed two faults. Video recording could fail with some CFexpress cards, and uploading pictures over a wired Ethernet connection could fail with an error. It installs over 1.00 or 1.01, and its file is about 103 MB.

05.Version 1.10

Released on 26 February 2025, version 1.10 was the first update to add features, most of them for video. Nikon's online manual gives it a chapter of its own.

Shutter Angle and Video

The largest addition for most videographers is Shutter mode, Custom Setting g12, which lets you set the video shutter as a shutter angle instead of a time (p. 770). The idea comes from film cameras, whose shutter was a spinning disc with an open sector. If the open sector spans an angle $\theta$ and the camera records $f$ frames per second, each frame is exposed for

$$t = \frac{\theta}{360^\circ} \times \frac{1}{f}.$$

At 24 frames per second with the cinema convention of $180^\circ$, that is $\frac{1}{2} \times \frac{1}{24} = \frac{1}{48}$ s. The advantage is that the angle stays the same when the frame rate changes, so motion keeps the same look: switch to 30 frames per second and $180^\circ$ becomes 1/60 s without your touching the dial. Shutter angle works in modes S and M, and choosing it switches off high-frequency flicker reduction and Custom Setting g11 (p. 770).

The rest of the video changes were smaller.

• Hi-Res Zoom works with the DX image area.
• Zebra pattern, g14, gained a choice of colour.
• Brightness information display, g17, gained options for how brightness is shown.
• N-Log video shows less noise in dark areas.
• In mode S, the roles of the two command dials can be swapped through Custom controls, g2, under Command dials and Exposure setting.

Power Zoom Lenses

A group of additions serves lenses with a motorised zoom. Nikon's notes mark four of them as needing the NIKKOR Z 28-135mm f/4 PZ.

• Power/Hi-Res Zoom collab, g9, joins the lens's zoom to Hi-Res Zoom. It needs that lens.
• Zoom ring control (PZ lens), f11, sets how the lens's zoom ring behaves. It needs that lens.
• Save and load power zoom position became available as a role for a custom control in f2 and g2. It needs that lens.
• The single power-zoom speed setting became two, Power zoom speed (zoom buttons) and Power zoom speed (zoom switch). Only the zoom-switch item needs that lens.
• Power zoom speed (zoom buttons) can be added to the i menu through f1 and g1.
• The items at f12 and g8, formerly Power zoom (PZ) button options, were renamed Assign power zoom.

Other Changes

Custom Setting d14, formerly View all in continuous mode, was renamed Display on during burst. The old name survives in a copy of Nikon's online manual archived before the update.

The fixes covered:

• freezes when recording ProRes 422 HQ with Hi-Res Zoom, after an HDMI cable was unplugged, when switching to video with digital flicker reduction on, and with an AirGlu BT connection
• noise in the audio from an external microphone that needs no power, when gain was set by hand
• N-RAW 12-bit clips lost when the remaining recording time ran low
• slight shake with a micro lens, Electronic VR and a tripod
• wrong exposure in bursts after a change in mode M
• a slow shutter response after radio-controlled flash through a WR-R10
• subject detection borders missing during bursts

Version 1.10 installs over any version from 1.00 to 1.02, and its file is about 104 MB.

06.Version 1.11

Released on 24 June 2025, version 1.11 updated some of the guidance text the camera shows while connecting to Nikon Imaging Cloud. The connection procedure itself did not change. It installs over any version from 1.00 to 1.10.

Its download page was also the first to carry a caution that later pages repeat: update the camera only with a Z-mount NIKKOR lens attached, or with Nikon's FTZ or FTZ II adapter, because other lenses or adapters could make it malfunction. Firmware and Updating takes that caution into its checklist.

07.Version 2.00

Released on 27 August 2025, version 2.00 is the largest update so far, and the one this guide describes. Its file is about 112 MB, and it installs over any earlier version.

Stills

• Birds joined the subject types that subject detection looks for, in photo and video modes.
• Auto capture takes pictures, or starts video, on its own when a subject meets criteria you set for motion, distance or subject detection. Nikon notes that the distance criterion is meant for NIKKOR Z lenses.
• C15 joined the high-speed frame capture + release modes, at 15 frames per second.
• High-speed frame capture + gained its own image quality setting, separate from the one for other release modes.
• Focus shift shooting gained options that let it be combined with pixel shift.
• Pixel shift shooting gained options for exposure bracketing and for the folder it starts storing in, and its settings can now be changed while the self-timer is the chosen release mode.
• The shooting display can zoom in to 400% to check focus.
• The LED on a Profoto A10 flash can serve as an AF-assist light, once the flash itself is updated.

Video

• Hi-Res Zoom gained a new colour for the in-focus indicator, control from the sub-selector, and a focus point that appears on detected subjects.
• File names travel over HDMI to compatible Atomos recorders, among them the Ninja V, Ninja V+ and Shogun Connect. Some need an Atomos OS update or a paid activation first.
• Headphone volume can be adjusted from the i menu while recording.

Focus and Controls

• Maximum aperture Lv, Custom Setting a13, is new. Set to On, it keeps the lens wide open while you compose, for the brightest view, and stops down to the chosen aperture only as you press the shutter-release button fully to take the picture (p. 646).
• Focus limiter setting, a15, is new: autofocus can be confined to a range of distances you set (p. 648). Nikon later added to its 2.00 page a list of eight lenses it does not work with: the NIKKOR Z DX 16-50mm, DX 18-140mm and DX 50-250mm, and the NIKKOR Z 24-200mm, 24-50mm, 14-24mm f/2.8 S, 24-70mm f/4 S and 14-30mm f/4 S.
• Half-press to cancel zoom (MF), at d19 for photos and g18 for video, lets a half-press of the shutter-release button cancel the zoomed-in view during manual focus (pp. 685, 778).
• Custom Setting a10, Focus point display, gained a setting for the width of the focus point's border.
• Custom Setting c2, Self-timer, gained a Minimum choice for the interval between shots.
• Auto capture can be added to the i menu.
• The custom-control lists in f2, f3 and g2 gained new roles. Those for playback, in f3, include keeping playback zoom on the focus point as you move between pictures, jumping from a retouched copy to its source picture, and trimming.
• Format memory card changed how it handles a full format.
• Automatic monitor display switch is a new setup menu item.

Playback

• Videos can loop and play at other speeds.
• The camera can record which way up it was held and rotate pictures to match during playback.
• Series playback gained automatic options.
• Pictures can be marked for priority upload to a computer or an FTP server.
• Filtered playback can filter by date.
• The retouch options offered in playback can be chosen.

Network and Other Changes

• USB streaming, so a computer can use the camera as a webcam with sound, became an option for the USB port.
• Nikon Authenticity Service support, which signs pictures with a record of where they came from, using the C2PA standard. It needs Nikon Imaging Cloud registration and an application, and is not offered in every region.
• Nikon Imaging Cloud gained a new way to add Picture Controls from the cloud.
• Synchronized release, which fires several cameras together, was extended to up to 20 groups, each with up to 16 remote cameras fired from a master camera. Its network menu item, Connect to other cameras, gained Group settings and Overwrite copyright info.
• Connect to FTP server gained changes and additions.
• An AirGlu BT link and an MC-N10 remote grip can be used together, and the camera warns when the AirGlu link is unstable.
• White balance can be measured directly for stills from a computer app such as NX Tether.
• External microphones can record voice memos.
• View assist, g13, shows a changed tone.
• Maker and model names are written into the metadata of ProRes 422 HQ files.

Where Nikon's Pages Differ

Nikon describes version 2.00 in three places, its download page, its online manual and its press release, and they do not list exactly the same changes. The online manual adds that the timecode display stays on screen without an AirGlu connection. The press release spells out several items more specifically than the download page does, among them JPEG fine pictures with 60-frames-per-second Pre-Release Capture, scheduling for Auto capture, and firmware updates from the cloud installing automatically by default. This guide treats an item as part of 2.00 when any of the three lists it, and checks it on the camera's own menus through the Reference Guide.

Nine days after the release, on 5 September 2025, DPReview and PetaPixel reported that Nikon had suspended the Authenticity Service. On 22 September PetaPixel added that certificates already issued would be invalidated. Nikon's 2.00 download page still lists the service without a caveat, so check Nikon's current service page before relying on the feature.

08.Custom Settings That Moved

A Custom Setting's code is its position in its group, so when a new item is inserted, every item after it in the group moves down one place. Nikon's notes for both 1.10 and 2.00 say that some Custom Settings were renumbered, and name where the new items went: f11, g9 and g12 in 1.10, and a13, a15, d19 and g18 in 2.00. Nikon publishes no table from old codes to new ones.

The arithmetic can still be done for one group at a time. At 2.00, group a runs from Focus peaking at a12 through the new Maximum aperture Lv at a13, Focus point selection speed at a14 and the new Focus limiter setting at a15, to Manual focus ring in AF mode at a16. Take the two new items out, and Focus point selection speed and Manual focus ring in AF mode sit at a13 and a14, which is where advice written before August 2025 places them. That holds because group a ends at a16, and Nikon's notes record no other item inserted into it.

The safe habit is to find a setting by its name, not its code, whenever the advice you are following predates the firmware in your camera. The Settings Finder searches every item by name and gives its code at 2.00.