Glossary

A forum reply tells you to shoot birds in flight with AF-C, Wide-area AF (C1) and AF activation set to AF-ON only, at 1/2000 s in mode M with Auto ISO, and to turn on Pre-Release Capture. Every word of that advice is about a single camera, and nearly half of it is vocabulary. This page defines that vocabulary.

The terms are grouped by subject rather than listed from A to Z, so that a term sits in the same group as the ones it is easily confused with: the three shutter types, the AF-area modes and the video file types each share a group. Within each group the terms run alphabetically. If you know the word you want, your browser's find command will reach it faster than scrolling.

Each definition is written for this guide and gives the page of Nikon's Reference Guide, edition 09, where the camera's own documentation of the term begins. For a menu item, the Settings Finder adds the path, the default and every option.

01.Exposure

Exposure is the amount of light that builds one picture. Three settings decide it: the aperture, the shutter speed and the ISO sensitivity.

Active D-Lighting

A setting for scenes that hold both a bright sky and deep shade. It holds back the highlights and lifts the shadows so that both keep detail, at a strength you choose from Low to Extra high, or Auto (p. 473). It is not available when tone mode is set to HLG (p. 462).

Aperture

The opening inside the lens that light passes through on its way to the sensor. Its size is written as an f-number, the lens's focal length $f$ divided by the opening's diameter $D$:

$$N = \frac{f}{D}$$

An 85 mm lens set to f/1.8 has an opening about $85 / 1.8 \approx 47$ mm across. Because the light admitted grows with the area of the opening, it is proportional to $1/N^2$, so a smaller f-number means more light. Going from f/4 to f/2.8 lets in $(4/2.8)^2 \approx 2$ times as much, one EV. A wider opening also gives a shallower depth of field, the zone in front of and behind the focus distance that still looks sharp. The lens sets the smallest and largest values available (p. 141).

Aperture-Priority Auto

Mode A on the mode dial. You choose the aperture with the sub-command dial, and the camera chooses the shutter speed that gives a correct exposure (p. 141).

Auto Bracketing

A short run of pictures in which each one differs in exposure, flash level or Active D-Lighting by an amount you set, so that you can choose the best afterwards or merge them on a computer. White balance bracketing works differently: each shot is saved as several copies, each copy with a different white balance (p. 500).

Auto ISO Sensitivity Control

Lets the camera raise ISO above the value you set whenever a correct exposure is otherwise out of reach, up to a ceiling you choose between ISO 200 and Hi 1.7. Hold the ISO button and turn the sub-command dial to switch it on or off, and the display shows ISO AUTO while it is on (p. 161).

Autoexposure Lock

Freezes the exposure while you hold the centre of the sub-selector, so that it stays put while you recompose. If you half-press the shutter-release button first to focus, the same press locks focus as well (p. 149). It appears in the displays as AE-L.

Bulb and Time

Two settings past the slowest timed shutter speed, available in mode M, for exposures of fireworks, star trails and other scenes that need longer. With Bulb the shutter stays open while the button is held down. With Time a first press opens it and a second press closes it (pp. 142, 146). The slowest timed speed is 30 s at the default setting, and Custom Setting d7, Extended shutter speeds (M), stretches it to 900 s in mode M (p. 669).

Dynamic Range

The span between the darkest and the brightest tones that a sensor or a file can record with detail, counted in EV. Each EV doubles the brightness, so 13 EV is a ratio of $2^{13} = 8192$ between the brightest and darkest tones recorded. Nikon gives N-Log video recorded as H.265 10-bit at ISO 800 more than 13 stops (p. 216).

EV

Short for exposure value, the unit for changes in exposure. One EV is a doubling or halving of the light, and photographers also call it a stop. A change of $n$ EV multiplies the light by $2^n$, so +1 EV doubles it and −2 EV leaves a quarter. Exposure compensation, bracketing steps and the extended ISO settings are all counted in EV (pp. 151, 160).

Exposure Compensation

Asks the camera to make the picture brighter or darker than its meter would. Hold the exposure compensation button and turn a command dial. Photos accept −5 to +5 EV and video −3 to +3 EV, in steps of 1/3 EV unless Custom Setting b2 changes the step (p. 151).

Flexible Program

In mode P, turning the main command dial swaps the camera's shutter speed and aperture for another pair that gives the same exposure, for example a faster shutter speed with a wider aperture. An indicator shows while it is in effect, and turning the dial back until it disappears restores the camera's own choice (p. 139).

Flicker Reduction

Settings for artificial light that pulses. Photo flicker reduction reduces the uneven exposure and colour that fluorescent and mercury-vapour lamps cause, by detecting flicker at 100 or 120 Hz, the rates at which lamps on 50 Hz and 60 Hz mains pulse. It can delay the shutter slightly (p. 483). High-frequency flicker reduction works in modes S and M, and lets you change shutter speed in very fine steps until the bands that LED lighting and LED screens draw across the frame disappear (p. 485). The video recording menu has its own versions of both, Video flicker reduction and High-frequency flicker reduction (pp. 600, 602). What the Z6III Is explains where the bands come from.

HDR Overlay

Takes pictures at different exposures and combines them in the camera into one picture that keeps detail in both the brightest and the darkest areas (p. 518). It is not available when tone mode is set to HLG (p. 462).

Hi and Lo Sensitivities

Settings beyond the standard photo range of ISO 100 to 64000. Lo 0.3 to Lo 1.0 sit below it, with Lo 1.0 about equal to ISO 50, and they risk losing highlights. Hi 0.3 to Hi 1.7 sit above it, with Hi 1.7 about equal to ISO 204800, and they show much more noise (p. 160). Video uses ISO 100 to 51200, with Hi settings up to Hi 2.0, also about ISO 204800 (p. 159). Recording N-Log video changes the range, and in mode M lets you set as low as Lo 2.0 (p. 216).

ISO Sensitivity

How strongly the camera amplifies the signal from the sensor. Doubling the ISO lets you take the same picture with half the light, which buys a shutter speed twice as fast or an aperture one EV smaller, at the cost of more noise. Photos run from ISO 100 to 64000. Hold the ISO button and turn the main command dial to set it (p. 159).

Manual

Mode M on the mode dial. You set the shutter speed with the main command dial and the aperture with the sub-command dial, and the exposure indicators show how far your choice is from the meter's. It is also the only mode that offers Bulb and Time (p. 142).

Metering

How the camera measures the brightness of the scene before choosing an exposure. Matrix metering reads the whole frame, centre-weighted gives most weight to the middle, spot reads a small area, and highlight-weighted gives priority to the brightest parts so that they are not lost (p. 487).

Noise

Random variation from pixel to pixel that shows as grain, coloured speckles or faint lines, most visible in shadows. It grows with ISO. High ISO NR, which has one entry in the photo menu and another in the video menu, smooths it at some cost to fine detail (pp. 159, 476, 594).

Programmed Auto

Mode P on the mode dial. The camera chooses both shutter speed and aperture, while you keep control of ISO, white balance and the other settings that the fully automatic mode decides for you (p. 139).

Shutter Speed

How long the sensor gathers light for one picture, written in seconds or fractions of a second. Modes S and M offer 1/8000 s to 30 s. The electronic shutter reaches 1/16000 s, and the electronic front-curtain shutter stops at 1/2000 s even when a faster speed is set (p. 140). A fast speed freezes movement and a slow one lets it blur.

Shutter-Priority Auto

Mode S on the mode dial. You choose the shutter speed with the main command dial, and the camera chooses the aperture (p. 140).

User Setting Modes

The U1, U2 and U3 positions on the mode dial. Each recalls a set of settings you saved to it, including the photo and video menu options, the Custom Settings, the shooting mode and the shutter speed or aperture, so that a turn of the dial moves the whole camera from one setup to another (p. 142).

02.Focus

Autofocus, often shortened to AF, is the camera moving the lens's focusing elements until the subject is sharp. Two settings decide most of its behaviour: the focus mode says when the camera focuses, and the AF-area mode says where in the frame it looks.

3D-Tracking

An AF-area mode that follows a subject you choose. Place the focus point on it, start focusing, and the point moves with the subject across the frame for as long as you keep the button pressed. Releasing the button returns to the point you started from. It works in photo mode with AF-C only (p. 125).

AF-Area Mode

Decides how much of the frame autofocus considers and who chooses the focus point, you or the camera. Photos offer Pinpoint, Single-point, three sizes of Dynamic-area, four of Wide-area, 3D-tracking and Auto-area AF, each defined in this section (pp. 123-125, 495).

AF-C

Continuous AF. While you hold the shutter-release button halfway, or hold AF-ON, the camera keeps adjusting focus as the subject moves. By default the shutter fires whether or not the subject is sharp (p. 121), which Custom Setting a1 can change (p. 631).

AF-F

Full-time AF, available only in video mode. The camera keeps focusing on its own as the subject or the framing changes. A half-press makes it focus and then lock focus until you let go (p. 121).

AF-ON Button

A button under your right thumb that starts autofocus without involving the shutter-release button (p. 135). Setting Custom Setting a6, AF activation, so that only AF-ON focuses gives back-button focus, in which one thumb controls focus and the index finger only takes the picture (p. 637).

AF-S

Single AF. A half-press focuses once and then locks, and the focus point turns green. By default the shutter fires only once the camera has focused (p. 121), which Custom Setting a2 can change (p. 632).

Auto-Area AF

An AF-area mode in which the camera finds the subject and picks the focus point itself, for moments when there is no time to place a point (p. 125).

Dynamic-Area AF

An AF-area mode in which you choose the focus point, and the camera uses the points around it if the subject slips off for a moment. It comes in three sizes, S, M and L, the largest for subjects such as birds that are hard to hold under one point. It works in photo mode with AF-C only (p. 124).

Focal Plane Mark

A symbol on the top of the body that marks where the sensor sits. Focus distances are measured from it, which matters when you measure a subject's distance for close-up work. The distance from the sensor to the lens mount, the flange-back distance, is 16 mm (p. 137).

Focus Indicator

A mark in the display during manual focus that shows whether the subject under the focus point is in focus, or whether focus lies in front of it or behind it (pp. 136-137).

Focus Limiter

Custom Setting a15, added in firmware 2.00. It confines autofocus to distances between a nearest and a farthest value that you set anywhere from 0.1 to 999 m, so that the lens does not hunt through the whole range for a subject that cannot be there. It needs a Z-mount lens (p. 648), and does not work with eight older NIKKOR Z lenses that Firmware History lists.

Focus Lock

Keeps focus where it is while you recompose. Focus with a half-press, then press the centre of the sub-selector and keep it pressed. Exposure locks at the same time (p. 134).

Focus Mode

Chooses between AF-S, AF-C, manual focus and, in video only, AF-F (pp. 121, 494).

Focus Peaking

Custom Setting a12. While you focus by hand, it outlines the sharpest edges in a colour you choose. Its sensitivity runs from 1 to 3, and a higher number marks a deeper zone as sharp (pp. 137, 645).

Focus Point

The marked area of the frame where autofocus looks. In every AF-area mode except Auto-area AF you move it with the sub-selector or the multi selector (pp. 123, 131).

Focus Priority and Release Priority

Two answers to the question of whether the shutter may fire before the subject is sharp. Under focus priority it waits, which is the default for AF-S. Under release priority it fires at once, which is the default for AF-C. Custom Settings a1 and a2 change them (pp. 121, 631-632).

Focus Shift Shooting

Takes a series of pictures, moving focus a little further away for each, so that software can merge them into one picture that is sharp from front to back (p. 542).

Manual Focus

Focus set by hand, abbreviated MF: you turn the lens's focus ring, or its control ring where that ring is set to focus. Pressing the zoom in button magnifies the view for precise work, and the shutter fires whether or not the subject is sharp (pp. 121, 136).

Pinpoint AF

An AF-area mode with a point smaller than Single-point AF, for focusing on one exact spot of a still subject. It can be slower. It works in photo mode with AF-S only (p. 123).

Single-Point AF

An AF-area mode in which the camera focuses on the one point you place (p. 123).

Subject Detection

The camera recognising a kind of subject in the frame, such as a person, an animal, a bird, a vehicle or an aircraft, and focusing on it, on the eye where it can find one. Firmware 2.00 added Birds to the list (pp. 127, 496). Firmware and Updating lists that change.

Subject-Tracking AF

The video counterpart of 3D-tracking. Start it on a subject and the point follows that subject through the frame (p. 125).

Touch Shutter

Tapping the monitor to focus on the spot you touched and take a picture (p. 132). In high-speed frame capture + it takes one picture at a time (p. 156).

Wide-Area AF

An AF-area mode like Single-point AF over a larger area, useful for snapshots and moving subjects and for smooth focus in video. When the area covers subjects at different distances, the nearest one wins. S and L are fixed sizes, and C1 and C2 are rectangles whose width and height you set in focus points, from $1 \times 1$ to $21 \times 13$ for FX photos (pp. 124-125).

03.Shutter, Release and Bursts

The shutter decides when the exposure starts and stops. The release mode decides how many pictures one press of the button takes.

Continuous Release Modes

Continuous L, Continuous H and Continuous H (extended) keep taking pictures for as long as you hold the shutter-release button down, at a low rate, a high rate and the highest rate respectively (p. 153). The fastest, about 20 frames per second, needs Continuous H (extended) and the electronic shutter (p. 154).

Electronic Front-Curtain Shutter

A mechanical shutter has two curtains: the front curtain opens to start the exposure and the rear curtain closes to end it. In this mode the sensor starts the exposure electronically and only the rear curtain moves, which removes the jolt of the front curtain. The fastest shutter speed is 1/2000 s (p. 668).

Electronic Shutter

The sensor alone starts and stops the exposure, with no moving parts, so it is silent and reaches 1/16000 s (p. 140). The sensor reads its rows one after another rather than all at once, which causes rolling shutter. With the electronic shutter, Custom Setting e1, the flash sync speed, cannot be set (p. 668).

Exposure Delay Mode

Custom Setting d5. It holds the exposure back for 0.2 to 3 s after you press the button, so that the shake from your press can die away, which helps on a tripod (p. 667).

Flash Sync Speed

The fastest shutter speed at which the whole sensor is uncovered at once, so that a flash's brief burst lights the entire frame. On the Z6III it is 1/200 s, set by Custom Setting e1, whose Auto FP option lets compatible flash units work at faster speeds (p. 690).

High-Speed Frame Capture +

The release modes C15, C30, C60 and C120, which shoot at 15, 30, 60 and 120 frames per second. Choose one by holding the release mode button and turning the main command dial (pp. 154, 156). They record JPEG fine or JPEG normal pictures, chosen with Image quality settings > Image quality (HSFC), and are not available when tone mode is HLG (pp. 156, 462, 464). This guide shortens the name to HSFC+, after that menu item.

Interval Timer Shooting

Takes pictures by itself at a fixed interval, for time-lapse sequences or long sessions with nobody at the camera (p. 522).

Mechanical Shutter

Physical curtains in front of the sensor both start and end the exposure. The curtains also travel across the frame, but far faster than the sensor reads its rows, so a fast subject leans much less than with the electronic shutter, though not zero. It is not available with some lenses (p. 668).

Memory Buffer

Fast temporary memory inside the camera that holds pictures until they are written to the card. While you half-press the shutter-release button, the frame count shows how many more pictures the buffer can take. When it shows r000 the buffer is full and the frame rate drops (p. 155).

Multiple Exposure

Combines several pictures into one in the camera, as film cameras did by exposing the same frame more than once (p. 511). It is not available when tone mode is HLG (p. 462).

Pixel Shift Shooting

Moves the sensor by tiny amounts between pictures, so that software can merge them into one picture with more detail than a single frame holds (p. 552).

Pre-Release Capture

In high-speed frame capture +, the camera starts saving frames to its buffer as soon as you half-press the button, for up to 90 seconds. When you press all the way down, it writes the last part of that buffer to the card, so you keep what happened just before you reacted. Custom Setting d3 sets how much of the buffer is kept and how long shooting runs after the press (pp. 156, 664).

Release Mode

Decides what one full press of the shutter-release button does: one picture, a continuous burst, a high-speed frame capture + burst, or a delayed picture with the self-timer. Hold the release mode button and turn the main command dial (pp. 153, 493).

Rolling Shutter

The distortion caused when a sensor reads its rows one after another. A subject that moves during the readout is caught in different places at the top and the bottom of the frame, so vertical lines lean, and flickering lights draw bands. What the Z6III Is works out how far the Z6III's readout leans a moving subject.

Self-Timer

Delays the picture for a set time after you press the button, for group pictures that include you or to keep your touch from shaking a tripod (pp. 154, 158).

Shutter Type

Custom Setting d6 chooses between the mechanical shutter, the electronic front-curtain shutter and the electronic shutter, or Auto. In Auto the camera switches between the mechanical shutter and the electronic front-curtain shutter according to shutter speed, using the electronic front curtain at slow speeds to reduce blur from shake (p. 668).

Silent Mode

A setup menu item for ceremonies, performances and wildlife at close range. It switches to the electronic shutter, mutes the beep and quietens the camera's other sounds, but it does not make the camera silent: the lens can still be heard focusing and setting the aperture. Optional flash units do not fire while it is on (p. 846).

Vibration Reduction

Nikon's name for image stabilisation, abbreviated VR. It cancels the small movements of your hands so that slower shutter speeds stay sharp. Nikon describes Normal as the mode for still subjects and Sport for fast, erratic movement (p. 498). Link VR to focus point centres the correction on the active focus point instead of the middle of the frame. It falls back to the middle when a NIKKOR Z lens with its own VR is attached, in Auto-area AF while several focus points are showing, and during video (p. 499).

04.Image Files and Quality

A picture leaves the sensor as raw measurements of light. The settings below decide how much of that is kept, in what format and with what processing.

Color Space

The range of colours a picture file can describe. sRGB suits screens and the web, and Adobe RGB, which is wider, suits some printing (p. 472). With tone mode set to HLG it is fixed at BT.2100 (p. 462).

Colour Temperature

A way of describing the colour of light by a temperature on the kelvin scale, written K. Light at a low temperature, such as a household lamp, is orange, and light at a high temperature, such as open shade under a blue sky, is bluish (pp. 167, 172). Shifts of colour are often counted in mired, one million divided by the temperature,

$$M = \frac{10^6}{T},$$

so 5000 K is 200 mired and 2500 K is 400 mired. Equal steps in mired look like roughly equal steps of colour, which equal steps in kelvin do not (p. 171).

DX and FX

FX is the full $36 \times 24$ mm frame of the sensor. DX is a $24 \times 16$ mm crop from its centre, which makes the lens's view look as if the focal length were multiplied by 1.5. Attaching a DX lens switches the camera to DX on its own (p. 116).

HEIF

A compressed picture format that the camera uses in place of JPEG when tone mode is set to HLG, because it can carry the wider range of brightness HLG records. The files end in .HIF (pp. 117, 462).

Image Area

Chooses how much of the sensor a picture uses: FX, DX, a square 1:1 crop or a wide 16:9 crop (pp. 115-116, 461).

Image Quality

Chooses the file format, NEF (RAW), JPEG or HEIF, or a RAW file together with a JPEG or HEIF copy, and how strongly the JPEG or HEIF is compressed. Quality falls in the order fine★, fine, normal★, normal, basic★, basic, where ★ marks the option that favours quality over a smaller file (p. 117).

Image Size

The number of pixels in a JPEG or HEIF picture: Large, Medium or Small, with a separate choice for pictures taken in the DX crop (pp. 119, 465).

JPEG

The most widely readable picture format. The camera applies white balance, the Picture Control and its other processing, then compresses the result, discarding detail the eye is least likely to miss (p. 117). JPEG is used when tone mode is SDR, and HEIF when it is HLG.

NEF (RAW)

Nikon's raw format, which keeps the sensor's measurements with the least processing. White balance and the Picture Control are stored as instructions rather than applied, so a raw converter can change them later without loss (p. 117). The RAW recording item chooses between lossless compression and two smaller high-efficiency options (p. 466).

Picture Control

A processing style that sets the colour, contrast and sharpening of JPEG and HEIF pictures and of video. Among the built-in styles are Auto, Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Portrait, Rich Tone Portrait, Landscape, Flat and three kinds of monochrome, and there are twenty Creative Picture Controls besides (pp. 181, 183-184, 469). Nikon Imaging Cloud can send further Picture Controls to the camera (pp. 182, 184).

RAW Processing

An item under Retouch in the playback i menu, offered as RAW processing (current picture) and RAW processing (multiple pictures). It makes a JPEG or HEIF copy from an NEF (RAW) file in the camera, with new settings for white balance, exposure and the Picture Control (pp. 118, 261-262).

Secondary Slot Function

Tells the camera what the second card is for: catching pictures once the first fills, recording a backup copy of every picture, or holding a second file type, such as JPEG copies of RAW pictures (p. 457). First-Day Setup explains which to choose.

Tone Mode

Chooses between SDR, the ordinary range of brightness saved as JPEG, and HLG, a wider range for viewing on HDR screens saved as HEIF. HLG brings restrictions, among them a lowest setting of ISO 400 and no Active D-Lighting, multiple exposure, HDR overlay or high-speed frame capture + (p. 462).

White Balance

Corrects the colour of the light so that white objects come out white. Auto suits most light, and the other options name a light source, such as Direct sunlight, Cloudy or Incandescent, or let you set a colour temperature yourself (pp. 163-164).

05.Video

Video records many pictures a second, and most of the terms below are about how those pictures are stored.

Bit Depth

The number of binary digits used for each brightness value. With $n$ bits there are $2^n$ possible values, so 8-bit video has 256 levels per channel, 10-bit has 1024 and 12-bit RAW has 4096. More levels leave room to brighten or regrade footage without visible steps between tones.

Electronic VR

Digital stabilisation for video. It crops the frame slightly and moves the crop to cancel shake (pp. 211, 609). It cannot be used with RAW video (p. 214).

Frame Size and Frame Rate

The size of each video frame in pixels and the number of frames recorded each second, written together as, for example, 3840×2160; 30p, where p means each frame is a complete picture. The largest frame size is $6048 \times 3402$ (pp. 200, 585).

H.264 and H.265

Two compressed video formats that keep files small by storing mostly the changes from one frame to the next. H.265 is the newer and more efficient, and the camera records it at 8 or 10 bits. H.264 records 8-bit MP4 files that almost any device can play (p. 198).

Hi-Res Zoom

Zooms in during video by cropping into the extra pixels the sensor captures, without loss of resolution, up to $1.4\times$ at $3840 \times 2160$ and $2.0\times$ at $1920 \times 1080$. It does not work with RAW video, and while it is on, Wide-area AF (L) is the only AF-area mode and Electronic VR is off (pp. 217, 620).

HLG Video

Hybrid Log Gamma video, made to be watched on HDR televisions and monitors. Choose H.265 10-bit as the video file type and HLG as the tone mode (p. 215).

N-Log

Nikon's log recording. Brightness is stored on a logarithmic scale, so each doubling of the light gets a similar share of the available values and both highlights and shadows keep detail. The footage looks flat and grey until it is colour graded on a computer, usually starting from Nikon's N-Log lookup tables, or LUTs (p. 216). It is available with N-RAW, ProRes RAW HQ, ProRes 422 HQ and H.265 10-bit.

N-RAW and ProRes RAW

The two RAW video formats, both 12-bit: N-RAW in .NEV files and ProRes RAW HQ in .MOV files. They are meant for heavy editing on a computer, cannot be edited in the camera, and come with a small $1920 \times 1080$ MP4 copy for playback on the camera (pp. 197, 214).

ProRes 422 HQ

Apple's high-quality editing format, recorded by the camera at 10 bits in .MOV files. Files are large but easy for editing software to work with (p. 198).

Proxy Video

The small $1920 \times 1080$ H.264 copy that the camera records beside RAW video, because the RAW files themselves can be viewed only with software on a computer (pp. 197, 214).

Slow Motion

Frame sizes such as 1920×1080; 30p ×4 record at a high frame rate and play back at a normal one. Here the camera records $30 \times 4 = 120$ frames a second and plays them at 30, so one second of action lasts four seconds on screen (p. 203).

Time-Lapse Video

The camera takes pictures at a fixed interval and assembles them into a video in the camera, compressing hours into seconds (p. 532).

Timecode

A label of hours, minutes, seconds and frames stamped on every frame, so that clips from several cameras and audio recorders can be lined up in editing (p. 617).

Video File Type

Chooses the video format, from N-RAW 12-bit down to H.264 8-bit (pp. 197, 584).

View Assist

Custom Setting g13. It shows a contrastier preview while you film flat-looking N-Log footage, without changing what is recorded (pp. 216, 771).

Zebra Pattern

Custom Setting g14. It lays a striped pattern, in one of two designs, over areas brighter than a level you set, or over a chosen mid-tone, so that you can judge video exposure at a glance (p. 772). Custom Setting g15 limits which tone ranges a button assigned Pattern tone range can switch between (p. 774).

06.Body, Controls and Displays

Body Tour shows where each of these sits on the camera.

Command Dials

The two ridged wheels you turn to change values. The main command dial is at the back of the top plate under your right thumb, and the sub-command dial is at the front of the grip under your index finger. In mode M the main dial sets the shutter speed and the sub-command dial the aperture (p. 142).

Diopter Adjustment Control

The control beside the viewfinder that adjusts the eyepiece to your eyesight, so that the viewfinder image looks sharp without glasses (p. 67).

DISP Button

Changes how much information the displays show, both while shooting and in playback (pp. 56, 62, 223).

Eye Sensor

A sensor beside the viewfinder that switches the picture from the monitor to the viewfinder when your eye comes close. The monitor mode button chooses whether that switching happens or one display is used all the time (pp. 65-66).

Fn1 and Fn2 Buttons

Two buttons on the front of the body, between the grip and the lens mount, whose jobs you choose with Custom Setting f2 (pp. 74, 703).

i Menu

A short menu of frequently used settings that opens when you press the i button, faster to reach than the main menus. Photo mode and video mode each have their own, set up with Custom Settings f1 and g1 (pp. 81, 236, 699, 745).

Multi Selector

The four-way ring on the back used to move through menus and to move the focus point, with the OK button in its centre (p. 76).

Photo/Video Selector

The switch that moves the camera between photo mode and video mode. Many menu items exist twice, once for each mode (pp. 102, 107).

Starlight View

Custom Setting d11. It brightens the view in very dark places so that you can frame and focus, and it improves autofocus in low light. It works in photo mode only (pp. 122, 675).

Sub-Selector

The small joystick beside the AF-ON button. Pushing it moves the focus point, and pressing its centre locks exposure, and focus if the camera has focused (pp. 131, 134, 149).

Touch Controls

Taps and swipes on the monitor that focus, take pictures, choose menu items and move through pictures in playback (p. 68).

Virtual Horizon

A level in the display that shows whether the camera is tilted. Custom Setting d18 chooses between Type A, one large level, and Type B, a roll indicator along the bottom of the display with a pitch indicator at its right edge (p. 682).

Warm Display Colors

Custom Setting d12. It gives the displays warmer colours at a brightness you set, so that eyes adjusted to darkness stay adjusted, for night skies and other dark places. Mode 1 warms every display, for shooting, for menus and for playback. Mode 2 warms the menus and the icons and text on the other displays, but not the view through the lens or the pictures themselves (p. 676).

07.Menus, Settings and Firmware

Menus and Controls explains how the menus are organised and how to move through them.

Custom Settings

The menu that tailors how the camera handles. Its items are grouped by letter: a Focus, b Metering/exposure, c Timers/AE lock, d Shooting/display, e Bracketing/flash, f Controls and g Video. Each item has a code, the group letter and its position, so d12 is the twelfth item of group d. Codes can change when firmware adds items, which is why every code in this guide is the firmware 2.00 code.

Default Setting

The value a setting has when the camera leaves the factory, and the value it returns to when it is reset (p. 36). The Settings Finder lists the default of every menu item.

Firmware

The program inside the camera that runs its hardware, numbered by version. Lenses and some accessories carry their own firmware. The setup menu's Firmware version item shows the versions installed and installs updates (p. 866). Firmware and Updating explains how to update, and Firmware History lists what each version changed.

MENU Button

Opens the seven menus: the photo shooting and video recording menus, the Custom Settings menu, the playback, setup and network menus, and My Menu (p. 75).

My Menu

A menu you fill yourself with up to 20 items copied from the other six, in the order you choose. It can instead show the twenty settings you changed most recently (pp. 904, 908).

Reset All Settings

A setup menu item that returns nearly every setting to its default, keeping only the language and the clock. It cannot be undone (p. 865). Reset user settings does the same for one U1, U2 or U3 position (p. 811).

Save/Load Menu Settings

Saves your menu setup to a memory card, or loads one from it, to back it up or copy it to another Z6III (p. 860).

08.Cards, Power and Connections

Auto Temperature Cutout

Sets how hot the camera may become before it shuts itself down, Standard or High. High gives more time before the shutdown, but the body may become hot to the touch, and Nikon suggests a tripod to limit how long you hold it (p. 830).

Battery

The Z6III uses the EN-EL15c, rated 7.0 V and 2280 mAh. The older EN-EL15b and EN-EL15a fit but give fewer shots per charge (pp. 1008, 1010).

Format Memory Card

Erases everything on a card and prepares it for the camera. The usual quick format rewrites only the card's index of files, leaving old data to be overwritten later, and compatible CFexpress cards also offer a full format that erases every block (pp. 808-809).

Memory Card Access Lamp

A lamp on the body that lights while the camera is writing pictures to a card. Do not take out the card or the battery while it is lit (pp. 50, 105, 155).

Memory Card Slots

One slot takes CFexpress Type B or XQD cards, the other SD cards of the UHS-I or UHS-II speed grade. Nikon recommends a CFexpress or XQD card of 250 MB/s or faster for high-speed frame capture + (pp. 93, 1011).

Nikon Imaging Cloud

Nikon's online service, reached over Wi-Fi, which uploads pictures from the camera and sends it Picture Controls and firmware (pp. 31, 384, 873).

NX Studio and NX Tether

Nikon's free computer software. NX Studio views and edits pictures, including NEF (RAW) files, and NX Tether controls the camera from a computer over USB, over Ethernet through a USB-C adapter, or over wireless LAN (pp. 33, 321, 323, 379).

USB Power Delivery

Lets the camera draw power over USB-C, from Nikon's EH-8P adapter, a computer or a portable charger, so that it uses less of its battery. The battery still has to be in the camera (p. 856).

Wireless Connections

The camera connects to phones and tablets over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and to computers and FTP servers over Wi-Fi or wired Ethernet (pp. 310, 341, 877, 883, 888). Airplane mode switches every wireless link off at once (p. 872).