The i Menu

The house lights drop between two pieces. The next one is a solo under a single spot, the hall will be hushed, and you have the length of a blackout to quieten the shutter and set the white balance for the new light. With the Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 on the camera, the main menus are the slow road: Silent mode lives in the setup menu (p. 846) and White balance in the photo shooting menu (p. 163), two tabs apart, each with a long list to scroll.

Press the i button instead and both can sit on one screen, two cells in a grid of twelve. Change one, change the other, and your eye is back on the stage before the dancer walks on. That grid is the i menu, and how useful it is depends almost entirely on what you put in it.

Page numbers in parentheses point to Nikon's Z6III Reference Guide, edition 09, which matches firmware 2.00.

01.Why a Shortcut Panel

A camera's settings form a tree. The MENU button opens a row of tabs, each tab holds a long list, and many items open pages of their own. Depth is how the Z6III fits hundreds of settings behind one button, and depth costs time, because every level is another press and another moment spent reading instead of watching.

The i menu makes the opposite trade: a flat sheet of twelve items, each a press or two from the top, which Nikon offers for settings you use often (p. 81). The photo grid is filled through Custom Setting f1, item f1 in the Custom Settings menu, from a list of 51 items (pp. 699-701), so $51 - 12 = 39$ of them must live somewhere else. The video grid, filled through g1, picks 12 from 36 (pp. 745-746), which leaves $36 - 12 = 24$ outside. Choosing is the whole job.

The test I apply is whether a setting changes a few times an outing or once a trip. White balance under stage gels, the focus mode when a dancer stops moving, the metering pattern when a spotlight lands: all belong on the grid. Image size and the colour space are settled before you leave home, and a slot spent on either is taken from something you will need in a hurry. Menus and Controls frames this as a three-way split: mid-moment changes go on a button, a few changes an outing go in the i menu, and once-a-trip settings go in My Menu. Custom Controls covers the buttons and My Menu the third home.

02.What the i Button Opens

Press i, or tap the i icon on the monitor, and the camera shows the i menu for whatever it is doing (p. 81). Photo mode and video mode each have their own grid, and playback has a third menu whose items depend on what is on the screen (p. 85). The shooting grids hold twelve slots in two rows of six, numbered 1 to 6 along the top and 7 to 12 along the bottom (pp. 83-84).

The Default Photo i Menu

A few terms first. A raw file, which Nikon calls NEF (Nikon Electronic Format), holds the sensor's readings before processing. JPEG (named after the Joint Photographic Experts Group) and HEIF (High Efficiency Image File Format) are finished pictures. AF is autofocus: single AF (AF-S) locks focus once, and continuous AF (AF-C) keeps adjusting while you half-press the shutter-release button (p. 121). SDR, standard dynamic range, is the brightness range of an ordinary screen, and HLG, hybrid log-gamma, is a high-dynamic-range format for screens that show brighter highlights. Under HLG, finished pictures are HEIF rather than JPEG (p. 117). RAW, JPEG, HEIF and Tone Mode explains all four.

Two defaults overlap with buttons: out of the box Fn1 handles White balance and Fn2 handles Focus mode/AF-area mode (p. 625). A button is quickest with your eye at the viewfinder, and the i menu adds the whole option list and, for some items, a live preview.

The Default Video i Menu

Switch to video and half the grid stays put. Set Picture Control, White balance, AF-area mode/subj. detection, Focus mode, Vibration reduction and Airplane mode hold the same slots as in photo mode, and slot 9 opens the video controls list instead (pp. 83-84).

VR is Nikon's shorthand for vibration reduction, its word for image stabilisation. Wind noise reduction has no effect on an optional stereo microphone, whose own filter, if it has one, is switched on the microphone (p. 614). Destination earns its place because recording ends when the chosen card runs out of time (p. 583).

03.Working the Grid

Highlight an item with the multi selector, the pad around the OK button, press OK to see its options, and choose one with the multi selector (pp. 81, 83). Some items take a faster route. When the camera shows a command dial guide beside a highlighted item, turning one of the two command dials, the wheels under your thumb and forefinger, changes it without opening it, and some items answer to both (p. 81). Nikon names only one such item, Choose image area, whose dial stops Custom Setting d8 sets (p. 670), so highlight each slot once and look.

A grey item is unavailable in the camera's present state (p. 82), usually because of another setting. With Tone mode on HLG, Pre-Release Capture options is unavailable (p. 462), so that slot greys out until you return to SDR. Choose Monochrome, Flat Monochrome, Deep Tone Monochrome or a Creative Picture Control and Portrait impression balance goes the same way (p. 482).

Four items preview a change on the live scene. Highlight White balance, press OK, highlight any option except Choose color temperature and press down: a fine-tuning grid opens, and the display shows each nudge before OK saves it (p. 170). With Choose color temperature, down opens the digits of the temperature in kelvin, the unit for the colour of light (p. 175). Set Picture Control works alike, as does Set Picture Control (HLG) once added through f1: pick one, press down, and each parameter changes in view, in steps of 1 with left and right or 0.25 with the sub-command dial (p. 190). Portrait impression balance, once added through f1, takes a mode from the main command dial and shifts hue and brightness with the multi selector while you watch the face (p. 482).

In photo mode the grid turns upright when you hold the camera for a tall frame. Video mode leaves its shooting grid as it is and turns only the playback one (pp. 56-57, 83).

Touch

Tap the i icon to open the menu, then tap an item to see its options (pp. 71, 81). Custom Setting d20 chooses the indicators in the monitor's shooting displays, and one of them, Touch controls, shows what touch can reach, the i menu among them (p. 686). Custom Setting g19 does the same for video (p. 779). Nikon does not say whether hiding that indicator removes the i icon, so test it, and see Viewfinder and Monitor Displays for the displays themselves.

The screen senses the static charge of a fingertip, so a fingernail or a gloved fingertip may be ignored. The setup menu's Touch controls > Glove mode, turned ON, helps with gloves, and a third-party protective film or two fingers at once can also stop the screen responding (p. 72). On a cold morning, turn Glove mode on before you leave, not at the hide.

04.Changing the Slots With f1 and g1

Open either and the twelve positions appear. Highlight a position and press OK to list the items it can take, then highlight an item and press OK: it lands in the slot and the positions return. Press MENU to save and go back to the Custom Settings menu (p. 86). The lists offer no blank entry, so every slot holds an item (pp. 699-701, 745-746). Nikon does not say whether one item can fill two slots, so plan on twelve different items.

Because f1 and g1 are Custom Settings, three other features carry them. Reset custom settings returns every Custom Setting to its default (p. 630), putting the shipped twelve back in both grids. The user setting positions U1, U2 and U3 on the mode dial store the Custom Settings along with both shooting menus (p. 142), and saving to one stores the settings in force at that moment (p. 143), so each position can keep its own grids. Save/load menu settings writes every Custom Setting to a card (p. 862) for another camera of the same model (p. 863). User Settings and Settings Files covers both.

What Can Go in a Slot

The 51 photo items (pp. 699-701) fall into five families. Most have chapters of their own:

• Picture and file: Image quality, Image size, Tone mode, Choose image area, Color space, Set Picture Control, Set Picture Control (HLG), Skin softening, Portrait impression balance, Active D-Lighting, High ISO NR and Long exposure NR.
• Exposure and light: Exposure compensation, ISO sensitivity settings, White balance, Metering, and seven flash items from Flash mode to Radio remote flash info.
• Focus and steadiness: Focus mode, AF-area mode/subj. detection, Focus tracking with lock-on, Vibration reduction and Focus peaking.
• Shooting functions: Release mode, Shutter type, Silent mode, Exposure delay mode, Pre-Release Capture options, Auto capture, Auto bracketing, HDR overlay, Multiple exposure, Pixel shift shooting, Focus shift shooting, Interval timer shooting and Time-lapse video.
• Display, connection and status: View mode (photo Lv), Split-screen display zoom, Monitor/viewfinder brightness, Warm display colors, Airplane mode, Wireless remote connection (ML-L7), Custom controls (shooting), Power zoom speed (zoom buttons), View memory card info and Power battery pack info.

NR stands for noise reduction, HDR for high dynamic range, ISO for the camera's sensitivity scale and Lv for live view, the picture on the screen before you shoot.

The 36 video items (pp. 745-746) leave out the flash controls, stills file settings such as Image quality, and multi-shot functions such as Interval timer shooting. They add the sound controls (Attenuator, Audio input sensitivity, Headphone volume, Frequency response and Wind noise reduction) along with Frame size/frame rate, Destination, HLG quality, Electronic VR, Hi-Res Zoom and Zebra pattern.

View memory card info, a default, is read-only: it shows the destination card and the two-card setting, the second of which you change in the photo shooting menu under Secondary slot function (p. 701). Seven more items are described in the Reference Guide only as choices for the grid: the five below, plus Test flash, which fires remote flash units for a check, and Flash info, which shows their group settings (p. 432). Like the other flash items, both belong to Flash.

• Split-screen display zoom magnifies two areas on the same horizontal line, far apart in the frame, so you can check that a roofline or horizon sits level. OK switches areas, a half-press focuses on the centre of the active one, and i leaves (p. 702). It is photo only.
• Power battery pack info shows the batteries in the optional MB-N14 power battery pack (p. 702).
• Multi-selector power aperture, set to Enable, opens the aperture while you hold up on the multi selector and closes it while you hold down (p. 747). It is video only, as are the next two. Nikon allows power aperture on a control only in modes A and M (p. 756), and I infer, unconfirmed, that this one shares the limit.
• Multi selector exposure comp., set to Enable, sets exposure compensation with up and down (p. 747).
• View video info shows the recording settings without letting you change them (p. 747).

Settings That Reach Into the Grid

Custom Setting d8 Limit selectable image area decides which image areas, the parts of the sensor a picture can be recorded from, a command dial steps through in the i menu (p. 670), and Image Area and Crop recommends ticking only the two you use. The photo Image quality slot edits Image quality (HSFC), which offers only JPEG fine or JPEG normal, whenever the release mode is C15 to C120, the high-speed frame capture + modes (HSFC for short), and plain Image quality otherwise (p. 464).

Custom Setting a8 Limit AF-area mode selection is described only for the sub-command dial turned while holding a control given Focus mode/AF-area mode (p. 639), where d8 names the i menu outright. The Reference Guide does not say whether a8 also trims the i menu's list.

05.The Playback i Menu

Press i while viewing pictures, full frame, as thumbnails or zoomed, and a different menu appears. Highlight an item and press OK to use it, and i again to return (p. 236). For photos it offers Rating, Protect, Retouch, Filtered playback, voice memos, upload marks and Slide show among others, plus Quick crop, which saves a copy cropped to the zoomed view and appears only during playback zoom (pp. 236-238). For videos it adds Volume control, Trim video and Playback speed, which slows every video to half or quarter speed (pp. 240-241). Pause a video and press i for a third set: Trim video, Save current frame, Save consecutive frames, Loop playback, Volume control and Playback speed (pp. 113, 242).

Custom Settings f1 and g1 reach only the shooting grids (pp. 81, 86), so this menu cannot be rearranged, and its contents follow the picture. Jump to copy on other card appears for a picture saved to both cards, as Backup or the primary and secondary pairs under Secondary slot function produce (pp. 238, 459), and Side-by-side comparison only for a retouched copy or its source (p. 238). What you can trim is the list under Retouch, through Customize retouch options (p. 257), which Save/load menu settings keeps (p. 863). Playback and Culling in the Camera puts this menu to work. Multiple exposure has a small i menu of its own (p. 515), covered in Multiple Exposure, HDR Overlay and Pixel Shift.

06.Choosing Your Twelve

Start from the shooting, not from the list. After an outing, recall which settings you changed and how often: anything changed between frames needs a button or a slot, and anything changed once can leave the grid. Then keep positions stable: six items share their slots across Nikon's photo and video grids (pp. 83-84), so a thumb that knows one knows most of the other.

The figure shows my grid for P, S, A and M, the programmed, shutter-priority, aperture-priority and manual exposure modes, which I use for stage dance, outdoor dance, street and landscape. Nine slots keep their defaults: eight hold something I change a few times an outing, and slot 12 is a pre-show check. The three that go fail the test. Image size never touches the raw file (p. 119), Custom controls (shooting) is a setup screen I visit once, and Airplane mode is a once-a-trip switch I reach in the network menu (p. 872).

The user setting positions follow Menus and Controls. U1, the 180-600 for birds, keeps the default grid except slot 9, which takes Pre-Release Capture options, the cell it holds in my main grid. U2, the Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.8 S for portraits, keeps the default grid except slots 11 and 12, which take Skin softening and Portrait impression balance. In both, the default cells left over, Image size among them, stay only because nothing else in those setups changes often enough to claim them.

07.Recommended Settings

Stage dance. The blackout routine from the opening is slots 2, 4 and 10, though Silent mode also sits on the Illuminator button, as Custom Controls sets out. It forces the electronic shutter, stops a flash on the camera firing and mutes the beep, but Nikon says the camera is still not completely silent, and fluorescent or sodium lamps can cause banding (p. 846). Silent Shooting, Timers and Time-Lapse covers the costs.

Outdoor dance. Slot 9 holds the pre-release burst lengths, which apply in high-speed frame capture + (p. 664), and Pre-Release Capture explains them.

Birds and portraits. U1 keeps Vibration reduction in slot 8 for the switch from Normal on a perched bird to Sport in flight that Vibration Reduction describes. In U2, a grey Portrait impression balance in a black-and-white session is the Picture Control at work (p. 482).

Gimbal dance video. The video grid keeps sound, frame rate and both stabilisers in reach and trades two setup-time slots for exposure and focus aids. Electronic VR is locked off at 100p and faster, meaning 100 or more frames per second (p. 609), so a grey slot 7 after a frame-rate change is expected.

08.Beginner Mistakes

Leaving slot 9 on Custom controls. It opens the button-assignment list, which you need while setting up and almost never at a shoot. U2 keeps it only because nothing else claims the cell.

Filling the grid with set-once items. Image size for a raw shooter, Airplane mode for someone who never pairs a phone, Color space at all: each takes a place a fast-changing setting could hold.

Reading a grey slot as a fault. Grey means another setting rules the item out (p. 82).

Editing f1 and forgetting the U position. A user setting position keeps the settings in force when you saved it (p. 143). Change the grid for U1, then save to U1 again.

Expecting f1 to set the video grid. Photo and video grids are separate, set with f1 and g1 (p. 86).

09.Related Chapters

• Menus and Controls: the main menus and where each kind of setting belongs.
• Custom Controls: roles for buttons, dials and lens rings.
• User Settings and Settings Files: U1 to U3 and saving the whole setup to a card.
• My Menu: a page of your own for settings changed once a trip.
• Viewfinder and Monitor Displays: the shooting displays and the touch indicator.
• Playback and Culling in the Camera: sorting a shoot with the playback i menu.
• Pre-Release Capture: the burst settings behind slot 9.
• Silent Shooting, Timers and Time-Lapse: what Silent mode changes and what it costs.