Menus and Controls

01.A bird leaves the branch

A heron stands on a branch at the edge of a lake, and you have one small focus point on its eye. A focus point is the patch of the frame the camera uses to decide what should be sharp, and a small one picks the eye rather than the reeds behind. Then the heron crouches. In a moment it will cross the frame against bright water, and one small point will slide off it. You need a wide focus area before the wings open, and if getting it means opening the menus, you will photograph an empty branch.

On a camera set up in advance, the change is one thumb movement. The small joystick on the back, the sub-selector, can be pressed in like a button. Give its centre the role [AF-area mode] with a wide area as its preset, and holding the centre switches to the wide area while letting go brings the small point back (Reference Guide p. 705). Your index finger keeps the shutter-release button half-pressed throughout, so focusing never stops. The switch asks nothing of your reflexes, because the work was done beforehand, in the menus.

Speed in the field is mostly a matter of which jobs sit under which fingers, and that is decided in advance. Page numbers below refer to Nikon's Z6III Reference Guide, the full manual, in edition 09, which matches firmware "C" 2.00.

02.How the settings are organised

Press the MENU button and the camera shows a column of tabs, one per menu, with the chosen menu's items and their current settings beside them (p. 75). There are seven tabs.

The seven menus

The Photo shooting menu (p. 446) decides what a still picture is and how it is made: [Image quality settings], [ISO sensitivity settings], [White balance] and their neighbours. The Video recording menu (p. 578) is its counterpart for moving pictures, with items such as [Frame size/frame rate] and [Electronic VR]. The Custom Settings menu (p. 622) changes how the camera behaves rather than what a picture is: how autofocus starts, what each button does, what the displays show.

The Playback menu (p. 783) governs pictures already taken, with items such as [Delete], [Picture review] and [Copy image(s)]. The Setup menu (p. 805) covers the camera itself, from [Format memory card] to [Save user settings] and [Firmware version]. The Network menu (p. 868) handles connections such as [Airplane mode] and [Connect to smart device]. The seventh tab shows either My Menu, which you build, or Recent settings, which the camera builds for you. The default is My Menu (p. 75).

Moving around

The multi selector, the four-way pad on the back, moves the cursor, and the OK button confirms. Left puts the cursor on the tabs, up and down choose one, and right enters it. Inside a menu, right opens an item's options and OK saves your choice (pp. 76-78). The MENU button backs out without selecting anything, and a half-press of the shutter-release button returns you straight to shooting (p. 78). An item whose only options are ON and OFF flips with one press of OK or right (p. 79). Touch works here too (p. 72).

Where a help icon appears beside an item, the button that zooms out during playback shows a description of it (pp. 50, 79). A grey item is not broken. It is unavailable in the camera's present state, usually because another setting rules it out, and in some cases, depending on what the camera is doing, highlighting it and pressing OK shows a message saying why (p. 79). The i menu greys out unavailable items the same way (p. 82).

Reading a custom-setting code

The Custom Settings menu has two levels (p. 622): groups named by a lower-case letter, and numbered items inside each group. An item's code is its letter followed by its number, so "a6" is the sixth item in the focus group and "f2" the second in the controls group.

An item changed from its default carries an asterisk (p. 629). The g group repeats several photo items for video: g1 is the video i menu where f1 is the photo one, g2 mirrors f2, and g19 and g20 set the video displays where d20 and d21 set the photo ones (pp. 627-629). Codes from before firmware 2.00 may point at different items, because Nikon's change list for that version says some Custom Settings items were renumbered when new ones were added (Nikon, firmware 2.00 download page). This guide uses the 2.00 codes.

03.The i menu

The i menu is the camera's shortcut sheet: press the i button and a grid of twelve settings appears over the view (pp. 81, 83). Highlight one and press OK to change it, or, where the camera shows a dial guide, turn a command dial without opening it (p. 81). Photo, video and playback each have their own i menu (p. 85).

Out of the box, the photo i menu holds [Set Picture Control], [White balance], [Image quality], [Image size], [AF-area mode/subj. detection], [Focus mode], [Tone mode], [Vibration reduction], [Custom controls (shooting)], [Metering], [Airplane mode] and [View memory card info] (p. 83). The video i menu holds a different twelve (p. 84). You choose the photo set with custom setting f1 and the video set with g1.

In either, highlight a slot and press OK, pick the new item and press OK, then press MENU to save (p. 86). The photo list includes [Silent mode], [Pre-Release Capture options] and [Skin softening] among many others (pp. 699-702), and the video list includes [Zebra pattern] and [Focus peaking] (pp. 745-747).

A setting you change mid-moment belongs on a button, one you change a few times an outing belongs in the i menu, and one you change once a trip belongs in My Menu. The default [Custom controls (shooting)] slot opens f2, which is handy while you assign buttons and wasted afterwards, so give it to [Silent mode] or [Pre-Release Capture options] instead.

04.Reassigning buttons and dials

Nikon calls the job a control performs its role. Custom setting f2 assigns roles for shooting photos, f3 for playback and g2 for video (pp. 703, 723, 748).

Which controls can be reassigned

The f2 list covers the [Fn1 button] and [Fn2 button] on the front (p. 51), the [AF-ON button], [Release mode/protect button], [DISP button], [Sub-selector center], [OK button], [Video record button], [Illuminator button] and [Command dials], among others, plus vertical-shooting controls and lens controls such as the [Lens Fn button] and [Lens control ring] (pp. 703-704).

By default (pp. 625-626), [Fn1 button] sets [White balance] and [Fn2 button] sets [Focus mode/AF-area mode], each by holding the button and turning a command dial (p. 74). The [Sub-selector center] locks focus and exposure together, the role [AE/AF lock], and the [OK button] returns the focus point to the centre.

Firmware 2.00 made the [Illuminator button] reassignable added in Firmware 2.00 and added an undo: in the f2 and g2 lists, press the delete button on a control to restore its default, or hold it for about three seconds to restore every control (p. 717, and Nikon, new options for f2 and g2) added in Firmware 2.00.

The kinds of job a control can take

The f2 roles (pp. 704-715) read best in families. Focus roles start, stop or change autofocus: [AF-ON], [AF lock only], [AF-area mode], [AF-area mode + AF-ON], [Select center focus point] and [Switch eyes]. Exposure roles lock or preview exposure, such as [AE lock (hold)] and [Preview]. Display roles change what you see, such as [Framing grid] and [Virtual horizon]. Setting roles work as Fn1 does, so you hold the control and turn a dial to change [ISO sensitivity], [Metering] or [Release mode].

Firmware 2.00 added six roles added in Firmware 2.00. [Focus limiter] turns the camera's own focus limiter, custom setting a15, on and off. [Cycle AF-area mode] steps through AF-area modes that you tick in advance. [Recall shooting functions] calls up a stored set of settings while you hold the control, and [Recall shooting functions (hold)] toggles it with each press. Only the first can include [AF-ON] (pp. 705-708). [Cycle monitor mode] and [LCD illumination] complete the six (p. 711, and Nikon, new options for f2 and g2).

The [Lens control ring] has roles of its own (p. 714). [Focus (M/A)] lets you override autofocus by turning the ring while the shutter-release button is half-pressed, and [Aperture], [Exposure compensation] and [ISO sensitivity] set those values. Exposure compensation is an instruction to make the picture brighter or darker than the camera's meter would.

Not every control can take every role. The Reference Guide says only that the roles vary with the control (p. 704), and neither it nor Nikon's online version prints a grid of which control takes which (Nikon, f2 Custom controls (shooting)). The camera is the authority: open f2, highlight the control, press right and read the list it offers.

Playback and video

Custom setting f3 does the same work for playback (pp. 723-729). By default the [Release mode/protect button] protects a picture and the [OK button] zooms (p. 626). The command dials can skip [1 frame], [10 frames] or [50 frames] at a time, or, with [Skip to first shot in series], jump to the first frame of each burst (p. 727), which turns a review of a hundred bursts into a review of a hundred frames.

In g2, the video list (pp. 748-757), the defaults mostly match f2, with four differences: the [Video record button] starts and stops recording, the [Release mode/protect button] does nothing, g2 adds a [Shutter-release button] entry set to [None], and the command dials list no P mode (pp. 625-628). [Fast AF-ON] focuses as fast as it can in AF-C, ignoring the speed set in g5 [AF speed] (p. 750). [Power aperture (open)] and [Power aperture (close)] widen or narrow the aperture for as long as a button is held, and they come as a fixed pair, open on the [Fn1 button] and close on the [Fn2 button], so choosing either one sets the other automatically (p. 753). The [Shutter-release button] can be set to [Record videos], which also lets a remote release start and stop recording (p. 213).

05.Banks, or user settings

Some cameras store their menus in banks: named copies of one menu's contents, switched from inside that menu while the rest of the camera stays as it is. The Z6III has no banks: the word does not appear in its Reference Guide. It has three user setting positions instead, U1, U2 and U3, on the mode dial (p. 139).

A user setting position stores the settings Nikon lists: the photo shooting menu, the video recording menu, all the Custom Settings, and the exposure state, meaning the shooting mode, the shutter speed in S and M, the aperture in A and M, the flexible program in P, and exposure compensation (p. 142). Because the Custom Settings travel with it, U1 and U2 can have different buttons and different i menus. A few items are left out, among them [Storage folder], [Manage Picture Control], [Multiple exposure] and [Interval timer shooting] (p. 143).

To save, set the camera up, open [Save user settings] in the setup menu, choose [Save to U1], [Save to U2] or [Save to U3], and select [Save settings] (pp. 142-143). [Reset user settings] clears a position, which then behaves as mode P with default settings (p. 144).

A bank changes one layer, while a user setting changes everything together, the exposure mode included. So plan the three positions around jobs, each with its own lens and subject. For a partial change inside one job, the 2.00 [Recall shooting functions] roles do much of what a bank would. When your setup for a job improves, save it to the same position again so the snapshot keeps up.

06.My Menu and Recent settings

My Menu is a list of up to 20 items you choose from the other menus (p. 903), managed with [Add items], [Remove items] and [Rank items] (pp. 904-907). Recent settings is the list the camera keeps of the twenty settings you used most recently. To drop one, highlight it and press the delete button twice (p. 909). [Choose tab], found in each, decides which list occupies the seventh tab (pp. 908-909).

Recent settings suits the first weeks, before you know what you will keep returning to. After that, My Menu is better, because its order stays where you put it. A good one holds what you change once a trip, such as [Format memory card], [Save user settings] and [Battery info]. The f2 roles [MY MENU] and [Access top item in MY MENU] put it under a button (p. 711).

07.The touch screen and the DISP button

Touch the live view and the camera focuses on that spot, and in photo mode it takes the picture as you lift your finger, which Nikon calls the touch shutter (p. 68). The touch-shutter icon offers [Touch shutter/touch AF], [Off], [Move focus point] and [Touch AF], which focuses without shooting (pp. 132-133). Touch cannot focus manually, and in a burst the touch shutter takes one picture at a time (p. 133).

[Touch controls] in the setup menu offers [Enable], [Disable] or touch in playback only, plus [Glove mode] (p. 847). The defaults are [Enable] and glove mode off (p. 806). The screen senses static electricity, so fingernails and ordinary gloves may not register (p. 72).

Custom setting f4 [Touch Fn] is easy to miss. With your eye at the viewfinder and the monitor in its storage position, screen facing out, the monitor becomes a touch pad with one job. [Move focus point] follows a thumb sliding across it, while [Switch eyes], [Framing grid], [Zoom on/off] and [Virtual horizon] answer a tap (pp. 69, 730-731). It is off by default (p. 626), and it keeps working when touch controls are disabled in the setup menu (p. 73).

The [DISP button] cycles the shooting displays, and d20 decides what those displays are on the monitor (pp. 686-687). [Display 1] is always on and the others can be unticked, and Displays 1 to 4 take indicators such as [Virtual horizon] and [Histogram]. Custom setting d21 does the same for the viewfinder (p. 688). One clean display for composing and one with a level and a histogram, a graph of how many pixels sit at each brightness, is a sound start.

08.Saving, loading and resetting

[Save/load menu settings] writes your setup to the card chosen in [Primary slot selection] and reads it back (pp. 860-864). The file covers the listed menu items, all the Custom Settings and My Menu. Custom Picture Controls are saved as [Auto] (pp. 860-863). It also carries U1, U2 and U3, and loading a file overwrites them (p. 864). A saved file works only in another camera of the same model (p. 863). The file is named "NCSET" followed by an identifier, and a renamed file will not load (p. 864). Formatting deletes everything on a card (p. 808), so copy the file to a computer.

The resets come in sizes, so use the smallest that solves the problem:

• [Reset photo shooting menu] and [Reset video recording menu] each restore one menu (pp. 450, 580).
• [Reset custom settings] restores every custom setting, buttons and i menus included (p. 630).
• In f2 and g2, the delete button resets one control, or all controls when held (p. 717) added in Firmware 2.00.
• [Reset user settings] clears one U position (p. 811).
• [Reset all settings] resets everything except [Language] and [Time zone and date], copyright information included, and cannot be undone (p. 865).

Nikon advises saving with [Save/load menu settings] before that last one (p. 865).

09.Starting points by kind of shooting

Each assignment below pairs a control with a role the Reference Guide ties to it, as its default or in a passage that names both. Where the guide names no button for a useful role, the setting goes in the i menu instead.

10.Mistakes beginners make

Most trouble with menus and controls comes from a handful of habits.

• Reaching for [Reset all settings] to fix one odd behaviour. It cannot be undone (p. 865), so use the smallest reset, or look for the asterisks that mark changed custom settings (p. 629).
• Forgetting that a U position stores the exposure mode. Turn to U2 and you get the saved mode, aperture and exposure compensation (p. 142).
• Copying a button layout from another camera or an older firmware. The roles vary with the control (p. 704), and firmware 2.00 renumbered some custom settings.
• Assuming a fault when the focus point will not move. Custom setting f5 [Control lock] can lock focus-point selection (pp. 131, 732).
• Leaving the touch shutter on when your hand often brushes the screen. With [Touch shutter/touch AF] selected, lifting a finger takes a picture (p. 132). Choose [Touch AF] or [Off].

11.Related chapters

• What the Z6III is: the camera's place in Nikon's range.
• A tour of the body: where each button, dial and ring named here physically sits.
• First-day setup: the settings to change before the first outing, several of which these assignments build on.
• Firmware: how to check for and install firmware 2.00, which added the roles and resets marked here.

The autofocus chapter, later in the guide, takes up which AF-area mode belongs on which button for which subject.