Recall Shooting Functions

A little egret stands in the shallows of a dark creek, and you have it framed with the Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR at the long end. A white bird on dark water misleads an ordinary meter, so you have switched to spot metering on the bird and dialled in about $+2$ EV of exposure compensation, the remedy Metering gives for this exact scene. EV, short for exposure value, counts stops of light, and $+2$ EV asks for $2^2 = 4$ times the light the meter proposed. Then the egret crouches and lifts off, and a second later it is a white shape climbing against a bright sky, where you would rather be back on matrix metering with no compensation, the pairing I use for most birds.

There is no time to open a menu. What the moment needs is a single button that moves the meter and the compensation together while you keep it pressed, and puts the creek settings back the moment you let go. Since firmware 2.00 the Z6III has that button (Nikon, new options for f2 and g2). Custom Setting f2 can give a button the role Recall shooting functions, which applies a stored group of still-photo settings while the button is held, or Recall shooting functions (hold), which applies the same group at one press and removes it at the next (pp. 707-708).

This chapter covers what that group can contain, which exposure modes the roles accept, what they cannot do, how they share the camera with the AF-area mode + AF-ON role and with the U1 to U3 user settings, and how to build one. Giving buttons their roles in general belongs to Custom Controls, and the U positions themselves to User Settings and Settings Files.

01.A Second Set of Settings Behind One Button

Picture the camera holding two sets of values. One is the live set, everything the camera is using now. The other is a stored group kept inside the role, a short list with a tick box beside each entry. When the role acts, each ticked entry replaces its live counterpart and each unticked entry stays as it was. When the role stops, the live values return. Here is the egret written out that way, with a white balance line to show what an empty tick box does.

Two settings changed with one press, and white balance, which nobody ticked, stayed where it was. Nikon is plain that only the ticked entries are recalled (p. 707), so the tick box is the whole design: a group can be as small as one setting or as large as the list allows.

That partial quality separates a recall group from a user setting, the U position on the mode dial that replaces most of the camera at once, shooting mode included (pp. 142-143). Menus and Controls explains why the Z6III has user settings where some cameras have banks, and the recall roles supply the partial change a bank would.

02.Held or Toggled

The two roles share one kind of stored group and differ in how you call it up. With Recall shooting functions, the ticked entries apply for as long as the control stays down (p. 707). Nikon describes the recall as lasting only while you press, so lifting your finger ends it and the live values come back, the same behaviour the metering roles listed just above it spell out (p. 707).

With Recall shooting functions (hold), one press applies the group and your finger is free again. The stored values stay in force until you press the control a second time, which brings back whatever was live before the first press (p. 708). While the group is in force an indicator appears in the shooting display (p. 708), and the display legends list a "Recall shooting functions" indicator for the monitor, the information display and the viewfinder (pp. 932, 936, 940).

Read the names carefully, because they invite the wrong guess. In Nikon's naming, "hold" describes the settings, which hold after you let go. It does not describe your finger. The role you must keep pressed is the one without "(hold)" in its name.

Two further differences sit on p. 708, and both matter in use.

The first concerns AF-ON. The toggle role cannot store or recall settings for AF-ON, while the held role can, which tells you AF-ON is an entry in the held role's list (p. 708). What that entry does is a question for the next section.

The second concerns changes made while the group is in force. With the toggle role active, you can change exposure compensation with the exposure compensation button and a command dial, and white balance with the Fn1 button, the first function button, and a dial, or with whichever controls carry those roles. If Exposure compensation or White balance is ticked, the new value is kept with the group for next time (p. 708). Nikon prints this only for the toggle role and is silent about the held one, and for shutter speed and aperture it says only that you may change them while the group is in force, not that the change is kept.

That gives each role a natural job. The held role suits an event measured in seconds, where the camera should snap back the instant it is over. The toggle role suits a passage measured in minutes, with both hands on camera and lens, and it is the one that learns, since a compensation or white balance refined during the passage is still there when the passage returns.

03.What the Stored Group Can Hold

Nikon says the group holds settings for still photography and gives two examples, the shooting mode and metering (pp. 707-708). The notes on p. 708 name three more in passing: Exposure compensation, White balance and AF-ON. One further entry, Save current settings, is a command rather than a setting, and copies what the camera is using at that moment into the group (p. 707).

The first two appear in a sentence rather than as printed labels, so the wording on your screen may differ. The third column comes from Nikon's statement that the toggle role stores the same entries as the held one apart from AF-ON (p. 708).

That table is everything Nikon prints. Neither the Reference Guide nor Nikon's online pages for f2 and firmware 2.00 list the full set, and I will not fill the gap from other Nikon bodies, whose lists need not match. One scroll through the list on the camera settles it, and shutter speed is the entry to look for first. Nikon lets you turn the command dials to change shutter speed and aperture while a group is in force (pp. 707-708), but adjusting a value on the fly is not storing one.

Each entry also has values you can set directly. Highlighting an entry and pressing right on the multi selector, the four-way control on the back of the camera, shows its options, and pressing OK there saves the change and leaves (p. 707). So a group can be built in two ways, by copying the live settings with Save current settings or by setting each entry by hand inside the list.

Nikon does not say what the AF-ON entry does. The AF-ON role on any other button starts autofocus as the AF-ON button does (p. 705), and this entry exists only on the role you keep pressed. My reading is that it lets the held recall role start focusing too, which would explain why a role pressed once and released has no use for it. That is inference, not Nikon's statement, and the entry's options screen is where to confirm it.

04.Where the Roles Work

The roles work for stills only. Custom Setting f2 governs controls in photo mode (p. 703), and Nikon describes the recalled group as settings for still photography (pp. 707-708). Custom Setting g2, which sets the controls for video, offers no recall role (pp. 748-757), and Nikon's own list of the roles firmware 2.00 added to g2 has four entries, none of them a recall (Nikon, new options for f2 and g2). The video part of this guide covers the controls for filming.

Among the shooting modes, Nikon names only P, S, A and M, which are programmed auto, shutter-priority auto, aperture-priority auto and manual (pp. 138, 707-708). AUTO, the point-and-shoot position on the mode dial, is left out, presumably because the camera takes over white balance and other items there (p. 139). That reason is my guess.

Because the shooting mode can be part of the group, a press can put the camera into a mode the dial does not show. The shooting display shows the shooting mode (p. 138), and I expect it to show the recalled one, though Nikon does not say so. When a group includes the mode, check the display rather than the dial, and confirm on your own camera that the two disagree as expected.

The U1 to U3 positions are a gap in Nikon's wording. Each U position runs the camera in the shooting mode saved with it (p. 142). Nikon does not say whether the recall roles act when the dial is at U1, U2 or U3. I expect them to behave as they would in the saved mode, but that is an expectation, so press the button once with the dial at your U position before you rely on it.

The command dials keep working while a group is in force, with one wrinkle. If Custom Setting b3 Easy exposure compensation is set to anything other than Off, a dial alone adjusts compensation while the group is active (pp. 707-708). But b3 never works in M (p. 654), and it ships at Off (p. 624), where Exposure Modes keeps it, so the exposure compensation button is the route in every mode, and it is the route the toggle role's keep-the-change rule names.

One more interaction is easy to miss. In mode M, exposure compensation moves only the exposure indicator and leaves the picture unchanged, unless Auto ISO is on, in which case the camera shifts ISO, the sensor's sensitivity setting, to follow the compensation (p. 152). I shoot birds and stage in M with Auto ISO, as Exposure Modes explains, so a stored compensation does change my pictures. Without Auto ISO it would change only the indicator.

05.Working With AF-Area Mode + AF-ON

The AF-area mode + AF-ON role does for focus what a held recall group does for exposure. Holding a control with that role selects an AF-area mode you chose in advance and starts autofocus, and releasing it brings back the AF-area mode you had before (p. 705). Choosing an AF Setup uses it for the same takeoff that opens this chapter: the AF-ON button focuses a small box on the perched bird, and a second button carrying this role with Wide-area AF (L) takes over the moment the bird flies.

I keep the two jobs divided. Focus changes stay out of every recall group and live on the sub-selector centre, which carries AF-area mode + AF-ON with Wide-area AF (L) on my base map and plain AF-area mode with the same preset on U1, roles Nikon describes completely (p. 705). The recall group carries only exposure entries. Nikon names no focus setting among the recall entries apart from AF-ON, whose effect it does not describe, and the toggle role cannot store AF-ON at all (p. 708), so a toggled group should never be expected to start focusing.

Using both at the takeoff means pressing two held controls together, and Nikon does not describe two held roles in force at once, so try the pair at home before trusting it at a creek.

U1 adds a constraint. My U1, the 180-600mm setup in Menus and Controls, gives the sub-selector centre the plain AF-area mode role with a Wide-area AF (L) preset and leaves focusing on the half-press, for reasons Back-Button Focus gives. On U1 the held recall role goes on the Fn1 button, where offered, which gives up its default White balance role there and keeps it on my base map (p. 625). In my judgement, thumb on the sub-selector centre, index finger half-pressing and another finger on Fn1 is a lot for one hand, so test the grip first. If it feels wrong, try the held role on another control where f2 offers it.

Which control? The available roles vary with the control (p. 704), none ships with a recall role (pp. 625-626), and Nikon prints no list of which controls accept these two roles. So f2 itself is the only reliable answer. Pick a control not already busy at the moment you need the group, which on U1 rules out the AF-ON button, the sub-selector centre and the lens Fn buttons. My choice there is Fn1, where f2 offers the role on it. If you plan to tick White balance in a toggled group, keep the white balance role on some control, since that is how a refined value gets saved back into the group (p. 708).

06.Working With U1, U2 and U3

A user setting stores the photo and video menus, all the Custom Settings, and the exposure state, from the shooting mode to exposure compensation (p. 142). You save one with Save user settings in the setup menu (pp. 142-143, 810). User Settings and Settings Files covers the positions in full. The division I use is simple: a U position is for a change of job, such as a theatre after a river, and a recall group is for a change inside one job, such as an egret on the water and the same egret in the air.

The two layers nest. The f2 assignment is a Custom Setting, so saving a U position saves which control carries the recall role (p. 142). Nikon saves the Custom Settings with a position, and its list of what a position cannot store names no Custom Setting (pp. 142-143). The group is built inside f2, so it should travel with the position, but Nikon never names it, and the check is cheap: build a group, save to U1, change the group while in P, turn to U1 and press. The values that arrive show which copy U1 holds.

So build the group first and save the U position afterwards, and save it again whenever the group improves, as Menus and Controls advises for any change to a job's setup. Two resets also touch this. Reset user settings returns a position to mode P with default settings (p. 144), and resetting a control in f2 restores that control's default settings (p. 717). Nikon does not say whether either empties the stored group, so rebuild and recheck after a reset.

A settings file follows the same pattern. Save/load menu settings writes all the Custom Settings items to the memory card (p. 862), together with the settings assigned to U1 to U3, and loading the file overwrites those positions (p. 864). Since nothing in the Custom Settings menu is left out, the group should be inside the file, but Nikon never names it, so after loading one onto a camera, open the group and look.

07.Setting One Up

Here is the egret group built with the copy method, in order. Start in P, S, A or M and set the camera to the values the button should bring back, for the egret Matrix metering and $0.0$ EV of compensation.

Open Custom Setting f2 Custom controls (shooting), highlight your chosen control, the Fn1 button in my U1, and press OK (p. 703). The camera lists the roles that control accepts, and if neither recall role is there, choose another control (p. 704).

Highlight Recall shooting functions and press right on the multi selector instead of OK. That opens the list of entries for the group (p. 707). Choose Save current settings to copy the camera's present values into the group. Move through the list with up and down on the multi selector and use OK to tick or untick, leaving ticks only beside metering and exposure compensation. Then return to the role and select it for the control.

Put the camera back to the creek settings, spot metering and $+2.0$ EV, and test: hold the button, watch the metering icon and compensation value change, let go and watch them return. The toggle role is built the same way, and its test is press, look for the indicator, press again and see it gone (p. 708). Inside U1, finish by saving the position again.

08.Recommended Settings

Birds and wildlife. The held role goes on the Fn1 button in U1 and only there. Its group undoes any exception I make for a sitting bird and returns me to matrix metering at $0.0$ EV for the bird in the air. If your camera's list has a shutter speed entry, a faster flight speed belongs in the same group. Without one, turn the main command dial while the group is in force, which Nikon allows (p. 707).

Stage dance. No control carries Recall shooting functions (hold) in my standing map. It is an option I would use on an evening that needs it, with the Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VC VXD G2, for a passage lit very differently from the rest of a show, such as a solo in a single coloured spotlight. For that evening I would borrow the Video record button, which in photo mode normally carries Starlight view (photo Lv) for me, a press-on, press-off brightening of the display in the dark (pp. 675, 711), and give it the toggle role instead, where f2 offers it there. The live settings hold the general look, with white balance set as White Balance recommends for stage, and the group holds a white balance and an illustrative $-0.7$ EV for the solo. I would press once as the solo begins and again when the full stage lights return. With both entries ticked, an adjustment made during the solo through the exposure compensation button or Fn1 is kept for the next time that look returns (p. 708). Metering stays out of the group, since Highlight-weighted metering, my stage choice in Metering, suits both looks.

Portraits, landscape, street and outdoor dance. No recall group. These give either time to change a setting by hand or no reason to change several at once. Video, gimbal dance included, has no recall role at all.

09.Beginner Mistakes

Reading "(hold)" as "hold the button". It is the other way round, as the figure shows: the role you keep pressed is plain Recall shooting functions (pp. 707-708).

Ticking more than the moment needs. Every ticked entry moves when you press, so a group meant to change the meter can quietly change the shooting mode too. Nikon does not say which entries start out ticked, so check every box (p. 707).

Expecting the button to work everywhere. In AUTO, or in video mode, where g2 governs the controls, the button will not call up the group (pp. 707-708).

Forgetting a toggle is still on. The group stays in force until the second press (p. 708). Compare AE lock (hold), which Nikon says also ends when the standby timer runs out (p. 706). For the toggle recall role it gives no such end and says nothing about switching off, so make the indicator (pp. 932, 936, 940) part of your glance before each shot.

Trusting a U position you have not tested. Nikon stores all the Custom Settings with a U position and in a settings file (pp. 142-143, 862), so the group's contents should go with them, but Nikon never names the group. Save, switch, press and look, every time you change the group.

10.Related Chapters

• Custom Controls: how f2 assigns roles to every button and dial.
• User Settings and Settings Files: the U1 to U3 positions and the settings file on the memory card.
• Menus and Controls: why the Z6III has user settings rather than banks, and the author's U1 and U2.
• Choosing an AF Setup: the perched-to-flight focus switch with AF-area mode + AF-ON.
• Metering: the four metering modes and when each suits a scene.
• Exposure Modes: P, S, A and M, Auto ISO in M, and exposure compensation.
• White Balance: the white balance choices a stage group might store.