Nikon Z5 guide

Nikon Z5 is a full-frame camera that stands on the bottom of the Z series hierarchy. I’ve been using it for almost a year now and it's been with me on many trips in all types of conditions. Yes, it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles like the higher Z models but I’d say this camera is more than capable in providing good image quality.

I’m writing this guide in the hope that it might benefit someone. I wrote some of the things that I wish I knew when I started with this camera and which took me way too long to figure out by myself. I’m constantly discovering new ways of using this camera so this might be updated in the future. Hopefully it benefits someone as the higher models from the Z lineup get more attention on the internet.

What’s this camera for?

What am I using this camera for? Well, mostly photography. It doesn’t have any of the high end video specs like higher Z models however it can shoot in 4K 30fps but with a crop, it also doesn’t include N-LOG. I mostly shoot street and travel photography. I never really had the chance to do wildlife or macro and I’m sure there might be different requirements for that specific type of photography.

Before we dive into it, make sure you are running the newest firmware and if not go ahead and upgrade. The new firmware greatly increased autofocus.

Daytime settings

The settings I use the most is something I would call “Day Program”.

Most of the time I shoot in Aperture Priority which is the A mode on the program dial. That way I let my camera choose the ISO and Shutter Speed automatically which make shooting on the street a lot faster. However I strongly recommend setting a minimum value for shutter speed and max value for your ISO as otherwise the camera might go way too slow when it’s not needed or way too high on the ISO. The way you can do that on the Z5 is in the Photo Shooting Menu under ISO Sensitivity Settings. We set Auto ISO sensitivity control to ON, maximum sensitivity to 6400 and minimum shutter speed to 1/250. I really wouldn’t recommend going any higher with ISO on this camera. Even on ISO 6400 we can sometimes see a lot of the “not-good-looking” grain and color distortions. This allows me to comfortably take photos during the day and not think about setting or chimp all the time. I have auto balance set to A2 as I want that golden or blue hour to reflect in the photos more.

Nighttime settings

Let’s move to the “Night Program”. I store that in the custom U3 mode. The reason why U3 and not U1 is just because it’s closer to the A mode on the dial which I use the most. The settings for night shooting are virtually the same but I set the minimum shutter speed to 1/60 and I keep the max ISO at 6400. I don’t mind a little bit of blur even if it’s not intentional. However I really don’t like to use the denoise programs as I feel they make the images look a little bit too soft for my taste. I also change the white balance to Auto1 as I feel that makes the images look a bit better at night.

Focus Modes

Focus modes on all of the Z cameras are quite similar in a way of how we can set them. Obviously higher models will have a faster and more reliable autofocus however I really don’t have that much complaint about it in the Z5. I use mostly Single Auto Focus and the Wide (L) are. I don’t really use the joystick or the D-pad to change the location of the focus point. I’d rather focus and recompose. For me that’s faster and for the things I shoot it really doesn’t get better than that. However recently I started to experiment with Continuous Autofocus (C-AF). The way I started to use it is in the Auto-area AF when we press the OK button we get the small square. If we point at something and press the shutter button halfway, the camera will keep tracking that point until we release it. In higher models it’s called 3D tracking but I don’t know if it’s the same technology on the Z5. Maybe it’s 2D tracking but it’s working fine. I would use it for a slow panning shot where I would aim the focus point on a bicycle riding or a passing skateboarder. But for street shooting I still use mostly Single AF.

Custom controls

Let’s talk about controls. The Z5 has the same amount of controls and custom buttons as the Z6/Z6ii/Z7/Z7ii. The Z6III has a slightly different button placement and one extra button. You can change your button layout and settings in the Custom Setting Menu -> f - Controls -> f2 Custom Controls. I set up my camera in a way that I almost never have to use the iMenu or the main menu. Yeah sure, from time to time I will update something but I don’t really have to dive into menus when I’m out shooting. I have everything under my fingers.

I set the Fn1 button to metering

Fn2 to Focus mode/AF-area mode - this allows me to change the autofocus mode with the back dial and autofocus area with the front dial
The AF-ON I use as a back button focus and I set it (you guess it) to AF-ON
“Sub-selector center” to “AE lock (Hold)” to lock exposure when I need to without holding the button.
The movie record button is set to “Framing grid display”. I don’t need a grid in video mode but I sometimes want it when I photograph.
The rest stays as default.

My Menu

As for the iMenu or My Menu I care only about having these settings:

Set Picture Control
White Balance
Image Quality
Silent Photography
View Memory Card Info
Vibration Reduction

Now the reason I want this in the custom My Menu is not because I’m actively changing those settings. It’s more about monitoring. Sometimes I want to check which picture control I’m using or make sure that I’m shooting in RAW. The only thing I’m using from the My Menu is the Silent Photography but it’s so so rare that it didn’t make sense to give it a custom button.

Video Options

Nikon Z5 is not really a film-centric camera. It doesn’t shoot N-log and only has 4k 30fps with a crop. However if you want to have some fun in post then the closest you can get to N-LOG is by recording in FLAT picture profile. To have different picture profiles for photo and video you can go to the Movie Shooting Menu and then Set Picture Control. It’s set to default as “Same as photo settings” which you can change to whichever profile you like. ISO sensitivity settings - “Maximum sensitivity” can also be changed which I recommend to set the same as photo to 6400. Frame size/frame rate I have at 1080p 24fps. Movie quality set to HIGH and Movie File Type to MP4. Personally I shoot movies in M mode. This allows me to control the shutter speed and aperture but I leave the ISO to the camera. I’m not a filmmaker and this is not a video camera, but I think these settings can give us the best in everyday use.

Additional options and switching between modes

Now for some things that are not in the manual and I wish someone told me as it would save me some confusion.

The PSAM modes will remember last use settings while the U1, U2, U3 will not. This means that if I’m in A mode and set my aperture to 5.6, turn my camera off and on again, the aperture will be at 5.6. Similarly the camera will share settings if possible between the PSAM modes. Meaning that when in S mode we set the shutter speed to 1/40 and move to the M mode then the shutter speed will remain 1/40. Same if we are in M mode and set aperture to f8 and move to A mode then the aperture will remain at f8. It works both ways and also in video mode. It’s worth knowing about this because once I lowered the exposure compensation by two stops when I was in M mode. I forgot about it and couldn't figure out why every time I turn my camera on in A mode it’s set to -2EV by default. It took me way too much time to figure it out. The video mode does have separate settings and it works exactly the same as photo meaning whatever you set in M mode will apply to other modes but will not transfer the settings to photo mode.

As for custom modes U1, U2, U3 they don’t share settings. Even more, if you for example saved an A mode to U1 with aperture at f4 and while shooting you’ll change it to let’s say f2, then you turn off your camera or power saving mode puts it to slee, after turning it on it will go back to f4. User modes will always default to whatever you saved them as. This can be a good or bad depending on how you use it. As mentioned before I use U3 for my night shooting. That’s why I saved it with the lowest aperture possible. For me that was using a Nikkor 40mm at f2. So now every time I switch to U3 the camera will try to default to f2. If however I use a lens (like Nikkor 28mm f2.8) that’s lowest aperture is higher than that, then it will try to default to as close to f2 as possible with the currently used lens. So it just depends how you use it.

Shutter settings

The shutter release mode is set to Continuous L -> 4fps. This gives me the ability to shoot a sequence of photos but at the same time it’s not too fast that I have time to take finger of the release if I want only one picture.

I shoot RAW without JPG and I use the second SSD Card as a backup.

For picture control I cycle between Neutral and Standard, depending on which one I like more at the time. That’s pretty much all the photography settings I use.

Bartosz Tkacz

Photographer