Nikon Z8:
Recall Shooting Functions

Recall Shooting Functions is a little-known feature of the Nikon Z8 that allows the photographer to manually change the settings stored in a Custom Settings bank, and then quickly switch back and forth between the original setting values and the newly changed ones, without manually re-configuring each setting. You can configure in advance which of the settings this feature will revert to their original values, and which it will leave alone.

Suppose that I am using one of the Shooting Menu banks (SHOOT A, SHOOT B, SHOOT C, SHOOT D). For this discussion, let us assume that I am using the B bank of custom settings. In my case, I configured this bank with numerous settings specific to bird photography, and (predictably) have named this bank Birds.

Incidentally, the B unchangeable bank name happens to be a short-hand indication that reminds me of the purpose of this bank. I use bank C for close-up, macro, and small-product photography, and A for anything else (i.e., generic field photography). This pretty much covers my most common types of subjects, and eliminates the need to dive deep into the menus and change multiple, easily-forgotten settings whenever I alternate among my main types of subject.

On the Z8, I usually switch among custom banks with the i button > Shooting menu bank virtual button > select the desired bank > i.

Now, suppose that I am shooting birds in the field, and that consequently I am using bank B. One of the custom settings in this bank is Auto ISO (see my discussion of Auto ISO on the Z8 here). In this bank, I use this setting to tell the camera to preferentially choose a relatively high ISO in order to minimize exposure time. This reduces the risk of the subject moving quickly enough to blur my images (especially if the bird is flying or moving rapidly). This high ISO setting does result in a stronger high-ISO noise, but this is an unavoidable compromise.

However, the bird currently in my viewfinder is quietly resting perched on a branch, essentially immobile. In this specific situation, I can safely lower the ISO to one-half to one-quarter of the setting chosen by Auto ISO, and reduce the image noise accordingly. I do so by manually choosing a lower fixed ISO or a lower Auto ISO. I take a satisfactory number of shots while the bird does little else than turning its head this way and that way.

At this point, a second bird lands on the same branch, and my original subject suddenly livens up. If I am using a zoom lens, I may zoom out fast enough to catch both birds within the frame, then start shooting the interaction. However, the ISO I manually chose is too low to stop the birds' movements, and all my shots are motion-blurred. I could try to manually restore the original Auto ISO value, but by the time I have done it, the action is over and both birds have flown away.

Even more important, the ISO value and/or type in bank B has changed. To put it back to its original settings, I must change them manually to their original values (if I remember what these value were).

Wouldn't it be much simpler if I could reset the ISO type and value to their settings originally stored in the B bank, simply by pressing a camera button, for example the L-Fn lens custom button? This is what Recall Shooting Functions allows me to do, once properly configured.

Before making changes to your banks of custom settings, it is a good idea to make a backup of the camera settings to a memory card. You can subsequently overwrite any changes by restoring the saved configuration from the memory card. You can save multiple configurations on the same card, and choose the one to restore. You can also copy the configuration backup files from the memory card to a PC if desired.

Aside for saving and restoring a configuration backup, the Z8 does not have any way to prevent making changes to a custom settings bank. If Recall Shooting Functions is not active, all manual changes to settings are automatically and immediately saved to the current bank, overwriting the original values. As explained in more detail below, Recall Shooting Functions stores a history of the two latest values of each setting, and allows a fast switching between the two stored sets of values of the current bank of custom settings. However, once the feature has been configured, it does not easily allow you to pick out a specific setting from the two saved sets, to revert only this setting to its older value and leave the others unchanged.

The configuration described below has a global effect. It applies to all banks of custom settings (but only to the individual settings selected during the configuration).

Example: configure Recall Shooting Functions

Momentary recall

To make this configuration, and test it for bank B:

• Activate the custom Settings bank B
• Menu > Custom Settings Menu > f Controls > f2 Custom Controls (Shooting) >
• choose the button to customize (L-Fn in this example, or a camera button if the lens has no such button) >
• Select Recall Shooting Functions and press the Enter button. A list of settings that can be recalled is displayed.
• Put a check mark at the left of each of these settings that you want to be able to recall.
• Select Menu (Done) and press the Enter button to save the configuration, then exit the menu.

To test the configuration, change at least one of the settings you selected for recall during the configuration, e.g. ISO type (Auto ISO or "just" ISO) or ISO value.

Press and hold pressed the L-Fn button (or the camera button you configured). The setting(s) you changed should revert to their original values. When you release the L-Fn button, the settings return to their newer values.

In practice, by keeping the L-Fn button pressed you can temporarily revert to the original configuration in the Custom Settings bank B.

On/off recall

To recall the original values in the Custom Settings bank B for a longer time, without having to keep the configured button pressed, the configuration procedure is almost the same as in the above example. However, instead of Recall Shooting Functions, select Recall Shooting Functions (Hold).

To test this feature, click and release the configured button once. All the recallable settings marked with a ticked checkbox during the configuration are returned to their original value.

Click and release the configured button once more to return to the newly changed values.

In practice, Recall Shooting Functions works like a momentary push-switch, ON only when kept pushed. Recall Shooting Functions (Hold), on the other hand, works like a push-ON, push-OFF switch, with two stable positions.

More information

I find Recall Shooting Functions (Hold) far more "natural" and ergonomic to use than Recall Shooting Functions. The former setting, however, requires the photographer to be able to tell whether the original or the changed values of the custom settings bank are active at present.

If you look carefully at the LCD screen of the camera while repeatedly pressing the L-Fn button, you will notice that, roughly in the center of the left margin of the screen, a small white icon representing a camera, with a very small white arrow overlaid, appears and disappears. The icon tells that the "original" (i.e. recalled) values are currently active.

Keep in mind that what I call "the original value" of a setting is not necessarily the oldest one ever stored. With this feature active, the camera only remembers the two most recent values of each recallable setting (only the most recent value with this feature inactive). What I call here "the original value" is the next to last, and "the changed value" is the chronologically last value entered for this setting. Any older values than these two are forgotten and irretrievably gone, so if you play with this feature and change the stored value of a setting more than once, you will lose all successive values, with the exception of the last two values.

This is why making regular backups of the camera configuration before experimenting with the settings is so important.

Also, managing and maintaining this feature becames exponentially more time-consuming and error-prone, the more differences are introduced between the "original" and the "changed" sets of values. It is not a good idea to use this feature to create two significantly different sets of values. It is much easier to manage, instead, if only a couple of values differ between the two sets, or at most three or four. If you need two substantially different sets, use two separate Custom Settings banks, instead.

I suspect that the Z8 always remembers the two last values of each settings, even when the Recall Shooting Functions is not assigned a custom control. In this case, however, the next-to-last value is not accessible by the photographer. Once this feature is enabled by assigning a custom control to it, both last values become accessible, apparently including next-to-last values that had been created at an earlier time. If verified, this behavior further complicates the task of maintaining the two sets of values, and makes it even more desirable to limit the number of differences between the two sets. Changing the function of the L-Fn button to e.g. Preview, then changing it back to Recall Shooting Functions, leaves the previously created two sets of setting values intact.

When this feature is active, both the original values and the newer values survive a power off/on cycling, as well as switching to other custom settings banks. Changing the value of a recallable setting "moves" the current last value to the next-to-last position, overwriting what was stored at this position. Then the value just entered is stored as the most recent value.

If you discover that you entered successive values of a setting in the wrong order (i.e., that what was supposed to be an "original value" (accompanied by the small camera icon) is instead located in the set of "newer values" (without icon), you can correct the mistake by re-entering both values of the setting in the correct order (first the "original", then the "newer" one). After entering each value, exit the menu, just to make sure that the camera has stored the value.

In practice, Recall Shooting Functions and Recall Shooting Functions (Hold) allow you to switch between two alternative sets of custom settings for each bank. If you can manage the associated complexity and the large number of settings involved, you should be able to take advantage of this added flexibility.

The effects of this feature, however, may not be immediately obvious by looking at the settings displayed on the LCD screen or in the viewfinder, unless you know what to look for (see above).

If you decide to use this feature, you should learn it well by testing it several times, initially at home, and then in the field.

If some of your lenses have an L-Fn button but others don't, then it makes better sense to configure a camera button for this feature.

If all this is too much to keep in mind in the middle of a fast action shoot, perhaps this feature is better left alone for the time being. In this case, just take a mental note that the possibility exists, should you need it at some point in the future (perhaps once you have acquired a better confidence with the Z8). Eventually, you will find a good use for it.

As a whole, this feature is complex, and a faulty or incomplete understanding of its internal workings may produce unintended results. It is potentially powerful, but many photographers may find its complexity daunting. Its implementation by Nikon also feels somewhat incomplete. For example, there is apparently no way to write-protect a bank of custom settings, or to return to the original state of a custom setting after this setting has been changed twice (except restoring the whole camera configuration from a saved backup).

Conclusions

On the Nikon Z8, Recall Shooting Functions and Recall Shooting Functions (Hold) can be used to quickly switch between the set of original setting values stored in a Custom Settings bank, and a set of manually changed values, e.g. meant to cope with partly different shooting conditions.

When the "original", or recalled, set of setting values is active, a small camera icon is displayed along the left screen edge. No icon is displayed when the "newer" values are active.

The added complexity introduced by this feature may be daunting, especially if you are still unfamiliar with the already bewildering variety of settings and modes available on this camera. If you use the Z8 frequently and for long daily sessions, however, you may eventually find this feature useful, when used carefully and sparingly.

It is also important to make regular backups of the camera configuration, in case something goes wrong and complex settings are accidentally overwritten. In the Z8, any configuration changes made while using a bank of custom settings are immediately written to the bank, including changes that the photographer meant to be only temporary. There is apparently no way to prevent this. The Recall Shooting Functions feature offers no sufficient protection against this type of mistake. Without a configuration backup, manually returning to the original content of a bank of custom settings while using the camera in the field can be extremely time-consuming and error-prone.