My change from Nikon DSLRs (D500, D850) to mirrorless for bird photography has been a journey with a significant learning curve and functional upgrades with firmware updates. What began as a step forward with some aspects better and some not as good has evolved into what I feel is generally a better tool for bird photography. The latest firmware updates to the Z8 and Z9 have consolidated my feelings. Most improvements have been with the focus system and improved subject recognition but more recently usability tweaks have really made the mirrorless bodies much nicer tools to use.

I wrote about the ability to program a function button to cycle AF areas on the Z8 which was, for me, a huge step forward in usability. This has now made to the Z9 as anticipated. The feature that I most appreciate though is the “recall shooting functions (hold)” option. This lets me program a function button to immediately change from high shutter speed mode for sharp flight images to a slow shutter mode for pan blurs.

I have always enjoyed attempting pan blurs of pelagic birds in flight but it was previously a matter of consciously deciding to set up for it by winding back ISO, shutter speed and closing down the aperture to give the same exposure that I had been using for action freezing images. This took a fair bit of time and required a number of button presses and scroll wheel turns. This was still what was required when the Z9 came out and what I did when capturing my Highly Commended Birds in Flight image in Bird Photographer of the Year 2023.

With the introducing of firmware version 2 for the Z9 it was possible to now program a function button to immediately change to a pan blur mode and I was now able to switch between frozen motion and pan blur during a single pass of a bird. This allows me to choose the mode depending on what I see evolving in the viewfinder rather than having to decide well in advance what to attempt.

I have it set to recall ISO 64, shutter speed of 1/60 and aperture f11. This is adjusted on the day to suit the lighting and the settings then remain so that I can toggle back and forth between a fast and slow shutter mode. I dont have it change the AF mode or any other settings.

I have written about this in my Nikon Z8/Z9 autofocus settings for Bird photography post but as it is not an autofocus setting thought it deserved separate mention. It is the one aspect I would really struggle to live without if I had to move back to using a DSLR.