Z 6II firmware 1.40 - TEST RESULTS vs Z 6II 1.30 and Z 6 3.40
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- We haven't seen much about the new firmware on the Z 6II and Z 7II on the internet, so we decided to do some side by side comparisons and let our viewers decide for themselves. Are there AF improvements? Can the new firmware handle Becky's moves better than the previous version?
Watch on to find out...
Presentation:
Rebecca Danese: bit.ly/Bex_on_I...
Konstantin Kochkin: bit.ly/kon_on_i...
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#nikon #nikonz6ii #z6 #firmwareupdate
The 1.40 firmware on my Z6II stopped my little 28 2.8 from hunting and with center point focusing its a bit more faster and accurate - So it does something at least haha
Thanks for showing the older Z6 too! I don't see much difference in any of the firmware versions, and the older Z6 looks the same to me. I have a Z6 and since the firmware update, it is like an all new autofocus system.
@@JoeHan268 Yes! My Z6 is running great! No issues at all. You need to find the focus mode that works for you and stick with it. Get a Z6 at a good price and invest in Z glass instead of new bodies. Looks like Nikon will have some new bodies in the second half of 2023.
Really Like a New Camera when updated to Version 3.50
I have watched your interesting comparison several times and I am hard pressed to find any significant differences. I thought the Z6 3.40 performed quite well. Would like to see the same test reworked to include a Z9. Thank you for all you do for the Nikon brand. Nick
Why does no one review the z7ii after updates ? This camera seems to be getting overlooked from Nikon and their influencers, the updates are slow to come out and then are poor and uninteresting and do not solve any of the major flaws in this camera, the biggest flaw being they have not improved the focus system in any measurable way, is the truth that the camera is a dud that they cannot improve in software/firmware updates, after moving from the D850 to mirror less I feel extremely short changed, my passion for sports and wildlife in tatters, (it also fails in studio portrait work) I am not in a position to keep changing my gear every year so stuck with this paperweight, If you have any influence with Nikon or their reps at all please let them know how I and I am sure thousands of other z7ii user feel,,,,on a different note keep up the great content even though its rather long winded at times lol
Thanks for the update. To me it only confirms what I’d already though, no significant improvements. Would have been good to have your views.
Totally understood Mick - the update was for a specific type of AF scenario that we couldn't exactly replicate but we do hope that Z 6II users see some improvement overall
tested the 3.4 firmware and it's only a 50% hit rate on moving subject, on this video seems like the focus is accurate but on actual it's 50% only on focus.
On my test on moving subject
Z5ii hit rate 50%
Sony A74 hit rate at 60%
1.40 is incremental and doesn't make any leap changes to AF for bird Photography. In the test video older z6 seems same as Z6II.
Exactly ！ only the AF SPEED SAME OTHER FUNCTIONS ARE DIFFERENT
Thanks for doing that...I haven't noticed much difference out shooting birds with my Z7ii. I hope there's a 2.0 in the works that will really be a leap forward.
I thought the Z6 doesn't do eye-AF in video mode - was that recorded to the Atomos using photo mode?
Did it help the Z5 also?
Now it seems Z5 has the same Auto Area AF as the Z6ii. Considering it's the best what Nikon offers beyond Z9's which is light years better, it's still very good AF with great hit rate.
Do you guys have any idea when the Z7iii might be out? Really like the Z9 but too much money, Z7ii looks great but I know my luck buy the Z7ii and next day Z7iii is out!
I need me some firmware updates to improve the autofocus on my Z5!
Absolutely! The Z 5 is owed an update we think :)
1.4 FW hit the Z5 , great and solid AF update.
We want Nikon z6iii with little bit z9 autofocus. :D
It's really a time for nikon to improve af on z6/z7 cameras. :)
Woukd love to see a similar test in video mode, but at 1/50th, not at photo shutter speeds
Yep thats what I try to say 😝😁
Would have been good to see a series of images actually captured by the two cameras simultaneously? I find the Z6ii sometimes shows a locked focus on the screen, but the image is not sharp (especially with the 28-75mm 2.8) A test with the two cameras firing shots simultaneously and seeing which of the outputted images were sharpest would have been great
I do hope there is more to come, as it's hard to see what the second processor is doing compared to the Z6
This test is not really telling for the advantages of the Z6 II. I my experience the Z6 II has a much higher hit rate with faster moving subjects. And it also needs the second processor in order to record 4k60
I personally saw a considerable uptick in eye auto-focus acquisition distance, stickability, and improved subject focus for expected center or main object focus. Looking for to fw 2.0, maybe we will see a limited 3D for the gen ii platforms. Thanks for the comparison!
That's really grea tto know Chad! Thanks!
On my Z6, the AF glitches every now and then, especially in low light situations and when the subject might be wearing a mask. Tends to track anything but the subject or be slightly off from where the eyes are or even from where the face is. The tracking might be stickier than previous firmware releases, but not necessarily much more accurate. At times, pretty frustrating to use. Often prefer not to rely on the face and eye detect and tracking.
Excellent job yet again
As some other mention, I don't see any difference... But I have a question. How can we switch from one eye to the other when the Yellow box is on an eye and I want it to be on the other one? Is there anyone here to tell me?
With a joystick to the right or to the left. Notice the arrow right next to the square when the autofocus is on the eye
same for me, with z6ii and Z 70-200, impossible to have feet. very frustrating nothing appears on display until woman has half body filing display and small yellow box appears on face/eye (or not !); i needed to use af-c single point and could get face at any distance.
i then played with subject tracking and af-on always pressed. amazing but very often, keeping af-on pressed, the yellow box i set on a face jumped in a tree or wall.. and when i pressed the shutter, picture was blur. any idea why it lost the subject ?
It would be great if you can do the same test on a swimmers (doing free style, breaststroke, butterfly).
Personally I didn’t notice any real world differences, however I do think Nikon is paving the way for another update, normally when we see jumps in performance Nikon often allow ambassadors to publish comparisons prior the the firmware being available. It’s also clear they put all of their software development time into the Z9 which has yielded massive jumps in performance, let’s hope Nikon isn’t done yet on AF improvements inline with the hardware limitations
please, test AF with running Dogs and playing kidds, so the typical family situation! Fast running and playing :) that can help a lot to have a clear picture about the AF performance...
I uploaded the FW update on my Z6ii and in my testing it was not a "wow" moment at all with the AF update, although it does appear to be a bit stickier with holding focus on a subject in AFF and AF small/large, it does require some adjustment to technique when moving from subject to subject (Unpress and repress the AF-ON button quickly). It also seems to be much improved with less jumping to the background with focus when panning in a busy background area. It doesn’t seem to have made any improvement with the actual subject tracking at all, which was very disappointing for me. I think that many of us are spoiled with the Z9 AF, but I still love the Z6ii as a walk about and astrophotography camera and still use it a lot for video. I used to live with the AF issues and made adjustments to the way I shot to accommodate the deficiencies of the Z6/7 series. Now when I switch back to the Z6ii from the Z9, those deficiencies are much more apparent. I am hoping that we see a major FW 2.0 update in the near future that will improve the AF functionality.
That's really good to know Todd! Thank you so much for sharing your experience!
what is the name of that screen recording device you were using? -thanks...
Atomos Ninja
the Z6 I performance is impressive ::: still so happy I chose that camera to buy
Focus the eye or lashes?. It´s other important detail!
Thanks!
Looking at you video clips at the end it's really hard to see any major differences-the older Z6 seems to keep up with the Z6 ii pretty well. Then again, as someone has pointed out in the comments, just because a camera indicates that a subject is in focus the actual final image may not be. I have found out the hard way myself over the years with different cameras!
I see some intelligent comments, must be a better class of viewer. Lol! My experience is it's hard to tell between pre & post update, if somebody secretly upgraded your camera I'm not sure you would notice. I do believe (hope)more is to come within the limits of the hardware.
Difficult to tell if the update was substantial enough without you actually bursting into song during your Taylor Swift impersonations !! Haha needed sounds man !!!!
1/400 speed seems a bit weird to me but you can change my mind on it. Love you guys! ✌🏻☮️❤️
I did see an improvement when I updated my firmware.
❤️❤️❤️
Interesting the Z6 with 3.4 picked up the eye before either of the z6 II's....
yep, the 3.4 made my Z6 a keeper!
Maybe because Z6 is Made in Japan, and Z6ii is not ?
@@lukaszklopotek that is a big negative. It cares not where it is made. It is the American photographer that matters!
Not really, if you look at the footage the Z6 3.4 starts with subject a bit closer. There’s a set distance in firmware where cameras recognize eye that’s the same for all three.
Seems to be the *wrong* test for the features claimed as improved by nikon
to quote the release notes: "Made the following improvements:
- The camera focuses more readily on the subject in the center of the frame if *it fails to detect the face or eyes of a portrait subject* when Auto-area AF is selected for AF-area mode."
i.e face/eye detection hasn't been modified by this update
Thanks for the feedback and for watching. You're right that this wasn't demonstrating the 'no face/eye detected' scenario, but we had a large number of requests asking for similar tests to what we'd done with the Z 6 3.40 update (possibly in the hopes that there was some improvement to this style of shooting), but there are some excellent user experiences being shared here in the comments that indicate in certain scenarios there's certainly an improvement.
Nice test, good idea. A big difference in how far away she was first acquired. I think Becky was looking down on Kon with those heels.
My firmware update came up on snapbridge but when I tried to update it on my camera it would only go to 19% and then I'd get an error. This fairness on the last update as well. I finally got the other update to work but this time I can't. It won't even show on my app that I have an update. I uninstalled my app on my phone and installed it again but it's still not showing an update. I don't have a card reader. I've been plugging a USB cable intro my camera to upload pictures to my computer. I need help.
Hi Carl, it might be an issue with the new iOS updates and Snapbridge - have you tried updating using the PC? Without a card reader it's going to be tricky but there might be a friend with a card reader that could help. Alternatively we'd suggest checking back with Snapbridge for an inevitable update frequently.
@@graysofwestminster I have an android phone. I'm not sure if anyone around here has a card reader for CF express but I can check. I was wondering if I could use my USB cable connected to my camera. I bought a card reader with my card but my pc won't recognize it. I think it's a driver issue. I contacted Delkin about it but they weren't able to resolve the issue either.
looks about the same to me all around
My Z6 with the 3.4 firmware update, made a Z6ii out of my camera for free!
Well, good luck getting that 2nd memory card in! 😁
@@phillurkin8245 Wifi autotransfer? (for a bunch of paranoid guys)
@@phillurkin8245 I know not need the extra memory card! Shoot and then download. That is the good practice to get in.
Hey guys, I was just kidding! Been shooting with 1 card for decades and never had any issue. Besides, back in the film era you could put only 1 film in the camera too, right?
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !!" - an evil laugh from a Z6(i) user.
Who cares about this comparison honestly? I am much more curious about if a subject moved towards camera, which one would have highest hit rate?
Thanks but, to me, this is inconclusive. Pausing your video at 3.07/3.08 it looks to me like fw 1.40 is a fraction slower than the earlier version or the Z6 3,40 at acquiring the eye detection. Certainly I can't see any massive improvement in this particular test
Dual processing power... makes no difference.
The top LCD has slower refresh rate than the camera shutter this was filmed on. Jus' sayin'.
As a Sony shooter looking at maybe getting a Nikon I am shocked how slow these cameras are to pick up the face.
All well and good, but as an event shooter, I can assure you that when there's more than one person in the frame, the "auto" system goes BatS#it crazy. Or if there's a wall the camera thinks looks like a person. Or a tree. Or a chair. I like my Z7, Z6ii, and Zfc, and they deliver results my clients like, but it has nothing to do with that worthless auto area focusing.
At best, minute differences if any and all within a margin of error. The firmware is a disappointment and this is the zillionth video showing the exact same results, no change. Some people are fooling themselves saying no it's better just because they need to feel that it did something; however, thorough repeat testing by some UA-camrs shows that any hiccups/improvements are within a margin of error. It suffice to say that I did not even consider upgrading even though this will probably take a minute, a minute of my life which will be gone to waste that is... Heck it's not different from gen 1 firmware 3.40!
Idk if the Z6II firmware is any better, but my Z6II does significantly better with eye af than my Z6 on my one year old. So there is a huge difference between the two for portraits imo.
No difference - update was Bollocks!
Actually, there is. The old firmware is stuck in the background when Becky was far away. While the latest firmware version was able to lock on Becky from far away instead of the background.
Rewatch! The distance Becky was picked up was about double!
Nonsense.