Show all tech info in playback mode

[dodfr]

Hello,

I recently tried a Z5 II and Z6 III, I am not a Nikon guy but wanted to test another brand.

I was surprised that in playback mode the "i" button only sho the date of the picture and not all the tech detail as all other brands do.

I googled abit and found that I need to go to settings to activate them (weird that they are deactivated by default).

But then again to see those extra details I need on each photo to press the up (or down) button to reach the info I want because info is only displayed only on one line at the bottom of the screen and of course cannot fit every details.

So if I want for example review all ISO/ Speed /Aperture info for each picture I can't do it without using the up or down button on every photo I review, that is a waste of time.

Is thes normal behavior on Nikon or did I do something wrong ? I ask because this behavior seems very not very user friendly and a waste of time.

Regards.

 

[shuncheung]

Hello,

I recently tried a Z5 II and Z6 III, I am not a Nikon guy but wanted to test another brand.

I was surprised that in playback mode the "i" button only sho the date of the picture and not all the tech detail as all other brands do.

I googled abit and found that I need to go to settings to activate them (weird that they are deactivated by default).

Right, you need to go to the PLAYBACK MENU -> Playback display options and there are a lot of checkboxes. Check the ones you want the camera to display. If you are not sure, just select all of them so that everything will be displayed, but you will need to scroll through more screens on playback.

But then again to see those extra details I need on each photo to press the up (or down) button to reach the info I want because info is only displayed only on one line at the bottom of the screen and of course cannot fit every details So if I want for example review all ISO/ Speed /Aperture info for each picture I can't do it without using the up or down button on every photo I review, that is a waste of time.

On playback, there is one page/screen that has a small histogram on the top right, a smaller version of the image on the top left. Across the bottom of that screen, the shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and focal length are all displayed, along with the name of the image file and time and date of capture across the very bottom.

In other words, the information you want to see are all on that one screen. In fact, there is another screen also has the exposure and focal length information.

Is thes normal behavior on Nikon or did I do something wrong ? I ask because this behavior seems very not very user friendly and a waste of time.

Based on your description, it sounds like you are experiencing normal behavior.

 

[Pierre Lagarde]

Hello,

I recently tried a Z5 II and Z6 III, I am not a Nikon guy but wanted to test another brand.

I was surprised that in playback mode the "i" button only sho the date of the picture and not all the tech detail as all other brands do.

I googled abit and found that I need to go to settings to activate them (weird that they are deactivated by default).

But then again to see those extra details I need on each photo to press the up (or down) button to reach the info I want because info is only displayed only on one line at the bottom of the screen and of course cannot fit every details.

So if I want for example review all ISO/ Speed /Aperture info for each picture I can't do it without using the up or down button on every photo I review, that is a waste of time.

Is thes normal behavior on Nikon or did I do something wrong ? I ask because this behavior seems very not very user friendly and a waste of time.

Regards.

Playback could look a bit cumbersome I agree (even if I'm a long time Nikon user), though, on Z5II and Z6III at least, the simple way for what you're asking is to pick "Exposure Info" alone or this + "Overview" in the list of "Playback display options/Additional photo info" (see "Playback menu/Playback display options") :

https://onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com/z5II/en/pbm_playback_display_options_296.html

then pick the playback mode you want on a picture you took (up/down/Display button).

=> The camera will stay on that playback display mode by default until you change it. So no need to use up/down on each picture (or only if you hit up/down button by accident of course).

Also note that to scroll thru playback info mode you also can use the "Display" button (not only up/down button).

 

[jthomas39]

The extensive Playback display options were very confusing to me at first. (Mainly because it doesn't work like the EVF or Monitor display setup -- those allow checkmarking various display details in different combinations.) And the Nikon Reference Manual doesn't go into a lot of detail for Playback display setup.

It does make sense after a little experience of changing the Playback settings.

~~~

From another thread, I listed all the Playback choices:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/68029121

From that post:

[ ] shooting data -- this is a set of 5 screens of shooting data lists -- I had this turned on since it includes the actual focal length as one of the data rows. Lots of data! It's kind of annoying to cycle through all 5 sets to get to the next display choice. Now I've turned it off again, since the focal length shows on the next view, "overview".

Oh, I see these multiple screens of data numbers can be included or excluded at the bottom section of this playback display settings lists. So it's possible to shorten the number of screens of data info.

~~~

It's hard to find screen shots of the Playback data screens. Here's one, clipped from the useful Hogan Guide to the Z6 iii.

One of the 5 different screens full of data.



~~~

I have all of those 5 screens of data turned off. This Overview display is one of the four Playback screens that I've set up. I don't use this view very often, but it's available with a press of the DISP button. Or, while in Playback, use the 4-way controller Up/Down to cycle through the Playback displays in either direction.

From the Hogan Guide to the Z6 iii:

 

[Thom Hogan]

From the Hogan Guide to the Z6 iii:

Playback is still the section of my books I'm the least happy with. Some of that has to do with some of the randomness in Nikon's choices, some to having not fully fleshed out Thom's Rational Guide to Playback. I have my own choices, of course, but they're 100% triggered to action use, so I have a strong emphasis on Series Playback.

But to the point of the original poster: once you've enabled and picked which screen of information in playback you want, that's what comes up on playback until you change it. The above screen (Overview) seems to be the one you want. But be careful of enabling too many choices. One of the most common questions I get from new to Nikon users is "I'm not seeing my..." on playback, and it's almost always because they hit the top or bottom of the thumb stick or Direction pad without noticing.

This is one of the traits of Nikon playback: it's dual scrolling. Command wheels (and left/right Direction pad) scroll you through images, up/down Direction pad scrolls you through playback options you've enabled. Worse still, Nikon has now put a SuperScroll on top with flicking.

--
Thom Hogan
author, Complete Guides to Nikon bodies
bythom.com dslrbodies.com sansmirror.com zsystemuser.com

 

[dodfr]

From the Hogan Guide to the Z6 iii:

Playback is still the section of my books I'm the least happy with. Some of that has to do with some of the randomness in Nikon's choices, some to having not fully fleshed out Thom's Rational Guide to Playback. I have my own choices, of course, but they're 100% triggered to action use, so I have a strong emphasis on Series Playback.

But to the point of the original poster: once you've enabled and picked which screen of information in playback you want, that's what comes up on playback until you change it. The above screen (Overview) seems to be the one you want. But be careful of enabling too many choices. One of the most common questions I get from new to Nikon users is "I'm not seeing my..." on playback, and it's almost always because they hit the top or bottom of the thumb stick or Direction pad without noticing.

This is one of the traits of Nikon playback: it's dual scrolling. Command wheels (and left/right Direction pad) scroll you through images, up/down Direction pad scrolls you through playback options you've enabled. Worse still, Nikon has now put a SuperScroll on top with flicking.

Talking about thumb stick, as the nikon do not have a centered dial button but only a 4 wayd rounded button, is there a way to assign to one of the horizontal rotary dials the previous/next picture in order the quickly go forward or backward instead of having to click a lot on the 4 ways button ?

--
Mainly proxy and nature http://www.flickr.com/photos/39835936@N07/

 

[Pierre Lagarde]

From the Hogan Guide to the Z6 iii:

Playback is still the section of my books I'm the least happy with. Some of that has to do with some of the randomness in Nikon's choices, some to having not fully fleshed out Thom's Rational Guide to Playback. I have my own choices, of course, but they're 100% triggered to action use, so I have a strong emphasis on Series Playback.

But to the point of the original poster: once you've enabled and picked which screen of information in playback you want, that's what comes up on playback until you change it. The above screen (Overview) seems to be the one you want. But be careful of enabling too many choices. One of the most common questions I get from new to Nikon users is "I'm not seeing my..." on playback, and it's almost always because they hit the top or bottom of the thumb stick or Direction pad without noticing.

This is one of the traits of Nikon playback: it's dual scrolling. Command wheels (and left/right Direction pad) scroll you through images, up/down Direction pad scrolls you through playback options you've enabled. Worse still, Nikon has now put a SuperScroll on top with flicking.

Talking about thumb stick, as the nikon do not have a centered dial button but only a 4 wayd rounded button, is there a way to assign to one of the horizontal rotary dials the previous/next picture in order the quickly go forward or backward instead of having to click a lot on the 4 ways button ?

Not sure if it's what you are asking for, but both rear (main) and front (sub) dials are set to frame advance (so, previous/next picture, if I get you well) by default in playback mode. You can change all these behaviours in the f3 Custom Settings menu.

 

[jthomas39]

Useful Burst shots settings in the camera Playback image review

In Menu --> Playback menu -->Series playback:

Sub-selector displays first shot: On. I usually use the front or back control wheel to scroll through the images in sequence. This setting allows the separate joystick (the "sub selector") to jump to the first image of each burst set, in either direction, previous set or next set. Nice!

Auto series playback: Off. I don't use this. When On, a 2 second pause in the review at the first image of a set will rapidly display each image, maybe 10 images a second, then stops on the last image in the set. Useful to some photographers. The Z6 iii firmware 2.0 now allows setting this to 5 fps, which is more usable. I tried it briefly, then turned it off again. If I was shooting really long bursts, this would be useful.

List series as single thumbnails: On. Image Review shows the image filename in the top right. With this option On, it shows a second line of data: a stack icon and the count of images in the set. (and that's nice when using the joystick to jump to the next set.)

Zooming out to a thumbnail view, this "On" setting only shows 1 image per set, with the same two counters. And single images show a counter of 001. If Off, it's the usual "show every image thumbnail" classic method. That would be a huge set of thumbnails if I hold down the shutter for a long time. Ha, the count of images in a set only goes to 999. My 60 second burst had around 1800 images, but still shows "999" in the Image Review.

~~~~

Navigating through the Playback images:

These controls, and more, can be changed to other uses in f3: Custom Controls (playback).

Customizing: The F1 or F2 have a large list of setting choices, including Protect, Delete, Select for upload, voice memo, editing, etc. And other controls can be changed too: Video button, ISO button, Exp Comp, etc.

F1: Overlay a large histogram: hold down F1 to show this histogram. And it's easier to see clipped highlights in this histogram view.

F2: changed to 100% zoom. It zooms to the focus point, then a second F2 zooms back out. I made this same setting for zooming while shooting, helpful for focusing overrides, etc.

4-way OK button changed to Thumbnail on/off. Now I can jump back to the thumbnails, use the command dial to navigate the thumbnails, then OK again to show that photo.

~~

To navigate to the Next / Previous photo:

1. Front or rear command dial.

Or 2. left / right 4-way controller. I rarely use this method in Playback.

Or 3. Joystick up / down.

Joystick with continuous sets: the joystick left goes to the first frame of the previous set, or back to the beginning if I'm viewing the middle of a set. Joystick right goes to the first frame of the next set. Single shots are treated like a set of "001" frames. Joystick up / down steps through the frames in either direction.

~~

Switching between my different Playback views:

Press the DISP button to change to the next Playback view.

or

4-way Up / Down to change Playback views in either direction.

 

[dodfr]

Useful Burst shots settings in the camera Playback image review

In Menu --> Playback menu -->Series playback:

Sub-selector displays first shot: On. I usually use the front or back control wheel to scroll through the images in sequence. This setting allows the separate joystick (the "sub selector") to jump to the first image of each burst set, in either direction, previous set or next set. Nice!

Auto series playback: Off. I don't use this. When On, a 2 second pause in the review at the first image of a set will rapidly display each image, maybe 10 images a second, then stops on the last image in the set. Useful to some photographers. The Z6 iii firmware 2.0 now allows setting this to 5 fps, which is more usable. I tried it briefly, then turned it off again. If I was shooting really long bursts, this would be useful.

List series as single thumbnails: On. Image Review shows the image filename in the top right. With this option On, it shows a second line of data: a stack icon and the count of images in the set. (and that's nice when using the joystick to jump to the next set.)

Zooming out to a thumbnail view, this "On" setting only shows 1 image per set, with the same two counters. And single images show a counter of 001. If Off, it's the usual "show every image thumbnail" classic method. That would be a huge set of thumbnails if I hold down the shutter for a long time. Ha, the count of images in a set only goes to 999. My 60 second burst had around 1800 images, but still shows "999" in the Image Review.

~~~~

Navigating through the Playback images:

These controls, and more, can be changed to other uses in f3: Custom Controls (playback).

Customizing: The F1 or F2 have a large list of setting choices, including Protect, Delete, Select for upload, voice memo, editing, etc. And other controls can be changed too: Video button, ISO button, Exp Comp, etc.

F1: Overlay a large histogram: hold down F1 to show this histogram. And it's easier to see clipped highlights in this histogram view.

F2: changed to 100% zoom. It zooms to the focus point, then a second F2 zooms back out. I made this same setting for zooming while shooting, helpful for focusing overrides, etc.

4-way OK button changed to Thumbnail on/off. Now I can jump back to the thumbnails, use the command dial to navigate the thumbnails, then OK again to show that photo.

~~

To navigate to the Next / Previous photo:

1. Front or rear command dial.

Or 2. left / right 4-way controller. I rarely use this method in Playback.

Or 3. Joystick up / down.

Joystick with continuous sets: the joystick left goes to the first frame of the previous set, or back to the beginning if I'm viewing the middle of a set. Joystick right goes to the first frame of the next set. Single shots are treated like a set of "001" frames. Joystick up / down steps through the frames in either direction.

~~

Switching between my different Playback views:

Press the DISP button to change to the next Playback view.

or

4-way Up / Down to change Playback views in either direction.

Thanks for the tips