Nikon Custom Settings Banks
I recently picked up a used D7000, I often need to take photos of my D850 for blog articles and I sold off my D800E and D810 (which I regret).
I’ve owned a D7000 around 10 yeasr ago, it took a little while to get up to speed on the controls after using the D8XX series for so long, one thing I noticed was how simple the U1/U2 custom settings banks were to use when compared to the custom shooting banks and custom settings banks on the D850.
D7000
U1/U2 banks
The process for setting U1/U2 is to set the camera up the way you want, go to save user settings and select either U1 or U2. From there you just set the mode dial to the one you want to use and you’re good to go.
U1/U2 saves pretty much everything:
P, S, A, M mode, including aperture (modes A and M), shutter speed (modes S and M).
Exposure and flash compensation (+/− EV settings)
Flash mode
Focus point (currently active AF point)
Metering mode (Matrix meter, Center-weighted area meter, Spot meter)
Autofocus modes in both Viewfinder and Live view photography modes
AF-area modes (Single-point AF, Dynamic-area AF, Auto-area AF, etc.) in both Viewfinder and Live view photography modes
Bracketing (Exposure, Flash, White balance, Active D-Lighting)
Shooting Menu (most settings can be saved, but not all, see the next list)
Custom Setting Menu (all settings)
Live view photography mode and Movie live view mode settings controlled by the Custom Setting Menu or Shooting Menu (Shooting Menu > Movie settings)
Settings that are not saved:
Release mode
Storage folder
File naming
manage picture control
Multiple exposure
Interval timer shooting
If you change something after selecting one of those modes it is remembered by the camera until you move the dial away from U1 or U2.
The saved settings will be recalled every time you sleect the U1/U2 position on the dial until you save over them.
Custom Shooting & Settings Banks
I remeber when I upgraded from the D7000 to the D800E I missed the U1 and U2 options, and wasn’t a fan of the custom settings banks the 8xx series cameras use.
Since then I’ve been going through the menus changing individual settings every time I do a different kind of shooting.
I recenlty started playing around with the custom banks again, after a while I managed to get a pretty good understanding of how they work. Given the choice I’d go for the U1/U2 setup (I think newer models have a U3 bank)
There are 2 groups of custom settings banks, one for the shooting menu and another that covers the settings menu. Each group has 4 banks (A,B,C,D) that you can assign a custom name to.
There is also an extended photo menu bank option that includes exposure and flash modes, shutter speed (modes S and M only), and aperture (modes A and M only). Having this set to OFF will link the P,A,S,M mode across all banks, setting it to ON allow for independent settings for each bank.
There are some settings that are not saved in the custom shooting banks, they are:
Multiple Exposure
Interval Timer Shooting
Focus Shift Shooting
When you change one of the settings after selecting a bank, that bank will be updated, it doesn’t revert back until you manually change the setting back again.
Selecting U1/U2 via the dial is a lot quicker than digging into the menu to change the 2 different banks.
You can speed this up a bit by adding both banks to the My Menu page, I have my Fn2 button set to open the My menu page.
I’m not sure why the settings are spread across 2 custom banks, why not put the all under the same one.
The settings listed above relate directly to the D7000 and D850, newer cameras might have new features that are covered by these banks.
I have 3 banks shown in my images, but I rarely use the sport bank, I mostly switch between the Landscape and Startrails bank, the startrails bank is optimised to ruduce power consumption and prolong runtime (settings here). For landscapes I turn most of those settings back on. Image review is not covered by either bank so I have to do that one manually.
In my case I’m in no hurry to switch between banks, I’m either shooting Landscape or Startrails, not both. I pack my bag accordingly and have everything set up before I head out.