Nikon has rolled out the v3.00 update for its Z8, bringing some nice new features. But this version also raises incompatibilities with certain third-party lenses, notably Tamron. Before installing the firmware, it’s best to take a few precautions to avoid unpleasant surprises and malfunctions. Here’s the lowdown.
Nikon recently released firmware v3.00 for its professional hybrid camera, the Nikon Z8, bringing a number of welcome new features, including a Pixel Shift mode for high-definition shooting. We talked about this in detail in this article.
However, there are a number of reasons to be cautious before diving headlong into this update. Indeed, Nikon itself, but also third-party manufacturers such as Viltrox and Tamron, are urging you to take a few precautions.
Do not use third-party lenses when updating
In Nikon’s official update notes, the manufacturer specifies that the update should not be performed with a third-party lens mounted on the camera: “Do not update the camera firmware if a lens other than a NIKKOR Z-mount lens or a mount adapter other than the FTZ II/FTZ is attached to the body; failure to heed this warning may cause the camera to malfunction.”
For its part, Viltrox – which manufactures third-party Z-mount lenses, such as the latest AF 135 mm f/1.8 LAB we tested – has published a notice to the same effect. The brand strongly recommends removing any third-party lenses, including its own, before proceeding with the update.
Nikon also indicates that users upgrading from firmware v1.01 or earlier will lose their IPTC presets. If you use this information for your metadata, remember to save them to memory card via the [IPTC > Load/Save] menu before updating, and then restore them afterwards. Otherwise, they will be permanently lost.
It’s also always a good idea to save your body’s menu settings – especially if you have advanced configurations – to memory card via the function, because in some cases, as with Sony’s v2.01 update of the Sony A1, the update had reset the body.
Possible incompatibility with Tamron Z-mount lenses
Finally, Tamron has also issued a warning: following the upgrade to version 3.00, some Tamron Z-mount lenses may “present functional limitations”.
On some forums, users are reporting problems with their Tamron lenses. XiaoF, for example, reports that after updating his Nikon Z8 to firmware v3.00, his Tamron lenses(28-75 mm, 50-400 mm, 70-300 mm and 150-500 mm) no longer work at all. The main risk is total or partial autofocus failure. However, this does not seem to be the case with all Tamron lenses, or even with all units of the same lens, with some photographers reporting no malfunctions after the update.
Tamron is working on a software patch and will publish further information shortly. In the meantime, users of Tamron lenses are advised to postpone the update. It is surprising, however, that Nikon and Tamron, despite being close partners on the Z-mount, did not identify this incompatibility during testing.
Should you encounter any problems following this firmware update, you can always try to go back to firmware version 2.10.
