Nikon promises to bring a much-requested feature to the Z6III

Photo: Richard Butler

Last week, Nikon announced a firmware update to its Zf camera that added its bird-specific subject detection mode, promising it’d be quicker and more accurate at detecting and tracking birds than the Auto or Animal modes. Our comments section resounded with a single question: when is it coming to the Z6III?

Nikon now has an answer: sometime this year. Nikon Rumors spotted a reply from the Nikon USA account on X, formerly known as Twitter, that reads: “We plan to add Bird detect AF to the Z6III by the end of the year. Stay tuned!”

Z6III users have been waiting for the feature even before it arrived on the Zf. It debuted with the Z9 and was later brought down to the Z8. With Nikon pitching the Z6III as a powerful, do-everything camera, the bird-specific autofocus mode seemed like a natural fit. The omission seemed even stranger when lower-end cameras, like the Z50II and Z5II, launched with the feature.

That pent-up demand may be why Nikon shared that it’s coming on social media before it’s actually ready – to give Z6III users some assurance that it hasn’t forgotten that they want the feature. We’ll be sure to let you know as soon as the firmware update enabling it becomes available.

Our DPREVIEW Tribute:

After nearly 25 years of operation, DPReview closed on 10 April 2023. This difficult decision was part of the annual operating plan review that parent company, Amazon, shared earlier this year.

Over the course of 25 years, DP Review built up a reputation as being one of the most informative places to go for information about that new camera or lens you’re after. DP Review began as an independent reviews site based in the UK in 1998, the brainchild of Philip and Joanna Askey, but it was eventually purchased by Amazon in 2007 and relocated over to Seattle in the USA in 2010.

Cheers DPReview – thanks for the great work and content that guided photographers, videographers and techno junkies the world over!