Shooting Panoramas with the Nikon Zf: In Praise of Opportunistic Panoramas

There’s nothing particular about the Nikon Zf that makes it specifically designed for panoramas. But since I’ve been out shooting with it extensively, I thought I’d test its capabilities for creating stitched images just for fun.

One thing I’ve enjoyed about the Nikon Zf — especially when paired with small primes like the 26mm f/2.8, 28mm f/2.8, and 40mm f/2.8 — is that it’s a camera you can just have on you. It is ideally suited to opportunistic photography, capturing moments as you run into them.

It’s relatively small and light compared to a workhorse like the Nikon Z8. It has excellent low-light performance, effective in-camera vibration reduction, and built-in lens corrections that are on by default.

Crucially for panoramic work, these smaller lenses have a “no-parallax point” (often called the nodal point) that is very close to the camera body. This minimizes alignment errors when stitching images together, especially if you aren’t using a dedicated panoramic tripod head to offset the camera.

The case for handheld panoramas

I take an opportunistic approach. I didn’t set out with a tripod and pano head; these shots were mixed in with my regular street photography. If I see a scene that works as a single frame, I shoot it that way. If a scene demands a wider view, I shoot a panorama.

Shooting handheld isn’t the “traditional” way to shoot panoramas, but it has distinct advantages:

• Portability: Even travel tripods are a pain to carry all day.
• Access: Tripods often attract security guards who will tell you to pack up. Handheld shooting is stealthy.
• Speed: I can shoot an entire sequence and move on in the time it would take just to set up a tripod’s legs.

The downsides are higher ISOs and potential alignment issues during stitching, but modern software is incredibly good at correcting the latter.

How to configure the Nikon Zf for panoramas

Consistency is key. You need exposure and focus to remain identical across every frame of your sequence. Here is how I set up the Zf to ensure that happens.

1. Back-button focus

I separate focus from the shutter button. This ensures that pressing the shutter for the second, third, or fourth frame doesn’t cause the camera to refocus on a different part of the scene.

To set this up, go to:

Custom Settings Menu (pencil icon) > a Focus > a6 AF Activation

For a full walkthrough, see my guide on how to set back-button focus on the Nikon Zf.

2. Exposure lock

You can use Manual mode, which is the safest method. However, for opportunistic shooting, I often stick to Aperture Priority with Auto ISO. The trick is to lock that exposure before you start sweeping the scene.

Since I use the dedicated AE-L/AF-L button for focusing, I need another button to lock exposure. I assign this to the Fn button on the front of the camera (next to the lens). By default, this controls White Balance, but I rarely change WB on the fly since I shoot RAW.

To reassign it:

Custom Settings Menu (pencil icon) > f Controls > f2 Custom controls (shooting) > Fn1 button

Note: Because the Fn button defaults to White Balance, the camera will drop you into the bottom half of the menu list. You must scroll up past the invisible divider into the “Press” functions to find the Exposure Lock options.

Then select AE lock (Hold) (press the button once to lock; press it again to unlock) or the standard AE lock (you have to be pressing the button to engage it). But you can choose either — it’s just a matter of preference.

Now, I can find the part of the scene with the “baseline” exposure, click the Fn button once to lock it, and shoot my sequence comfortably without having to keep my finger clamped on the button. The sky brightness stays identical from frame to frame. Just click the button again to release the lock when you are done.

Now, I can find the part of the scene with the “baseline” exposure, hold the button to lock it (if using the standard AE lock; press once to lock it if using the AE lock (Hold) method), and shoot my sequence without the sky brightness changing from frame to frame.

Example panoramas taken with the Nikon Zf

Here are a few examples shot handheld with the Nikon Zf. I shot these in portrait (vertical) orientation to maximize vertical resolution, locked exposure on the most important highlight, and stitched them later in post.

Stitching the images

For most simple stitches, I use Lightroom Classic’s Photo Merge function. It is convenient, fast, and outputs a DNG file that retains all the raw flexibility of the original files. It usually does an excellent job with handheld sequences.

For more complex scenes — like the interior of the Jefferson Memorial above — I use PTGUI Pro. It is specialized software that offers far more control over projection, control points, and blending than Lightroom or Photoshop.

I shoot everything in RAW. While I am waiting for full Nikon Zf support in tools like DxO PureRAW, running files through a noise reduction and optical correction tool before stitching is often a great workflow for maximizing quality from handheld, high-ISO shots.