I’ve had the new Nikon Zf (zf? ZF?) for about a month now and I hopefully have all my settings and customization dialed in. I thought I’d share 10 things I like to do when I buy a new camera just to make the transition a bit easier.

Re-research the Camera I Just Bought to Make Sure I Really Wanted It

The fifty million videos I watched about specs and user reviews were obviously not enough. I need to make sure I re-watch my favorite ones. Bonus- if there have been new ones made that agree with your purchase. Re-convincing myself that I didn’t do something stupid with my money is an important first step. Husband loves re-watching the videos I’ve forced him to watch on the living room TV.

Buy Lens Mount Adapters

A plus of mirrorless cameras is adapting other lens mounts to your camera. I have old Pentax, Olympus, Minolta and Nikon F mount lenses around the house. Most of them are manual focus so I don’t need to get auto-focus enabled adapters. But being able to use the random Ai-S 200mm on my Nikon Zf is handy. I have adapters for my X-S10 so my collection for the Zf needs to grow beyond the FTZ-II I picked up. I love the look I get from my Zuiko 50mm 1.8 on my OM-1 so I think that will be the first one I grab in the near future.

Learn My Menus

I grew up (hahahhaha) with our Nikon D90 and D7200 so Nikon’s menus are where my heart lives. Randomly using our Sony A6000 for travel hurt my photographer heart. And even though I love my little Fujifilm X-S10 the menus confuse my middle aged brain. Digging back into Nikon’s menus to set up the Zf was easy and smooth. All I had to do was catch up with the new additions to the menu because of the mirrorless and auto-focus upgrades between the D7200 and the Zf.

Buy A New Camera Bag

What better accessory for a new camera than a new camera bag. Forget that I have four others, the obvious thing to do is buy a new one. There is something currently wrong with each bag I own and a new bag will solve all my problems. I have learned from my camera bag buying is that I do not like backpacks, that I need something bigger than 3 liters and I do not like square boxy bags. Until I find the perfect new camera bag I will be forced to use the worst bags ever with my new camera.

Buy More Peak Design Anchors

I have firmly lodged my camera strap into the Peak Design ecosystem. I love these little anchors. I have two of the Peak Design straps and love being able to quickly switch between cameras. I have them on everything from my Yashica 124G to my Nikon F4 and the new Zf.

Get An Extra Battery and A New Memory Cards

Cameras today barely come with a charging cable. The Zf had a cable for USB-C charging and that was it. I picked up a charging brick along with a spare battery to get through an outing. All that’s left for me to add to the power consumption and charging, is an outside the camera battery charger. But I’ll wait until the current setup bugs me enough. I do also like to pickup fresh cards for my new cameras. The Nikon Zf uses a dual slot setup of a SD card and a micro SD card so I picked up two of each of those for redundancy. Watch the write-to speeds and make sure they are the same, because, reasons.

Stalk Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for Lenses

I like to buy vintage lenses. I like being able to use my lenses on my old Nikons and the new Zf. I spend some time looking around Craigslist and Facebook marketplace for older cameras and lenses. Then I abandon my search and head up to West Camera or National Camera Exchange to buy new or used gear. I also torture myself on eBay looking at lenses but that takes too much patience. Currently I’m making myself wait to buy a Z 24-120mm or a Z 28-75mm. I wonder how long I can wait till I buy a native macro lens.

Research a Completely Different Camera to Buy

Now that I’m set with the perfect camera it’s now time for a manufacturer to come out with one slightly better and newer. Now my brain will go into goddamit mode and buyers regret will appear. To fix that problem I go out and shoot as much as I possible can and remind myself why I fell in love with the setup I currently have and how much money I will save by staying with what I have. But that won’t stop me from bingeing on YouTube videos of new cameras and researching the hell out of them, hello OM-System.

Use DP Review* to Compare My New Camera to My Old Camera

*What’s left of that site, anyway?
DP Review camera compare is (?) was (?) a great place to compare specs. It helped me choose the Fujifilm X-S10 when it first came out and I’ve been happy with that choice. Being able to side by side compare two choices really helps when you want to avoid the what-ifs in buying a camera. That being said once I have a new camera it’s fun to look back and compare your old cameras to the the new one, especially if you traded-in your old camera.

Scour KEH For a Film Camera to Buy

Or eBay, or Craigslist, or Facebook marketplace, or or or or. GAS is never ending and film photography GAS is even harder to resist sometimes. Did someone in a video or an article somewhere mention an underrated film camera. Off to look for one for yourself. Forget about the multiple thousands of dollars you’ve spent on a new fancy digital camera, my monkey brain wants what that person has and film cameras are cool! I usually combat this urge by placing things in shopping carts soon to be abandoned. My wallet thanks me and I can once again feed my family.