Nikon Zf Update That Adds Film Grain and Improves Focus Is Available Now

Oct 28, 2025

Jaron Schneider

Close-up of a person holding a vintage Nikon film camera with both hands, wearing a white long-sleeve shirt. The camera strap is visible, and the person's wavy hair is partially shown.

Nikon has announced the availability of firmware version 3.00 for the Zf camera, which adds a new in-camera Film Grain feature and improvements to focusing assistance.

The update, which is available to download now, brings two major new features to the Zf camera. First is the film grain features, which Nikon says “allows users to enjoy a film-like feel by adding a grainy effect to photos and videos with image processing in camera.” The feature allows users to adjust the grain size in three different ways, which can then be adjusted with six levels of intensity. Nikon says this new feature can also be used in combination with its free downloadable Image Recipes to create more custom, unique effects in final images. Below are a few new examples that use the new film grain feature:

Outdoor café seating with green metal benches, wooden chairs, and a round table on a sunny patio. Large windows display signs for coffee, ice cream, and takeout. Shadows are cast on the tiled floor.

Tall purple wildflowers with green stems are in focus in the foreground, set against a blurred natural background and blue sky, creating a soft, summery scene.

Blue sky with a few scattered white clouds. The photo has a grainy texture, giving it a vintage or film-like appearance.

A young person with long brown hair lies on a bed, gazing thoughtfully at the camera while holding a pencil and writing in a notebook. Soft lighting creates a calm, introspective mood.

A variety of fresh fruits, including green grapes, lemons, oranges, a peach, raspberries, and green plums, are arranged on plates and in bowls on a light surface, with a fork placed among them.

Nikon’s update to the Zf also adds what it describes as more accurate focusing and framing capability. The camera now has an “only during zoom” option added to the Focus Peaking setting. When selected, the option allows focus peaking ot only be displayed when enlarging a view as a way to assist in manual focusing. In this mode, peaking is not displayed at other times. Nikon seems to be framing this as a way to clean up and de-clutter the view so composition is less distracting when not punched in to focus, but still providing the option so landing critical focus is easier.

Version 3.00 is also adding what Nikon calls the maximum aperture level, which promises to “make it easier to determine the focus peak with manual focusing.” There are also new grid options: 4:3 for still image live view and 9:16 for video live view, which Nikon says makes it easier to compose scenes for images that will be posted to social media.

While those are the headline features, Nikon also added an automatic monitor display switch function, which gives the user the ability to change the sound of the electronic shutter as well as a video option for the “record camera orientation” feature.

Version 3.00 was originally revealed last month and paired with the announcement that Nikon was making a new silver edition of the Zf camera available, too. The headline new feature of built-in film grain paired quite nicely with the silver top plate option of the Zf, which both harken back to Nikon’s rich analog history.

Firmware version 3.00 is available to download for free through the Nikon Imaging Cloud app starting today.

Image credits: Nikon