Custom button map
How do you assign the custom controls on a Nikon Z50 II — and which role does no button on this body get?
The f2 desk
All stills assignments happen at Custom Setting f2; there is no separate control-assignment menu on this body. The bench: Fn1 and Fn2 on the front (factory roles: Fn1 white balance, Fn2 Focus mode/AF-area mode, both adjusted by holding the button and turning the command dials), the DISP, AE-L/AF-L, Playback and OK buttons, the release-mode and video-record buttons, the ISO sensitivity and exposure compensation buttons, the dedicated Picture Control button, both command dials, and the lens controls — Lens Fn, Lens Fn2, the Lens Fn ring in both directions, the lens memory set button and the lens control ring. Video assignments live separately at g2 Custom controls, which can also assign the shutter-release button. Letter shift: [Reverse dial rotation] is f6 on this body.
An override under your finger
Assign the Fn1 button AF-area mode + AF-ON with a preset of 3D-tracking: holding it swaps in the preset area and starts focus; releasing restores the area previously in effect. Assign Fn2 Switch eyes to choose the other eye when the camera detects a portrait subject. On lenses with the controls, pair Lens Fn2 → Save focus position (hold to store a focus distance) with Lens Fn → Recall focus position (one press returns focus to the stored mark).
No detection button — five Nikons running
Subject detection has no assignable role in the f2 or g2 tables on this body — the fifth Nikon on this shelf without it. It is switched in [AF/MF subject detection options] in the photo and video shooting menus, or via the i menu mid-shoot. Set the day's default category in the menus and let the i menu carry the changes.
Make the three assignments in f2, then shoot ten frames using the Fn1 override to chase anything that moves across your frame. If white balance was your Fn1 habit, it now lives one press away in the i menu.