First Setup
What should you change on a brand-new Nikon Z50 II before your first shoot — one card slot, the U1–U3 modes and lens-only stabilization?
Format the card in the camera
Formatting builds the folder structure the camera expects and clears a card that has lived in other devices. This body has one memory card slot, reached through the shared battery-chamber cover, and it takes SD, SDHC and SDXC cards — UHS-I and UHS-II are both supported. Nikon's approved-card guidance: UHS Speed Class 3 or better, and cards rated at 250 MB/s or faster for the highest frame sizes and rates. While you are in the Setup Menu, set the clock too — [Time zone and date] sits in the same tab.
The slot that isn't there
Look for the slot-role settings the two-slot bodies carry — a [Role played by card in Slot 2], a video [Destination] item — and you will not find them: with one slot there is nothing to assign. Every still and every video is written to the same card, exactly once. Two consequences: your backup is an off-camera habit — copy the card after every shoot that matters — and the card shares the battery compartment cover, so a swap is a bottom-door job. One protection the body does offer: [Slot empty release lock] can refuse to fire the shutter with no card inserted. The battery behind that same cover is the EN-EL25a: Nikon rates it at about 240 shots per charge through the viewfinder (250 on the monitor) and roughly 55 minutes of video — a spare is part of this kit, not an accessory.
The honest file
The working quality setting is RAW + JPEG fine — the JPEG to share, the RAW as the negative. The decision is RAW recording. At full DX size the sensor writes 5568 × 3712 pixels (20.9 megapixels) per frame, and NEF files are 14-bit. The three compressions run in descending order by the size of the files produced: Lossless compression, High efficiency ★, High efficiency. On a one-card body the middle tier earns its place: ★ is the working choice.
U1: a setup with a dial position
The mode dial runs AUTO, P, S, A, M, the SCN scene modes — and U1, U2, U3. Video is not a dial position: a separate photo/video selector picks the side, and each side keeps its own settings. Save user settings stores a complete working configuration — shooting menu, custom settings, exposure and focus — to a position; rotating the dial to it recalls the setup exactly as saved. Reset user settings clears a position from the same menu. The discipline: the guide documents explicit saving only — after editing at a U position, save again, or the dial hands you the setup as it was last stored. On current firmware, [Save focus position] can also be set to [On saving user settings], so each U mode restores its own focus position.
Steady is in the lens
Vibration reduction to Normal for everyday, static subjects — Sport is the mode for panning and subjects moving rapidly and unpredictably. Read the item's fine print once: on this body it controls the mounted lens's vibration reduction. Lenses without a VR switch take their setting here; an F-mount lens on an FTZ adapter takes it from the lens itself. There is no sensor-shift stabilization on this body — a lens with no VR leaves you with no stabilization at all, and your shutter-speed discipline does the work instead.
Do the steps now, in order, then run Save user settings to U1 so the dial holds your setup. Turn to M and back to U1 to feel the recall. And set the habit this body demands: copy the card after the shoot — it holds the only copy of everything.