D7200 Issues

Hello, I am having "issues" with a new D7200 I bought a month ago, which I think may be due to faulty shutter/exposure problems. Preface: I used to be an avid photo enthusiast with cameras such as the D90, & D7000 and lenses such as the 70-200 2.8 VR, 24-70 2.8 and the 85 1.8. I had a closed head injury which resulted in my selling my equipment, but now I am back & hoping I can wrap my mind around a camera again. As aforementioned, I just bought a new D7200 w/ the 18-140 kit lens (which I regret) because I immediately purchased a used 70-200 2.8 VR, a 17-55 2.8 (less $$$ than 24-70) and another 85 1.8G. My pictures with all lenses and in all modes (Auto. P, S A and M) are HORRIBLE!) Sorry I cannot upload any examples but they are all blurry or if less blurry they are either over or under exposed, in many examples to the point of being all black or all white. I get shutter speeds of lo. 25", 30", 4, 5, 30, up to 250 4.5 in shutter priority which leaves my image solid black Please help, this is not the experience I anticipated.

Put the kit lens or the 85 on the camera. And just use that ONE lens until you figure things out.

• What scenes are you shooting to get those LONG shutter speeds? Sounds like indoor, night or other low light scene.
  
• Have you tried shooting in broad daylight in P mode?
   
  
• What ISO level is the camera set at? cuz 25" = 25 seconds. You need the ISO high enough to give you a decently fast shutter speed of at least 60=1/60 sec to hand hold the camera.
   
  
• At the slow speeds you list 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 4=1/4 sec, 5=1/5 sec, you are going to get motion blur unless the camera is on a tripod and using a remote release.
   
  
• You cannot select any shutter speed you want, the shutter speed is limited by the basic exposure of the scene at the set ISO level, and then limited by the aperture range of the lens.
   
  
  • Example. Broad daylight ISO 100, basic exposure will be 1/125 sec at f/16 (sunny 16 rule). If the lens can close down to f/32 you can get the shutter speed down to 1/30 sec, but no slower. Any slower and you overexpose the shot.
    

  [*]You need to upload a pix so we can see the EXIF data on the pix. That will help diagnose the problem, otherwise it is a lot of guessing, as you can see from my questions above.

I can't think of a setting that would give the metering you're experiencing Dorothy. I have a D7200 with the 18-140 kit lens, and couldn't be happier with it. Although the original body had to be returned due to an irrepairable shutter fault.<p>

The shutter fault only manifested at the two fastest speeds, and was ok at anything slower than 1/2000th. The kit lens is amazing, and can only be faulted on its slow aperture rating.<p><br>

Assuming the camera is being used in adequate light, I can only think that it's faulty in giving such long shutter speeds. The VR on the kit lens enables usably sharp images at speeds of up to 1/8th second.<p><br>

I can only suggest you do a 2 button reset on the camera. Then ensure the ISO is set to 100, lens VR and AF switched on with exposure mode P, and try again in as bright daylight as you can get.<p>

If you're still getting wildly varying exposure readings and blurred results then it might be time to return the camera for repair or exchange.

Thanks for the suggestions Gary, I think I "forgot" how to use a camera but I will work on this

This is one of those times when you might want to go to You Tube. There are lots of videos out there that you can step through while watching with your camera in hand.

I would think one thing worth trying would be to see if there is another person handy who can try out the camera. Perhaps a complete reset, check that the auto focus is turned on and working, and then hand it to some person and ask him or her to try it. That camera is pretty foolproof in auto mode even for someone who is not expert. If another person cannot get it to work well, then I'd suggest it's time to have the camera looked at. If it does work, then you can start trying to work on the operation, but there's no point in kicking yourself if the camera is defective.

 

There's a website called www.nikon-tutorials.com which includes some videos arranged by model, and there's a fair amount dedicated to the D7200, including some relatively thorough basic stuff put out by a college (forget which one) for the benefit of students about to borrow one for the first time. It might be useful.

 

Good luck, by the way. Brain trauma is no fun, to say the least. I have found photography, and the quest for beauty in the world, quite restorative.

I've got the same camera with the 18-140mm lens and had a number of issues with over and under exposure with it for a while, I think in that case the culprit was some auto bracketing setting hidden inside the menus. I don't recall ever having turned it on myself and can only presume it was sent to me with this setting activated. Check to see if your flash works properly, mine only now works in auto mode, used to work in aperture priority but can't get it to work that way at all now, which is very strange and watch out for the infamous 18-140mm lens crap design which means the plastic edge coming loose above the rubber grip and sliding down the lens barrel. Mine did that too and it took a bit of pushing and shoving to work out how to re-attach it, never experienced this with any other lens before, it is a decent lens but not very well built!

I've got the same camera with the 18-140mm lens and had a number of issues with over and under exposure with it for a while, I think in that case the culprit was some auto bracketing setting hidden inside the menus. I don't recall ever having turned it on myself and can only presume it was sent to me with this setting activated. Check to see if your flash works properly, mine only now works in auto mode, used to work in aperture priority but can't get it to work that way at all now, which is very strange and watch out for the infamous 18-140mm lens crap design which means the plastic edge coming loose above the rubber grip and sliding down the lens barrel. Mine did that too and it took a bit of pushing and shoving to work out how to re-attach it, never experienced this with any other lens before, it is a decent lens but not very well built!

Thank you Rodeo Joe, Peter, Matthew & Allen for your suggestions. I am using the camera in P Mode, 18-140 lens, ISO 100, have reset the camera & checked auto focus. same issues remain. You tube videos are a great suggestion to get me familiar with the body and I will check the flash and auto bracketing setting. I used to buy all my equipment at a wonderful photo shop which closed after 50 yrs, and bought this at Best Buy. If I cannot figure this out I will take it to a camera repair shop for their opinion before returning to the store. Again thanks. I am just so anxious to shoot again!

A "new" camera out of the box should not be this difficult to get going.

It is like someone said, someone configured the camera poorly and did not reset it, or the camera is defective.

Could you post a few examples of the bad exposures Dorothy? The free to download Irfanview software will let you re-size images to 1000 pixels wide or under to attach here.

 

The EXIF information embedded in the images might help diagnose the problem.

Could you post a few examples of the bad exposures Dorothy? The free to download Irfanview software will let you re-size images to 1000 pixels wide or under to attach here.

 

The EXIF information embedded in the images might help diagnose the problem.

 

Rodeo Joe I have a Macbook Pro.

I think you can use the Mac preview function to resize.

 

By the way, just for the experimentation, I would suggest that you do a hard reset of the camera, hold your nose and put it in the green "auto" mode, make sure that the front AF switch is fully switched to AF, put the 18-140 kit lens on and make sure it's set to A/M with the VR on, put the lens focal length at something in the middle, and try making some snapshots. Composition and art aside, the results should be almost entirely properly exposed, moderately sharp even if not focused on the right objects, and not conspicuously defective. Even if you shake the camera some, any flash shots should be sharp. There's little point in going on if the camera itself is just plain misbehaving, and this camera for all its capabilities is also designed to be a reliable point and shoot. If it can't do that, it's almost certainly not your fault.

The reset that Matthew was referring to is done by holding down the ISO and +/- (exposure compensation) buttons simultaneously for a few seconds. The buttons are marked with a green dot.

 

Nearly everything is reset to factory default by this procedure. So if the camera + kit lens fail to produce a useable picture in Auto mode after a hard reset, then there's likely something wrong with the camera, or lens.

 

Unfortunately a hard reset means that you'll later have to re-enable sensible choices of, for example, image quality, but for the purposes of testing the camera I think it's an essential step.

Edited March 14, 2017 by rodeo_joe|1

The reset that Matthew was referring to is done by holding down the ISO and +/- (exposure compensation) buttons simultaneously for a few seconds. The buttons are marked with a green dot.

 

Nearly everything is reset to factory default by this procedure. So if the camera + kit lens fail to produce a useable picture in Auto mode after a hard reset, then there's likely something wrong with the camera, or lens.

 

Unfortunately a hard reset means that you'll later have to re-enable sensible choices of, for example, image quality, but for the purposes of testing the camera I think it's an essential step.

Thank you Matthew & Rodeo Jo, I took my camera to a repair shop and the man said that the camera was functioning perfectly & user error was the cause of my problems. I came home & followed all the instructions above in "auto" mode. Images were fine. I then used "P" mode but all the shutter speeds were too slow. When I turned flash on (in P mode) pics were fine. Interestingly, all the fastest shutter speeds were in "auto" mode but there was an unfavorable color shift. "P" mode had the best images I cannot however get any acceptable pics with my "fast" lenses w/o using flash. So I guess I'll Just start from the beginning and watch u tube/read everything I can.

It sounds as if you have the ISO speed set too low for the lighting conditions. A hard reset will set the ISO to 100 in all modes except Auto, where the ISO can be changed by the camera. Going to P mode will revert the ISO back to 100.

 

I'm guessing you're shooting indoors or in quite low light outdoors.

 

Suggest you up the ISO to at least 400 and try again in P mode. The D7200 can deliver good image quality up to 1600 ISO. Beyond that things start to look a bit "gritty".

It sounds as if you have the ISO speed set too low for the lighting conditions. A hard reset will set the ISO to 100 in all modes except Auto, where the ISO can be changed by the camera. Going to P mode will revert the ISO back to 100.

 

I'm guessing you're shooting indoors or in quite low light outdoors.

 

Suggest you up the ISO to at least 400 and try again in P mode. The D7200 can deliver good image quality up to 1600 ISO. Beyond that things start to look a bit "gritty".

I implemented your suggestion in a light filled room with an 8ft doorwall. Until I reached ISO 800 the shutter speeds were still too low. Seems I should be able to use a disposable camera in this light. But at ISO 800 all images are tack sharp and exposure is spot on. Thanks.

Hmmm! Maybe the camera isn't opening the lens apertures properly.

 

What sort of aperture/shutter speed readings do you get outdoors in sunlight or good daylight?

 

The classic 1/125th @ f/8 should be easily achievable at an ISO well below 800, even on a winter's day.

I came home & followed all the instructions above in "auto" mode. Images were fine. I then used "P" mode but all the shutter speeds were too slow. When I turned flash on (in P mode) pics were fine. Interestingly, all the fastest shutter speeds were in "auto" mode but there was an unfavorable color shift. "P" mode had the best images I cannot however get any acceptable pics with my "fast" lenses w/o using flash. So I guess I'll Just start from the beginning and watch u tube/read everything I can.

 

Here's a theory: Your camera might have been set to have "easy exposure compensation" turned on (setting b3), and possibly to have the flash exposure compensation set (with setting e4) to "background only". That's the kind of thing a "helpful" relative might have done when playing with your camera, or it might have been done by someone in the store if the box was open before you got it. The good news is that if the camera is working in auto scene mode, it's probably mechanically okay.

 

Here's my reasoning: "easy exposure compensation" lets you change the exposure settings with whichever dial you're not currently using in your current exposure mode, as if you had the exposure compensation button held down. (I'm assuming you're not instinctively holding down the exposure compensation button when trying to change one of the dials - that's a mistake a D3x00 or D5x00 user might make, because that's how their interface works for manual mode with just one dial.) If you were inadvertently spinning the wrong dial while trying to change the other one, in aperture or shutter priority (or program mode), you'd end up adjusting the exposure compensation instead.

 

If flash photos are working, that might be luck, or it might be that setting e4 is allowing you to have an underexposed background while still having a correctly-exposed flash irrespective of the exposure compensation setting - at least within a certain range. If the auto scene mode is working, that might be because it ignores exposure compensation settings.

 

I'd suggest making sure that your exposure compensation is zeroed: hold down the +/- button and spin the main (probably rear) command dial until it says "0.0". If you might do this by accident (I know I would), I'd set custom option b3 "Easy exposure compensation" to "off".

 

Accidentally having option d8 "easy ISO" (which is like easy exposure compensation but changes the ISO instead) turned on might have a similar effect, although it sounds like exposure compensation is more likely.

 

That might be nothing to do with it, but perhaps it's worth checking - otherwise we might need more information. The reset procedure suggested above will change d8 and b3 to "off" as well. Good luck!

Here's a theory: Your camera might have been set to have "easy exposure compensation" turned on (setting b3), and possibly to have the flash exposure compensation set (with setting e4) to "background only". That's the kind of thing a "helpful" relative might have done when playing with your camera, or it might have been done by someone in the store if the box was open before you got it. The good news is that if the camera is working in auto scene mode, it's probably mechanically okay.

RJ and Andrew thanks so much for your time and input. Andrew, yes "easy exposure compensation" was turned on but "background only" was not. RJ I went outdoors & shot a variety of different subjects. Camera in P mode., ISO 100. EXIF ranged from 1/125 @ f5.6 to 1/400 @ f5.6. Images were spot on. Back to the tutorials-they are a phenomenal way for me in particular to learn.

 

 

 

Here's my reasoning: "easy exposure compensation" lets you change the exposure settings with whichever dial you're not currently using in your current exposure mode, as if you had the exposure compensation button held down. (I'm assuming you're not instinctively holding down the exposure compensation button when trying to change one of the dials - that's a mistake a D3x00 or D5x00 user might make, because that's how their interface works for manual mode with just one dial.) If you were inadvertently spinning the wrong dial while trying to change the other one, in aperture or shutter priority (or program mode), you'd end up adjusting the exposure compensation instead.

 

If flash photos are working, that might be luck, or it might be that setting e4 is allowing you to have an underexposed background while still having a correctly-exposed flash irrespective of the exposure compensation setting - at least within a certain range. If the auto scene mode is working, that might be because it ignores exposure compensation settings.

 

I'd suggest making sure that your exposure compensation is zeroed: hold down the +/- button and spin the main (probably rear) command dial until it says "0.0". If you might do this by accident (I know I would), I'd set custom option b3 "Easy exposure compensation" to "off".

 

Accidentally having option d8 "easy ISO" (which is like easy exposure compensation but changes the ISO instead) turned on might have a similar effect, although it sounds like exposure compensation is more likely.

 

That might be nothing to do with it, but perhaps it's worth checking - otherwise we might need more information. The reset procedure suggested above will change d8 and b3 to "off" as well. Good luck!

RJ and Andrew thank you both for your time & input. Andrew, yes "easy exposure compensation" was turned on but "background only" was not. RJ I went outdoors (cold Michigan grey day) and shot a variety of subjects. P mode and ISO 100. EXIF ranged from 1/125 @ 5.6 to 1/400 @5.6. Images were spot on. Back I go to the tutorials-they are the ideal way for me to learn.

The "background only" thing was a stretch - it might just have been luck that the flash photos seemed to work (or something more complex may have been going on). I'm glad you seem to be doing better - I'd keep "easy exposure compensation" turned off unless you're absolutely sure you want it, because it's not that difficult to do directly (by holding the exposure compensation button) and I'm sure I'd have ended up accidentally spinning the wrong dial with it turned on, too! Without the "easy" stuff turned on, it's much harder to make an accidental change. :-) (Of course, it's also easier to make a deliberate change... but I shoot in manual mode enough that it would just confuse me!)

 

Anyway, glad there seems to be forward progress. Good luck with your shooting!

Although easy compensation is shown in the viewfinder, it's pretty easy to miss, and it shows on the top display only as a plus-minus box with no indication of the amount unless you push the compensation button down, so I would guess it's pretty easy to forget it's set at all, and not much of a saving though it's nice to be able to compensate while you look through the finder.

 

Anyway, I'm glad things are getting sorted out, and glad the camera is not broken.

Although easy compensation is shown in the viewfinder, it's pretty easy to miss, and it shows on the top display only as a plus-minus box with no indication of the amount unless you push the compensation button down, so I would guess it's pretty easy to forget it's set at all, and not much of a saving though it's nice to be able to compensate while you look through the finder.

 

Anyway, I'm glad things are getting sorted out, and glad the camera is not broken.

 

 

 

Thanks much gentlemen. The camera is awesome & I'm sure as I progress I'll absolutely love it!