Diaphragm ring??

Okay, first understand that I am new to this site and new to photography. I

have a new baby and thought...pictures....i need pictures, so I bought myself a

new camera. I bought a Nikon D80 (hope I made good choice) and bought something

that is way over my head.

It takes wonderful pictures on "auto"...I like that, but I am interested in

learning about lenses and what they do and taking unique pictures (trust

me...some have been very unique).

In advance, i would like to thank you for taking the time to answer these

questions and guiding me on this journey of photography.

 

What is this Diaphragm ring and why must if always be on the lowest setting???

If that is the case....what is the point of the thing??

 

is there a "digital photography for dummies" book out??? If not, i would

appreciate some guidance in using the "A" "S" "P" and "M" settings on this

camera...where to go??

I am looking in to local photography classes,by the way.

 

"Photography, typing and spelling....jack of all...master of none"

 

THanks again

setting the lens aperture at it's smallest allows the camera to access the full range available on the lens. you set aperture via the control wheel just in front of the shutter release, not on the lens itself.

 

A=APERTURE PRIORITY -- YOU SET THE LENS OPENING, THE CAMERA SETS THE APPROPRIATE SHUTTER SPEED.

 

S=SHUTTER PRIORITY -- YOU SET THE SHUTTER SPEED AND THE CAMERA SETS THE APPROPRIATE APERTURE.

 

P=CAMERA SETS BOTH APERTURE AND SHUTTER.

 

M=YOU SET BOTH ACCORDING TO WHAT THE METER SAYS...

 

Shooting outdoors, I'd go with aperture priority at say f/5.6 or f/8...

More than anything that someone will say here in this post, I would recommend purchasing a book on the basics of photography. I prefer to have a book around for when the internet is inconvenient. There are many that cover the relationships of aperture, exposure, and depth-of-field. Getting a good foundation in the basics is essential to getting the most out of your camera. Once you understand these three fundamental and their relations to each other, the controls on the camera become a lot less mysterious.

Also, don't be afraid to get a basic book that talks about film photography since most of the principles apply to both digital and film photography. You can find the "<I>Magic Lantern Guide to the D80</I>" (which is kind of like the D80 Dummie's Guide), but you may not grasp all of it without the basics.

Another good guide to the D80, which covers both the basics and advanced stuff, is Thom Hogan's e-book guide to the D80 at: http://www.bythom.com/d80guide.htm.

FWIW and my 2 cents,

 

Not exactly 100% correct but close enough. Not long ago, when a photographer also have to be both a chemist and a CPU, there was a M mode. In which, one's CPU (aka: brain) has to figure out what aperture (aka: Diaghragm) to set and how fast the shutter close. Then our CPU got weaker and the camera got stronger. We then set the aperture (diaghragm) only and the camera set the shutter for us to ease our CPU. The A mode was born and there it stay. Like us, some of us use our left brain more and some of us are left handed. Some camera like to set the aperture for us and leave us only with the shutter to dial. S is for "Shutter only" and don't you touch that aperture dial. Then some sands (Silicon) got its way into our camera. It begin to think it is smarter than us. All it need now is our one index finger (and our wallet of course). P for please don't touch that shutter dial nor that aperture ring.

 

Also please don't say "digital photography for dummies". To the sands inside our camera, we could be dummies, at least the microchip or there marketing department think so :-)

Hi Micheal

 

Amazon.com has a few variations of digital photography for dummies in stock. Read the reviews and choose one.

 

Welcome to photography and remember have fun

 

Edmond

"What is this Diaphragm ring and why must if always be on the lowest setting??? If that is the case....what is the point of the thing??"

 

Actually, it's called an aperture ring. It has to be set on the smallest setting because the camera opens it up to its widest aperture and then closes it to the setting selected before the shutter opens to expose the image. If you don't have the aperture set at its smallest setting the camera cannot use that setting, it detects this, prevents you from operating it, and displays an error message.

 

The ring is not there on "G" lenses, but on older lenses it is there because it was required to manually set the aperture on older camera bodies. Also, higher end cameras like the D200, D300, D1 series, D2 series, and D3 cameras all allow you to use the aperture ring instead of the command dial to set the aperture.

 

The best way to learn photography is to be curious, experiment, read, and ask questions. Bill's reply may be accurate for the D80; but in addition to being able to use the aperture ring to set aperture, you can reverse the functions of the command dials on the D200.