Nikon SLR's exposure indicator

<p>It's a trivia question but here it is. When did Nikon exposure indicator default to minus on the left and plus on the right? At first thought it makes more sense that way but as I have used Nikon's in manual mode for a long time I found that with the old way the indicator would follow the aperture ring.</p>

<p>My recollection and checking a few cameras to confirm -- it was in 1972 with the F2 -- the DP 2 finder for the F2S was pretty garish with red and green indicators. I was selling cameras at that time, and the Nikon salesman brought them into the shop. My best shot at an answer.</p>

<p>No the F2's with LED has the plus sign on the left and up to the Nikon D70 the plus sign still on the left. But I notice that my Df has the plus sign on the right (although I can change that in custom settings)</p>

<p>I don't know when, but many Nikon DSLR have a "Reverse Indicator" menu to optionally reverse it, try menu F8 or F5 if you have it.</p>

<p>Sent this already -- not here. Ya got me, left. right. Thanks for the DF tip! S</p>

<p>Nikon switched the defaults fairly recently (I think on the D800, so before the Df). I found this annoying because I came from Canon, and went to great efforts to train myself to "The Nikon Way" when I switched (even though I knew it was configurable) in case I used an older Nikon. I suspect they switched because they want Canon users to feel familiar and expect existing Nikon customers to be able to find the menu option. Certainly the argument for the old way seemed to be to mirror the aperture ring. Of course, it's not a problem on the 1-digit cameras, where exposure is vertical.<br />

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To be fair, even without the ability to override it, this was a lot less irritating than switching the + and - buttons between the D700 and D800 (which made chimping impossible for me when trying to use both). I didn't like the AF controls moving to be left-hand only, either - I'm glad to hear they're now mappable on the D5/D500, so I have my fingers crossed (which would have solved the +/- thing...) for the D810 successor.</p>

<p>An indication of left for minus and right for plus seems logical for any right-handed user I suspect. That's regardless of whichever way the aperture ring twists. Or if you have all G lenses - What's an aperture ring?</p>

<p>What I find more annoying is the operation of the shutter and aperture thumbwheels, which always turn in opposite directions as felt by the thumb and finger (actually the same direction as seen from above the camera). I want both wheels to turn to the right to increase exposure.... but can I get the camera to do that? Nope!</p>

<p>On camera with the plus sign on the left. You move the aperture ring to the left make the indicator moves to the left. You move either thumb wheels to the left makes the indicator moves to the left. </p>

<blockquote>An indication of left for minus and right for plus seems logical for any right-handed user I suspect.</blockquote>

 

<p>Well, I <i>am</i> right-handed, but I think I tend to think of things increasing to the right because of reading direction. I'll be interested whether those whose writing system in their native language goes right-to-left prefer the old Nikon layout. As you say, the aperture ring argument makes a lot less sense if you're not using the aperture ring (even if you've got one, but because you're on an AF lens you're ignoring it; I'm trying to blot out my "why can't you set the aperture with the camera on an AI-S lens?" rant...)<br />

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I don't think I've switched the wheel rotation direction (f9, on a D810) to try to match my meter, but I sympathise with RJ that the directions sometimes feel inconsistent. This is probably at least partly why I can never actually remember which way I should be turning the wheels until I start to do so and see the effect on the meter - I'm particularly good at turning the exposure compensation the wrong way. I always start turning the focus ring the wrong way, too (not just on third-party lenses that are sometimes backwards). This would be catastrophic if I didn't shoot with my eye to the finder most of the time so I repeatedly remind myself. Possibly I need to reconfigure the camera so it's instinctive to me, but more likely I should shoot more and sit in an office less. Sadly, money... Anyway, I'll see whether BeBu's way of thinking about it works for me!</p>

<p>I suppose I use P mode too often, and then have to remember each time which way to turn the wheel when I use other modes. Using too many different cameras, I also forget until I try, which way the focus or zoom rings go. Or on push/pull zooms, which way is push, and which is pull.</p>

<p>RJ! You can change the direction of the thumbwheel in custom menu can't you?</p>

<p>BeBu: You can only change the direction of <i>both</i> thumbwheels. I believe RJ is complaining - I have sympathy to this - that his instinct is that only one of them needs to swap. It's the difference between pushing both of them to the left of the camera or the right of the camera and turning them clockwise or anticlockwise. But I can't tell whether my difficulty remembering what to do would go away if there were more configuration options. (I feel better that Glen also has to think about it, though I'm usually in manual mode.)</p>

<p>I use many different cameras and I dont remember how the wheels work in each camera. But in a shooting event, I use only one camera, and after a few try in the wrong direction, I start turning them correctly for the whole event. So that is not an issue to me.</p>

<p>There are other similar problems: 1. what is the order of the modes PASM on the mode dial, 2. which dial is for aperture, which is for shutter speed (front or back). 3. Are the vertical buttons (or the horizontal buttons) for changing aperture. </p>