A dumb D200 thing I do

[bill_keane2]

OK, this has happened more than once, so I'll share it... Using a tripod for

a long time exposure, and not wanting to jostle the camera, or spend $ on a

proper remote release, I set the topside upper left Mode Dial rheostat to self-

timer mode (2sec. delay). Fine.

 

But the next day, shooting in daylight, I start to think, "Oh no! Why is

there such a delay in the shutter release?!!!" Then, without letting anyone

else think there might be the slightest thing amiss, I subtally begin

scrolling through menus to see what's gone afoul, feeling as though there

might be a "problem"....

 

Then I think, "Wait, this thing has never screwed up on me, it must be

something I've done." Then after another 10 minutes, it dawns on me that I've

changed the Mode Dial...

 

This leaves me feeling worse about my competence and better about my D200.

[liljuddakalilknyttphotogra]

It's a tool - it does what it's told to do. I've managed to set it in MUp of late. But the worst one is now that I use EV a lot more I find myself forgetting to set the EV back when I should. Managed to severely over expose a squirrel this morning due to that. Don't know yet of it's savable.

 

Lil

[juanjo_viagran]

lol... I been there..;)

[michael_hahn]

been there also. Lot of truth to the saying "don't shoot if you are going to drink". Get a few beers and then be sure you NEVER touch any dials or heaven forbid.

 

mrh.

[ronald_moravec1]

These fully automatic camera are simply to complicated. Been there. Done that.

[michaelging]

I have a pair of Contax G2's , the self timer is a little wheel on the left side of the camera that is very easy to bump. Several times I have been shooting and the camera seemed to lock up and then fire. I finally figured it out and now know what to check,but the first time it drove me crazy.

[Matt Laur]

I've even developed a little mental thing I say to myself as I'm missing the perfect first shot of the day after using the camera the night before on a little tripod-mountred product shoot: "Gee, Matt, you really MUPped that one up."

 

But the pre-flight checklist is getting more and more solid in my mind now, and it's happening less often.

[tonybeach]

Great thing about the D200 is that you can't actually do this by accident. I had a similar issue yesterday when I was jogging down to a beach (wanted to get there before the light went away) and I stopped to take a photo along the way and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't display the focus area in the viewfinder. I'm thinking "this camera is not supposed to fail because of a little jostling while running with it" and I start searching for possible issues; it turns out that the AF mode switch in the back had been bumped to Closest Subject. One way to avoid these sort of issues is to go over all your settings after each shoot and put them back where they belong. It's easier at the end of the shoot because you are more likely to remember changing the setting at that time then when you pick up the camera the next day (or possibly days later).

 

For Ronald:

 

"These fully automatic camera are simply to complicated."

 

I prefer to have the features to not having them. Timer, MLU, adjustable fps, various AF modes, etc. are all useful and the D200 would be less of a camera to me without them -- YMMV, which is why you could always get a D40. Although (again yesterday) a woman handed me her D40 and asked me to take a picture of her and her daughter, I was actually perplexed when I couldn't get them in focus in the viewfinder and it took me a couple of minutes to figure out that it was the diopter on her camera that was set differently than I'm accustomed to. My eyes are starting to fail me and mine is set all the way to one end, and I still couldn't get her diopter adjusted so my eyes could focus properly, so I just ended up relying on the D40's rather basic AF to get the job done.

[bruce_margolis]

Bill, I think everyone who fiddles with their camera has done something like this. My story is similar. I set the ISO at 800 to take some evening photos of owls. Problem was, I forgot to set it back to 100 for the daylight photos. Needless to say, they looked terrible.

 

The solution for me was to create a checklist for settings. They include ISO, EV, WB, manual/AF, and various other custom settings I use like setting sharpening, contrast, etc., depending on the situation.

 

I hate the thought of needing a checklist but I just charge it off to old age or something. Whatever, it works and every time I put my camera back, the checklist is there to remind me about all these settings.

[tom_halfhill]

Nikon needs a button that memorizes all user preferences and restores them with a single button push. I am surprised that Nikon DSLRs (at least the ones I've seen) don't have this feature. While shooting, it's too easy to change a few settings here and there, then forget to set them back to my preferences again.

 

In particular, I wish I could reprogram one of the beginner modes on the main dial to memorize my preferences. I never use those icon modes, anyway.

[juan_su]

Hey Bill, been there before. I know how you feel. =)

[vivid_earth_photographics]

Tom has a GREAT idea. Is Nikon listening?

[tonybeach]

For Tom and Kyle:

 

Well I agree about the Menu and Shooting Bank reset option (to user defined defaults), the problem described by Bill and similar problems encountered by all of us involves non-menu driven options (i.e., controls on the outside of the camera). My solution for both is the same, do a visual check of the external settings (switches and dials) and check the Recent Settings Menu to make sure everything is restored after each session.

[markd2]

Don't forget the soft reset - hold down both green buttons at the same time. It'll reset the

soft settings (EV compensation, WB, ISO, picture quality, flash mode) to reasonable default

values. For the first shot of the day I usually do this rest, click the Qual value once (for jpeg

high) or twice (for NEF mode), click the shooting mode twice (Aperture priority), and I'm good

to go. Handy trick I learned from Ken Rockwell.

[albertdarmali]

It's not worse than exposure delay. Exposure delay might even go unnoticed if you're shooting in low shutter speed.

[bill_keane2]

I am so glad I'm not the only one who can goof. Tom's idea is a good one, given there are SO MANY parameters we can set on the D200 (and every other DSLR nowadays). It's easy to forget what one really wants as a particular setting.

 

Nikon needs to enable the user to set the full range of parameters and SAVE them, including an indication on those settings that are mechanically set...such as the Mode Dial.

[dave_gionet2]

Here's a good one. I had an assignment for a newspaper ( small paper, small town- my first and last assignment) to cover a social event. I set my camera on a ledge to take a timed photo of everyone seated. the next person to receive a award was a well know photographer- I ran up to snap a picture, you guessed it, camera still on timer.

[blair_ellis]

Tom Halfhill said: "Nikon needs a button that memorizes all user preferences and restores them with a single button push."

 

The old N70 had three, I think, user settings that could be programmed differently. I think they called it QR something or other. The precedence is there. Whether or not it can be done easily is a different story. The N70 interface was usually panned for its perceived difficulty in navigating around it. It has been done though.

 

I've done all these mistakes(?) myself so many times I almost expect it. There is a bumper sticker that covers it though - $hit Happens!

[Sanford]

I had the habbit of sometimes slightly pulling back the self timer lever when I picked up my Nikon FM/FE which caused a delay when I pressed the shutter. Anyone here know what a self timer lever is?

[briany]

I too often leave my D200 in bracketing mode and then start firing single shots later. At least 1 in 5 is properly exposed...

[tom_luongo1]

Doesn't the D300 or D3 implement Tom's idea?

 

I thought I read somewhere that a custom settings bank could be written to the memory card. This makes it easier to copy settings between cameras too. And I think they can have longer names than A, B, C, D.

[craig_gillette]

I'm like Brian, I'm still used to the way bracketing worked on my 7D so have several times tried a bracket sequence, thought it wasn't working right, or stopped with two, then had it play catch up with the next series. I try to remember to set the bracketing to "0" to avoid accidents.