alphanikonrex said:
Me too! Read This

I suggest everyone get the Ansel Addams triptych “Camera”, “Negative” and “Positive”.
Best books ever about photography, some parts maybe not so useful today but it is a classic that any photographer should read.

NSXType-R said:
I don't even know what that is. :D

Me too! Read This

ted2001 said:
Jonny, Ansel Adam's zone system was never made to be simple. He designed it that way. I always thought it just about as easy as carrying a view camera.

I don't even know what that is. :D

From the SB-600 manual:

Recalling the underexposure value in the TTL auto flash mode
Press the ZOOM and MODE buttons simultaneously to recall the underexposure value (p. 29).

Resetting the settings to default values
Press the MODE and POWER buttons simultaneously for approx. 2 seconds to reset all settings, including the custom settings, to their default settings.

Button lock
Press the MODE and – buttons simultaneously for approx. 1 second to lock the functions of the control buttons (except the band FLASH buttons) to avoid accidental malfunction. Press the buttons again to release the lock.

Switching to Custom Settings
Press the ZOOM and – buttons simultaneously for approx. 2 seconds to enter the Custom Settings mode (p. 52).

Couldn't be simpler, mb. ;-)

ted2001 said:
Jonny, Ansel Adam's zone system was never made to be simple. He designed it that way. I always thought it just about as easy as carrying a view camera.

You're probably right.

Somehow I find Nikon cameras very user friendly, maybe I am just used to them but that is also a great thing that they managed to stay consistent about how things are done over the years.
SB-600 is another story, it keeps confusing me all the time ...

Jonny, Ansel Adam's zone system was never made to be simple. He designed it that way. I always thought it just about as easy as carrying a view camera.

ted2001 said:
That helped, now ... histo what?

Think Ansel Adams's zone system made simple.

I started photography too long ago to remember initial difficulties, but when leaping into digital with my D90, I remember thinking WB, what's "white balance"? Overcoming my first thought of the civil rights movement in the 60's, I realized it was like having built-in FLB or FLD filtration. That helped, now ... histo what?

My problem isn't so much the camera settings (been doing this Waaay too long), it was trying to learn enough about the different image editing programs to figure out which one I wanted to use -- still haven't figured it all out. I use elements, NX2 and Lightroom. I'd love to get proficient enough, and satisfied, with just one to dump the others and get really good with that one.

My dad complained about metering issues with his D80 when he had one. I thought matrix metering on the D300 was pretty accurate (but I was coming from a D100), but I usually used center-weighted anyway because I felt it worked even better.

Gentoo said:
Oh yeah, when I ordered my D90 the site said please enter your credit card so I did. Now the damn floppy drive is jammed! LOL

Gentoo, you have to fold it in half and stick it in the CF slot in your -card reader-. People, wise up!

For me it was BOTH the WB and the exposure compensation.
For a while I thought it was inevitable and soon I realized that the WB settings range wasn't wide enough (on a p&s) and that exposure compensation was on ("why is that f***ing little +/- icon blinkin'?"). the problem was that these aperture and shutterspeed wheels acted differently according to the PSAM modes, so it was very confusing.
Luckily I discovered that shooting RAW on my D80 allowed to modify the WB issue... ;-)
Thinking about it I had problems mastering the exposure on my D300 too (the easiest for me is still spot mode; matrix produces sometimes unpredictable exposures). I guess my future D700s (D800?) will ease these issues a bit... (will it?) :D

Oh yeah, when I ordered my D90 the site said please enter your credit card so I did. Now the damn floppy drive is jammed! LOL

Ah ! At last ! I've had a DVD stuck in my player for ages waiting for someone to tell me how to rewind it. Thanks alpha ! :o)

bernard said:
Could someone tell me how to rewind the memory card when it's full ?… :oD

Can't tell you that, but I do know how to rewind a DVD ;^)

Could someone tell me how to rewind the memory card when it's full ?… :oD

You know Jonny, I no longer use auto ISO. I stopped using it about a year ago. I don't like what it selects most of the time. I've gotten to where I know almost exactly where I need to set it. Auto usually pushes it too far or not far enough. Most of the hummingbird pics I posted, the one a while ago that was super close up I know I needed it at ISO 1000. I think in the recent ones I may have used 800. Auto often selects weird numbers like 720, WTF? And I need to use third stops. However I do agree with you that, that limitation was borderline mental illness on Nikon's part.

bmxdad said:
You know what would be great:

Liveview histogram and the ability to spot histogram and move the histogram around the liveview or playback screen

Pete

Pete, couple it with a touch screen and an EVF that I can't tell isn't optical and I'm sold.

Gentoo, Auto ISO sounds handy in that situation. I'll bet you were one of the people who were jumping with joy when they updated the D300 firmware to give faster than 1/250s as an option for Auto ISO. What was with that limitation, anyway? It almost made Auto ISO worthless until you could set it to 1/1000 or faster.

jonnyapple said:
I'm probably going to sound like a snob, but I had a hard time remembering to adjust the exposure compensation when I shot auto all the time. It was like I stopped paying attention to the exposure since I knew the camera would get me close. When some of the other stuff became more familiar, I switched to using manual almost all the time, and now I do the exposure compensation while looking through the viewfinder: subject in in front of a bright backgroud, adjust until the meter shows a stop or two above zero or whatever.
I know, in birding you probably don't have the luxury of sitting there adjusting your aperture and shutter speed since your subject is halfway to the next town by the time you get it right, but for situations when I can use manual I do now and I've had much better luck with exposure. What? I think I'm smarter than a camera? I am sounding like a snob. At least I admit I'm almost completely dependent on the camera's metering system.

Haha, Jonny you don't sound like a snob at all. I've gone through several shooting methods. To learn, I shot manual a lot at first. Missed lots of shots and screwed up lots of exposures but it was fun to learn that way. I shot in S mode for a while too but that was weird as well. Today I use A mode, most birders do. I use this mode precisely for the reasons you mentioned; in birding, you don't have a lot of time to worry about getting the exposure right, you need to at least get that much. The cameras are good at getting me my shutter speeds I need (usually high, especially if you're hand holding non VR lenses like I do). Now I can adjust exp. comp. with relative ease when I need to along with ISO. My shooting conditions change when I turn in another direction to get another shot. It may have been perfect in one direction but now the exposure is crazy over or wicked underexposed.

You know what would be great:

Liveview histogram and the ability to spot histogram and move the histogram around the liveview or playback screen

Pete

Gentoo said:
For me, it was exposure compensation. For the longest time this setting bewildered me and I would never remember to adjust it when needed. When I overexposed or underexposed, I would screw with other settings but never quite got the results I wanted. On the D40, I was lazy about learning these because it was such a pain in the ass to always have to go into the menus to change most things. I learned this better when I got the D300 but it still took me a while to get used to messing with this setting. Now it's like second nature to me.

I'm probably going to sound like a snob, but I had a hard time remembering to adjust the exposure compensation when I shot auto all the time. It was like I stopped paying attention to the exposure since I knew the camera would get me close. When some of the other stuff became more familiar, I switched to using manual almost all the time, and now I do the exposure compensation while looking through the viewfinder: subject in in front of a bright backgroud, adjust until the meter shows a stop or two above zero or whatever.
I know, in birding you probably don't have the luxury of sitting there adjusting your aperture and shutter speed since your subject is halfway to the next town by the time you get it right, but for situations when I can use manual I do now and I've had much better luck with exposure. What? I think I'm smarter than a camera? I am sounding like a snob. At least I admit I'm almost completely dependent on the camera's metering system.

For me, it was exposure compensation. For the longest time this setting bewildered me and I would never remember to adjust it when needed. When I overexposed or underexposed, I would screw with other settings but never quite got the results I wanted. On the D40, I was lazy about learning these because it was such a pain in the ass to always have to go into the menus to change most things. I learned this better when I got the D300 but it still took me a while to get used to messing with this setting. Now it's like second nature to me.

My dad just sets his cameras to ISO 400 and forgets it. I'm like, "Dad, you know you have a full-frame camera, which means use ISO 6400 like all the time." He doesn't listen though. He's very particular about grain. The other day I showed him a photo, and he told it was grainy and that I should have used a lower ISO. I showed him the metadata—I shot the image at ISO 100! At least I can laugh when he get's a blurry shot. "I told you to raise the ISO!"

It's not a matter of ignorance, alpha; it's a matter of overconfidence: oh yeah, I can handhold 135mm at 1/50s. I'll just take 7 shots and one will turn out.

Or none will turn out, Jonny.

So many people don't know about this. Auto-ISO should be on by default in Auto and Scene Modes.

kanuck said:
For me it was not remembering to jackup the iso once the lights go down. I used to keep the setting of say iso 100 to 400 even after the sun went down at say 6pm.

I had (have?) this problem. I still sometimes regret not setting it higher when I process pictures and see there's some camera shake in them.