Complete Guide to the Nikon D200- P1 pps

Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 All Rights Reserved Copies of this work may not be distributed in any form or by All photographs by and © Thom Hogan This book is not spons

Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200

All Rights Reserved

Copies of this work may not be distributed in any form or by

All photographs by and © Thom Hogan

This book is not sponsored by Nikon Corporation

Information, data, and procedures described herein are

correct to the best of the author’s and publisher’s knowledge; all other liability is expressly disclaimed Nikkor, Nikon, and Speedlight are registered trademarks of Nikon Corporation, Japan CompactFlash is a trademark of SanDisk Corporation All other products or name brands are trademarks of their respective manufacturers

The author and publisher shall not be responsible for errors contained herein or any damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of the material in this book In particular, the author and publisher shall not be responsible for any damage to the sensor of the camera of any reader who follows the cleaning instructions contained in this book Nor shall the author and publisher be responsible for damage to camera electronics by anyone attempting to make their own external power supply based upon the ideas presented in this book It’s a sad commentary on our society that I even need to include this disclaimer

1st

Edition, version 1.03: 4/5/06

Acknowledgements

As with all my books, a full draft was reviewed by volunteers

to weed out unclear language and misstatements This book is better because of them

Several Web sites proved useful in researching aspects of this book While I mention several at appropriate points in the book, four need to be singled out for D200 users:

• Phil Askey’s Hhttp://www.dpreview.com not only has some

of the most thorough reviews of digital cameras (yes, even more thorough than the ones on my own site), but also has an ongoing forum that’s useful for getting answers to

tough questions (select Nikon D100/D1/D2/D200 from the

Forums pop-up in the left navigation panel)

• Rob Galbraith Hhttp://www.robgalbraith.com has

developed a reputation in the digital photojournalism world for some of the most articulate and detailed

explanations of professional digital camera use Again, an active forum helps get answers to common problems

(select Forums in upper left navigation panel and then the Nikon Digital SLR link in the forums)

• Nikonians Hhttp://www.nikonians.com is another of the

“well-attended” public forums that are useful for Nikon

D200 users Click on Forums, register as a member or click on CLICK HERE to go to Forums, then click on the D200 Users Group link

• Nikon Café Hhttp://www.nikoncafe.com is a relatively new moderated forum and has had a lively discussion of the

D200 Click on Cameras and Gear, then click on the

Nikon D200 forum link

About this eBook

This eBook was created using Adobe Acrobat directly from

my original files I’ve tried to retain as many of the

navigational features as Acrobat allows (for example, the

Bookmarks section at the left is derived from the Table of

Contents and is fully active—click on an entry and you’ll be taken to it) Curiously, trying to create a fully functional eBook using Adobe’s tools is worthy of an eBook itself (most of the chapters would be centered on trying to get promised features

to work, and how they keep changing between Acrobat Professional versions, sometimes going backwards in ability)

Your Rights versus Mine

I make my living documenting Nikon equipment Thus, I have registered the Copyright for this work in order to protect my rights

That said, I have not enabled copy protection, forced you to enter a serial number, asked you to agree to a License

Agreement, or in any other way limited access to the

information in this eBook I trust you to honor my Copyright and to follow a few simple guidelines:

1 Treat the CD you received as you would a printed book

2 I grant those of you who purchased this eBook directly

from Thom Hogan the specific permission to print or

have printed by a third party a single copy of this

eBook for your own private use You may not resell that printed copy, and must destroy it if you sell or pass on the original eBook you received to someone

else Do not print a copy if you don’t agree with the

previous sentence

3 I grant everyone who purchases the eBook directly

from Thom Hogan specific permission to create a

backup copy of this eBook file for their own private use However, you must destroy that backup copy and

any other copies you have of this work, printed or electronic, if you sell or pass on the original eBook you received

It is a violation of Copyright law to sell copies of this work It

is also a violation of Copyright law to put this work in any public forum, send it to any newsgroup, place it on a Web site, or allow it to be accessed on any file sharing service

This work is registered with the Copyright office That means

that punitive damages and legal fees can and will be sought against anyone found illegally copying this work Ignorance of the law and claims that someone else told you that you had rights to resell this workF

1 are not legal defenses

1

I have not and will not pass rights for this work to other parties Yes, other people fraudulently claim that they own the rights when they don’t And they hear from my lawyer when they do Don’t say you weren’t warned should you try this

Printing the eBook

On to more a more positive subject: if you’d like a hard copy

of the eBook, you can print a copy for your personal use by

selecting PRINT from the FILE menu

It’s possible to print on both sides of the paper and get a real

book-like experience by using the Print: Odd Pages Only and Print: Even Pages Only options on the Print dialog, but

I don’t recommend this unless you’re good at keeping track of paper, know how to properly re-orient the paper for the second pass, and are sure that your printer won’t choke on a page somewhere

Since there are so many printers available and their dialog boxes all allow different printing options, I can’t help you figure out the most economical or convenient way to print your eBookF

2

Yes, it even took me a few minutes to figure out how to create front and back copies on my laser printer, so I know it’s a hassle A complete set of step-by-step instructions that work for the three printers I have available are included

on the CD in a separate file, called PRINTING.PDF

Take the resulting pages to your copy shop, have them trim the edges (the final page size is 5.5 x 8.5” unless you’ve let Acrobat rescale the book to fit the full page) and bind This eBook is actually in three specific sections that could be bound separately (“Before You Take Pictures,” “Shooting Pictures with Your D200,” and “After You’ve Taken Pictures with your D200”); I’ve tried to keep the instructions you’d want while out shooting in the middle section

2

Since I get the occasional question as to why I don’t publish a paper version, I’ll

explain: paper versions turn out to be more expensive to produce in the small quantities at which a niche publication like this sells Producing this eBook

electronically allows me to create it on demand, reducing waste and cost, and to keep it up to date as I learn new things about the camera It also gives me a chance to correct the inevitable minor typos that somehow creep into every major production

On that last point: I keep a current errata list on my Web site You’ll find the one for

If you’re really the type that doesn’t like to struggle through the paper handling idiosyncrasies of your printer, most

Kinko’s and similar copy shops can print, collate, and bind a nice portable version of this book for you (show them the statement on the back cover or on the previous page if they balk at printing a Copyrighted work) Make sure they know that the final page size is 5.5” x 8.5”

Note: Kinko’s and other copy shops should actually refuse to

make a copy of this eBook, as it is protected by Copyright Show them the boxed area on the back cover of the eBook jacket, my Web page for the eBook, or Item #2 in the “Your Rights versus Mine” section where I grant you permission to print or have printed a copy for your personal use If that doesn’t work, have them email me at

thom_hogan@msn.com to verify that this is okay

If you encounter a copy shop that doesn’t ask you to show permission to reproduce a copyrighted work, or one that still refuses after being shown permission, I’d like to hear about it If the former and the copy shop is a chain, it is probably violating direct court orders that mandate that they don’t do this I’ve not put Digital Rights Management

on this file to block all copying and printing, because it’s a hassle for the user So, please respect my rights and help report those that willingly violate them

Note: Some Kinko’s now use a special piece of software to print

from PDF files, such as the one for this eBook Since that software first attempts to extract all text from the file and I have selected to block text extraction in Acrobat, this means that such software fails to work with this eBook Kinko’s can still print it by simply running Acrobat, but this limits some

of the fancier options they can do

This eBook is designed to help you get quality results from your Nikon D200 While I’ll try to provide introductory material that should help even a photography novice get by, this eBook probably isn’t the place to learn what an aperture

or shutter speed is (check out

http://www.bythom.com/bookrecs.htm if you want some recommendations for general photography books)

Nevertheless, I will try to explain the concepts and

terminology that are necessary to understand how a D200 works If you find something in this eBook unclear, or that I’ve assumed knowledge on your part that you don’t have, don’t hesitate to drop me an email asking for an explanation Not only will I answer your question, but it will give me some insight on what I might want to change in future editions to make the eBook even clearer

Besides dealing with the practical side of the camera and showing you how all the basic functions work, I’ll also

provide you with some tips on how to squeeze every last bit

of image quality out of your camera as well as how to make

up for some of its shortcomings

Note on the First Edition

While this is a first edition, the D200 is enough like earlier Nikon DSLRs that I’ve been able to re-purpose and rewrite portions of earlier eBooks—specifically the D2x eBook, as the D200 shares menu structure and many options with that camera—which means that much of the information here has been previously vetted

One thing I have done with this eBook, though, is restructure

it from my previous ones, and augment it with more

introductory material The audience for the D200 includes more first-time SLRF

3 users, so I’ve worked very hard on making this work both more approachable and more

understandable, even though my previous Nikon books have been highly regarded in that respect

Since I mentioned the change in structure, let me point it out; this eBook is separated into three distinct sections:

• Things you should know and consider before using the

D200 (labeled “Before You Take Pictures” and starts on page <H29>) In this first major section I cover a lot about

what a DSLR is, some of its critical components (like the sensor that captures images), how to set up your camera for shooting, and things you should do and know before you head out the door to take pictures This section is up front because it’s the background material you need to get

up to speed with the unique aspects of your camera

• Things you need to know while using the D200 (labeled

“Shooting Pictures with the D200” and starts on page

<H209>) This is the “how-to” section of the eBook Here’s

where I walk you through each feature of the camera as you’d use it I’ll explain why you might use it, how to make that feature active, and what your options are If you’re going to print only one section of this eBook and

3

SLR stands for Single Lens Reflex, and I’ll explain what that means on page <29> You’ll also see me use DSLR, or Digital Single Lens Reflex, to distinguish the digital bodies from the film bodies

carry it with your camera, this is the section you’ll want Yes, you may find a few things repeated in this section from the first, but in the interest of making for a complete

“how-to” section, I’ve elected to repeat some set-up and other instructions

• Things you need to know and do after you’ve taken your

pictures (labeled “After You’ve Taken Pictures with Your

from shooting with your camera you still have things you may want to do, like transfer, print, view, organize, or improve your images This is where Nikon’s supplied software comes in, and you’ll be at your computer for most of this type of work, so we’ll be discussing

computers and computer hookups here

That also mimics the order you’ll want to follow as you

master your new camera: initiation, use, and post production

As I wrote earlier, this eBook incorporates a few bits and pieces from earlier eBooks I’ve written about Nikon

equipment It’s not easy keeping up with all the changes Nikon keeps making to its DSLR lineup and software, though,

so if you have any of my previous eBooks you’ll find that my words and explanations may have changed, even for features that were common across many models So don’t skip over anything—read everything here as it stands, not as you think it might be

As I receive comments from readers of this eBook, I update

the original file Since I generate this eBook directly from my files, this means that I am usually able to keep the text nearly error-free while adding or modifying sections to make a point

more clearly Every now and then I make a full pass through

the manuscript, augmenting what I’ve previously written with knowledge I’ve learned from using the camera, teaching workshops, and from other sources When I do that, I iterate the “edition number.” And when I create a new edition, I offer low-cost updates to people that bought the original eBook from me

So, if you do find an error or confusing wording, take a look

at Hhttp://www.bythom.com/d200guideerrata.htm to make sure that the problem hasn’t already been discovered; drop me an email telling me about it if it hasn’t

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS H3 ABOUT THIS EBOOK H4

YOUR RIGHTS VERSUS MINE H4

PRINTING THE EBOOK H6

NOTE ON THE FIRST EDITION H9 TABLE OF CONTENTS H12 CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS EBOOK H22 INTRODUCTION H24 BEFORE YOU TAKE PICTURES H29

WHAT’S AN SLR? H29

PHOTOGRAPHIC TERMS THAT ARE IMPORTANT TO KNOW H39

THE D200’S HISTORY H42

AN ASIDE ABOUT LENSES H44

BACK TO THE D200BODY H47

BUT WHAT ABOUT FILM? H48

DEBUNKING SOME MYTHS H53D200BASICS H60

D200 Design H60 The D200’s Sensor H66

Sensor Specifications (Size) H 68 Sensor Specifications (Pixels) H 69

Sensor Filtration H70 Tonal Range H76 Brightness v Darkness H78 Spectral Characteristics H80 Noise H80 Sensors and Light Alignment H88 Sensor Longevity H89 Sensor Wrap-up H90

POWER H91

Changing Batteries H94 Charging Batteries H95 Battery Storage H96 Clock Battery H97 Alternate Power Sources H97 Battery Life H102 Battery Notes H108

IMAGE STORAGE H109

Buffer Sizes H112 CompactFlash H113

Solid-State CompactFlash 114

Microdrive Compatibility H 117

Using CompactFlash H119 Nikon-Approved Cards H122 How Much Card? H123

Image Formats H127

Pixels H129 JPEG H131

File Names and Folders H163

Folders H163 File Names H169 File Numbering Sequence H176

CAMERA SETUP H178

How Menus Work H178 The SET UP MENU H181

Date, Time, and Language H183

Setting the LCD Brightness H191

Image Quality H196

Approximate Images Per Card H 197

Viewfinder Adjustment H200

Focus Screens H201

Resetting the Camera H202

Resetting Basic Settings H202

Resetting Other Settings H203 Resetting Custom Settings H204 The Last Resort Reset H204

Firmware Version H205

SHOOTING PICTURES WITH THE D200 H209

CAMERA AND SHOOTING CONTROLS H209

D200 Controls H209

Front View H210 Top View H211

Back View H212 Side View H213 D200 Displays H214

D200 Top LCD H214 D200 Color LCD H216 D200 Viewfinder H217

METERING AND EXPOSURE H219

Metering Methods H220

Matrix H220 Center-weighted H224 Spot H225

Setting the Metering Method H227

So Which Metering System Should You Use? H228 Metering with Digital Requires Care H229 Options for Evaluating Exposure H233

How to Interpret Histograms H237

ISO Operating Suggestions H260

Exposure Bracketing H263

D200 Exposure Bracketing Values Table (Exposures) H 264

Exposure Compensation H270 White Balance H272

D200 White Balance Settings H 280 D200 White Balance Bracketing Values Table H 289

Changing Color Characteristics H290

Tone Compensation H293 Hue H296 Saturation H298

LENSES AND FOCUSING H303

Focal Length Limitations H306

Lens Differences When Used for 35mm film and D200 H 309

Lens Compatibility H312

The Autofocus System H315

Autofocus Area Modes H322 Autofocus Summary H324

Autofocus Settings Summary H 324

Trap Autofocus H325 Autofocus Assist H326 Lock-On (Focus Tracking) H327

Manual Focus H327 Sharpening H328

SHOOTING CONTROLS H337

Shutter Releases H337

Shutter Lag H338

Frame Advance H340

D200 Maximum Buffer Capacity H 342

Self Timer H343 Interval Shooting H345 Multiple Exposures and Overlays H351 Remote Control H358 Connecting to a GPS H358 Depth of Field Preview H360

18mm Lens H362 20mm Lens H362 24mm Lens H363 28mm Lens H363 35mm Lens H363 50mm Lens H364 70mm Lens H364 Diffraction H364 Other DOF Theories H365

D200 Menus H367

CUSTOM SETTINGS H406

Custom Setting #C Custom Settings Bank (Custom Settings Bank) H411