Complete Guide to the Nikon D200- P8 ppsx

The large circle superimposed over the image in the viewfinder helps you estimate the area used for center-weighted metering.. However, note that no meter can perfectly deal with any sit

Top View

13 Exposure Mode button (doubles as Format button)

14 Exposure Compensation button (doubles as Reset button)

15 Flash hot shoe

16 Power switch (extreme position is LCD illumination)

17 Top LCD Display panel

18 Focal PlaneF

73 indicator φ

19 Shooting Method Lock Release button

20 Shooting Method dial (Mode dial in Nikon manual)

21 ISO button

22 QUAL button (doubles as Reset button)

23 WB (white balance) button

73

What’s a focal plane? It’s the point at which the image is focused (i.e the surface plane of the sensor for a D200 or the surface plane of the film for a 35mm film camera) In close up (macro) work, it’s sometimes necessary to measure distances from the focal plane, thus the mark

28 Metering Method dial

29 Diopter Adjustment knob

35 Autofocus Area Mode Selector switch

36 Playback button

37 MENU button

38 Thumbnail button

39 Protect button (doubles as Help button)

40 ENTER button (doubles as Playback Zoom button)

41 (This icon is a reminder that holding in the AF-ON button on the MB-D200 and rotating the Front

Command dial allows you to select the AF sensor)

42 CompactFlash Card Door Release lever

43 CompactFlash Card Access lamp

44 MB-D200 Battery Compartment Door latch

Side View

45 Flash Options button (Flash Sync Mode in Nikon manual)

46 Flash Release button

47 PC Sync socket (under cap)

48 Video Out connector (under top rubber flap)

49 DC In connector (under top rubber flap)

50 USB connector (under bottom rubber flap)

controls on or near the top of the camera A few of the areas

on this LCD have multiple uses, so pay close attention to the information being presented In this book, whenever I refer to

“top LCD,” I’m referring to this display

D200 Top LCD

51 Internal Clock Battery Condition indicator &

52 Wide Frame AF indicator

53 Exposure Compensation indicator £

54 Shutter Speed indicator/Exposure Compensation value/Shots in Bracketing indicator/Interval

indicator/Focal Length/ISO indicator -88.88

55 Aperture indicator/Bracketing Increment

indicator/Number of Shots per Interval/Maximum Aperture/PC Connection indicator [8.8

56 Exposure Bracketing indicator BKT

57 White Balance Bracketing indicator WB-

58 Frame Count indicator Note: remains displayed even when camera is turned OFF 888

59 Over 1000 Frames indicator k

60 Flash Options indicator dg

61 Focus Area indicator/AF-Area Mode indicator /

62 Battery Condition indicator !

63 Exposure Mode indicator \ ] ^ l

64 Flexible Program indicator *

65 Aperture Stops from Maximum indicator Δ

66 Metering bar/Bracketing Progress indicator/Exposure Compensation value òóô

67 Interval Shooting Method indicator INTERVAL

68 Flash Lock indicator ?LOCK

69 Image Comment Active indicator COMMENT

70 Flash Sync indicator X

71 Flash Exposure Compensation indicator

72 Beep indicator

73 GPS indicator GPS

74 Multiple exposure indicator ~

75 White Balance indicators ¯ìồđỗổóọ (<> indicates you’ve altered the basic value)

76 Image Size indicators (L = large, M = medium, S = small)

77 Image Quality indicators (RAW, FINE, NORM, BASIC)

78 Custom Settings Bank indicator CUSTOM ABCD

79 Shooting Menu Settings Bank indicator SHOOT ABCD

80 Auto ISO indicator ISO-AUTO

D200 Color LCD

On the back of the camera is a large (~2.5”) color LCD

(Nikon refers to this as the “Monitor”), which can be used to review images taken with the D200

The color LCD displays 100% of the picture when viewing images If you’ve turned on automatic rotation of vertical images, the color LCD rotates those images

In this book, whenever I refer to the “color LCD,” I’m referring

to this display

The color LCD is okay for casual previews of images, but don’t count on using it to critically evaluate sharpness or color balance It’s most useful function is for judging composition and for analyzing information from the image (histogram, highlights, etc.)

81 Frame Number indicator (upper right corner) 101/101

82 Focus indicators (used indicator in red)

83 Folder Name 100ND200

84 Filename _TEH1854.JPG

85 Image Quality RAW + FINE

86 Image Size (L, M, or S) L

87 Protected File indicator n

88 Wireless Transfer indicator (not shown here)

89 Date and Time 12/29/2005 13:33:18

90 Folder+Frame Number 100-101

Note that other information about the photo appears on separate information pages (selected by pressing the < or > keys on the Autofocus Area Direction pad while viewing images) See “Image Review” on page <H387>

D200 Viewfinder

When you look through the viewfinder, you’ll see an

information display below the image area and another to the right of the image area These lighted displays are activated when you press the shutter release partway, and turn off automatically with the metering timeout to conserve power

In this book, whenever I refer to the “viewfinder display,” I’m referring to this information

91 B&W Shooting indicator B/W

92 Battery indicator

93 No Memory Card Warning indicator

94 Focus Confirmation indicator =

95 Metering Method indicator t

96 Flash Lock indicator ?L

97 Exposure Lock indicator AE-L

98 Shutter Speed value 88.86

99 Aperture value [8.8

100 Aperture Stops from Maximum indicator Δ

101 Exposure Compensation indicator £

102 Flash Exposure Compensation indicator

103 Exposure Mode indicators P A S M

104 Manual Exposure display/Exposure Compensation setting òóô

105 Frame Count indicator/Frames Remaining

indicator/Exposure Compensation value/PC

Connection indicator 88.8

106 Over 1000 Images indicator k

107 Flash Ready light ç

108 Automatic ISO indicator ISO-AUTO

109 ISO value 1888

110 Autofocus Sensor areas [ ]

111 Center-Weighted Metering area

112 Viewfinder grid lines

Autofocus Sensor indicators that double as spot meter targets are superimposed over the image Note that two kinds of AF indicators can appear: normal (11) and wide area (7)

The highlighted area indicates the active autofocus sensor (or sensors) I’ll have a lot to write about this in various sections

of the eBook, but pay close attention to spot metering (see

“Spot Meter Point” on page <H227>)

The large circle superimposed over the image in the

viewfinder helps you estimate the area used for

center-weighted metering The area used for center-center-weighted

metering can be changed using Custom Setting #B6 (see page

<H440>) The displayed circle corresponds to the 8mm setting (if you change the setting, you have to guess at the circle size

in the viewfinder)

The image area you see in the full viewfinder is approximately 95% of the area that is seen by the sensor when shooting normally I personally would have preferred 100%

Metering and Exposure

Cameras need some way to adjust the amount of light that gets through to the digital sensor (CCD) In very bright scenes, for example, we may need to limit the total amount of light or the time that the light hits the sensor In dark scenes, we may need to increase the total amount of light or time the light gets into the camera Such control is called “setting an exposure.” For any fixed amount of light and camera ISO setting, there is one or more aperture opening (size of the hole in the lens) and shutter speed combination (length of time the CCD gets light) that can be used to get a “correct exposure.”

Way back in the early days of film photography we used to have to measure the amount of light by using an external (handheld) meter, and then manually set both the aperture and the shutter speed on the camera Today, all SLR-type cameras such as the D200 have multiple automatic ways to

do the same thing

First, the D200 has an internal and automatic metering system (see “Metering Methods” on page <H220>), and this system has

a variety of settings to control how the metering is

accomplished Second, the D200 has multiple methods of interpreting what the meter says is the proper exposure, called

exposure modes (see “Exposure Modes” on page <H243>) We need to examine both things, as they are direct contributors to the whether you get the right exposure or not

exposure is set accordingly

The D200 uses a dedicated 1005-cell CCD in the viewfinder

to provide metering, ala the F5, D1 series, D2 series, and D70 cameras The “brains” behind the matrix metering have been significantly improved from the older bodies, however Older versions of this metering system used a 30,000 pattern

database to test against; the D200 (and D2 series) has ten times that number of patterns to consult, plus there appear to

be significant improvements in handling pure white and pure black Nikon calls this new system 3D Color Matrix II

The 1005-cell CCD covers virtually all of the image frame The grid is 15 rows of

67 columns, and consists of alternating color sensors (RGB; but it’s not the Bayer pattern described in the section on the sensor)

If a D-type or G-type lens is used (with or without flash), matrix metering also takes into account the focus distance (the

“3D” in the name) to help guess where the subject is and

what kind of shot you’re taking Example: normally, the matrix

meter discounts brightness in the upper half of the scene, as it thinks this is sky, and unimportant; however, if you’re using a wide angle lens and are focused near infinity, the camera

thinks that you’re taking a landscape photo and doesn’t discount the sky exposure as much

The D200 matrix metering system relies on five key data points:

1 The overall brightness of the scene

2 The differences in light measured across the pixel sensor data (i.e the “patterns”)

1005-3 The focus area that has been selected (which the camera assumes says something about where the

“subject” is located)

4 Distance information from the lens

5 The color (or colors) of the areas measured

The key word in item #2 is “differences.” Sky, for example, is usually very bright; near subjects we photograph tend to be less brightF

74

You can probably guess that if the upper left and upper right areas metered are considerably brighter than the lower left and lower right areas and are mostly blue, then the camera is going to think you’re taking a picture of someone with sky in the background In such a case, the sky usually isn’t considered as important to the exposure, so the camera adjusts its exposure to match what it sees in the other areas

Just remember that it’s the difference in brightness between

areas that is a primary key to the matrix metering system, not the actual values measured

However, note that no meter can perfectly deal with any situation that has a higher contrast range (large variation in

brightness; remember I call this exposure range) than the

dynamic exposure range of the camera (which, by the way, describes about half of the daylight scenes you might shoot)

In scenes with a large exposure range either the bright

74

An early Kodak study showed that most outdoor scenes tend to form a bell curve in overall exposure range, with something around 7.5 stops being the peak (160:1)

portions of the scene will have to be overexposed or the dark portions underexposed

One thing that catches many by surprise is that the D200’s matrix meter tries to preserve highlight detail over shadow detail in high contrast situations That’s because a highlight, once overexposed, is unrecoverable on a digital camera (on print film, you could often recover something that was as much as three stops overexposed)

Whether the camera picks the right thing to expose properly depends upon a number of things:

• If the difference in brightness across the entire matrix meter is minimal (by definition, a low contrast scene), the matrix metering is nearly perfect (and the meter tends to use what it sees in the central region as the primary measurement, almost like center-weighted metering) Indeed, even color variations tend to be exposed correctly

autofocus sensor areas The D200 is somewhat prone to this, but not as much as the D100 in my experience; again, Nikon is trying to keep highlight areas from being blown out If the camera sees a very bright area anywhere near the center of the frame, watch out, the camera will likely base its exposure there And if you’re using manual focus and the subject is off-center and not in focus

according to the nearest sensor, consider the warning doubled

75

A “middle yellow value” doesn’t have the same reflectance as a “middle gray value,” or a “middle red value” for that matter The color ability of the Nikon matrix meter corrects for this, however If your subject is a big gray blob filling most of the image area, the gray blob will placed near the midpoint in the dynamic range of the camera If your subject is a yellow parakeet filling most of the image area, the parakeet’s yellow will be placed near the midpoint in the dynamic range of the camera Why “near” and not “at?” Because Nikon tries to account slightly for perceptual differences between colors

• Centered subjects that don’t fill more than a third of the frame are also likely to show underexposure in high contrast situations That’s truer if the lower left and lower right regions have brighter areas in them (relative to the subject) That’s because the camera tends to use an

average of the regions in very high contrast scenes, and the subject in this case doesn’t fill enough of the image to influence the average

• Overall scene brightness plays a part in the final camera metering decision Nikon once tried to build a diagram of how brightness and contrast information interacted, but it was very confusing and didn’t reveal much detail useful to the casual photographer The key point that diagram revealed was that in very bright and very dim scenes the camera sets exposure differently than in “normally” lit scenes If I had to characterize this, I’d do so as follows:

• In very dark scenes, the central region (e.g the

center-weight circle) is often considered the most important, and exposure is sometimes biased towards what is

seen there Lesson: be careful with very off center subjects in low light Anything outside the autofocus sensing areas is what I consider off-center, so keep the

AF sensors over the critical area for exposure

• In very bright scenes, the camera sets exposure either

biased towards the lowest value it sees (usually only when contrast is low), or towards an average across the scene (when contrast is very high) My observation

is that Nikon has modified that latter point to be

“towards a setting that will hold the majority of the highlight detail,” which can be even lower in

exposure than the average in some situations Lesson: when it’s bright, highlights are at slight risk, especially

if the contrast is high, while mid-tones and shadows are more likely to be underexposed

• The camera biases exposure slightly towards the brightest area in a scene when contrast between regions it is measuring is seen as low, and you’re in

“normal” lighting (not too bright, not too dim) Lesson: low contrast scenes get exposed right most of the time

• If the contrast between matrix regions is very low, there’s always a tendency for the matrix meter to set

an exposure based upon the central area, regardless of

brightness Lesson: watch exposure with off-center subjects when contrast is low Again, keep the

autofocus sensors over the critical exposure area, if possible

Don’t panic While that was a lot of detail, we’ll make a bit more sense of how to evaluate an exposure in the Histogram description coming up later in this section

Center-weighted

Nikon’s center-weighted metering system measures the entire frame, but effectively separates it into two zones, the central area and the outer area The exposure is based 75%

on the central area, 25% on the outer area (Note that the manual doesn’t say 75/25, but Nikon’s technical

specifications do.) In other words, if the central area metered f/4 at 1/125 and the outer area metered f/16 at 1/125, the exposure would be set somewhere around f/5.6 at 1/125

Center-weighted metering normally uses an area about the same size as the circle you see etched in the viewfinder (green area in illustration at left) for 75%

of the metering value The remaining 25% of the meter value

is based on the area outside this circle (white area in illustration)

The central measuring area is normally about the same size (0.31” [8mm]) as the area indicated by the large circle etched

in the viewfinder (the one that touches the top and bottom autofocus sensor indicators) You can change the size of the central area by using Custom Setting #B6 (see “Center-weight Circle Size” on page <H440>), though I personally don’t find this to be an overly useful feature

One throwaway note in the Nikon D200 manual should be noticed by all: if you’re using a filter that has an exposure

factor of one stop or more, use Center-weighted metering instead of matrix metering That would, for instance, apply to polarizing filters

The reasoning behind switching metering types with strong filters is simple: the matrix patterns were created using no filtration Strong filters can greatly alter what the matrix sees For example, a polarizing filter brings down a bright sky value quite a bit without affecting foregrounds at the same level That means that the matrix pattern for “landscapes with sky” might not be recognized as being the one to use

Spot

Most professionals tend to use spot metering when they have enough time to do a critical evaluation of a scene That’s because they can isolate individual bright and dark objects to help make critical exposure decisions

Nikon claims that Spot metering targets a tight 3mm area (approximately 2% of the frame) The spot area is always centered on one of the autofocus sensors I question this claim, however In practice I see “exposure pollution” with point sources of light over a far greater area than 2% on my D200 bodies (and usually a bit more elliptical in nature than circular) The spot pattern on the D200 is nowhere near as tight as it is on many other Nikon bodies I’ve used

I think this has to do with the seven segment AF sensor used

So read the section on the autofocus sensors carefully and compare what you learn about their shape and size to what you see while spot metering I think you’ll come to the same conclusion I did: the spot meter on the D200 isn’t as tight, and tends to follow the size and shape of the AF sensor more than expected

The spot metering point follows the autofocus sensor being

used except when Group Dynamic Autofocus or Dynamic

Autofocus with Closest Subject Priority is set, in which case only the central sensor of the group or the central sensor is