Complete Guide to the Nikon D200- P15 docx

Custom Setting #A3 Focus Area Size Focus Area Frame Unique to the D200 is the ability to set the framing area size of the detection area of the autofocus sensors.. Custom Setting #A4 Gr

Recommendations:

1 If you use other Nikon bodies, especially ones that don’t allow you to override this function, consider leaving this setting at its default for consistency

2 I think that it’s much more likely that you’d want to change the default on this option than it is on Custom Setting #A1 Why? Because Single Servo AF doesn’t pick

up on subjects that start to move after the focus sequence

has initiated The focus locks before the shutter opens so if the subject starts to move after the focus lock, your focus won’t be correct This subtle difference means that with the default setting for #A2 you will get more out-of-focus shots with subjects that start and stop motion By setting

Release, you’re relying upon the focus system to get a

good read on where focus should be initially and move the lens as the mirror and shutter get out of the way To

that end, I’d also suggest that you only set Release if

you’ve got a fast (f/2.8 or faster) lens and one with AF-S (internal lens motor) Slower AF lenses with no internal motor are much less likely to get to the right focus point

by the time the shutter is open

Custom Setting #A3 Focus Area Size (Focus Area Frame)

Unique to the D200 is the ability to set the framing area (size

of the detection area) of the autofocus sensors As I noted several times earlier in this work, the underlying part that contains the autofocus sensors actually has seven physical sensing areas to it Two of those areas can be subdivided into three, which results in as many as eleven distinct focusing areas Moreover, the non-subdivided areas appear to be used slightly differently depending upon how you set this function

Normal Frame Eleven sensing areas used [default]

Wide Frame Seven sensing areas used

Recommendations:

1 This is an option that’s going to take us all time to fully understand the benefits of But one important thing to notice is how the camera displays the AF sensing area In

Wide Frame, the top and bottom sensor indicators, for

example, are shown as distinctly wider, and they are But

what does that mean? Well, in Wide Frame there’s a bit

of Closest Subject Priority going on (similar to the Group

AF with Closest Subject Priority options) The wider sensor pattern is big enough so that it is often on both a near and far subject simultaneously In these cases, the closest subject appears to be used For example, if the left-hand portion of the top sensor is on something at 10 feet and the right-hand portion of the top sensor is on something at

20 feet, the camera focuses at 10 feet In Normal Frame,

the sensing areas are small enough that they normally only obtain focus on one thing (you’d need a really wide lens and lots of tight detail at different distances for them

to react the same way as Wide Frame, something that just

doesn’t occur in nature)

2 This is a subject-motivated setting For example, while

shooting flying birds, I actually preferred Wide Frame,

because the wider sensing areas almost always got

enough of the bird to get the right focus, while Normal Frame sometimes was small enough to miss part of the

bird (think about the wing flapping in and out of a sensor area, for example) For some sports, the opposite is true For example, trying to follow distant soccer players the

closest subject tendency of Wide Frame, especially on

the two vertical sensors just to the sides of center, would sometimes decide the grass was more important than an off-center subject

3 Think of Wide Frame being a smaller #A4 Pattern 2 Closest Subject Priority option Try it Set the camera to

both these options and then flip the selector switch on the back of the camera between Group and Dynamic Area

AF Note how Wide Frame is covering a similar area to

what you set for #A4, but always smaller, no matter what the sensor you’ve picked So If #A4 Pattern 2 appeals to

you, Wide Frame gives you another variant of that Indeed, if you’ve set #A4 to Pattern 2 Closest Subject Priority, I’d suggest you set Wide Frame, as well That

way you can use the selector switch on the back of the camera to further fine tune your pattern

Custom Setting #A4 Group Autofocus Pattern (Pattern Selection in Group Dynamic AF)

When you set Group Dynamic autofocus on the D200, a grouped pattern of sensors is used to obtain focus information Which sensor in that pattern that is used for focus can also be selected

You choose the pattern of sensors used, and which of the pattern has preference, with this option:

Unfortunately, the patterns are labeled ambiguously (1 and 2),

making them difficult to remember I like to think of them as

“diamonds” and “lines,” though that’s not a perfect

description (think of the top and bottom diamonds as having been “cut off” and the left and right lines as being

Whether the line pattern for the central position is vertical or

horizontal for Pattern 2 is controlled by pressing the center of

the Direction pad

Recommendations:

1 Initially, I was attracted to Pattern 1, the diamonds

Remember, within a pattern, the camera may be using Closest Subject Priority (CSP), so the sensor that’s on the closest thing to the camera is the one used for focusing in that case When you use the diamond pattern, you’re basically selecting the top, center, bottom, left, and right

area to be used for focus (if you chose Closest Subject)

or the central sensor of that group (if you chose Center Area) In general, I find either works well for many action

and sports subjects where there isn’t a distracting

foreground But Closest Subject doesn’t necessarily

work for all framings and for all sports Consider for example, soccer If you were following a soccer player and not able to frame him or her tight enough, the sensor that would be used for focus would almost always be the bottom one of the diamond, which is almost certainly going to be looking at grass in front of the player What I’ve found is that I love the diamond pattern for occasions when I’m pretty tightly framed on a subject (e.g cropping the legs and shooting a subject from the waist up) I’ve even found a way to use it for quick and dirty hyperfocal focus when shooting landscapes with certain lenses and certain framings But over time, I’ve started using this pattern less and less

2 More recently, I’ve become enamored of Pattern 2, lines

This is especially true for sports shooting where I can’t always control the “tightness” of framing due to my position on the field and the lens being used I don’t like the left and right vertical line patterns as much (not sure what Nikon was thinking here), but I find that in my soccer example, the top and center horizontal line groups usually allow me to get focus perfect every time The vertical lines (left, center with Direction pad press, and right) are useful when shooting shots indoors at receptions and other occasions where you may have people standing

in loose groups and you want to control who’s in focus In short, the more thought I give to these two options, the

more I find interesting variants that make them usable for

me

3 F5 users who’ve taken the advice in my F5 eBook or that which appears on Moose Petersen’s Web site about deactivating two of the autofocus sensors to get better

performance, will want to choose Pattern 2 and use the

horizontal central pattern for the sake of consistency with their previous experience

4 You pick two things: the pattern (recommendations above)

and sensor priority (Closest Subject or Center Area)

The difference between these two is actually more

complex than at first it may seem Closest Subject

always has the camera choosing which sensor is used As

such, it can sometimes slow the camera down in low contrast situations as the camera tries to figure out where

the closest subject is But note Center Area doesn’t mean

that the central area will always be used for focus; it

means that focus always starts with what’s happening on the central sensor of the group Focus will shift if the camera thinks the subject it detected in the central sensor has shifted in position to another sensor Personally, I like

Center Area better than Closest Subject, as it gives me

a little more control and keeps the performance of the camera at maximum

Custom Setting #A5 Disable Focus Lock-On (Focus Tracking with Lock-On)

Nikon bodies have long had a feature called Focus Lock-on This function tells the focus system to ignore a sudden and temporary large change in focus, as happens, for example, if someone runs in front of your subject Sports photographers sometimes don’t always want that behavior, so Nikon added the ability to tune it:

Long Change has to occur for a long time to trigger

AF shift

Normal Nikon’s default pause before shifting AF

[default]

Short AF shifts even on short changes

Off Focus Lock-On is deactivated

Recommendations:

1 This is an action-specific setting; some sports and

activities you’ll want Lock-On active, others you won’t If you’ve been getting photos where the action in the

background is in focus but something that is happening near is out of focus, this new setting may be the solution (though check to make sure it isn’t simply a sensor

selection issue first)

2 Note that Off is the equivalent to “infinitely short.”

Essentially, Nikon has given you four timing settings: infinitely short, short, medium, and long If focus is

shifting when you don’t want it to, pick a longer setting If focus isn’t shifting when you want it to, pick a shorter setting

3 Changes to the autofocus algorithms have made it more likely that you’ll want to use a shorter setting than

Normal, at least in any Continuous frame advance

method Depending upon your other autofocus settings, a

large jump in focus distance between shots sometimes

throws the camera off unless you shorten this setting So, if you’re shooting in either Continuous frame advance mode, consider not using the default for this function I say “consider” because I’ve experienced mixed results Sometimes I want it short, sometimes longer, but the results don’t seem to be perfectly predictable In general, however, shorter seems better to me when shooting continuously

Custom Setting #A6 Initiating Autofocus (AF Activation)

Nikon bodies have long had a number of flexible and useful autofocus customizations, and this function is one of the classics The default behavior of most autofocus cameras is that autofocus begins when the shutter release is pressed partway That’s the default on the D200, as well, although

you can also initiate autofocus by pressing the AF-ON button

However, you can use this Custom Setting to remove

autofocus initiation from the shutter release press:

Shutter/AF-ON Shutter release triggers focus [default]

AF-ON Only Only AF-ON button triggers focus

Recommendations:

1 One way to think about this function is that it is a sneaky way to lock focus Let’s say that you’re shooting a baseball game and are anticipating some action at second base

With AF-ON Only set you’d point your camera at second base, press the AF-ON button to establish focus, then wait

for the action When it does happen, the camera won’t refocus due to the shutter release press (as it would with

the camera default in place) There are two useful aspects here: (a) if you established the focus well in the first place,

no player hitting one of the autofocus sensors is going to reset it to someplace you might not want it (if you’ve ever had a pitcher intrude into the near part of the frame and catch one of the outer AF sensors, you’ll know what I mean); and (b) you remove a teeny bit of lag out of the shutter release to picture time, helping you catch the exact moment of action

2 If you’re one of those focus-and-set-exposure-then-reframe

types of shooters, AF-ON Only helps you isolate these

actions in a way that you might find useful: (a) point the

camera at the thing you want in focus and press AF-ON;

(b) point the camera at that which you want to meter,

press and hold the AE-L/AF-L button (you might want to

explore Custom Setting #C2 for options here); and (c) reframe and press the shutter release

Custom Setting #A7 Focus Area Illumination (AF Area Illumination)

The focus area indicators in the viewfinder normally light up briefly in red to indicate which one (or ones) is being used to initiate focus This particular option causes a great deal of confusion amongst users, as the Nikon manual is a bit

scattered about how the lighted sensors work and Nikon falls into the trap of name overlap But before I get into that, let’s look at the options:

Auto Sensors only use brief red highlight when

necessary to distinguish due to scene brightness [default]

On Sensors always light briefly in red to show

which one will be used for focus information [default]

Off Sensors never light in red

Recommendations:

1 Personally, I like the default In dim light I get the brief red boost to help find the selected sensor, in bright light the black outline is good enough

2 You’re probably wondering why you might want to turn

this off One word: power If you set On, you’ll be using a

tiny bit more power every time you move autofocus around The default is a good balance between power consumption and visibility, but if you’re a power miser,

No Wrap Repeated presses stop sensor selection at edge

of display [default]

Wrap Repeated presses wrap selection around to the

opposite side of the display (but continue in the same direction)

Recommendation:

1 I like the wrap-around effect, but you’ll need to try both options to figure out which you like better

Custom Setting #A9 Autofocus Assist Illumination (Built-in Assist Illumination)

AF-The D200’s Autofocus Assist lamp is controlled by this function:

On In poor lighting, the Autofocus Assist light on

the camera illuminates [default]

Off The camera’s Autofocus Assist light never

illuminates

Recommendation:

1 Turn it Off, if possible The light on the camera is

annoying and poorly located (lens hoods and fingers tend

to block it, rendering it ineffective) Instead, mount an external i-TTL flash and activate its Autofocus Assist lighting Both the SB-600 and SB-800 have much wider patterns of lighting, and because it’s a dim red, it’s not intrusive

Custom Setting #A10 MB-D200 AF-ON Button Options (AF-ON Button for MB-D200 Battery Pack)

Because the optional MB-D200 vertical grip hand position

puts the Direction pad and AE-L/AF-L buttons too far away

to reach easily, Nikon has wisely chosen to allow you to

specify what the handy AF-ON button on the MB-D200 does AF-ON+ Besides the same AF-ON button function as Focus Area the camera’s AF-ON button, you can also hold

the MB-D200’s button down and use the Front Command dial to change the focus area [default]

AF-ON Pressing the MB-D200’s AF-ON button

performs the same function as the camera’s

AF-ON button AE/AF-L+ Pressing the AF-ON button on the MB-D200 Focus Area performs the same function as the camera’s

AE-L/AF-L button (see CSM #C2), plus the

focus area can be changed by holding the button and turning the Front Command dial

AE/AF-L Pressing the AF-ON button on the MB-D200 Focus Area performs the same function as the camera’s

AE-L/AF-L button (see CSM #C2) Focus Area Neither focus nor exposure are affected by

button press; but holding the AF-ON button on

the MB-D200 and turning the Front Command dial changes the autofocus sensor used

Same as FUNC Button Pressing the AF-ON button on

the MB-D200 performs the same

function as the camera’s FUNC

button (see CSM #F4)

Recommendations:

1 You’ll note that there are four things you can control with

the AF-ON button: AF-ON button function, AE-L/AF-L button function, FUNC button function, and focus area

selection You’re given the option of the most logical couplings, plus the ability to have the button control only one thing Thus, the first thing you should think about is whether you want the button to do one or two things

Personally, I think that AF-ON+Focus Area and L+Focus Area are the most logical choices for most

AE/AF-shooters, as you really need a convenient way to choose autofocus sensors with the vertical grip, plus you want the

button to do something else

2 I leave my camera set at the default Why? Because I don’t

necessarily like having two buttons labeled AF-ON that

do different things (this function only changes the button

on the vertical release)

Custom Setting #B1 Automatic ISO Setting (ISO Sensitivity Auto Control)

Normally, the D200 uses specific ISO values you set (see

“ISO Sensitivity” on page <H247>) But you can set the camera

to automatically boost ISO values (up to 1600) in low light situations Nikon says “when optimal exposure cannot be achieved at the sensitivity selected by the user,” which

doesn’t give you much indication of when the camera

changes values

Fortunately, Nikon made a change from the D100 where this function was originally implemented: the D200 displays an

ISO AUTO indicator in both the back LCD and viewfinder,

and this indicator is lit constantly when you’ve enabled AUTO ISO The D200 also shows the actual (adjusted) ISO value in both the viewfinder and on the top LCD and blinks

ISO AUTO to tell you when it’s been changed However this

change in displayed value doesn’t occur until the metering is active

The trigger that causes an ISO adjustment varies depending upon what exposure mode you’re in:

• In Shutter-priority exposure mode, the camera begins boosting the ISO when the shutter speed you select requires an aperture faster than the maximum aperture on

the lens The ISO AUTO in the viewfinder and on the top

LCD begins blinking to warn you that the camera is changing ISO and the ISO value changes

• In Manual exposure mode the camera boosts the ISO and keeps the exposure bar centered if the light (exposure) changes (in other words, it honors you aperture and

shutter speed selection first and foremost) The ISO AUTO

in the viewfinder and on the top LCD begin blinking to warn you that the camera is changing ISO and the ISO value itself changes (Note that you can still overexpose or underexpose an image in this situation—the camera doesn’t have any ISO values below the base 100 and it won’t go beyond 1600, either.)

• In Aperture-priority and Program exposure modes, the camera boosts the ISO only when you hit a shutter speed

of 1/30 second (the default; you can also change this

value in this function) The ISO AUTO in the viewfinder

and on the back LCD begins blinking to warn you that the camera is changing ISO, and the ISO value itself changes Several other aspects of this function to watch out for:

• If the ISO value appears in red on the information pages for a photo after you’ve taken a shot, this indicates that the camera altered the ISO from what you set

• The ISO value displayed in the menu system is the ISO

value you set, not the one that the camera may be setting The ISO value shown on the top LCD and in the

viewfinder may not agree with the one in the menu

system once automatic adjustment occurs

• If the flash is active (either internal or external) the camera

does not alter the ISO value This has consequences on

your ambient exposure (if you don’t know what I mean by that, read the flash section and come back)

• The ISO value is adjusted in 1/6 stop increments using this function, not 1/3 stop increments

• The camera will not set the H0.3 through H1.0 ISO

values

Off ISO values are those you specifically set and

are not automatically altered by the camera [default]

On Under certain circumstances, and if the flash is

not active, the camera boosts ISO values in low light

This function also allows you to set two additional

parameters:

Max Sensitivity The highest ISO value the camera will

automatically set [default]

Min Shutter Speed The lowest shutter speed for Program

and Aperture-priority exposure modes that will be honored before the ISO value is automatically adjusted

Recommendations:

1 Avoid it You have to pay close attention to when it kicks

in, and the caveats—such as flash turning it off—are often enough to get you the wrong results On a D200, noise levels definitely increase significantly at higher ISO values, while long shutter speeds don’t generate much

additional noise (especially if Long Exp NR is On) So

it’s a no-brainer when you’re shooting from a stable platform with non-moving subjects to simply use a low ISO value and longer shutter speed

In non-flash situations where a minimum shutter speed is absolutely needed (e.g indoor basketball), the D200 still