Nikon D7100 Digital Field Guide E-Book

J. Dennis Thomas

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Everything you need to know to take full advantage of your Nikon D7100

As a well-rounded, feature-rich dSLR, the new Nikon D7100 is a compact lightweight camera that is loaded with sophisticated features. This full-color guide is packed with expert advice that will both educate and inspire you to take amazing photographs with your Nikon D7100. Filled with stunning images by author and photographer J. Dennis Thomas, this guide goes beyond the owner's manual to offer you helpful tips, tricks, and techniques for using the camera's many features and explains when and how to use each function.

• Features a handy trim size so the book can go where you go, allowing you to frequently refer to the professional-level techniques for capturing memorable photos and handling tricky situations
• Includes full-color images of each menu screen to reinforce your understanding
• Contains a grey and color checker card to help you capture perfect white balance and color in any environment
• Shares helpful examples that offer advice on taking portraits, candids, sports, travel, macro photography, and much more

Nikon D7100 Digital Field Guide is the perfect portable companion to your new Nikon D7100!

Leseprobe

Nikon® D7100™ Digital Field Guide

Published byJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc.10475 Crosspoint BoulevardIndianapolis, IN 46256www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-118-50937-1

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization of Web site may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013936423

Trademarks: Wiley and the Wiley logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates. Nikon and D7100 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nikon Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Credits

Acquisitions Editor

Courtney Allen

Project Editor

Cricket Krengel

Technical Editor

Mike Hagen

Copy Editor

Kim Heusel

Editorial Director

Robyn Siesky

Business Manager

Amy Knies

Senior Marketing Manager

Sandy Smith

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

Project Coordinator

Sheree Montgomery

Graphics and Production Specialists

Jennifer GoldsmithAndrea HornbergerJennifer Mayberry

Quality Control Technician

Dwight Ramsey

Proofreading and Indexing

Evelyn WellbornBIM Indexing & Proofreading Services

About the Author

J. Dennis Thomas is an Austin, Texas-based photographer and the author of 20 Nikon Digital Field Guides by Wiley, as well as the author of Concert and Live Music Photography: Pro Tips from the Pit and Urban and Rural Decay Photography: Finding the Beauty in the Blight, published by Focal Press. He is also a frequent author of articles on photographic theory and technique for Digital Photo Magazine, MasteringPhoto.com, F-Stoppers.com, and his own website, the Nikon Digital Field Guide Online (http://Nikondfg.com).

He is represented by Corbis Images and does freelance photography for Rolling Stone, SPIN, and Veri.Live magazines. His photographs have been featured in many notable publications including Rolling Stone, SPIN, People, Us Weekly, Elle, W magazine, Thrasher, Ebony, New York Post, Veri.Live, and many more.

When not out photographing or in front of his computer writing about photography, he can be found gracing the stages of the Live Music Capital of the World and popping up randomly in films and television shows.

Acknowledgments

These books wouldn’t be possible without the great team at Wiley working behind the scenes to put out a great product. My name is on the cover, but there are so many folks that contribute to these books that I’d like to thank: Courtney Allen for keeping me on the projects, Cricket Krengel for pretty much being the best project editor ever, Kathleen Jeffers, Robyn Siesky, Barry Pruett, and Vera Weaver. And a special shout-out to the elusive Tom Heine because if he hadn’t found me, I wouldn’t be doing this.

I’d also like to thank the folks at Precision Camera and Video in Austin, Texas, Jack and Monica Puryear at Puryear Photography, and Sigma USA for making great lenses.

As always, to my girls Henrietta and Maddie…

Nikon® D7100™ Digital Field Guide

Table of Contents

Introduction

About the Digital Field Guide

Chapter 1: Exploring the Nikon D7100

Key Components of the D7100

Top of the camera

Back of the camera

Front of the camera

Left side of the camera

Right side of the camera

Viewfinder Display

Control Panel

Information Display

Chapter 2: Nikon D7100 Essentials

Exposure Modes

Auto modes

Programmed auto

Aperture-priority auto

Shutter-priority auto

Manual

Scene Modes

Special Effects Modes

Metering Modes

Matrix

Center-weighted

Spot

Autofocus

Phase detection

Contrast detection

Autofocus Modes

Auto Servo AF

Continuous Servo AF

Single Servo AF

Autofocus Area Modes

Auto-area AF

Single-point AF

Dynamic-area AF

Release Modes

ISO Sensitivity

Auto ISO

Noise reduction

White Balance

The Kelvin scale

White balance settings

Picture Controls

File Formats, Size, and Compression

NEF (RAW)

JPEG

Image size

Image quality

Chapter 3: Setting up the Nikon D7100

The Playback Menu

Delete

Playback folder

Hide image

Playback display options

Copy image(s)

Image review

After delete

Rotate tall

Slide show

DPOF print order

The Shooting Menu

Reset shooting menu

Storage folder

File naming

Role played by card in Slot 2

Image quality

Image size

Image area

JPEG compression

NEF (RAW) recording

White balance

Set Picture Control

Manage Picture Control

Color space

Active D-Lighting

High Dynamic Range (HDR)

Auto distortion control

Long exposure NR

High ISO NR

ISO sensitivity settings

Remote control mode (ML-L3)

Multiple exposure

Interval timer shooting

Movie settings

The Custom Setting Menu

Reset custom settings

Custom Settings menu a: Autofocus

Custom Settings menu b: Metering/exposure

Custom Setting menu c: Timers/AE lock

Custom Setting menu d: Shooting/display

Custom Setting menu e: Bracketing/flash

Custom Setting menu f: Controls

Custom Settings menu g: Movie

The Setup Menu

Format memory card

Save user settings

Reset user settings

Monitor brightness

Clean image sensor

Lock mirror up for cleaning

Image Dust Off ref photo

Flicker reduction

Time zone and date

Auto image rotation

Battery info

Image comment

Copyright information

Save/load settings

Virtual horizon

Non-CPU lens data

AF fine-tune

HDMI

GPS

Wireless mobile adapter

Network

Eye-Fi upload

Firmware version

The Retouch Menu

D-Lighting

Red-eye correction

Trim

Monochrome

Filter effects

Color balance

Image overlay

NEF (RAW) processing

Resize

Quick retouch

Straighten

Distortion control

Fisheye

Color outline

Color sketch

Perspective control

Miniature effect

Selective color

Edit movie

Side-by-side comparison

Recent Settings/My Menu

Chapter 4: Selecting and Using Lenses with the Nikon D7100

Deciphering Nikon Lens Codes

Lens Compatibility

The DX Crop Factor

Third-Party Lenses

Types of Lenses

Wide-angle lenses

Standard zoom lenses

Telephoto lenses

Close-up/Macro lenses

Fisheye lenses

Lens Accessories

Teleconverters

Extension tubes

Close-up filters

Ultraviolet filters

Neutral density filters

Chapter 5: Controlling Exposure

Defining Exposure

ISO

Shutter speed

Aperture or f-stop

Fine-Tuning Your Exposure

Exposure compensation

Using histograms

Chapter 6: Working with Light

Lighting Essentials

The quality of light

Lighting direction

Natural Light

Continuous Light

The D7100 Built-in Flash

Built-in flash exposure modes

Flash Sync Modes

Flash compensation

Creative Lighting System Basics

Light Modifiers

Chapter 7: Working with the Live View and Video Modes

Live View Mode

Focus modes

AF-area modes

Using Live View mode

Shooting and Editing Video

Frame size and frame rate

In-camera video editing

Chapter 8: Viewing, Downloading, Managing, and Editing Images

Viewing Your Images

Downloading Your Images

File Management and Workflow

Folder structure

Editing

Filenames and metadata

Chapter 9: Advanced Topics

U1/U2 User Settings

Working with Off-camera Flashes

Gear

Manual flash exposures

Technique

HDR and Tone Mapping

Bracketing

In-Camera HDR

Tone mapping

Processing Options

Tonal Adjustments and Color Corrections

Appendix A: General Composition Tips

Appendix B: Accessories

Appendix C: How to Use the Gray Card and Color Checker

Glossary

Introduction

With the ultra-high resolution of the D800 and the D800E, the incredible and affordable full-frame camera in a small package the D600, and then the brand-new magnificently performing 24MP sensor of the D5200, Nikon has been turning the camera world upside down and giving everything a good shaking up.

With all of these great new cameras with impressive features, people weren’t expecting a major upgrade to the D7000. Sure, it was expected that the resolution would be increased to at least 24MP, but what more could Nikon do?

Nikon dropped another bomb on the photo world and surprised everyone once again. Nikon took the best aspects from the newest and best high-end cameras, put these great features in the familiar compact body style and produced the D7100 — another game-changing DX camera. Nikon added more magnesium to the camera frame to make it even stronger and also increased the weather sealing making it on par with the D300s/D700 camera bodies. Nikon also put in the Multi-CAM 3500DX from the D300/s and updated it with features from the D4. This is now the top-of-the-line DX AF-system with 51-points (15 cross-type) and 3D-focus tracking. The D7100 also inherits the top-of-the-line Expeed 3 image processor and the 2016-pixel Color Matrix Metering II metering system. The D7100 also is the first Nikon camera to sport an OLED readout in the viewfinder, and the brand-new high-speed 1.3X crop mode. Further establishing itself as being as close to a professional camera as you can get at this price level, the D7100 has the same 24MP sensor first seen in the D5200, but with a big twist — the D7100 has no Optical Low-Pass Filter. This is something that D800E owners had to pay $300 extra for. This means even sharper images than even the 24MP D3X can give you.

The D7100 has everything advanced and even professional photographers need, but there’s more: Nikon hasn’t forgotten about newer photographers, either. The D7100 offers lots of scene and effect modes to allow you to open up your creativity and capture great images in any shooting situation, no matter how much photography experience you have. The D7100 also allows in-camera editing so you don’t necessarily need to be computer savvy to add great effects to your images. It even allows you to edit RAW files.

The D7100 should appeal to videographers as well. It matches the D800 in almost every way in terms of video capabilities, including the ability to record uncompressed video through the HDMI port. The other features that should appeal to the videographer — besides the lower price point — are the stereo microphone input; the stereo headphone output; the ability to control ISO, shutter speed, and aperture; and the plethora of fast lenses that Nikon offers to achieve the shallow depth of field that is the hallmark of high-quality video production.

In the end, Nikon created an amazing, full-featured, full-frame camera that isn’t out of reach of regular folks.

About the Digital Field Guide

The Nikon Digital Field Guide book series is intended to act as an adjunct to the manual that comes with your camera. While the manual gives you a great overview of the camera, a photographer didn’t write it. The Nikon D7100 Digital Field Guide gives you all the information you need about the camera from a working photographer’s perspective.

The goal of this guide is to help photographers, from novices to advanced amateurs, to get a grasp on all the features of this great new camera. It includes tips learned from working with the camera in the field, as well as some basic information to help newer photographers get up to speed quickly.

This full-color guide walks you through setting up your camera and offers insights into which settings to use, as well as why each setting is useful in a particular situation. It includes full-color images that demonstrate different photography concepts, and shows you some of the things that the D7100 is able to accomplish under different circumstances.

In the end, the Nikon D7100 Digital Field Guide is designed to help you quickly learn to navigate and handle your camera better, as well as help you to reach your goals and achieve your photographic visions more easily.

Chapter 1: Exploring the Nikon D7100

This chapter covers the key components of the D7100 — the buttons, switches, dials, and knobs. These are the features you will need to master because you will be using them all the time to modify settings in order to adapt to changing shooting conditions.

The D7100 is very similar to its precursor, the D7000, and also very similar to its FX sibling, the D600. If you’re upgrading from the D7000 or you purchased the D7100 as an adjunct to the D600, you’ll feel right at home. If you’re stepping up from a D5100 or a D3200, the number of controls may surprise you. If you are accustomed to using one of Nikon’s compact pro bodies, such as the D300s, D700, or D800, then you will definitely notice the difference in the control layout.

Getting to know all your camera’s menus, buttons, and dials allows you to capture your images just as you envision them.

Key Components of the D7100

You use the exterior controls of the D7100 to access features that you change often. Being a higher-end model than the D3200 and D5100 series, the D7100 offers a lot more buttons and dials to allow you to change your settings more quickly, which is a good thing. On the other hand, the D7100 has fewer buttons than the professional-grade cameras, so a lot of the buttons perform double or even triple duty, depending on what mode the camera is in.

The good news is that you can customize a number of buttons so that you can control the settings that you need to access most often.

Top of the camera

A lot of important buttons are on the top of the D7100. This makes it easier to find them, especially when you have your eye to the viewfinder. This is where you find the dials to change the shooting modes, as well as the all-important shutter-release button and the relatively new Movie record button.

• Shutter-release button. In my opinion, this is the most important button on the camera. Pressing this button halfway activates the camera’s autofocus and light meter. Fully depressing this button releases the shutter, and a photograph is taken. When the camera has been idle and has “gone to sleep,” lightly pressing the shutter-release button wakes it up. When the image review is on, lightly pressing the shutter-release button turns off the LCD and prepares the camera for another shot.

• On/Off switch. This switch, located concentric to the shutter-release button, is used to turn the camera on and off. Push the switch all the way to the left to turn the camera off; pull the switch to the right to turn the camera on. The On/Off switch also has a spring-loaded momentary switch, which, when pulled to the far right, turns on the control panel backlight.