Nikon D2X or D2Xs Camera
Lesson One: Getting Set-up!
 Oxford Pier Shot using a Singh Ray variND filter to slow the exposure ot 20 seconds on a bright day. © Tony Sweet All rights reserved |
The D2X and the D2Xs are Nikon’s flagship DSLRs. D2X users can get a firmware update from the Nikon Web site to add 95% of the D2Xs features. The D2X is a pro-level, top-of-the-line camera that handles much like a film camera, namely the F5.
As many photographers are interested in becoming stock photographers, it's important to have a camera that has acceptable file size and image quality. All major stock agencies accept files from the Nikon D2X.
As you are probably the owner of a D2X, you can attest to its ease of operation, large 2.5" viewing screen, and the expressive multiple exposure and layering capabilities. However, there are many menu options that can be a bit daunting and their usefulness can be questionable or very specific. Actually, professional photographers do not utilize many of the D2X menu items. Professionals tend to minimize image adjustments in-camera, such as color, sharpening, and contrast. These are best handled in image editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop. Yet, there are a number of settings that greatly aid and facilitate image capture. Some of these settings are easily found, but some are nestled in sub-menus. We will discuss these settings, their functions, and how to find and set them.
What I'll do during this class is to describe the basic controls and functions to get you going feeling comfortable using the D2X. I'll also note which settings I personally use and why. During the course, you can feel free to send specific questions that may not have been covered or not covered in depth enough for your needs.
| NOTE: This course is not meant to replace the owner's manual. It's meant to get you going using the camera in an effective, user friendly, easy to understand format. But, there is a lot of useful information in the manual. It's just tough to wade through at times. |
GOOD PRACTICE: Always have your manual with your camera. Mine is always with me. These are complicated machines. One can't commit all of the information to memory.
This is a great, professional level camera and after we get you past the "what is all this stuff…" phase, you'll have even more fun!!
Basic Info
The battery in the D2X is an 11.1 volt lithium and lasts for a very long time. I carry one extra and always have my battery charger with me. But, bear in mind that constant and prolonged use of the menus and viewing the LCD can dramatically cut down on battery time. I can actually attest to this personally! Tip: Have at least one extra battery.
Flash Cards or Memory Cards: These are where all of your work gets recorded. These small hard drives are inserted into the camera. With the file size of the D2X, 2gig and 4gig are recommended. Nikon recommends Sandisk and Lexar cards. I have a flash card case holding four cards, 3 4-gig cards and 1 2-gig card.
| NOTE: Whenever using a flash card for the first time, it's a good practice to format the card in your camera, not from your flash card reader going to your computer. Go into the camera Set-Up menu, select the "Format" command, select "Yes," and then hit the "ENTER" button. That's it! Now you're ready to start making great images! |
The Sensor: One of the major issues when working with a digital camera that uses interchangeable lenses, is that the photographer wants to change lenses! Sensors are dust magnets. But, where does the dust come from? Well, particles can be picked up from the atmosphere, from tiny metal shavings from twisting the lens onto the mount, and from lint on your camera body cap(!), to name a few. The most effective way to avoid dust on your sensor it to dedicate a lens to the camera and never change it. That is about 100% effective, but in the real world, things are a bit different. Any serious photographer will want to use different lenses, which necessitates removing one lens and replacing it with another, momentarily leaving the mirror and sensor open to the elements. The best way to change lenses is to practice changing lenses quickly with the camera turned downwards and away from the body. That way, when you're in the field, the changing process is in place and you'll be able to minimize (not eliminate) dust on your sensor. Important: Always turn the camera off when changing lenses as the fully charged (camera on) sensor will attract more particles than when turned off.
To remove dust from the sensor, the easiest way it to use an air bulb (Giotto Rocket) to blow off dust, NOT canned air, as that will harm the sensor. If the dust is "stuck" and cannot be removed from the sensor with the air bulb, consider using visible dust, visibledust.com. For stubborn dirt, I use Eclipse cleaning fluid and Sensor Swabs.
Do This First
Set your diopter to make sure that the display is in clear focus.
- Remove the lens cap and turn the camera on.
- The diopter adjustment dial is to the upper right of the eye-piece. Rotate the diopter adjustment control until the focus brackets are displayed in sharp focus.
Basic Functions:
 metering systems © Tony Sweet All rights reserved |
 metering areas © Tony Sweet All rights reserved |
 camera back © Tony Sweet All rights reserved |
IMPORTANT: After scrolling past ISO1600, you will see a series of "H" designations (H0.3, H0.7, H1.0). They are higher ISOs. H0.3 = ISO2200; H0.7 = ISO2600; H1.0 = ISO3200
White balance - This will be discussed at length and illustrated in lesson #2.
File formats - these are found by pressing the QUAL button on the back of the camera, just below the rear control panel. By depressing the QUAL button and the turning the rear command dial, the various file formats appear in the rear control panel. It is also accessible by going to the Shooting Menu > Image Quality.
The various file formats available on the D2X are: Raw, Fine JPEG, Normal JPEG, and Basic JPEG, and TIFF. WARNING: Under no conditions shoot in TIFF format. The files are unnecessarily large and take forever to write. No professionals that I know ever shoot TIFFs.
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D2X Gallery
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The D2X can also produce 2 formats at the same time. This is a good feature for quick viewing and editing because JPEGs are rendered much faster than Raw. The following combinations are available: Raw + JPEG Fine, Raw + JPEG Normal, and Raw + Basic JPEG. Now, which do we choose and why?
I always shoot in Raw and Basic JPEG.
Raw captures the largest file possible from the camera, which will produce the highest quality prints. Stock agencies only accept tiffs from Raw capture. Raw files are infinitely editable with no loss of quality or image degradation. The white balance can be changed in the Raw process stage. Think of Jpegs like a transparency. What you get is the end of the process. Editing and resaving JPEGs can create noticeable image degradation.
JPEG is the preferred format of many wedding photographers. As JPEG is a much smaller format, many more can fit on a flash card. JPEGS write faster. The drawback is that image processing is minimal without causing image degradation.
| NOTE: Also, notice on the top left dial, under the BKT, "L", and the "flash icon" buttons are another set of letters. Press the very small button at the left of the dial on the camera body to be able to turn this dial. |
S (Single Frame Shooting) - Press the shutter one time for one exposure.
CL (Continuous low speed shooting) - Camera shoots continuously while the shutter release is depressed. In this mode the actual shooting rate can be set between 1 and 4 frames per second (through CSM d4), the default is 3 frames per second.
CH (Continuous high speed shooting) - Camera shoots continuously while the shutter release is depressed. In this mode the camera shoots at its maximum speed of 5 frames per second.
Self-Timer - Camera takes a shot after a predefined delay. This can be set to 2, 5, 10, or 20 seconds via CSM c4.
M-up (Mirror Up) - Press the shutter release once to raise the mirror, again to take the shot. That's pressing the shutter TWO times.
Custom Functions:
This is where everyone goes a little nuts! What do all of these items mean and which ones do we select and how do we even know what they mean and how they affect the final image?
Well, rest easy! I'll get you started by listing the menu settings that I use and why. After getting a good handle on that, you can feel free to read the manual descriptions and if anything looks like it may be of use to you, try it.
I'll leave out the menu items set from the factory and just mention the ones that I've adjusted. You'll notice that an asterisk appears next to any setting that has been changed from the factory default.
 D2X playback menu © Tony Sweet All rights reserved |
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Delete - Keep at the default of only deleting one image at a time
- Playback Folder - Keep at default
- Slide Show - You can actually play back your images in a slide show on your LCD. Nice idea. Killer on the batteries.
- Hide Image - Hides any image you want to be kept from being viewed.
- Print Set - I leave it alone. All print work is better done in software.
- Display Mode - Have a look at this one. When you scroll up and down while an image is be displayed, the checked selections become available.
- Image Review - When this is turned on, the image pops up on the screen right after shooting. It takes up valuable time in the field and takes a deadly toll on batteries. I have it checked "off."
- After Delete - I leave it on the default: Show Next
- Rotate Tall - Turn to "off." That way the entire vertical image will fill the LCD, but you have to turn the camera. The full size is good. If turnred "on," the camera remains in horizontal format and a vertical images is shown in vertical format on a horizontal LCD. The vertical is much smaller this way.
 shooting menu © Tony Sweet All rights reserved |
- Image Quality - As stated earlier, I always shoot in Raw and JPEG basic for best quality (Raw), and maximum flexibility (JPEG basic).
- Image Size - I always set this to the maximum, "LARGE."
- Hi-speed Crop - Good for sports and action photography. More frames per second, higher magnification, but much smaller file size.
Also, Don't forget to set it back! in the menu when you go back to making images for stock or for a large print.
- JPEG Compression - set to "Optimal Quality"
- Raw Compression - set to "OFF"
- White Balance - I have mine set to "bright sun" most of the time and adjust, if needed in a camera Raw processor. This will be covered extensively in Lesson 2.
- Long Exposure NR - Set to "ON" to cut down on noise created by using long exposures.
- High ISO NR - When set to "NORM," the NR will kick in automatically beginning at ISO400.
- Image Sharpening - Set to "None." I prefer to do all of my sharpening in Photoshop.
- Tone Compensation - Set to "Less Contrast." I prefer to do all of my color corrections in Photoshop.
- Color Space - Set to AdobeRGB for the widest color gamut.
- Color Mode - You may want to experiment here a bit. Since I shoot mostly landscape type work, I set the Color Mode to III as per the manual and found it too intense rendering reds and oranges, so I set it back to Color Mode II. The reds and oranges are toned down more to my liking.
- Hue Adjustment - set to the default <0>. Again, I prefer to do all color adjustment work in Photoshop.
 custom menu © Tony Sweet All rights reserved |
- (e1) Flash Sync Speed - Set to 1/250 (Auto FP) if you use a Nikon flash unit in the Nikon Creative Lighting System.
- (e2) Slowest Speed when using flash - I set mine to 1/15 sec as I like doing rear curtain synch flash on moving subjects at slow shutter speeds. This setting is up for grabs depending on your personal shooting style using flash. A safe bet with this setting is to leave it as is until you find that you have a need to change it.
Set to 1/250 if you are using a non-Nikon flash unit.
Playback Mode
Histogram on/off - This is a quick way to see the histogram then press it again to put it away.
Basic Maintenance
Don't forget that these cameras are "field computers" and I treat mine accordingly. Although reading through the manual, is reads like these are built like tanks and can withstand extreme temperatures, I like to rely on common sense. After all, there are electronics involved. If it's too hot for me, it's probably too hot for the camera. If I'm getting too wet to work in the field, it's probably not the best situation for the camera. Just common sense stuff like that.
Avoid tossing the camera into your camera bag. A film camera like the F5 and F6 can almost be run over by a car and still work. A high-end professional camera (read computer) like the D2X is a bit more fragile.
Clean sand and water (dew, light rain, mist) off of your camera as soon as possible. Canned air used on the outside of the camera only, can blow off sand and dust particles. Also, I keep an old toothbrush in my bag for getting sand out of tight spots. I use a soft chamois cloth and canned air can remove moisture.
Foreign particles will appear on the sensor and will appear as specks on your image, requiring cloning to remove them. How to avoid this situation? Use only one lens and never take it off of the camera! For most photographers this is unacceptable, so we need good lens changing technique. Just to review, when changing lenses, hold the camera away from your body, face down, and then change lenses as quickly as possible. In the event of blowing sand, hold the camera opening as close to the body as possible to shield the camera from the wind. This may pick up some dust from your clothing, but is preferable to having a blast of sand enter your open camera.
One quick way to check for particles is to shoot at a white or clear blue sky. It's also a good idea to zoom in on the screen and scroll across and down. You will see particles on the camera monitor, and therefore on your images.
| Stay tuned for next week's lesson on White Balance. |
Your Assignment: Set-up!
- Go through the D2X menu and make the settings suggested here, which should work for everyone as a jumping off point. Pull up a picture on the camera monitor and press the up or down arrows on the Multi-selector to cycle through your images. Then on a single image press the right or left arrows on the Multi-selector to cycle through image information (meta-data).
- Shoot an indoor scene of your choosing at ISO100, ISO400, ISO800, and ISO3200. It's easiest to just set the camera to P (program) mode and only change the ISO for each exposure. Don't use a tripod. Take note of the change of image quality and contrast at higher ISOs.
- Upload any other three images for a general critique!
Submit a total of seven(7) images to the Campus Square by the due date listed in the Nikon D200 lesson.
If you have any questions, send me an email or post a question on the online Q&A forums.
I know that you'll be studying hard, but don't forget to Have Fun!!!
Tony
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