Going Topside
The top surface of the Nikon Coolpix P7100 (see Figure 3.10) has some frequently accessed controls of its own. You’ll make many of the changes you need while shooting with these controls. Two important features are located at the left side of the top surface, and the rest are located on the right side.
Figure 3.10
Top Left Controls
The key controls and features on the left side, shown in Figure 3.11, are as follows:
Accessory/Hot shoe. Normally protected by a slide-out plastic cover, this shoe is used to mount accessory products, chiefly external flash units like the Nikon SB-400. However, you’ll find other add-ons that fit this slot, such as radio/remote flash triggering devices, or external LED illuminators (which can be great as supplementary light for shooting movies, because they provide a constant light source). Slide an electronic flash into this metal accessory shoe when you need more power than you can get from the built-in flash. A dedicated flash unit, like one of Nikon’s SB-series Speedlights, can use the multiple contact points shown to communicate exposure, zoom setting, white balance, focus distance information, and other data between the flash and the camera. There’s more on using flash, including an accessory Speedlight, in Chapter 9.
Figure 3.11
Quick menu dial. This dial on the left shoulder allows you to activate any of six important P7100 features. While the camera is in one of the creative modes like P, S, A, or M, rotate the dial to the function you want to use (to change setting) and press the button in the center of the dial. (In fully automatic modes, many of the functions will not be available.) That will instantly activate the submenu for that function on the LCD so you can scroll to set any option that you want to use. As usual, press the OK button after you do so to confirm your selection; that also closes the submenu screen so you can take the next shot immediately. Here are the functions that you can access.
ISO or sensitivity. The ability to change the ISO (sensitivity to light) is essential, especially when you will be shooting in dark locations where you want to get a good exposure using a fast shutter speed. It’s great to be able to dial in your desired ISO setting without the fanfare or fuss required on cameras that bury this function in menus. We will delve into detail in Chapter 5.
WB (white balance). As with any digital camera, this feature allows you to set an option that is most likely to provide an accurate or pleasing overall color balance under various types of lighting. Some advanced functions are available too for customizing the white balance. I’ll discuss all of them in detail in Chapter 9.
BKT (exposure bracketing). This term refers to shooting three or more photos, each at a different exposure level, to get one that’s just right in terms of overall brightness. After pressing this button, you will be able to activate this feature and also set several important aspects, all covered in Chapter 5.
QUAL (Image recording format, Size, Quality level). This function lets you set the JPEG quality (Fine, Basic, or Normal) as well as the JPEG size (from 10 megapixels to much smaller). But it also lets you set the camera to shoot RAW images (NRW). When you select RAW, the camera will record raw data that you will later modify and convert to an actual image file using computer software or an in-camera conversion feature in Playback mode. If you decide to use the NRW (RAW) capture mode, you can also set the P7100 to simultaneously shoot a JPEG. When you do so, this item lets you specify the size and the quality of the JPEG that will be made along with the RAW capture. These are important aspects that will be covered in detail in Chapter 4.
Picture Control. When you select this item on the quick menu dial, you’ll get a screen that lets you set one of four styles, each providing a different overall look to the image. In other words, each one automatically provides an effect with a specific color rendition (or black-and-white), level of sharpness, and contrast. The Standard style is the default but you can also choose Neutral, Vivid, and Monochrome. More importantly, scrolling to the right from any of the first three style items lets you set your own desired level of sharpness, contrast, and color saturation. The parameters that you can set differ when you scroll to the right from the Monochrome style item; you get to set the contrast level but also any of the available filter effects and toning options. All of this provides great versatility in instructing the camera as to what the image should look like and will be covered in more detail in Chapter 4. The My Menu position (described next) lets you create customized Picture Controls for even more versatility.
My Menu. I’m covering this quick menu item last because it’s a bit unusual and different from the others. It gives you quick access to five functions, including some that would otherwise require more extensive menu navigation to access. When you press the button inside the quick menu dial, the My Menu screen displays the current camera settings for four functions at a glance (listed to the right of the name of the function) and allows you to change settings. (Along the top of the screen, it also shows you the settings in some other camera functions, such as Quality, ISO, and WB as a reminder; however, you cannot change those from My Menu.)
Working with the My Menu Options and Custom Picture Controls
By default, the P7100 lists the following options in My Menu: Custom Picture Control, Metering mode, Continuous (the drive modes), AF Area mode, and Autofocus mode. Using the last four is easy: just scroll down to any of the entries with the multi selector; when you reach an item, its available options are listed along the bottom of the screen. Scroll to the right to reach the option you want to set; press OK to confirm your selection and return the camera to shooting operation.
The first entry, Custom Picture Control allows you to define your own picture style. After you’ve done so, you can activate your customized picture style whenever you want.
Here’s how to use the Custom Picture Control feature:
1. Choose a style to re-define. Scroll to the right when this item is highlighted in the My Menu screen and press OK. That will take you to a screen where you can select one of the four styles (already discussed earlier in the Picture Control section).
2. Change parameters. Scroll to the right from the style you selected and the parameters you can change will appear, exactly as they would if you were using the Picture Control item of the quick menu.
3. Confirm and save your changes. When you’re finished making changes, press OK. The Save As screen appears, with Custom 1 highlighted. Press OK again. That will save your customized picture style as Custom 1, an additional item for Picture Control. You can recall it for use at any time by selecting Custom 1 from the Picture Control item. There’s also a Custom 2 option so you can do all of that again, with entirely different settings and save this second customized picture style for later recall.
As the name My Menu implies, you can change the items that will be displayed whenever you activate this item with the quick menu dial. (Neither the quick menu nor the Customize item is available when the P7100 is set to a fully automatic or Scene mode.) Press the MENU button, go to the Setup menu, and scroll to Customize My Menu. You’ll see the items, numbered 1 to 5, that are currently displayed in My Menu. You can keep any of these or switch to displaying an entirely different function.
For example, say you want to change a Custom Picture Control in My Menu. In that case, scroll to the item and scroll to the right to reveal the list that you can choose from to be used as item 1 under My Menu. Perhaps you want Item 1 to be the Vibration Reduction function (to turn the camera’s image stabilizer on and off anytime you want). Scroll down to that item and press OK. The previous screen again appears confirming that from now on, Vibration Reduction will be the first item to be listed whenever you access My Menu in the quick menu.
If you want to change the function that will be appear second when you access My Menu, scroll to Metering, and scroll right. Follow the same steps above to set the function that will be the second item in My Menu. Do that for any of the other three as well, if you want. When you’re finished, touch the shutter release button to return the camera to shooting operation. Activate My Menu with the quick menu dial and its button to confirm that the five items now listed are the functions that you set in the Setup menu. Now, the P7100’s My Menu is set so you can access your own five favorite functions quickly and change settings within each of them whenever you want.
Top Right Controls
On the right side of the top panel, you’ll find two dials, a lever, and three buttons, shown in Figure 3.12:
Mode dial. This dial is used to select among the various shooting modes offered by the P7100. But it also lists three items marked with a U (for User Setting modes), plus an entirely new feature, EFFECTS, indicating special effects options that you can activate. Although effects are not modes per se, I’ll discuss them along with the shooting modes and the User Setting modes in Chapter 5. Movie mode calls for a much longer discussion and you’ll find that in Chapter 7.
Exposure compensation dial. This mechanical dial is a very attractive feature; it’s definitely not typical of a control found on most digital cameras. Many cameras allow you to modify exposure, but only a few, like the P7100, let you do so without embarking on an exercise that calls for button pushing, dial twirling, and watching a pointer move in a small data panel. One quick twist of the exposure compensation dial lets you set exactly the amount of exposure you need, perhaps +2 to compensate for strong backlighting or +1.3 for a good exposure of a snowy landscape on a cloudy day. I’ll discuss exposure control in more depth in Chapter 5. More importantly perhaps, this large dial always shows any exposure compensation that has been set. This makes it less likely that you’ll forget and keep shooting with +2 compensation when it’s no longer necessary; that can be more of a problem with an electronic control.
Shutter release button. Partially depress this button to activate the camera’s exposure and autofocus systems. (If the camera has gone into its power-saving sleep mode, a quick touch of this button will awaken it.) After focusing on the desired subject, maintain light pressure on the shutter release button to keep focus locked while you re-frame the scene. Press all the way down to take the picture, but do that gently; you don’t want to create serious camera shake. If the camera is in Playback mode, partially depress the button to return it to Shooting mode. When making movies, you’ll press this button once to start the recording, and press it again to stop.
Figure 3.12
Zoom lever. This control will change the focal length of the Coolpix P7100 between its 28mm wide-angle setting and its full optical zoom length of 200mm. (The lens is marked as 6.0mm to 42.6mm but those numbers don’t mean much to most shooters. That’s why I refer to the equivalent, in 35mm photography terms that most photographers instantly appreciate.) You can also use this lever to magnify the image beyond the optical zoom length, using the digital zoom feature discussed in Chapter 4. In Playback mode, discussed shortly, it changes views of your images.
Fn2. This button, new to P-series Coolpix cameras, is Off by default but you can program it so it will activate a function when you press it. (The options are listed below.)
ON/OFF switch. Press it down to turn the Coolpix P7100 on, and press it again to turn the camera off. The green light surrounding the button will be illuminated while the power is on. If the camera goes into power-saving sleep mode, the light will blink. Touch the shutter button to awaken it. You can press the Playback button (on the camera back) instead in order to wake up the camera, but the P7100 will awaken in Playback mode, showing the most recently taken photo on the LCD.
Using the Fn1 and Fn2 Buttons
Both the Fn1 and Fn2 buttons can be used to perform special actions.
Here are some of the applications for the Fn1 button that can be assigned in the Setup menu:
Zooming in increments. While depressing the Fn1 button, zoom the lens and you’ll find that it will zoom in a single distinct step each time you move the lever, from 28mm to 35mm, to 50mm, to 85mm, and so on. (In other words, each press of the lever changes the focal length by only one increment.) You’ll see a display in the LCD indicating the effective focal length at any zoom position. (The vast majority of cameras with a built-in lens provide no indication at all as to the focal length that is being used.) This feature is useful when you want to use a specific focal length or want to know which one is in effect.
By default, the P7100 is set to zoom in increments when using Fn1, but you can modify this with the Zoom Memory item in the Shooting menu. Zoom Memory lets you specify the focal length “stops” where zooming will pause when you’re zooming in increments while depressing the Fn1 button. Perhaps, you might want to preset 85mm, 135mm, and 200mm focal lengths because you only want to use telephoto for a certain subject. Then, pressing the Fn1 button while zooming will stop the lens at each of those focal lengths.
Quick access to camera functions with a command dial. While depressing the Fn1 button, rotating the main or the sub-command dial can instantly activate any one of six functions. By default, this feature is Off, but you can turn it on with the Fn1+command dial item in the Setup menu. In the menu, set Fn1 button+command to instantly activate the P7100 function that you most frequently use, such as manual focusing, the metering options, continuous drive mode, or the flash exposure compensation function. (I have not yet discussed some of these advanced features but will, of course, in other chapters.) After you do so, the screen listing the options for that function will instantly appear on the LCD. This eliminates the need to first press a specific control button or to access the menu and scroll to the pertinent screen in order to activate a favorite function.
Quick access to camera functions with the shutter release button. This is identical in concept to the item above but provides instant access to any one of four other camera functions when you touch the shutter release button while depressing Fn1. It’s Off by default but can be turned on with the Fn1+shutter button item in the Setup menu. Set the single function (from the four items) that you often use, such as ISO sensitivity, white balance, or Picture Control. From then on, the P7100 will instantly activate the options screen for that feature when you touch the shutter release button while depressing Fn1.
If you want to give Fn2 a purpose, press the MENU button, scroll to the Setup menu, scroll right, and then scroll to the Fn2 button item. Press OK and you’ll see a list of options. Scroll to the option you want the Fn2 button to activate and press OK. If you decide to activate any one of the first three functions, a new display will appear on the LCD screen when you press the Fn2 button while the camera is set for shooting. Press the button again if you want to hide it.
Virtual horizon. This is an electronic gauge that shows you whether you are holding the camera level or crooked while composing photos. When the gauge appears in the LCD display, position the camera so the line in the center of the circle is over the horizon or some other straight line in the scene. This will ensure that the line in the scene will be straight in the photo. This is very useful for avoiding off-kilter shots that you would need to fix later with rotation and cropping in software. (See Figure 3.13.)
View/hide histogram. I have mentioned the histogram when discussing Playback mode, but this graph can also be displayed on the LCD screen when the camera is in Shooting mode. The histogram provides a way to evaluate if the exposure is going to be appropriate; if it indicates a problem, you would set a camera override such as exposure compensation before taking the shot. In Chapter 5, I’ll discuss this feature and explain how to interpret a histogram.
Figure 3.13
View/hide framing grid. When you activate this function for the Fn2 button, grid lines (resembling a tic-tac-toe game) will appear over the LCD display. You can use the lines as a guide to position the camera so that horizontal and/or vertical lines in the scene will be straight (an alternative to the virtual horizon feature). Or you can use it to compose a photo as per the so-called Rule of Thirds, placing the most important small subject in the scene at one of the points where the lines intersect.
Built-in ND filter. This feature (indicating a virtual neutral-density filter) is available as a separate item in the Setup menu but you can also make it the function of the Fn2 button. I’ll discuss it in detail in Chapter 4 but for now, here’s its purpose in a nutshell. When you activate ND, you will be able to use a longer shutter speed on a bright day. That is useful when you want to take a photo with blurred motion, such as the smooth, silky (blurred water) effect that’s often used for waterfalls.
