The Nikon D5100’s Business End

The back panel of the Nikon D5100 (see Figure 3.6) bristles with more than a dozen different controls, buttons, and knobs. That might seem like a lot of controls to learn, but you’ll find it’s a lot easier to press a button and spin a dial than to jump to a menu every time you want to change a setting.

Figure 3.6

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You can see the controls clustered along the top edge of the back panel in Figure 3.7, while those on the right side are shown in Figure 3.8. The key buttons and components and their functions are as follows:

• MENU/Reset #1 button. Summons/exits the menu displayed on the rear LCD of the D5100. When you’re working with submenus, this button also serves to exit a submenu and return to the main menu. Holding down this button at the same time as the information edit/Reset #2 button returns the settings of your camera to their default values.

• Information edit/Reset #2 button. Press this button to activate the shooting information display. Press again to change any of the parameters in the bottom rows of the display, using the multi selector to highlight the option. Then, press OK to summon a screen that lets you make the changes. Or, press a third time to remove the information display (or simply tap the shutter release button). The display will also clear after the period you’ve set for LCD display (the default value is 20 seconds). I’ll describe the use of the shooting information display in more detail later in this chapter. Don’t confuse this button with the Info button on top of the camera, which simply turns the LCD display on or off. Note that Nikon doesn’t assign “Reset #1” or “Reset #2” nomenclature to these buttons; I’ve done so to help differentiate between the two.

• Viewfinder eyepiece. You can frame your composition by peering into the viewfinder. It’s surrounded by a soft rubber frame that seals out extraneous light when pressing your eye tightly up to the viewfinder, and it also protects your eyeglass lenses (if worn) from scratching. It can be removed and replaced by the DK-5 eyepiece cap when you use the camera on a tripod, to ensure that light coming from the back of the camera doesn’t venture inside and possibly affect the exposure reading. Shielding the viewfinder with your hand may be more convenient (unless you’re using the self-timer to get in the photo yourself).

• Diopter adjustment wheel. Rotate this to adjust the diopter correction for your eyesight, as described in Chapter 1.

• AE-L/AF-L (autoexposure/autofocus) lock/Protect. This button can be programmed by you to provide a variety of autoexposure/autofocus locking functions, which I’ll explain in Chapter 9. By default, it locks the exposure or focus that the camera sets when you partially depress the shutter button. The exposure lock indication (AE-L icon) appears in the viewfinder. If you want to recalculate exposure or autofocus with the shutter button still partially depressed, press the button again. The exposure/autofocus will be unlocked when you release the shutter button or take the picture. To retain the exposure/autofocus lock for subsequent photos, keep the button pressed while shooting. This double-duty button also can be used to protect an image from accidental erasure when reviewing a picture on the LCD. Press once to protect the image, a second time to unprotect it. A key symbol appears when the image is displayed to show that it is protected. (This feature safeguards an image from erasure when deleting or transferring pictures only; when you format a card, protected images are removed along with all the others.)

• Command dial. This is the main control dial of the D5100, used to set or adjust most functions, such as shutter speed, bracketing sequence, white balance, ISO, and so forth, either alone or when another button is depressed simultaneously. It is often used in conjunction with the EV/aperture button on top of the camera when pairs of settings can be made, such as exposure (command dial: shutter speed; EV/aperture button+command dial: aperture).

• LCD. View your images and navigate through the menus on this screen. The screen reverses to protect the LCD, swivels to allow shooting from high or low vantage points, and even can be turned around to shoot a self portrait or a group shot (as seen in the insets in Figure 3.6).

  Figure 3.7

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  Figure 3.8

  

You’ll be using the buttons to the right of the LCD quite frequently, so learn their functions now.

• Multi selector. This joypad-like button can be pressed up, down, or side to side, or pressed. It can be used for several functions, including AF-point selection, scrolling around a magnified image, trimming a photo, or setting white balance correction. Within menus, pressing the up/down arrows moves the on-screen cursor up or down; pressing towards the right selects the highlighted item and displays its options; pressing left cancels and returns to the previous menu. During image review, the up/down buttons change the type of information displayed about each image.

• OK button. Press to confirm your selections, and to display the current review image in the Retouch menu.

• Memory card access lamp. When lit or blinking, this lamp indicates that a memory card is being accessed.

• Thumbnail/Zoom Out/Help. During image review, use this button to change from full-screen view to six, nine, or 72 thumbnails, calendar view, or to zoom out. I’ll explain zooming and other playback options in the next section. When viewing most menu items on the LCD, pressing this button produces a concise Help screen with tips on how to make the relevant setting.

• Zoom In button. Press to zoom in on an image, and to select image quality settings.

• Trash. Press to erase the image shown on the LCD. A display will pop up on the LCD asking you to press the Trash button once more to delete the photo, or press the Playback button to cancel.