If you’re a veteran Nikon shooter, you’ve probably already gone out and taken a few hundred (or a few thousand) photos with your new Nikon D500. The basic controls and features are similar to what you’ve grown to love about Nikon cameras. As valuable as a book like this one is, nobody can suppress their excitement long enough to read the instructions before initiating play with a new tool. Of course, on the other hand, you may be new to the Nikon world, or the D500 may be your first advanced digital camera, and you need some guidance in learning to use all the creative options this camera has to offer.
In either case, despite your surging creative juices, I recommend a more considered approach to learning how to operate the Nikon D500. This chapter and the next are designed to get your camera fired up and ready for shooting as quickly as possible. The D500 is the most advanced model in Nikon’s APS-C/DX lineup. (That is, it’s a so-called cropped sensor, non-full-frame camera. Check out Chapter 7 if you want to read about the difference.) While it boasts a sophisticated Programmed Auto mode, the D500 is not a point-and-shoot model; to get the most out of your camera, you’ll want to explore its capabilities fully.
So, to help you begin shooting as quickly as possible, I’m going to first provide a basic pre-flight checklist that you need to complete before you really spread your wings and take off. You won’t find a lot of detail in these first two chapters. Indeed, I’m going to tell you just what you absolutely must understand, accompanied by some interesting tidbits that will help you become acclimated to your D500. I’ll go into more depth and even repeat a little of what I explain here in the chapters that follow, so you don’t have to memorize everything you see. Just relax, follow a few easy steps, and then go out and begin taking your best shots—ever.
I hope that even long-time Nikon owners won’t be tempted to skip this chapter or the next one. No matter how extensive your experience level is, you don’t need to fret about wading through a manual to find out what you must know to take those first few tentative snaps. I’m going to help you hit the ground running with this chapter, which will help you set up your camera and begin shooting in minutes. Because some of you may already have experience with Nikon cameras similar to the D500, each of the major sections in this chapter will begin with a brief description of what is covered in that section, so you can easily jump ahead to the next if you are in a hurry to get started.
Note
In this book you’ll find short tips labeled My Recommendation or My Preference, each intended to help you sort through the available options for a feature, control, or menu entry. I’ll provide my preference, suitable for most people in most situations. I don’t provide these recommendations for every single feature, and you should consider your own needs before adopting any of them.
This section helps get you oriented with all the things that come in the box with your Nikon D500, including what they do. I’ll also describe some optional equipment you might want to have. If you want to get started immediately, skim through this section and jump ahead to “Initial Setup” later in the chapter.
The Nikon D500 comes in an impressive gold box filled with stuff, including connecting cords, booklets, and lots of paperwork. The most important components are the camera and lens (if you purchased your D500 with a lens), battery, battery charger, and, if you’re the nervous type, the neck strap. You’ll also need a memory card or two (for the camera’s dual card slots) as they are not included. If you purchased your D500 from a camera shop, as I did, the store personnel probably attached the neck strap for you, ran through some basic operational advice that you’ve already forgotten, tried to sell you a memory card, and then, after they’d given you all the help you could absorb, sent you on your way with a handshake. If you purchased your D500 from a mass merchandiser or though an online source, you might not even have gotten the handshake.
In every case, however, the first thing to do is to carefully unpack the camera and double-check the contents with the checklist on one side of the box, helpfully designated under a “Accessories Included” listing. While this level of setup detail may seem as superfluous as the instructions on a bottle of shampoo, checking the contents first is always a good idea. No matter who sells a camera, it’s common to open boxes, use a particular camera for a demonstration, and then repack the box without replacing all the pieces and parts afterward. Someone might actually have helpfully checked out your camera on your behalf—and then mispacked the box. It’s better to know now that something is missing so you can seek redress immediately, rather than discover two months from now that the USB cable clip you thought you’d never use (but now must have) was never in the box.
At a minimum, the box should contain the following components:
My recommendation: This cable is a standard USB 3.0 one with a micro-B connector that works with many digital cameras (Nikon and otherwise) and other devices, such as USB 3.0 card readers. If you already own such a cable, you now have a spare. It is designed to work with the USB cable clip (described next). If you need a cable that’s longer than this 3.3-foot (100 cm) connector, you can find them for much lower prices online.
My recommendation: For occasional use of either cable, say, to transfer files from the camera to your computer over USB, or to temporarily route the D500’s output to a TV/monitor, using the HDMI interface, you will not need these clips. The unadorned cables fit quite snugly. However, you’ll find the clips invaluable in other applications. For example, if you want to shoot tethered over USB while connected to a laptop running Camera Control Pro, Lightroom, or Capture One, or plan to direct HDMI output to a video recorder, high-definition monitor, or other device, you’ll want to use the clips to make sure your D500 remains connected.
My recommendation: I never attach the Nikon strap to my cameras, and instead opt for a more serviceable strap like the one shown in Figure 1.1. I strongly prefer this type over holsters, slings, chest straps, or any support that dangles my camera upside down from the tripod socket and allows it to swing around too freely when I’m on the run. Give me a strap I can hang over either shoulder, or sling around my neck, and I am happy.
I use the UPstrap shown in the figure, with a patented non-slip pad that keeps your D500 on your shoulder, and not crashing to the ground. Inventor-photographer Al Stegmeyer (www.upstrap-pro.com) can help you choose the right strap for you.
Tip
If you happen to have one of the earlier BF-1 body caps for older film cameras, do not use it, as it may damage the lens mount’s protruding autofocus screw, which focuses lenses that don’t have an autofocus motor built in.
My recommendation: If you lose your printed books, just Google “Nikon D500 manual PDF” to find a downloadable version that you can store on your laptop, on a USB stick, or other media in case you want to access this reference when the paper version isn’t handy. You’ll then be able to access the reference anywhere you are, because you can always find someone with a computer that has a USB port and Adobe Acrobat Reader available. Nikon also offers a “manual reader” app for Android and iOS smart devices you can use to read the factory manual. The Nikon app includes links to let you download manuals directly from their website, without needing to Google them.
Don’t bother rooting around in the box for anything beyond what I’ve listed. There are a few things Nikon classifies as optional accessories, even though you (and I) might consider some of them essential. Here’s a list of what you don’t get in the box, but might want to think about as an impending purchase. I’ll list them roughly in the order of importance:
My recommendation: Unless, like me, you have owned Nikon D4/D4s models, it’s more likely that you currently use SD cards rather than the newer XQD form factor cards. If that’s the case, you might want to rely on the SDHC and SDXC storage you already have. I recommend, as a minimum, purchasing a small XQD card (at this time, 32GB cards are the smallest being offered) anyway, so you can take advantage of the D500’s dual card slots for backup and overflow.
When purchasing additional cards in the future, you can stick with SD cards if you prefer (at this time they are significantly less expensive than XQD media on a per GB basis). However, there is a significant advantage to XQD cards for those who take many pictures or do a great deal of continuous shooting. Your D500’s XQD slot is capable of much faster speeds—both when taking pictures and transferring them to your computer. The capacity and speed of your storage is up to you, and it is addressed in the section that follows this list.
My recommendation: Buy an extra (I own four, in total), keep it charged, and free your mind from worry. Even though you might get 1,000 or more shots from a single battery, it’s easy to exceed that figure in a few hours of shooting sports at 10 fps. Batteries can unexpectedly fail, too, or simply lose their charge from sitting around unused for a week or two. Although third-party vendors may eventually reverse engineer the encoding required to allow their batteries to function in the D500, I don’t recommend using them simply to save $40 or so with a camera that costs around $2,000.
My recommendation: You may already own Adobe Lightroom, which does an excellent job for tethered shooting, or DxO Labs’ Capture One. Buy a suitably longer USB cable, too.
My recommendation: An add-on flash can serve as the main illumination for your picture, diffused or bounced and used as a fill light, or, if you own several Speedlights, serve as a remote trigger for an off-camera unit. At around $250, the Nikon SB-500 has the most affordable combination of power, compact size, and features, including a built-in LED video light. If you need more power, the Speedlight SB-700, SB-910, or new SB-5000 also offer more flexibility. I’ll provide more information on electronic flash in Chapters 9 and 10.
My recommendation: These sometimes get lost in a camera bag or are accidentally removed. I bought an extra MC-30 cable and keep it in a small box in the trunk of my car, along with an extra memory card.
My recommendation. Find a safe place to keep it between uses, or purchase replacements for this easily mislaid item. The previous low-cost source for these covers has gone out of business, so I’ve imported a stock of them, in both standard and bubble-level versions, which I’ll send you for a few bucks. (Visit www.nikonguides.com for more details.)
My recommendation: Unless you regularly do time-lapse or interval photography for long periods of time, you can probably skip this expensive accessory. I’ve shot for up to eight hours using a freshly charged EN-EL15 battery, and that proved to be enough.
My recommendation: Many people love third-party grips from Meike, Neewer, Vivitar, and others, at a cost of less than $70. I purchased a Meike grip to test it out, and found it acceptable for occasional use. However, most people like to clamp their add-on grips and remove them only to change/recharge the D500’s main battery, subjecting the grip to a lot of abuse. If you intend to make a battery grip part of your permanent setup, the Nikon model is better made, more rugged, and guaranteed to work seamlessly with your camera.
My recommendation: The alternatives are not the best accessories for those who wear glasses while shooting. I tend to flip my glasses up on my forehead, and have adjusted the diopter setting for my vision, so this magnifying eyepiece works fine for me.
My recommendation: If you intend to work with an external flash extensively, you’ll definitely want to use it off camera. Either of these cables will give you that flexibility. Wireless flash operation (described in Chapter 10) is more versatile, but requires more setup and has a steeper learning curve. With a flash cord, you just connect the cable to your camera and flash and fire away.
Although many pros still prefer them, Compact Flash cards are on the way out. (Of Nikon’s current lineup, only the D810 and the Compact Flash version of the D5 offer CF slots.) As a result, your D500 has one XQD and one Secure Digital card slot. While Nikon has good intentions in easing the transition to improved media interfaces, I’m not alone in feeling that mixed slot types in a single camera are extremely inconvenient. Even after years of working with a succession of Nikon D4, D4s, D800, and D810 cameras with fraternal “twin” slots, I’m still frustrated by the inability to swap cards in and out without considering a particular slot’s form factor. Cameras like the Nikon D7200 (with twin SD slots) and Nikon D5 (with your choice of CF/CF or XQD/XQD models) make the most sense.
Nikon D500 owners must learn to live with mixed media. Fortunately, both types work well on their own and in tandem. The camera operates just fine with only one of either type card installed, and if you specify XQD or SD card as your “primary” media (as described in Chapter 11), the D500 will automatically default to the other card if your primary memory card is not installed.
XQD cards are available in speeds up to almost 3000x, but SDXC UHS-II devices with 2000x read speeds are also available as I write this. Keep in mind that different vendors use different specifications for speed (both “X” factors and megabytes per second), and that write speed means how fast the device can transfer an image file to storage, while read speed (which may be emphasized because it is faster) represents how quickly the image can be transferred to your computer though a sufficiently fast connection (such as a USB 3.0 card reader). For everyday shooting, either type will generally be fast enough. You’ll find speedier write and read speeds most useful when shooting continuously at high frame rates or when you need to transfer a lot of images to your computer.
My recommendation: Neither XQD or SD card formats are going away. Nikon has shown its commitment to the XQD format by including such slots in the D5 and D500. You can expect future models in both pro lineups to continue to support XQD, and there may be some slight expansion of the form factor among advanced video cameras or even among makers of other cameras (I wouldn’t count on the latter, however). SD cards, particularly SDXC, will remain as the format of choice for entry-level and enthusiast dSLR and mirrorless cameras (although microSD will likely take over the point-and-shoot, tablet, and smartphone realm). So, choose your “main” form factor based at least partially on what makes the most sense from an economic and usage standpoint, and use the other format as your backup.
However, there is one important consideration I want to emphasize. When both XQD and SD cards are mounted in the D500, the camera’s transfer speed defaults to that of the slowest card. There’s a practical reason for that: when the D500’s second slot is used in Backup or RAW Primary+JPEG Secondary mode (described in Chapter 11), it always writes each photograph to both cards. A speed mismatch between cards affects performance in a variety of ways. With both slots using the same transfer speed, potential problems are minimized (even though, as you’ll learn, RAW (NEF) files are typically larger than JPEG and take a bit longer to save to the memory card). So, make every attempt to use SDHC cards with write speeds that are as close as possible to those of your XQD media. If you can’t do that and can forego the use of the second slot, you’re better off just working with a single card and leaving the other slot empty.
This section familiarizes you with the three important controls most used to make adjustments: the multi selector and the main and sub-command dials. You’ll also find information on charging the battery, setting the clock, mounting a lens, and making diopter vision adjustments.
Once you’ve unpacked and inspected your camera, the initial setup of your Nikon D500 is fast and easy. Basically, you just need to charge the battery, attach a lens, and insert a memory card. I’ll address each of these steps separately, but if you already are confident you can manage these setup tasks without further instructions, feel free to skip this section entirely. While most buyers of a D500 tend to be experienced photographers, I realize that some readers are ambitious, if inexperienced, and should, at the minimum, skim the contents of the next section, because I’m going to list a few options that you might not be aware of.
I’ll be saving descriptions of most of the other controls used with the Nikon D500 until Chapter 3, which provides a complete “roadmap” of the camera’s buttons and dials and switches. However, you may need to perform a few tasks during this initial setup process, and most of them will require the MENU button and the multi selector pad.
The multi selector is used extensively for navigation, for example, to navigate among menus on the LCD monitor or to choose one of the 55 user-selectable focus points among the 153 in play; to advance or reverse display of a series of images during picture review; or to change the kind of photo information displayed on the screen.
The main command dial and sub-command dial are located on the rear and front of the D500, respectively. The main command dial is used to change settings such as shutter speed, while the sub-command dial adjusts an alternate or secondary setting. For example, in Manual exposure mode, you’d use the sub-command dial to change the aperture, while the main command dial is used to change the shutter speed. (In both cases, the dial is “active” for these adjustments only when the D500’s exposure meter is On.) The meter will automatically go to sleep after an interval (you’ll learn how to specify the length of time in Chapter 12), and you must waken the camera (just tap the shutter release button) to switch the meter back on and activate the main and sub-command dials.
The swiveling LCD monitor supports a limited number of touch operations. Nikon’s implementation for the D500—its first for one of the company’s pro-level dSLRs—is not as sophisticated as what you might have used with point-and-shoot models and other cameras oriented toward snapshooters. For example, you can’t use it to navigate menus or make most settings. However, the touch screen can be useful during image playback and when shooting in live view mode.
You can disable touch functions entirely or specify direction for full-frame playback “flicks” (left/right or right/left) using the Touch Controls entry in the Setup menu. Or, you can turn the Touch Shutter/AF feature off by tapping an icon that appears at the left side of the screen during live view and movie shooting.
When adjustments are available, a white rectangle is drawn around the indicator that can be accessed by touch. You will see up/down and left/right triangles used to adjust increments, or other icons for various functions. Available gestures include:
Because the screen uses static electricity, it may not respond when touched with gloved hands, fingernails, or when covered with a protective film. I have a “skin” over my D500’s monitor and it works just fine; your experience may vary, depending on the covering you use. Don’t use a stylus, pen, or sharp object instead of a finger; if your fingers are too large, stick to the physical controls such as the buttons or dials. As you’ll learn in Chapter 13, you can enable or disable the touch controls or enable them only during playback, using an option in the Setup menu.
A TOUCH OF SCREEN
Throughout this book, when telling you how to use a touch-compatible feature, I’m going to stick to referring to the physical buttons and dials. Nikon really needs to redesign the camera interface to take full advantage of the touch screen capabilities. Cameras from other vendors, for example, use slider controls instead of left/right touch arrows to make many adjustments. While some may find Nikon’s implementation helpful, it’s really best when used with the Touch Shutter/AF feature in live view, zooming in/out of a playback image, or, especially, when “typing” text rather than scrolling around with the directional buttons.
It’s likely that your Nikon D500’s internal clock hasn’t been set to your local time, so you may need to do that first. If so, the flashing CLOCK indicator on the top-panel LCD monitor will be the giveaway. You’ll find complete instructions for setting the four options for the date/time (time zone, actual date and time, the date format, and whether you want the D500 to conform to Daylight Savings Time) in Chapter 13. However, if you think you can handle this step without instruction, press the MENU button, use the multi selector (that thumb-friendly button I just described, located to the immediate right of the back-panel LCD monitor) to scroll down to the Setup menu, press the multi selector button to the right, and scroll down to Time Zone and Date choice, and press right again. The options will appear on the screen that appears next. Keep in mind that you’ll need to reset your camera’s internal clock from time to time, as it is not 100 percent accurate.
The clock setting is stored in internal memory powered by a rechargeable battery that’s not accessible to the user. If you store your D500 for a long period without a charged main battery, the “clock” battery may go dead and “forget” your time/date/zone settings. It will recharge when a fresh EN-EL15 battery is inserted, but it may take several days to do so, and you’ll need to set the clock again.
Your Nikon D500 is a sophisticated hunk of machinery and electronics, but it needs a charged battery to function, so rejuvenating the EN-EL15 lithium-ion battery pack furnished with the camera (Li-ion 20 version, please!) should be your first step. A fully charged power source should be good for approximately 1,240 shots, based on standard tests defined by the Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) document DC-002. Nikon’s own standards are quite a bit more optimistic (it predicts as many as 2,740 shots from a single charge). In the real world, of course, the life of the battery will depend on how much image review you do, and many other factors. You’ll want to keep track of how many pictures you are able to take in your own typical circumstances, and use that figure as a guideline, instead.
All rechargeable batteries undergo some degree of self-discharge just sitting idle in the camera or in the original packaging. Lithium-ion power packs of this type typically lose a few percent of their charge every few days, even when the camera isn’t turned on. The small amount of juice used to provide the “shots remaining” figure on the top monochrome LCD control panel when the D500 is turned off isn’t the culprit; Li-ion cells lose their power through a chemical reaction that continues when the camera is switched off. So, it’s very likely that the battery purchased with your camera is at least partially pooped out, so you’ll want to revive it before going out for some serious shooting.
When the battery is inserted into the MH-25a charger properly (it’s impossible to insert it incorrectly), a Charge light begins flashing, and remains flashing until the status lamp glows steadily indicating that charging is finished, in about 2.5 hours. You can use the supplied connector cable or attach a handy included plug adapter that allows connecting the charger directly to a wall outlet (both shown at left in Figure 1.4). When the battery is charged, flip the lever on the bottom of the camera and slide the battery in, as shown at right in Figure 1.4. Check the Setup menu’s Battery Info entry as I recommended earlier to make sure the battery is fully charged. If not, try putting it in the charger again. One of three things may be the culprit: a.) the actual charging cycle sometimes takes longer than you (or the charger) expected; b.) the battery is new and needs to be “seasoned” for a few charging cycles, after which it will accept a full charge and deliver more shots; c.) you’ve got a defective battery. The last is fairly rare, but before you start counting on getting a particular number of exposures from a battery, it’s best to make sure it’s fully charged, seasoned, and ready to deliver.
My recommendation: Because Li-ion batteries don’t have a memory, you can top them up at any time. However, their capacity when fully charged will eventually change over time. Once in a while, it’s a good idea to use a battery until it is fully discharged, and then recharge it beyond the normal charging time. (Don’t remove the battery from the charger until the light has gone out and the battery has fully cooled down.) It’s also best to not store a battery for long periods either fully discharged or completely charged in order to maintain its longevity. I’ll show you how to monitor battery use in Chapter 13.
Your Nikon D500 is almost ready to fire up and shoot. You’ll need to select and mount a lens, adjust the viewfinder for your vision, and insert a memory card. Each of these steps is easy, and if you’ve used any Nikon before, you already know exactly what to do. I’m going to provide a little extra detail for those of you who are new to the Nikon or digital SLR worlds.
As you’ll see, my recommended lens mounting procedure emphasizes protecting your equipment from accidental damage and minimizing the intrusion of dust. If your D500 has no lens attached, select the lens you want to use and loosen (but do not remove) the rear lens cap. I generally place the lens I am planning to mount vertically in a slot in my camera bag, where it’s protected from mishaps, but ready to pick up quickly. By loosening the rear lens cap, you’ll be able to lift it off the back of the lens at the last instant, so the rear element of the lens is covered until then.
After that, remove the body cap by rotating the cap away from the release button. You should always mount the body cap when there is no lens on the camera, because it helps keep dust out of the interior of the camera, where it can settle on the mirror, focusing screen, interior mirror box, and potentially find its way past the shutter onto the sensor. (Although the D500’s sensor cleaning mechanism works fine, the less dust it has to contend with, the better.) The body cap also protects the vulnerable mirror from damage caused by intruding objects (including your fingers, if you’re not cautious).
Once the body cap has been removed, remove the rear lens cap from the lens, set it aside, and then mount the lens on the camera by matching the alignment indicator on the lens barrel with the raised white bump on the camera’s lens mount. (See Figure 1.5.) Rotate the lens toward the shutter release until it seats securely. Some lenses are trickier to mount than others, particularly telephotos and telephoto zooms with swiveling collars that allow the lens to be fastened to a tripod. You might need to rotate the collar so the tripod foot doesn’t bump into the front overhang of the D500’s prism.
DEALING WITH ERRORS
After you’ve mounted your lens properly (or think you have), you might find various error codes appearing on the control panel, viewfinder, and back-panel color LCD monitor. Here are the most common error codes, and what you should do next:
Set the focus mode switch on the lens (if included) to AF or M-AF (autofocus). If the lens hood is bayoneted on the lens in the reversed position (which makes the lens/hood combination more compact for transport), twist it off and remount with the “petals” (found on virtually all lens hoods for newer Nikon optics) facing outward. (See Figure 1.6.) A lens hood protects the front of the lens from accidental bumps, and reduces flare caused by extraneous light arriving at the front element of the lens from outside the picture area.
Those of us with less than perfect eyesight can often benefit from a little optical correction in the viewfinder. Your contact lenses or glasses may provide all the correction you need, but if you are a glasses wearer and want to use the D500 without your glasses, you can take advantage of the camera’s built-in diopter adjustment, which can be varied from –2 to +1 correction. Pull out, then rotate the diopter adjustment control next to the viewfinder (see Figure 1.7) while looking through the viewfinder until the image of your subject is sharp. (The focus screen where your subject appears, and the indicators outside the image area are at slightly different “distances” optically, so you should use an actual image rather than the status indicators if you want to be able to evaluate focus through the viewfinder accurately.)
If more than one person uses your D500, and each requires a different diopter setting on the camera itself, you can save a little time by noting the number of clicks and direction (clockwise to increase the diopter power; counterclockwise to decrease the diopter value) required to change from one user to the other. Should the available correction be insufficient, Nikon offers nine different Diopter-Adjustment Viewfinder Correction lenses for the viewfinder window, ranging from –5 to +3, at a cost of about $16 each.
You’ve probably set up your D500 so you can’t take photos without a memory card inserted. (There is a Slot Empty Release Lock entry, in the Setup menu, that enables/disables shutter release functions when a memory card is absent—learn about that in Chapter 13.) So, your final step will be to insert a memory card. Slide the door on the back right edge of the body toward the back of the camera to release the cover, and then open it. (You should only remove a memory card when the camera is switched off, or, at the very least, the yellow-green memory access light that indicates the camera is writing to the card is not illuminated.)
Inside, you’ll find two card slots, an upper one for XQD media, and a lower one for SD cards. You can use one card, or two. The camera will operate even if only one of the slots is occupied, and regardless of how you have set your Primary Slot Selection option in the Photo Shooting menu.
Insert the memory card with the label facing the back of the camera, oriented so the edge with the contacts goes into the slot first. (See Figure 1.8.) Close the door, and, if necessary, format the card. Either type of card can be removed just by pressing it inward; it will pop out far enough that you can extract it.
There are four ways to create a blank memory card for your D500, and two of them are wrong. Here are your options, both correct and incorrect:
My recommendation: I always use the Setup menu format instead of the two-button format, just to be on the safe side. I’d rather take a few extra seconds to perform this (almost) irrevocable step than to absent-mindedly press a couple buttons (twice, no less) and eradicate an entire card’s worth of images.
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