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.

First Things First

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.

In the Box

At a minimum, the box should contain the following components:

• Nikon D500 digital camera. It almost goes without saying that you should check out the camera immediately, making sure the back- and top-panel LCD monitors aren’t scratched or cracked, the memory and battery doors open properly, and, when a charged battery is inserted and lens mounted, the camera powers up and reports for duty. Out-of-the-box defects like these are very rare, but they can happen. It’s probably more common that your dealer played with the camera or, perhaps, it was a customer return. That’s why it’s best to buy your D500 from a retailer you trust to supply a factory-fresh camera.
• Lens (optional). At the time I write this, the D500 is available as a body only, or in a kit with the excellent 16-80mm f/2.8-4.0 VR DX lens. Nikon may offer other lenses as part of a kit in the future, and most retailers will readily package this camera with the lens of your choice, often at a savings over buying them individually.
• Rechargeable Li-ion battery EN-EL15. You’ll need to charge this 7.0V, 1900mAh (milliampere hour) battery before use, and then navigate immediately to the Setup menu’s Battery Info entry to make sure the battery accepted the juice and is showing a 100% charge. (You’ll find more on accessing this menu item in Chapter 13.) You’ll want a second EN-EL15 battery as a spare (trust me), so buy one as soon as possible.
• Quick charger MH-25a. This charger comes with both a power cable and a power adapter that can be used instead of the cable to plug the charger directly into a wall outlet.
• USB cable UC-E22. You can use this cable to transfer photos from the camera to your computer (I don’t recommend that because direct transfer uses a lot of battery power), to upload and download settings between the camera and your computer (highly recommended), and to operate your camera remotely using Nikon Camera Control Pro software (optional, and not included in the box).

  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.

• USB and HDMI cable clips. These snap onto fittings beneath the USB and HDMI port covers and hold their respective USB and HDMI cables snugly in place.

  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.

Figure 1.1 Third-party neck straps like this UPstrap model are often preferable to the Nikon-supplied strap.

• AN-DC17 neck strap. Nikon provides you with a neck strap emblazoned with your D500’s camera model. It’s not very adjustable, and, while useful for showing off to your friends exactly which nifty new camera you bought, the Nikon strap also can serve to alert observant unsavory types that you’re sporting a higher-end model that’s worthy of their attention.

  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.

• BF-1B body cap. The body cap keeps dust from infiltrating your camera when a lens is not mounted. Always carry a body cap (and rear lens cap) in your camera bag for those times when you need to have the camera bare of optics for more than a minute or two. (That usually happens when repacking a bag efficiently for transport, or when you are carrying an extra body or two for backup.) The body cap/lens cap nest together for compact storage.

• DK-17F eyepiece. This is the round rubber eyepiece that comes installed on the viewfinder of the D500. It’s fluorine-coated to make it easier to clean, and can be removed and replaced with other accessories. It can be removed when the viewfinder shutter is closed. If you prefer, you can augment it or replace it with several accessories discussed in the next section.
• User’s manual. Even if you have this book, you’ll probably want to check the user’s guide that Nikon provides, if only to check the actual nomenclature for some obscure accessory, or to double-check an error code.

  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.

• Warranty and registration card. Don’t lose these! You can register your Nikon D500 by mail or online (in the USA, the URL is www.nikonusa.com/register), and you may need the information in this paperwork (plus the purchase receipt/invoice from your retailer) should you require Nikon service support.

Optional and Non-Optional Add-Ons

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:

• Memory card. As I mentioned, the D500 does not come with a memory card. That’s because Nikon doesn’t have the slightest idea of what capacity or speed card you prefer, so why charge you for one? The Nikon D500 is likely to be purchased by photographers who have quite definite ideas about their ideal card. Perhaps you’re a wedding photographer who prefers to use 16GB cards—and lots of them—as a safety measure when capturing a nuptial event. (Although a dual-card camera like the D500 allows you to save to both simultaneously in backup mode.) Other photographers, especially sports shooters, instead prefer larger cards to minimize swapping during non-stop action. If you are shooting at high frame rates, or transfer lots of photos to your computer with a speedy card reader, you might opt for the speediest possible memory card. Your D500 has one XQD and one SD card slot, so your choices are wide. (See the section on XQD vs. SD that follows this list for more information.)

  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.

• Extra EN-EL15 battery. Note that older versions of this battery, marked with a Li-ion 01 designation to the left of the hologram on the cell’s bottom, are not fully compatible with the D500, and will, in fact, show less capacity than they really contain when used. D500 owners who happen to own the older batteries can get a free Li-ion 20 version replacement (the same one furnished with the D500) from the Nikon support website in their countries. In addition, I have not found any third-party EN-EL15 batteries that will work in the D500 at all. (The camera reports a “dead” battery even if it’s fully charged.)

  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.

• Nikon Capture NX-D or Nikon ViewNX-i software. You can download a free copy of these software utilities from Nikon’s website. Nikon no longer packs a CD-ROM with its cameras.
• Camera Control Pro 2 software. This is the utility you’ll use to operate your camera remotely from your computer. Nikon charges extra for this software, but you’ll find it invaluable if you’re hiding near a tethered, tripod-mounted camera while shooting, say, close-ups of hummingbirds. There are lots of applications for remote shooting, and you’ll need Camera Control Pro or other software to shoot tethered.

  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.

• Add-on Speedlight. Like Nikon’s flagship full-frame cameras, the D500 does not have a built-in electronic flash. If you do much flash photography at all, consider an add-on Speedlight as an important accessory.

  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.

• Remote control cable MC-30. You can plug this 2.5-foot-long accessory electronic release cable into the 10-pin socket hidden behind a rubber cover on the front of the D500, and then fire off the camera without the need to touch the camera itself. In a pinch, you can use the D500’s self-timer to minimize vibration when triggering the camera, or even take advantage of the mirror up (MUP) and delayed release features to reduce camera shake. (These are all described later in this book.) But when you want to take a photo at the exact moment you desire (and not when the self-timer happens to trip), or need to eliminate all possibility of human-induced camera shake, you need this release cord.

  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.

• BS-1b accessory shoe cover. This little piece of optional plastic protects the electrical contacts of the “hot” shoe on top of the D500. You can remove it when mounting an electronic flash, Nikon GP-1 GPS device, or other accessory, and then safely leave it off for the rest of your life. I’ve never had an accessory shoe receive damage in normal use, even when not protected. The paranoid among you who use accessories frequently can keep removing/mounting the shoe cover as required. Note that Nikon also offers a BS-3 shoe cover ($10) with better weather sealing to protect the hot shoe if you’re working in damp environments.

  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.)

• HDMI audio/video cable. The D500 can be connected to a high-definition television, and can export its video output to an external recorder. You’ll need to buy a mini-HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) cable to do that. No HDMI cable is included with the camera.
• Nikon GP-1a global positioning system (GPS) device. This accessory attaches to the accessory shoe on top of the Nikon D500 and captures latitude, longitude, and altitude information, which is imprinted in a special data area of your image files. The “geotagging” data can be plotted on a map in Nikon ViewNX-i or other software programs.
• AC adapter EH-5b/EP-5b power connector. There are several typical situations where this AC adapter set for your D500 can come in handy: when you’re cleaning the sensor manually and want to totally eliminate the possibility that a lack of juice will cause the fragile shutter and mirror to spring to life during the process; when in the studio shooting product photos, portraits, class pictures, and so forth for hours on end; when using your D500 for remote shooting as well as time-lapse photography; for extensive review of images on your standard-definition or high-definition television; or for file transfer to your computer. These all use prodigious amounts of power, which can be provided by this AC adapter. (Beware of power outages and blackouts when cleaning your sensor, however!)

  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.

• Multi-power battery pack MB-D17. Lots of photographers consider this battery pack/vertical grip to be an essential item (I’m going to cover it in detail later in this book), but you must buy it as an extra. The price is not cheap at about $400. Unfortunately, it is delivered “bare,” with no extra power sources at all. You’ll need to purchase AA batteries (alkalines or rechargeables) for the supplied AA battery tray, or have an extra EN-EL15 battery to use this accessory. (I told you that you’d need that extra battery.) Note: Although the MB-D17 is specific to the D500, the MS-D12EN Li-ion and MS-D12 AA battery holders are the same as those used in the MB-D12 grip sold for the Nikon D810. The MB-D17 can also use the beefy EN-EL18a battery supplied with the Nikon D4/D5 series, when equipped with the BL-5 battery chamber cover. You’ll also require a separate charger for that battery.

  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.

• DR-5 right-angle viewer. Fastens in place of the standard eyepiece and provides a 90-degree view for framing and composing your image at right angles to the original viewfinder, useful for low-level (or high-level) shooting. (Or, maybe, shooting around corners!)
• DK-17M magnifying eyepiece. Provides a 1.2x magnification factor of the entire viewing area (unlike the 2x DG-2 eyepiece, which enlarges just the center of the image), making it easier to check focus. You might have to move your eye around a little to see all the indicators outside the image frame, but this magnifier is still suitable for everyday use.

  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.

• DK-17C correction eyepiece. Available in diopter values from –3.0 to +2, these replace the DK-17 eyepiece furnished with the camera, and provide vision correction for those who wear glasses and want to use the D500 without their glasses on, or for those who need additional correction.
• SC-28 TTL flash cord. Allows using Nikon Speedlights off-camera, while retaining all the automated features.
• SC-29 TTL flash cord. Similar to the SC-28, this unit has its own AF-assist lamp, which can provide extra illumination for the D500’s autofocus system in dim light (which, not coincidentally, is when you’ll probably be using an electronic flash).

  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.

XQD vs. SD

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.

Initial Setup

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.

Mastering the Multi Selector and Command Dials

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.

• MENU button. It’s located to the left of the LCD monitor (see Figure 1.2, left). It requires almost no explanation; when you want to access a menu, press it. To exit most menus, press it again
• Multi selector pad. This pad may remind you of the similar control found on many point-and-shoot cameras, and other digital cameras. It consists of a thumbpad-sized button with triangle-shaped projections at the up, down, left, and right positions, plus a button in the center. It can also be pushed in diagonal directions. (See Figure 1.2, right.)

  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.

• Multi selector center button. The center button (as well as the right directional button) can be used to select a highlighted item from a menu. (I find pressing the right button faster and easier.) The center button also functions as an OK/Enter key as an alternative to the OK button on the left side of the camera, but can be redefined with another function in certain modes. I’ll explain your options for these secondary functions in Chapter 12.

Figure 1.2 Location of the MENU and OK buttons (left) and navigation controls (right).

• OK button. I strongly prefer to use the OK button (instead of the multi selector center button) for the Enter function for consistency. It can’t be reassigned, and, although it can be used in conjunction with other controls during playback (for example, OK+Up changes card slots), its functions generally remain the same.
• Sub selector. This control can be redefined to provide menu navigation, but its default function is as a convenient control for selecting the focus point, as I’ll explain in Chapters 3 and 5. It can also be pressed inward to lock focus or exposure, as you’ll learn in Chapters 3, 4, and 5.

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.

Touch Screen

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.

Here are the options:

• Navigate among images. You can flick the screen to advance to other images during playback. (I’ll explain all the touch screen gestures shortly.)
• Zoom in or out. A double tap on the touch screen is a fast way to zoom in or out of an image under review.
• Relocate zoomed area. You can slide a finger around the monitor to reposition the zoomed area.
• View thumbnails and movies. Navigate among index thumbnails and movies.
• Take pictures. In live view mode, you can tap the touch screen to take a picture without pressing the shutter release. (However, you can’t begin video capture with a tap.)
• Select a focus point. In both live view and movie modes, you can tap a location on the touch screen to specify a focus point.
• Enter text. When working with a text entry screen (for example, to rename a Photo Shooting bank), you can tap the on-screen keyboard to enter your text. That’s much faster than the alternative—using the directional buttons to tediously move the highlighting from one character to another.

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:

• Tap. Touch the screen with a single finger to make an adjustment. For example, you can tap an up/down or left/right triangle to increment or decrement a setting, such as monitor brightness. In live view, when Touch Shutter is activated, tapping the screen locates the focus point at the tapped location and takes a picture when you remove your finger from the screen. When Touch Shutter is deactivated, tapping the screen simply relocates the focus point. (You’ll find a Touch Shutter on/off icon at the left side of the live view screen, as explained in Chapter 14.)
• Flick. Move a single finger a short distance from side to side across the monitor. Note that if a second finger or other object is also touching the monitor, it may not respond. During playback, a flick to right or left advances to the next or previous image.
• Slide. Move a single finger across the screen in left/right, up or down directions. You can use this gesture during playback to scroll around within a zoomed image. (See Figure 1.3, left.)
• Stretch/pinch. Spread apart two fingers to zoom into an image during playback, or pinch them together to zoom out. (See Figure 1.3, right.)

Figure 1.3 Flick or slide your finger across the touch screen to scroll from side to side, up or down (left), pinch or spread two fingers to zoom in and out (right).

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.

Setting the Clock

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.

Battery Included

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.

Charging the Battery

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.

Figure 1.4 Charge the battery before use, and then insert the battery in the camera; it only fits one way.

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.

Final Steps

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.

Mounting the Lens

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.

Figure 1.5 Match the indicator on the lens with the white dot on the camera mount to properly align the lens with the bayonet mount.

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.

Adjusting Diopter Correction

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.

Figure 1.6 A lens hood protects the lens from extraneous light and accidental bumps.

Figure 1.7 Viewfinder diopter correction from –2 to +1 can be dialed in.

Inserting a Memory Card

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.

Figure 1.8 The memory card in either slot is always inserted with the label facing the back of the camera.

Formatting a Memory Card

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:

• Transfer (move) files to your computer. When you transfer (rather than copy) all the image files to your computer from the memory card (either using a direct cable transfer or with a card reader, as described later in this chapter), the old image files are erased from the card, leaving the card blank. Theoretically. Unfortunately, this method does not remove files that you’ve labeled as Protected (by pressing the Protect button to the left of the LCD monitor while viewing the image on the monitor), nor does it identify and lock out parts of your memory card that have become corrupted or unusable since the last time you formatted the card. Therefore, I recommend always formatting the card, rather than simply moving the image files, each time you want to make a blank card. The only exception is when you want to leave the protected/unerased images on the card for awhile longer, say, to share with friends, family, and colleagues.
• (Don’t) Format in your computer. With the memory card inserted in a card reader or card slot in your computer, you can use Windows or Mac OS to reformat the memory card. Don’t! The operating system won’t necessarily install the correct file system. The only way to ensure that the card has been properly formatted for your camera is to perform the format in the camera itself. The only exception to this rule is when you have a seriously munged memory card that your camera refuses to format. Sometimes it is possible to revive such a corrupted card by allowing the operating system to reformat it first, then trying again in the camera.
• Two-button format. This method requires no menus. Hold down the ISO button (on top of the camera, just south of the shutter release button) and the trash can button (on the upper-left corner of the back) simultaneously for about two seconds. (A red Format label is next to each button, as shown in Figure 1.9.) The characters For and the exposures remaining displays will blink in the viewfinder and top-panel LCD monitor. If you have memory cards inserted in both the slots, the camera will format the card you have selected as your Primary slot. If you’d rather format the other card, rotate the main command dial (located on the back of the camera, and shown earlier in the upper-right corner of Figure 1.2) to select that slot. Then press the pair of buttons again, and the D500 will format your card. To cancel the format, press any other button.

Figure 1.9 Hold down the buttons marked Format to initiate reformatting of a memory card.

• Setup menu format. To use this method to format a memory card, press the MENU button, use the up/down buttons of the multi selector (that thumb-pad-sized control to the right of the LCD monitor) to choose the Setup menu (which is represented by a wrench icon), navigate to the Format Memory Card entry with the right button of the multi selector, choose which memory card to format (XQD or SD), and select Yes from the screen that appears. Press OK to begin the format process.

  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.