Home

D1 Chptr - Moose Peterson

1. Now ignore all the info in the D1 instruction manual and sales brochure regarding the capabilities and use of the EN 4 you aren t going to get 1 000 captures on a single charge Once the EN 4 is ready to go you should expect about 300 captures per charge that s shooting with an AF S lens in AF mode and reviewing images on the LCD M onitor To get the EN 4 ready to go the first thing you need to do before ever using it is refresh the battery three consecutive times T o do this connect the EN 4 to the MH 16 Charger depress the Refresh button on the charger then when it s finished depress it again and then refresh one more time in the same way If you have not done this do it now W hile the EN 4 has only so many refreshes in it some say just 100 this is the only way to get the maximum number of captures per charge out of it and maximize its long term performance Once this is done refresh your EN 4 once every ten charges and if your EN 4 has sat idlefor a month make sureto recharge not refresh it prior to use I have found that shooting in the cold does not affect the EN 4 like it does the M N 30 I have shot with it down to 16 without any ill effects on the battery T here are some precautions regarding charging the EN 4 that are listed in the M H 16 s instruction manual Though most users never read them they are very important Following the instructions makes a big difference in the overall charging l
2. so you have images to compare T hen go through your normal workflow and look at the results You ll need to take notes because the and changes are neither stored nor read by software reading an image s EXIF file With these images and information in hand you ll know what works best for you I ve always warmed my images captured with the D1 to help with the psychology of color But D avid through his testing has actually found thereis a technical reason to dial this in so be sure to check out his take on this feature on page 196 Lock Button T he last button left to discuss is the easiest D epress the L ock button and rotate the sub command dial to lock or unlock the shutter speed or aperture settings Basic M onitor D isplay By simply depressing the M onitor button located on the top left on the back of the D1 you can display the images you ve captured T he way you have Custom Setting 27 set determines what you see T he image that appears when you first depress the M onitor button is the last image you captured If you depress the bottom of the AF sensor pad the next image appears If you re viewing image 5 then image 6 appears but if 5 was thelast capture then when you depress the bottom of the AF sensor pad it will display image 1 1f you depress the top of theAF sensor pad it goes backwards 5 4 3 etc it won t be thesenumbers file number depends on Custom Setting 29 W hen an image is displayed you
3. tungsten fluorescent bright yellow tender green and normal green light T he D 1 can not only see these light sources but it knows how to meter for them by biasing exposure according to the light source The D 1 s RGB meter features high sensitivity EV 0 to EV 20 ISO 100 50f1 4 EV 2to EV 20 in Spot You need to usean AF S AFI or AF lens with D capability to get all of this performance W hen anon D lensis used you have only Color M atrix metering and while it sounds as if you ve lost something personally have not ever found the exposures to be any different with this combo Center W eighted Metering is the old standby guess In this mode the D1 meters the entire frame but gives the most bias to the center of the frame T he percentage of the frame where this bias is placed can be changed by using Custom Setting 14 Spot Metering measures the exposure in a small 4mm circle T his is defined and selected by the active AF sensor If you re using Dynamic AF with Closest Subject Priority or a lens without a CPU only the center AF sensor can Spot meter no matter which AF sensor you select TheD1 EXIF File With each image captured by theD1 an EX IF fileis written and attached to that file The EXIF fileis a text file that contains the following information Date Time Color Data Format Compression Lens prime lens in use Focal Length different focal length from above if using a zoom lens or teleconverter Exposure M ode M eteri
4. T he M H 17 must have uninterrupted power the entire charging time or your EN 4 suffers the consequences A popular alternative to charging the EN 4 on the go is to use an inverter An inverter takes the 12v from an auto accessory socket and changes them into 120v You can plug the M H 15 16 directly into the inverter T he drawbacks are that it drains the car battery and an extra piece of hardware is required T he MH 17 does just as nice a job with only 10 of the hardware You can also couplethe M H 17 with a solar panel such as SunW ize s PES for atotally portable charging system You know when it s time to recharge the EN 4 by the battery indicator in the Top LCD Panel Under perfect conditions the battery indicator is half dark and half light when the battery is onitsway out q T here are times when this indication is displayed but the battery is not on its way out W henever see this indication first think about how many captures I ve made on that charge If it s been the appropriate number then exchange EN 4s without hesitation do not take the battery down to totally empty as you risk losing captures If there have not been enough captures for that charge first turn off the D1 let it sit for a second or two and then turn it back on and or depress the depth of field button five times If theindicator goes back to full continue shooting If not take the 8 Moose Press EN 4 out of the D1 and replace it with on
5. infrared ray IR cutting ultra thin lithium niobate LiNB Low Pass Filter located directly in front of the CCD and optimal signal processing delivered by Nikon s original algorithm TheD1 provides 3D Digital Matrix Image Control 3D Color Matrix Metering TTL White Balance and T one Compensation with a 1 005 pixel CCD for optimum results T he camera s three intelligent exposure metering systems 3D Color Matrix Center W eighted and Spot M etering and three auto exposure modes Programmed Shutter Priority and Aperture Priority together with exposure compensation and automatic bracketing functions offer precise comprehensive exposure control 3D Multi Sensor Balanced Fill Flash for D1 controlled by five segment TTL M ulti Sensor possible with the new Speedlight SB 28D X and versatile Flash sync modes Front Curtain Sync normal sync Red Eye Reduction Red Eye Reduction with Slow Sync Slow Sync and Rear Curtain Sync add to the D 1 s versatility In order to give experienced users more control over quality the D 1 incorporates versatile image quality modes U ncompressed mage provides users with three options RAW 12 bit TIF F YCbCr 8 bit and TIF F RGB 8 bit Compressed Image offers J P E G baseline compressed approx 1 4 1 8 and 1 16 and monochrome mode Add to this the four step Sensitivity Control ISO equivalency 200 400 800 1 600 provided Optional software is needed to reproduce RAW or YCbC
6. W hile the names of the functions seem obvious enough they really aren t And in glorious Nikon fashion there are some hidden functions within each function each having good or bad repercussions depending on what you want to capture Like anything in the D 1 be sure to fully understand each option to make the most of it in your own photography T hebuttons in the Rear Control Panel have dual functions which are available depending on which shooting mode you are in S Single Frame and C Continuous mode or Play Playback mode T he settings that are active when the camera is in either S or C shooting modes relate to image capture and are discussed in depth in this section T he secondary functions of the buttons control theLCD M onitor and are covered later on page 33 T he deeper purpose and logic behind many of these settings as they relate to computer and Photoshop usage is covered thoroughly in the chapter How the D1 Family Works Custom Settings T he Custom Settings can really make or break your photography I m going to discuss how they can affect your images while later in this book David covers why they affect them the way they do To completely understand the Custom Settings you need to read both sections thoroughly to make the most of them If used intelligently they can make your life a whole lot simpler Asapoint of reference the Custom Settings have set in my D 1 are CS 1 2 CS 2 2 CS 6 1 CS 11 AS CS 14 8 CS
7. a different set of Custom Settings Or another shooter might want to use oneset of Custom Settings for professional work and another for family pictures Custom Setting 0 lets you be prepared for two different scenarios instantly just by selecting either set A or B use only one set of Custom Settings all the time because as a wildlife photographer find myself shooting situations that remain pretty constant Custom Setting 1 Image Status Capture Preview M ode This Custom Setting gives you some control over how the camera automatically previews images depending on what shooting mode the D1 is set to Option 0 Default No image is displayed Option 1 If you rein Self Timer mode the D1 takes the image and previews it on the M onitor prior to saving it to the CompactF lash T he idea is that you can run back to the camera after you ve taken your own photograph and see if it s any good before it s stored Depress the CSM button to save theimage or depress any other button to delete theimage Option 2 In Single F rame S mode theD 1 automatically previews the image you ve just captured on the M onitor It also writes the file to the CompactF lash use option 2 mostly when I m shooting scenics so can see exactly what s going on in the frame because m often holding a split graduated neutral density filter in front of the 14f2 8 lens If I m shooting in S mode turn off Custom Setting 27 as it conflict
8. ascaled up F 100 T hat s because the D 1 incorporates some of those cameras basic features such as the F 5 s RGB 3D M atrix metering system W hen designing a new body it makes economic sense to stick with a metering system that works and the corresponding circuit boards that run that system However accommodating such things as an LCD Monitor and CompactF lash compartment required an entirely new body design T he ensuing body shape and basic operation ended up being similar which is a good thing T he layperson has no real concept of the cost involved in the design and manufacture of anew body shell To say it s substantial is an understatement but the fact that the more recent models the D 1H and D 1X are using the same frame as the D1 provides some indication of the investment made in the original D1 body design TheD 1 s body is constructed out of rugged magnesium M g whereas the F5 is constructed out of a tough aluminum alloy the F 5 s prism is constructed of titanium T he goal behind the body s design was to match the standard of ruggedness set by the F5 but in a lighter platform T he one complaint I ve not heard about the D1 is that it is not rugged enough I ve never heard of a D1 sustaining a knock out blow from having been dropped and only a handful of reports of it even being dented from mistreatment T his means that Nikon met this goal as it stands up to the F 5 s reputation for endurance T heF 5 was proclaimed to
9. be nearly water resistant which found to be true in all the years shot with it The D1 was said to have high resistance to penetration by water drops which didn t tell memuch and was not very reassuring prior to my D1 s first exposure to rain have stood with the F 5 in rain many times and the camera never went down Could the D 1 take the same punishment especially with its many computers chips and CCD have found the D 1 does as well if not better than the F 5 in wet weather and especially if the weather is both wet and cold During one project was snowshoeing and shooting with the D 1 and often fell in the snow while walking taking the camera with me T he D1 still worked fantastically T he camera was immersed in the snow every time went down and even though cleaned the snow off some got into places it shouldn t T he snow heated up and melted into water as used the camera going into places didn t think would be good for the camera T his moisture then froze as continued snowshoeing Despite this very nasty treatment the D 1 never failed and continued to work even after an entire week of this abuse T hat has always impressed the heck out of me TheD1 Furthermore the CompactF lash slot and its weather ability is a concern to many users On one occasion a bald eagle crapped on meas it flew by It was a perfect shot which nailed the back of my D1 and oozed into the CompactF lash compartment dis
10. continuously until all three frames have been captured At that point the D 1 stops firing If theD1isin Single F rame S shooting mode you must depress the shutter release each time for every exposure which also holds true for theself timer T he bracketing no matter what shooting mode you re in can be canceled at any time by depressing the BKT button and rotating the Command Dial until BKT no longer appears in the Top LCD Panel T he actual exposure change is done by altering either the shutter speed or aperture depending on which exposure mode you re in If you re in Aperture Priority the shutter speed is changed for bracketing maintaining the aperture you veselected If you rein Shutter P riority the aperture is changed for bracketing to maintain the shutter speed you ve selected In Program mode both shutter speed and aperture are changed for bracketing If you rein M anual the shutter speed is changed W hen a flash is attached and auto bracketing is used the flash s exposure is affected by the bracketing by the same amount as the ambient light exposure You can change this by using Custom Setting 11 You can also affect the bracketing increasing the amount by dialing in exposure compensation prior to shooting via the Exposure Compensation button next to the On Off switch If the D1 is turned off during a bracketed firing sequence when the D 1 is turned back on it continues from where it was stopped If the CompactF lash car
11. for folder organization to my way of thinking but what do know Options This folder has two submenus Histogram and Highlight In practice you can select either one or both of the options in this folder or do the exact same thing with Custom Setting 27 If you activate these two options in the Options folder you ll see that Custom Setting 27 has been activated If you 31 TheD1 deactivate these options in the Options folder Custom Setting 27 will be deactivated 0 If you activate these options with Custom Setting 27 active it is noted here Bottom line this just duplicates Custom Setting 27 Auto Off T his is a duplication of Custom Setting 18 Just like in the above scenario whatever you do here affects thew ay Custom Setting 18 operates and what is displayed l m not sure why chip space was used to do this when you can do it as a Custom Setting or vice versa Language T his permits you to select thelanguagethe Playback M enu displays Highlight the desired language using theAF Selector and then select it by depressing the CSM enter button Video Output T his submenu contains two options for video output NT SC and PAL T hese settings permit the D1 to properly display images through a T V monitor Select either NTSC or PAL depending on the standard of the monitor in use Highlight the appropriate standard via the AF Selector and make a selection by depressing the CSM enter button Card Format T his is p
12. not There area number of printings of the D1 manual You can determine which version you have by looking in the lower right corner of the back cover T here you ll find the printing number of the instruction book which reads something like 6M E 49511 have also seen instruction books with the numbers 6M E 49510 W hat difference does this make T heinformation in one version is not the same as in the next and sometimes it is inaccurate as Nikon admits might be the case at the beginning of the manual which causes great confusion for the D1 user For example on page 32 in the 6M E 49510 version it states that raising the white balance adjustment makes images warmer redder when in fact it makes them cooler bluer Moose Press Presented in this book The D1 Generation is the correct information for operating the D1 obtained from my having shot with the camera for two years T his book is the culmination of practical experience correct instruction manuals and literature and consultations with other D1 shooters W hile you might refer to your manual from time to time keep in mind that if something seems different between the camera s actual operation and what the instruction book says the problem most likely lies in the instruction book The D1 Body Contrary to popular belief the D 1 s body design is unique and not just an adaptation of a prior Nikon conventional film body It most assuredly looks like a streamlined F 5 or
13. of this added up at the speed of light is how within proprietary constraints the D1 delivers the image quality it does 20 Moose Press The D1 has other software and hardware features that further add to its amazing image quality Nikon came up with a new system LSI Large Scale Integration which incorporates hardware that can handle such tasks as a new image processing algorithm and JPEG compression and decompression T he D 1 s 2 74 megapixel CCD creates a black and white image But with the system LSI accurate color interpolation to reduce color artifacts and pixel interpolation creates smoother and sharper lines as well as accurate color A big part of this is the low pass filter which is made of anew material and features ultra thin construction don t think any control on the D 1 pushes the button of so many Web lurkers as the QUAL button T his innocently labeled button is what you use to select the file type or image quality you want the D1 to capture T his directly affects the quality of that file by the amount of information actually written to the CompactF lash In selecting the right format for you you must first define your needs For example if you re shooting landscapes and creating 30 x 40 or larger prints you might want to useRGB TIFF If you re fanatical about having every pixel be perfect then RAW istheonly option for you If you re shooting for the editorial print medium or shooting action o
14. sensor over the subject in the viewfinder W ith this done depress the shutter release unless you re using Custom Setting 4 to lock the AF system on the subject If the subject moves and you pan the camera with the subject the Dl s Dynamic Autofocus automatically changes the active AF sensor to maintain focus wherever you originally assigned it eg if you focused on the eye that s the point the D1 tracks TheD 1 s Dynamic Autofocus does not track a moving subject if the camera doesn t move with the subject T he D 1 doesnot switch the sensor display to indicate it has switched sensors You cannot plant aD1 on a tripod lock it in place and have it automatically follow a moving subject and change AF sensors accordingly Dynamic AF makes up for poor panning technique when you cannot keep the point of focusin the selected AF sensor It does this in part by actually enlarging the active sizeof the AF areaof all sensors so they more or less blanket the five sensor area T he biggest mistakes folks make with Dynamic AF are one they think the camera tracks a moving subject while the camera holds still and two they think the camerais in Dynamic AF when no plus signs are present in the Top LCD Panel M ake sure you understand these functions so you can make the most out of them Dynamic AF with Closest Subject Priority is kind of a goofy thing I ve not had much success with it myself You must first be in Dynamic AF mode as described
15. the D 1 s has no locking mechanism W ith a simple pull of 6 Moose Press the finger you can turn the D 1 on and by pulling the switch all the way over you activate the backlight in the Top LCD called the top control panel in the instruction book and the Rear LCD rear control panel in theinstruction book T he shutter release activates the system once the D1 is on and then it turns itself off the amount of time the camera stays on can be altered with Custom Setting 15 T he lag time of the D 1 the time from when the shutter release is depressed and the shutter actually fires is oneof the fastest of any digital camera released at the time at 058 sec W hile this is fast it is not nearly as fast as the F 5 so you might notice the difference In order to maintain that fast lag time especially if shooting in Sleep mode be sure to use L exar s CompactF lash cards with their nearly instant wake up time The D1 has only one option for power the EN 4 7 2v 2 000mAh 14 4W h Ni MH battery The D1 kit comes with one but one is not enough I currently havefour EN 4s for use with my two bodies don t understand what the problem is with Nikon and power but the power system for the D1 leaves a lot to be desired Note Static charge can cause problems for the D 1 and its inboard computers The first thing to do if the D1 starts acting oddly is to turn it off pull out the EN 4 reinsert it and see if that clears up the problem
16. theE H 4 AC power source when using this Custom Setting and cleaning the CCD which I ve never done just set the camera to Bulb and depress the shutter release to clean my CCD Custom Setting 9 Dynamic AF Mode in Single Servo S AF This Custom Setting enables you to disable the Closest Subject Priority function of the Dynamic AF system when in Single Servo mode Option 0 Default Permits Closest Subject Priority in Dynamic AF mode when in Single Servo AF Option 1 Disables the Closest Subject Priority function in D ynamic AF mode when in Single Servo AF Custom Setting 10 Dynamic AF Mode in Continuous Servo C AF This is basically the same thing as Custom Setting 9 except it deals with Continuous Servo AF Option 0 Default Closest Subject Priority is disabled when you rein Dynamic AF mode and Continuous Servo AF Option 1 Enables Closest Subject Priority when you re in Dynamic AF mode and Continuous Servo AF Closest Subject Priority is something that doesn t work well with wildlife photography so for that reason don t use it W hen I have played with it for example whileshooting a flock of birds in flight have had problems quickly locking onto the bird wanted to shoot L osing that quickness is the reason don t use this Custom Setting as the goal of this feature is to help speed up your AF operation Custom Setting 11 Auto Exposure Flash Exposure Bracketing This Custom Setting permits
17. then this Custom Setting is made for you It permits you to decide how much areain thecenter of theimageis given thegreatest amount of weight in the camera s metering calculation T he thing that has always cracked me up about this Custom Setting is that you have no real clue about the size of the circles for center weighted metering T here is only one circle delineated on thescreen of the D1 and it s 12mm Option 6 T he greatest weight is given toa 6mm circlein the center of the screen Option 8 Default T hegreatest weight is given to an 8mm circle in the center of the screen Option 10 The greatest weight is given to a 10mm circle in the center of the screen Option 13 The greatest weight is given to a 13mm circle in the center of the screen Option A Exposure is based on the entire frame Custom Setting 15 Time Delay for Auto Metering Switch O ff This Custom Setting determines how long the information in the viewfinder and on the T op and Rear LCD Panels display after you remove your finger from the shutter release Some folks set this to its shortest duration in an effort to conserve batteries ve tested this and it really doesn t make that much of a difference to the battery s life So it really comes down to what works for your styleof shooting Option 4 Four second delay Option 6 Default Six second delay Option 8 Eight second delay Option 16 Sixteen second delay 16 Moose
18. to capture what see not on film but in pixels It s in tackling these trials and tribulations that eventually led me to success and madetheD 1 my favorite camera Let me share with you my love affair with the D1 and what ve learned so that you can make the most of this truly remarkable piece of technology in your own photography copyright 2005 B M oose Peterson TheD1 Original Announcement Looking back on the original announcement helps put what we now have as well as future digital SLR Nikons into perspective H ere then is Nikon s press release for the D 1 Tokyo J apan J une 15 1999 Nikon long and widely recognized for their world class professional SLR cameras have artfully combined this experience with the very latest digital technology in creating the Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera D1 which features three basic concepts ultrahigh image quality superhigh speed and enhanced operability T he D1 boasts optical and digital innovations such as improved overall picture quality souped up consecutive shooting capabilities and broader compatibility all packed into a lightweight and strong magnesium body W ith high resistance to penetration by water drops the D1 is fully equipped to satisfy the demands of professional and high end amateur photographers The D1 features a large 23 7 x 15 6mm 2 74 megapixel CCD for ultrahigh definition 2 012 x 1 324 pixel images Superior results are further ensured by the
19. via the PC socket when a flash is already attached via the ISO hot shoe and the D 1 is set to Rear Curtain Sync T he 10 Pin Remote T erminal is where cable releases are attached Y ou can plug in the MC 20 MC 21 MC 22 MC 25 M C 30 M L 2 with MC 25 and the M L 3 via this socket T his is an electrical socket so if you lose your terminal cap call Nikon Parts see Appendix and order areplacement to prevent dirt or moisture from entering into the camera via this socket and possibly causing electrical problems T he Accessory Hot Shoe atop of theprismis wherethe flash unit is attached It is an ISO hot shoe which accepts any flash but it is recommended that only Nikon flash units be attached for T T L operation Nikon flash units have a locking pin that pops down from the flash foot into a hole in the hot shoe You should make yourself aware of this prior to the first time you attach the flash as the pins are known to get stuck in the locked position The Diopter Adjustment Knob on the right side of the prism permits diopter correction T his provides correction from 3 to 1 DP Correction is set by first gently pulling out the small knob rotating the knob to the right setting and then pushing the knob back into place to lock it in T he Eyepiece Shutter Lever closes the curtain inside the viewfinder It is important to use this when you are shooting the D1 unattended for instance when you re using the self timer Normally when you re sho
20. you back to the Playback M enu with the word Delete from the main menu highlighted Note Y ou can delete images when in S or C mode by first depressing the M onitor button and then depressing the D elete button when the image you want to delete appears All W hen this option is highlighted you can either delete all the images in the folder or only certain images via protection T he D 1 takes you to a menu that says Deleting All Images Below this are a key symbol Protect a box with aline through it Hide and Excluded T hese messages serve to remind you that images you have selected as Protect or Hide to be discussed in a moment are not deleted when you select All You can also select NO or depress the AF ON button to cancel the operation T his takes you back to the D elete submenu T o delete all the images use the AF Selector to highlight YES and then depress the CSM enter button to execute The D1 offers you some shortcut keys in making the selection and deletion process alittle faster Once you havegoneto Delete and then the Selected submenu you can mark all or multiple images for deletion To mark all images in that folder depress the QUAL all button W ith this accomplished each image has a small icon in the upper left corner indicating it has been selected You can continue deleting images as described above Personally if want to delete all the images simply depress the DEL and MODE buttons on the top
21. you to govern which exposure ambient or flash light and by how much the auto bracketing function BKT brackets when a flash is attached and in use By default when a flash is attached and you engage the auto bracketing function both the ambient light exposure and flash exposure are bracketed simultaneously by the same amount O ption AS Default Flash exposure and ambient light exposure are bracketed the same amount at the same time Option AE Only the ambient light exposure is bracketed the flash exposure is not bracketed Option Sb Only the flash exposure is bracketed the ambient light exposure is not bracketed Note You can combine this with other auto bracketing functions such as Custom Setting 3 or dialing exposure compensation directly into the D1 Custom Setting 12 Command Dial Functions 15 TheD1 The M ain Command Dial is what normally controls the changing of the shutter speeds in Shutter Priority and M anual modes T he Sub Command Dial normally changes the aperture in Aperture Priority and Manual modes T he operational order of these two dials can be reversed with this Custom Setting Option 0 Default T he M ain Command Dial changes the shutter speed in Shutter Priority and M anual modes T he Sub Command Dial changes the aperture in Aperture Priority and M anual modes Option 1 T he Sub Command Dial controls the shutter speed in Shutter Priority and M anual modes T he M ain Command Dial cha
22. 15 6 CS 16 10 CS 19 1 CS 25 CH CS 26 21 CS 27 2 and CS 29 1 I ll explain why and how use these in a moment strongly suggest you write down your Custom Setting selections once you ve set them the way you want them T his list will be a big asset if you accidentally set the D 1 back to its defaults or your camera goes in for repair T hen you don t have to figure them out all over again In the top left corner of the Rear LCD panel the word CUSTOM appears if you have any of the following Custom Settings dialed into the camera these are Nikon s definitions more detailed explanations follow 0 Custom Settings Specify the two setting combinations of A and B 1 Capture Preview M ode Set to show captured imageon LCD M onitor before sending image date to CompactF lash CF Card 2 EV Steps for Exposure Control 3 Bracketing Order Alters order of bracketing 4 Autofocus A ctivation 5 Anti Vibration M ode Set to prevent effects of camera shake 6 Focus Area Selection 7 AE Lock 8 M irror U p Set to clean the CCD 9 Dynamic AF M odein S AF 10 Dynamic AF M odein C AF 11 Auto E xposure F lash E xposure Bracketing 12 Command Dial F unctions 13 Exposure Compensation Settings 14 Center W eighted M etering Area Change 8mm diameter circle to 6 10 13mm or average metering 12 Moose Press 15 T ime D day for Auto M etering Switch off 16 Self T imer Duration 17 LCD Illumination 18 Auto Pow
23. Its color temperature is set at approximately 6 000 K M oose sRuleof T humb use this setting alot probably for 95 of my shooting You could think of this as the closest setting to conventional film s 5 500 K the D1 has to offer use this setting in early morning late morning late afternoon and in evening light and just love the results W hen there is just a little overcast and the light ratio is down to 1 2 1 usethis setting Basically you can t seethe sun but it is still bright out T his setting really makes colors pop in an otherwise dull light It s pretty amazing that the one setting most photographers don t contemplate using performs so well f Shade T he instruction book recommends using this setting when shooting in the shade on a sunny day T he color temperature is set at approximately 7 000 K M oose s Rule of T humb use this setting only when the lighting is dark there s no sun and thelighting ratio is closeto 1 1 no shadows useO vercast white balance morethan Shadewhite balance but do useit U sing flash fill in this mode works well in making the subject really pop in terms of exposure and color PRE Preset W hite Balance T his is a pretty helpful setting It permits you to select the color balance by first taking areading off awhite target to preset the white balance T his is accomplished by first placing a gray card or neutral target see next paragraph under the light source you re going to be wor
24. M with subfolder 100nc_d1 but creates new folders on its own in sequential order W hen the D 1 s file capture frame counter hits 999 it automatically creates a new folder All the images in this folder can be displayed in Playback mode Only images captured by the D 1in this file play back in Playback mode Because using this simple default and moving the file from the CompactF lash to the PC is so easy just stick with this DCF All T his creates files in such a way that they conform to the Design Rule for Camera F ile Systems W hat does this mean It means that the images created in this mode by the D 1 or other digital cameras can be seen in Playback mode in any of the other cameras guess if you re shooting with both a Coolpix 990 and a D1 you might want to shoot in this mode if you re interchanging the same CompactF lash card with images on it between cameras NC_D1 T his creates folders in which only the images in the current folder can be viewed in Playback mode No matter which modeyou rein if you create a new folder the frame counter ontheTop LCD as well as in the viewfinder resets back to frame 1 If you create new folders with the NEW command and number them say 101 102 and 103 the D 1 sees only the last file 103 and so never uses 101 or 102 And if the D 1 has automatically created folders and you re now on folder 106 you cannot go back and select create or use any folder prior to 106 Not the most logical system
25. Press Custom Setting 16 Self T imer Duration Or the Family Plan This permits you to set how much time you haveto run from behind the camera to be with your family in front of the camera when using the self timer I guess you set this according to how fast you can run Option 2 T wo second delay Option 5 Five second delay Option 10 Default T en second delay Option 20 T wenty second delay Y ou might want to use this in conjunction with Custom Setting 1 1 Custom Setting 17 LCD Illumination This Custom Setting permits you to have the Top and Rear LCD Panels illuminated all the time or just when you pull the On Off switch all the way to the right Option 0 TheTop and Rear LCD illuminators come on only via the On Off switch Option 1 TheTop and Rear LCD illuminators come on when any button anywhere on theD 1 is depressed guaranteed to eat up batteries Custom Setting 18 LCD Monitor Auto Power Off T his Custom Setting is important to conserving battery power T helength of time the LCD M onitor where you preview your images remains on when in Playback mode is determined by this Option 0 Default Twenty seconds Option 1 Oneminute Option 2 Fiveminutes Option 3 Ten minutes T he M onitor eats up battery charge the more you use it the less battery lifein a charge you re going to have Custom Setting 19 Aperture Setting during Zooming T heinstruction book has one of
26. The Nikon D1 Introduction In February of 1999 Nikon USA displayed a prototype camera in a little glass cube in the back corner of their PMA booth Away from the limelight the black form looked much like a tall F 100 but without any identifying lettering or functions printed on the body T here was no hint of what the body could be or what it could do Like the vast majority of folks at the show walked right by the camera and didn t give it a second thought T hat all changed on June 15 1999 when Nikon announced the D 1 and that black form instantly took shape had started making digital captures in earnest in February 1998 when was asked to help launch the Coolpix 900 I d used the DCS 620 prior to that To be honest thought the camera was fun but that surely the medium would have no application for a wildlife photographer who was making a living with his images Even when theD 1 first hit my desk in D ecember 1999 my thought was merely to check it out review it and move on It never crossed my mind that it would radically change my 20 years of shooting W ith that in mind headed out one afternoon to take some test images to help illustrate anything might write came upon aherd of mule deer and photographed them with the D1 and from the moment of that first exposure knew that conventional film would no longer be apart of my photography I ve heard many stories about why folks have switched to the D 1 and they all boi
27. above to make it work Unless you ve turned it off via Custom Setting 9 or 10 the D1 is in Closest Subject Priority by default In this mode the D1 automatically focuses on and gives priority to the closest subject which does not work very well with telephoto shots or dimly lit subjects leaving out most wildlife photography W hen the camera is in this mode the active AF sensor bracket is not displayed in the Top LCD Panel or in the viewfinder which think is a major drawback TheD1 has the same AF system as the F 5 It utilizes the M ulti CA M 1300 and W ide Cross Array of five focus areas It also has Nikon s Lock On Focus T racking system T here is no doubt in my mind that the AF of the D 1 is just as good as that in the F 100 which is better than that in the F 5 which for action photography is an incredible tool Unlike the F5 with its Photo Secretary the D1 s AF cannot be programmed for faster operation which is a detriment to the 35 TheD1 camera T he D1 also has the same electronic rangefinder and focus indicator as theF5 A green dot lights in the viewfinder s lower left corner to indicate that the camera is in focus If the subject is out of focus a green arrow points either left or right to indicate which way to turn the lens to bring the subject into focus Auto Bracketing BKT Button T his feature provides you with some exposure flexibility in that the D1 can automatically take three frames two of which hav
28. ach thing work correctly without shooting yourself in the foot Or else you must carry your D1 instruction book with you all thetime which I never do And most of theimportant functions can be quickly accessed using other buttons or button combinations or through the Custom Settings For example when want to review images simply depress the M onitor button while I m in S or C mode which is much faster than utilizing any of the Play functions But you should know what these various functions are and what they do just in case you might need them someday W ith that said let s go into these menus and look at the different functions these buttons have Note T he D1 displays rough thumbnails prior to displaying the final sharpened image W hile the rough thumbnail is on screen an hourglass appears on theimage telling you that you must wait for the sharpened image to appear A great way to learn is to thumb through your images and look at them while the hourglass is present to see any exposure or white balance changes you might have made W hen the D1 is in Playback mode the buttons have different names from those you learned above T hey are CSM enter or execute button QUAL all or select all button ISO play or multiple select button WB thumbnail and L menu W hen you place the D1 in Play Playback mode the last image captured appears on the LCD M onitor In the lower right corner t
29. added on a Lexar CF T his is the maximum file size T he D 1 does not often use the entire allocated file size to capture the image 21 TheD1 BASIC Basic image quality has the highest compression of the three JPEG files aratio of 1 16 W hilethis particular setting is probably not used very often by working photographers there is one really good use for this setting that am aware of If you do any teaching and you use a T V monitor in conjunction with the D 1 Basic is the way to go You don t see any image quality difference on aTV monitor using Basic mode but there is a big difference in the time it takes for the image to appear on the T V which makes teaching alot simpler Use the EG D1 video cable for this operation NORM Norm Normal is asetting many peopleuse when ripping images for the W eb because it gives you the limited file size desired for fast page loading and there is little need for big files for big looks The Norm setting s J PEG compression ratio of 1 8 works very well for Web images know a lot of folks who use this mode to create their Web sites especially real estate agents who need to create virtual tours of available properties FINE The Fine mode is probably the file format most often used on the D1 by working photographers T his is the file size ve been using since nearly day one Fine mode has a JPEG compression ratio of 1 4 creating a maximum fileof 1 3MB W hen I first started
30. alance setting is for use when the light source is aregular light bulb likeone you would find in your home T he color temperature of this setting is basically fixed at 3 000 K I ve found this works really well and it permits me to use available room light with a reflector quite easily c Fluorescent T his all too common light source is easily handled by the D1 This is the setting to use when the predominant light source is fluorescent obviously T he setting is fixed at approximately 4 200 K Something that would not have been donewith conventional film can bedone with digital If your lighting source is fluorescent you can simply use reflectors to fill in any shadows and the color the D1 captures appears normal using this setting It s pretty darn cool a Direct Sunlight T his setting is for when the subject is in direct sunlight Color temperature is fixed at approximately 5 200 K even though basic sunlight is 5 500 K M oose s Rule of Thumb T he only time can say this mode works is when thereis theslightest thing blocking thelight of thesun from striking the subject Since the setting is for 5 200 K and basic sunlight is 5 500 K you can understand why you might find very limited use for this setting d Flash T his is for when you re using flash as your main light source not flash fill Its color temperature is set at approximately 5 400 K even though flash is 5 500 K e Overcast T his setting is obviously for overcast light
31. ate of time between images the file size of the image does vary the actual rate between images Protect This is how you can prevent important images from being accidentally deleted Selecting the Protect option brings up the first six thumbnails in a file Select the image you want to protect by using the AF Selector Once the image has been selected denoted by a blue box around the image depress the CSM enter button W hen this has been done successfully a key icon appears in the top left corner of theimage N ow these images cannot accidentally be erased but they can be deleted if you format the CompactF lash card W hen these images are moved to a computer they have read only file status Hide Image T his option provides you with the same protection as Protect and hides an image from being played back in the slide show W hen Hide I mageis selected the first six thumbnails in the file appear Select the image to be hidden with theAF Selector and then depress the CSM enter button W hen an image is successfully hidden the key icon and the box with a line through it icon appear on the image N ow these images cannot be accidentally erased but can be deleted if you format the CompactF lash card W hen these images are moved to a computer they have read only file status T he D1 offers you some shortcut keys in making the selection and deletion process even easier Once you have gone to Delete and then to the Selected submenu you
32. ation 0 Auto Exposure Bracketing Off Flash Sync M ode Front Curtain Sync QUAL Button Image Quality Settings 3D Digital M atrix Image Control is a lengthy phrase summing up the image quality processing of the D1 which could better be summed up in one word great W hen you consider that theD 1 was Nikon s first entry into professional quality digital SLR camera design what the D1 delivers is truly remarkable W hen depress the shutter release and can see the image a second later I m blown away In laymen s terms this is how the system works to create the images we enjoy previewing on the D1 sLCD M onitor Utilizing the 1 005 pixel RGB metering system as its cornerstone the D1 has three high performance features working to produce an image file 3D Color M atrix M etering TT L W hiteBalance and T one Compensation 3D Color M atrix M etering calculates the best possible exposure within the realms that will be discussed later by comparing such variables as brightness color data and subject to camera distance and running that computation against 35 000 exposure computations preprogrammed into the D 1 s database T he final value from this first step is then narrowed even further by the TTL White Balance which indicates how important selecting the white balance is to exposure and image quality Finally Tone Compensation fine tunes the curves according to the scene s brightness and contrast In a nutshell all
33. can depress the right or left sideof the AF sensor pad and see shooting information you cannot have Custom Setting 27 2 engaged if you want to see this information You ll first see F ile Name Date Time Frame Number and Quality Setting The next time you depress the AF sensor pad you ll see Camera Firmware Version M etering Shutter Aperture Exposure M ode and Ex Comp T he last screen you ll see when you depress the AF sensor pad is ISO W hite Bal W hite Bal Tone Sharpness and Focal Length If you access image viewing via the Play Playback option on the Shooting Mode Dial when the image appears on the LCD you can access the above information in the same manner If you depress the W B button a 3 x 3 grid of images appear You cannot access the above information when you havea 3 x 3 display 27 TheD1 Rear Control LCD Panel Buttons Secondary Functions All of the buttons and their functions discussed in the Rear Control LCD Panel Buttons Primary F unctions section work as described only when the D1 is set to either S or C shooting modes W hen you switch the mode to Play Playback mode these buttons operate different features of the D1 to change to Play depress the button to theleft and above the Shooting M ode Dial whilerotating the dial l Il be honest with you rarely use these features Onereason I don t is there is simply too much to memorize You must jump through hoops to make e
34. can mark all or multiple images for deletion To mark all images in that folder for deletion depress the QUAL all button W ith this accomplished each image has a small icon in the upper left corner indicating it has been selected You can continue deleting as described above Personally if want to delete all the images simply depress the DEL and M ODE buttons simultaneously which formats the CompactF lash cards and deletes all the images without having to go to the Playback mode Print Set In my world of digital can t see any reason why the D 1 has this feature but it s herenonetheless T his option per mits images to beselected for printing using a printer or print servicethat supports Digital Print Order Format D POF like that found in some photo store kiosks T he idea behind this is that when the CompactF lash card is inserted into the D POF device theimage along with its E X IF image data file is printed W hen Print Set is selected the file s thumbnails appear Select the image s you want to print as you wouldif you weregoing to deletethem as described above Once you have selected your images a menu comes up with D one Copies and Date Select 30 Moose Press Done to confirm the print order and exit the Print Set M enu Copies takes you to a submenu where you select the number of copies of the particular file you want to print UsetheAF Selector to change the number pushing it upwards to increase the number
35. d should become full or beremoved prior to completing a bracketed firing sequence once the card has been replaced the D1 continues firing the bracketed sequence 36 Moose Press Flash Sync M odes The D1 has five flash sync modes to offer the user Front Curtain Sync Slow Sync Rear Curtain Sync Red E ye Reduction and Red E yeR eduction with Slow Sync First the five modes the easy stuff I gnore the hints in the instruction book about these five options they really don t fly Selecting a flash sync is really simple F irst depress the lightning bolt button inside the Shooting M ode Dial and then rotate the Command Dial As you rotate the Command Dial watch the flash sync box on the Top LCD Panel for the symbol to come up for the sync mode you desire Front Curtain Sync is your basic flash sync T he flash fires when the shutter release is depressed and the shutter curtain opens In this sync mode shutter speeds of 1 60 to 1 500 sec are available to you in A or P exposures modes W hen shooting flash fill in Aperture P riority or Program modes the D 1 selects the correct shutter speed for the aperture you ve selected T he shutter speed range the D1 selects is determined by the sync mode and is stepless Slow Sync is the classic flash sync mode and provides the greatest amount of flash fill flexibility In this sync mode the flash fires when the shutter opens and provides longer shutter speeds to properly expose low ambient light
36. day long in different lighting and forget to change the white balance setting For this reason leave the door on the button panel next to theR ear LCD open all thetimewhen I m not using my normal Overcast setting as a reminder to be on the alert for white balance changes Optimizing W hite Balance Color Temperature T here is a definite reason to not be satisfied with simply setting your D 1 to A or any oneof theother white balance settings mentioned above You ll find the technical reason and there really is one in the chapter How the D1 Family Works My reasons have strictly to do with the human mind and the psychology of color Since you can fine tune the white balance in the D1 you should take advantage of it to achieve optimum results W hen you depress the W B button and rotate the Sub Command Dial not the M ain Command Dial you ll notice you can select settings from 3 to 3 T his can actually alter the color balance range of each white balance setting except PRE T he minus side of the scale warms up an image whereas the plus side cools down an image which seems counterintuitive to me Unfortunately this great feature is poorly illustrated in the instruction book T he effects of each numbered setting are not even discussed in the instruction book but you need to know what they are Below is a chart created by Nikon to help explain the effect and how it changes the color white balance for each settin
37. e modes with setting the AF MF lever to the right of the lens mount By depressing the button and rotating the Command Dial you select the appropriate AF mode for you W ith the button depressed and the Command Dial rotated so only one AF Bracket appears in the AF box in the Top LCD Panel Single Area AF is activated To select the AF sensor you want to use depress the AF thumb pad which has a lock on it on the right side of the D 1 s 34 Moose Press back and toggle around until the desired AF sensor is red T hat means it s active remember you can use Custom Setting 6 to speed up this process Select the activeAF sensor by moving your thumb up or down left or right W ith this done you can superimposethe active sensor in the viewfinder over top of the subject depress the shutter release unless you re using Custom Setting 4 and the camera focuses on that point or subject As long as neither you nor the subject moves the D 1 maintains focus on the point you ve focused upon If the subject moves you must re aim the D 1 and then depress the shutter release to focus again By depressing the button and rotating the Command Dial again five signs appear in the AF box in the Top LCD Panel T his indicates that D ynamic AF has been selected In this mode the D 1 automatically switches the active A F sensor if the subject moves but you and the D1 must move with it First select the active AF sensor and then place that
38. e that s fully charged If this doesn t change things pop the battery out and then in again which removes any static charge that might be messing up the battery indicator On many occasions my battery indicator has shown half power when all along the battery was fine If you have Nikon Capture control software you can use the battery meter in the camera folder section which is more accurate than the battery indicator in the Top LCD to determine the state of your battery charge have four EN 4 batteries for powering my two camera bodies T hat number has worked very well for me and has made me very conscious of the current status of my batteries If I m going to be away from my camera bag for an extended time like hours always grab at least one extra battery to take along think about how many CompactF lash cards plan on filling and roughly have one EN 4 for every 256 320 12x Lexar CompactF lash card never did this with the F 5 but it s a fact of life with the D1 The EN 4 doesn t come with a case but the battery case for the F5 s M N 30 fits the E N 4 well One final note on using the EN 4 I have found that it does not hold a charge very well when notin use W hether it s in the camera or out the E N 4 discharges If have not used a battery and or charged it in the last ten days simply charge it prior to major shooting Top Control LCD Panel The Top Control LCD Panel is the nerve center for most bas
39. e varying amounts of exposure compensation which bracket around themain exposure T he D 1 provides you with up to or 2 stops of compensation which with the digital format is probably all you need M oreon theD 1 s metering is covered on page 45 To activate auto bracketing first depress the BKT button and then rotate the Command Dial until BKT appears in the Top LCD Panel At the same time the symbol in the Top LCD Panel and viewfinder starts blinking W hile still depressing the BKT button rotate the Sub Command D ial to select a bracketing program which depends on how Custom Setting 2 is set exposure compensation in increments of 1 3 1 2 or 1 stop Next select if you want or exposure compensation and how many frames either two or three W hen the BKT button is depressed you ll seein the Top LCD Panel either a or sign followed by 2F or 3F followed by an exposure value EV based on which option in Custom Setting 2 you ve selected For example if you want to take three frames at 1 3 stop increments you would want the display to show 3F 03 W ith this set you re ready to shoot By default the D 1 takes the negative exposure compensation prior to the positive T his order can be changed with Custom Setting 3 Compose and shoot as you normally would T he D 1 takes a series of three frames depending on the shooting mode If the D1 is in Continuous C shooting mode the camera takes the three frames
40. ed Option 1 T akes autofocus activation away from the shutter release and puts it strictly on the AF ON button located in two places on the D 1 W hile this option is not something use it is very popular with most sports photographers vetried it but havenever really seen it benefit my wildlife photography Custom Setting 5 Anti Vibration Mode T his Custom Setting is not intended for use with the 80 400VR lens T he purpose of this is to help minimize mirror bounce which in theory could cause the camerato move resulting in out of focus images O ption 0 Default Has no effect on any operating system Option 1 Causes an ever so minor delay between when the mirror moves up out of the way and when the shutter actually fires imagine if you really tried you could find a benefit to using this but that would be only when the camera is locked down on a tripod and you re shooting at areally slow shutter speed Custom Setting 6 Focus Area Selection This Custom Setting helps speed up AF sensor selection by permitting the selection process to wrap around the sensor choices Option 0 Default W hen you want to select anew AF sensor from the one that s currently active you must take alinear path to that sensor For example if thetop AF sensor is active and you want to select the oneon the bottom you must hit the AF thumb pad twice down direction to activate that sensor Option 1 Permits you to skip d
41. eed the D1 selects is stepless ranging from 30 to 1 16 000 sec In P or Program mode the D1 selects the aperture and shutter speed for you based on the focal length of the lens in use and the light level of the scene being shot The D1 also has a Flexible Program mode which permits you to changetheaperture shutter speed combination T his is done by rotating the Command Dial while in the P mode An asterisk appears next to the P when this has been accomplished Note To cancel Flexible Program you need to either switch to another exposure mode or turn the D 1 off You can usethe Command D ial but at times it just changes the shutter speed aperture combo rather than canceling F lexible Program In S or Shutter P riority mode you select the shutter speed and the D 1 selects the aperture which is stepless Note You must have the lens s aperture closed to its minimum aperture for A S and P exposure modes or the D1 displays a FEE error message In M or M anual mode you select both the aperture and the shutter speed A metering bar graph appears which aids in selecting the right combo It is in M mode that Bulb is available The D1 instruction manual states that noise might appear in exposures longer than 1 sec Refer to David s chapter How the D1 Family Works for more info on noise Note T heCCD of the D1 does not like long exposures T he image starts to build up noise until over time the image becomes completely
42. emory card access lamp to go out before you do anything such as 33 TheD1 turning the camera off or trying to remove the CompactF lash card If you turn the camera off prior to having all the images be written to the CompactF lash card you re going to lose all the images remaining in the buffer T his same result comes from pulling out the CompactF lash or the EN 4 prior to the green light being off you also run the risk of doing in the D1 or the CompactF lash card If the EN 4 is becoming exhausted while shooting the D1 stops firing but saves enough power to write theremaining images from the buffer to the CompactF lash card before it completely shuts down Self T imer is pretty self explanatory Just remember you can alter how it functions using Custom Setting 16 Play is Playback mode which permits you to view the images you have captured It is covered on page 32 PC or PC mode is used when the D 1 is directly connected to a computer via F ireW ire T his is accomplished with an EEE 1394 F ireW ire interface You can either transfer images in the D 1 to your computer using Nikon View DX or Nikon Capture software or you can operate the D1 from your computer with this connection M aking this connection first requires that the EEE 1394 cable be connected properly to the computer N ext be sure the D 1 is turned off T hen connect the IEEE 1394 cable to the six pin socket on the back lower right corner of theD1 T urn the cam
43. er Off of LCD M onitor 20 sec 1 5 or 10 minutes 19 Aperture Setting during Zooming 20 Shutter Release ndication via Self T imer LED 21 AE L AF L Button 22 Aperture Selection Change via Sub Command Dial to lens s aperture ring 23 Sharpen 1 D efault 2 Low 3 High 4 None 24 T one Compensation 1 Auto 2 Normal 3 Contrast 4 Contrast 5 Custom with Nikon Capture software 25 Shooting Speed in C M ode 4 5 3 2 1 or 0 5 fps 26 M aximum Number of Consecutive Shots in C M ode Choose from 1 to 21 shots 27 LCD M onitor Setting 1 Default 2 Histogram 3 Highlight point 4 Highlight point with histogram 28 SaveRAW Images 29 Auto F ile N umbering M ode 30 Select Shooting M ode W hen Disconnected from PC in PC M ode S or C mode 31 Sensitivity U p Increase ISO speed Custom Setting 0 Custom Settings T his provides users with the ability to program two unique sets of Custom Settings while accessing only one For instance you can have any combination of functions and settings grouped together in Custom Set A and have a completely different set in Custom Set B T he idea behind this is to provide program flexibility You can changefrom one set to the next in aheartbeat A newspaper photographer in the morning might shoot general stories requiring oneset of Custom Settings and then in the afternoon be assigned to photograph a specific sport that requires using
44. era on and then turn the Shooting M ode Dial to PC but don t have iton PC when you turn theD 1 on W hen theD 1 is connected and Nikon Capture is talking to it PC appears where the frame counter normally appears in the Top LCD Panel Last be darn sure that before you disconnect the IEEE 1394 cable the D1 is turned off It is best that the D1 be powered with the AC adapter EH 4 rather than with the E N 4 battery as leaving the camera on while connected to the computer is a power draining process Shooting Mode Dial T hree Center M ode Control Buttons T here are three mode control buttons encircled by the Shooting M ode Dial They are the AF Area mode button Auto Bracketing button BKT and the Flash Sync mode button lightning bolt W hile these buttons seem pretty self explanatory each has its own little nuances you should be aware of for successful execution AF Area Mode Button Like the F5 the D1 has the ability to either hold focus with the one active AF sensor or changetheactiveAF sensor to track thesubject with other AF sensors T hesetwo modes of operation arecalled Single Area AF and Dynamic AF respectively the instruction book makes it look like there are three settings but there are only two with one being modified via a Custom Setting These two AF modes are often thought of as the Single Area or static AF and Dynamic or continuously moving AF for good reason Don t confuse setting thes
45. g T henumbers in the chart are added or subtracted from the baseline Kelvin temperature for a particular white balance setting to arrive at anew white balance temperature range For example the setting of overcast with 3 my favorite setting has a white balance of 6 500 K Sunlight 460k 300k 140k 5200k 120k 260k 360k Shade 820k 520k 240k 7000k 240k 460k 680k Overcast 580k Incandescent 300k Fluorescent 280k N umbers in this column represent the baseline Kelvin temps for each white balance setting 26 Moose Press To change the temperature of the white balance you ve selected you can just dial in 3 to 3 Say you re shooting in overcast light that s at 6 000 K you can dial in 1 and end up with a Kelvin temp of 6 180 K W hile these additions and subtractions are not in very big increments they can make a difference T hat s why for every white balance setting use Sunlight Shade and Overcast not Flash have 3 dialed in You must dial in the or for each white balance setting you cannot just dial it in once and have it change and affect all the white balance settings How do you determine what works best for your styleof photography Y ou have to perform tests which is really easy to do with the D1 Find yourself a couple of subjects likeawhiteand atan teddy bear then photograph these subjects together in different lighting T ake baseline exposures then dial in or
46. gusting know Even with that smelly assault the D 1 kept on firing An important part of the D1 body is its 30 x 40mm LCD M onitor actual screen size W hileit displays only 92 of the actual final image its 114 000 dot low temperature polysilicon T FT fluorescent backlit LCD screen presents really quite a clean display it is 114K not 120K which is often quoted W hile the screen does protrude from the D 1 s body it s not enough to interfere with proper handholding technique H owever it sticks out enough to get smeared with nose oil if not used with a cover T oss out the cover that comes with the D 1 and get the Hoodman H OOD CAP product H CD 1 seeA ppendix which is clear and makes it easy to keep the LCD glass clean TheLCD Monitor might have zero one or a couple of pixels that either don t light up or are colored e g red or blue T his is not a problem worth sending your D1 in for repair because it has no effect on the final image It is simply the nature of thebeast Y ou can changethebrightness of theLCD M onitor by setting the D1 in Play mode and then depressing and holding in the M onitor button while rotating the Sub Command Dial Note It is possibletheLCD might turn black in hot temper atures and become very sluggish in cold temps T o date I ve shot with the D 1 in temps from 122 to 1042 and have never experienced any of these possible problems The D1 Picture Angle TheD1 sCCD is smaller than
47. he folder number and the file number something like 106 8 appear W hile this image is being displayed if you depress the L Lock button a menu appears on the LCD M onitor T his is the Playback M enu which gives you access to six options Delete Slide Show Protect Hide Image Print Set and Setup W hen selected each oneof these options has a set of submenus It s through all of this that you can further program or work with your image files in the D1 Delete This is the first option on the Playback M enu W hen Delete is selected three options appear Selected All and Print Set Selected W hen this option is highlighted the first six thumbnails of the file appear on the LCD Monitor You can thumb through the images as well as select images in a file by using the AF Selector A selected image has a blue box around it If this is theimage you want to delete depress the CSM enter button W hen this is accomplished a red box appears with the message Delete 1 Image s and then the option NO Y ES NO is the default and if you ve made a mistake depress the AF ON button which makes this message go away and no deletion occurs Or you can depress almost any button on the D1 to clear the menu If you want to select YES then depress the AF Selector downward to highlight Y ES W ith this accomplished depress the CSM enter button one more 28 Moose Press time and the image is deleted T he D 1 then takes
48. he images in the order they were taken starting with the first image If any images in the folder have been selected with Hide Image they won t appear in the slideshow Y ou can pause the slide show by depressing the CSM enter button With this done a small submenu appears in the bottom left corner with three options Pause Restart and Frame Intvl with Restart being highlighted Pause is the active option as you ve paused the show to seethis menu Restart the slide show by depressing the CSM enter button this option is automatically highlighted U setheAF Selector 29 TheD1 to select Frame Intvl if you want to change the duration between images You can end the slide show anytime while it s running by depressing the AF ON button Be forewarned this is a battery draining feature If you re showing a slide show and it s left not running and if it is paused or left in any other state for ten minutes the camera automatically shuts off Frame Intvl T his feature determines the duration between each image in other words thetime between when an image goes off and the next image appears You have the option of 2 seconds default 3 seconds 5 seconds or 10 seconds You can set this option either prior to starting your show or you can interrupt your show and set it as described above If you interrupt a show to change the Frame Intvl once the new rate has been selected the show resumes playing Although you ve selected a specific r
49. hium niobate LiNB low pass filter also cuts infrared rays incorporated just in front of CCD Four step sensitivity control ISO equivalency 200 400 800 and 1 600 Multiple image quality modes compressed JPEG baseline approx 1 4 1 8 1 16 and monochrome mode uncompressed 12 bit RAW 8 bit YCbCr TIF F 8 bit RGBTIFF Optional software is needed to reproduce RAW or YCbCr TIFF images Nikon Capture for RAW images Nikon View DX for YCbCr TIFF images e Versatile shooting modes 1 Single frame shooting 2 Continuous shooting 3 Self timer 4 Playback 5 PC 3D Digital Matrix Image Control 3D Color Matrix Metering TTL W hite Balance and T one Compensation with 1 005 pixel CCD for superior overall picture quality Single blade mechanical shutter provided for smear prevention Optimal signal processing thanks to Nikon s original algorithm e High speed AF system including Dynamic AF operation same performance as F 5 and F 100 4 5 fps shooting speed for up to 21 consecutive shots Quick startup and 0 058 sec shutter release time lag Exclusive top shutter speed of 1 16 000 sec Flash sync up to 1 500 sec High speed data transfer with E EE 1394 interface Accelerated data processing using newly developed ASIC Precise exposure modes 1 F Programmed Auto 2 5 Shutter Priority Auto 3 F Aperture Priority Auto 4 H Manual e T hree exposure metering systems 1 3D Colo
50. ic shooting with the D1 It also contains information that might appear in about ten years when the internal battery dies T he first thing you should do when you get your D1 and after the EN 4 is powered up is to set the D1 s Time and Date T his feature is more than just trivia it is used by the D 1 to time stamp each image you capture Setting the T ime and D ateis accomplished by first turning the D 1 on Next depress the Auto Bracketing button BKT found on thetop left sideof the camera W hile depressing the BKT button depress the Exposure Compensation button found on the top right of the D1 You must hold these two buttons down until the Year is displayed in the LCD and it starts to blink Once the Year starts to blink you can remove your fingers from the buttons but you must work quickly or the setting disappears Select what you want to change by depressing the button and then set the actual change by rotating the M ain Command Dial found on the top right of the camera s back Cycle though the Y ear Date and T ime and once the information is all set you can either do nothing or depress any button on the camera and it resumes normal operation Once you have made these settings strongly recommend you go back and check them T his is accomplished by simply depressing the BKT and buttons until the Year appears but is not blinking and then cycle through the numbers using the button Note If you areshooting with differen
51. ife of the EN 4 T he EN 4 cannot go straight from the camera to the charger T he battery must be cold to the touch before charging that s just the nature of the beast It is important that you follow the order of steps for charging described in the instructions that come with the M H 16 For anormal charge plug the AC cord into the wall prior to connecting the EN 4 to the M H 16 Charger T hen plug the EN 4 into the MH 16 Watch the lights for charging progress and if the Charge light flickers unplug the EN 4 this can be caused by a static electricity surface charge If this happens and the battery is warm wait for the battery to cool down and then charge it using the Refresh option For anormal charge you don t have to depress any button on the 7 TheD1 MH 16 just plug the EN 4 in and in about 90 minutes a green light comes on signaling the battery is good to go We tend to trust the battery indicator on the TopLCD to tell us the condition of the EN 4 T his is often inaccurate and should not necessarily be taken at face value Refreshing the EN 4 should be doneonly once ever y ten charges Refreshing is accomplished by hooking it up using the procedure described above and then depressing the Refresh button on the M H 16 In theory this discharges the E N 4 completely prior to recharging it thereby providing better long term batter y life It is important that you not depress the Refresh button while the battery is charging
52. ing the end of that battery s charge Now we ve come to one of the most poorly thought out symbols on the D1 the frame counters which really should be called capture counters as we re not shooting conventional film T here are two sets of numbers in the lower right corner of the D1l s Top LCD T he number on the bottom in the bracket is the current frame number T his number refers to how many captures have been made T his number blinks and adds numbers while the buffer is downloading images to the CompactF lash T he true number won t show up until the writing from the buffer process is complete T he number above the current frame number is the number of remaining exposures the space remaining on the CompactFlash CF As a helpful reminder you ll seeREM displayed above the number so you know that s how many captures are left T his number actually represents the minimum number of captures left on the card The D1 calculates this number by taking the maximum file size for one image and dividing it into the amount of remaining space on the CF People rarely capture the maximum file size so the actual number remaining is usually greater than that indicated on the counter This is areally poor system for a couple of reasons one being that the counter has only atwo digit placeholder W hen shooting with a high capacity CompactF lash such as a 512M B Lexar card there are usually a heck of alot more captures remaining than can be re
53. inuous shooting mode Option 21 Permits the maximum number of captures per burst to be 21 frames in any QUAL setting except Raw which is only 10 Option 1 20 You set the number of frames from 1 to 20 for any QUAL setting except Raw which is 1 to 9 Custom Setting 27 LCD Monitor Display Mode LCD Monitor Setting This is a very interesting and important Custom Setting T he information some of these options provide can permit you to optimize the exposure with the D1if you know how to interpret it T hese options affect the LCD M onitor both in Playback mode and when you simply depress the M onitor button Option 0 Default Displays the full image which fills up the entireLCD M onitor Option 1 The full imagefills the upper corner of the LCD M onitor and a histogram fills up the rest Option 2 A full monitor view of the image appears If there are any highlights blown out in the scene they blink black and then white Option 3 This is the same as option 1 with the addition of option 2 T he image is shown with blown out highlights and a histogram Note Option 2 disrupts the ability to use the left right action of the AF thumb pad so you cannot see the three pages of shooting info when you re viewing an image on the LCD M onitor toggle back and forth between options 2 and 3 in the quest for perfect exposure and to understand the D 1 s meter T he one drawback to option 3 is that the actual image i
54. irectly to a desired AF sensor by wrapping around the sensors Using the above example if the top AF sensor is selected and you want to select the bottom one you simply depress the AF thumb pad oncein theup direction and you rethere Or if you reat thetop sensor and want to go to the extreme left sensor you depress the AF thumb pad once to the left and it s selected rather than one down and one left 14 Moose Press W hen shooting action images this function makes abig differencein speeding up your reaction time responding to the action in the viewfinder which is why use Option 1 I change the active AF sensor constantly because of the subject s movement and the corresponding change in composition Custom Setting 7 AE Lock T his is a pretty simple Custom Setting O ption 0 Default Permits Auto Exposure Lock only via the AE L AF L button located on the back of the D1 next to the prism Option 2 Switches the Auto E xposure Lock function to the shutter release button W hen this option is selected the camera s exposure settings are locked by depressing the shutter release halfway Custom Setting 8 Mirror Up T his Custom Setting is just for the purpose of cleaning the CCD discussed in the A ppendix Option 0 D efault D oes nothing N or mal operation Option 1 W hen the camera is active this raises the mirror and opens the shutter so you can access the CCD to clean it Nikon recommends using
55. ix Metering and TTL W hite Balance to read the color of the light striking the CCD While the CCD is black and white the information from the 3D M atrix M etering and TTL W hite Balance allows the D 1 to interpolate what is seen to capture color This aspect of the D1 is truly amazing Back in the good ole days of film matching color temperature with film was a royal pain For example when was shooting architectural exteriors and interiors had to havedaylight film tungsten film and then a bunch of filters for all the light sources architects throw into a building to come close to color balancing the scene for the film at hand All of this paraphernalia was required just to make the color in the final image look correct along with any daylight streaming in the windows Shooting with the D1 with a simple turn of the Command Dial we can change the white balance color temperature from frame to frame as needed to match the light source and capture a color corrected image You can of course go crazy balancing color with the D1 but it is still a whole lot easier than with film technology T his is truly one of the great advantages of digital capture I m going to explain how this all works as far as application is concerned In his chapter D avid has all the numbers to explain and substantiate what have to say You need to read both my explanation and his in order to thoroughly understand white balance to successfully and painlessl
56. king in this really works well in a mixed lighting source N ext select the PRE white balance by depressing the WB button and then rotating the Command Dial Then hold down the WB button for aminimum of three seconds until PRE on the Rear LCD starts flashing W ith the camera in M anual focus and an exposure mode of either A S or P selected focus on the gray neutral target and then depress the shutter release button As long 25 TheD1 as the exposure itself is not over or underexposed you will have preset the white balance for the light s you re shooting under Now if you have your D 1 instruction book in hand as you re reading this you may besaying to yourself It says to use a white card for calculating PRE From my experience and having talked with shooters who use the P reset white balance all the time experience shows that a gray card or neutral target is the only way to go You can use a white card but it s not as accurate and might require that you set the Preset white balance afew times until you finally get it right You won t experience this with a gray card and since the whole idea is to get accurate color gray is the way One real drawback to the D 1 s white balance system is that there is no easy or obvious reminder whatsoever that tells you what color balance you have set Yes thereis avery little symbol in the Rear LCD but if you re not really really conscious of what the camera is set at you can shoot all
57. led down to one simple point T he D 1 and digital imaging solve a problem that conventional film never could W hether because of thehigh flash sync speed the fact that you have instant images to show clients there s no more film to store carry or process or simply the instant gratification you get by seeing the images on the LCD monitor the D1 quickly found lots of fans Because had been shooting on conventional film for two decades and knew it inside and out it took mea few more months than most to convert entirely to shooting digital But since June of 2000 that s all have shot digital capture with the D1 I m not about to tell you that the D1 is a photographer s dream in camera body design l m the first to admit that there have been times I ve become incredibly frustrated with the D 1 or the operating information could or could not receive T he learning curve in shooting with the D1 and the digital medium was greater than I d expected But have experienced the same initial frustrations with other now cherished pieces of camera gear T hat just goes with the job and just work through it Keep in mind that the D1 was the first professional digital SLR to offer JPEG capture among other things T he D 1 broke new ground and in grand fashion It is an amazing tool In working through these few pitfalls and the ton of incredible innovations theD 1 brings to photography have developed a workflow for myself that permits me
58. lso found that exposure is better when the correct white color balance is used D avid has discovered some interesting facts behind this which you need to read about on page 193 Ontheright side of the prism is the M etering Selector T o select a metering pattern first depress the button in the center and then rotate the switch to line up with the desired metering pattern You have three options 3D Color M atrix Center W eighted and Spot metering 3D Color Matrix Metering is an amazing system The D1 has a 1 005 pixel CCD Charge Coupled D evice 67 vertical x 15 horizontal which is what actually reads the light T he amazing thing to meis not the 1 005 pixels but that each pixel has incorporated in it one R red G green or B blue filter Each sensor then not only evaluates the scene s brightness and contrast but also the 40 Moose Press scene s color Keep in mind though the CCD originally produces black and white images T he information received from the 1 005 pixels including scene brightness contrast selected focus distance information and the scene s color characteristics is analyzed T his information is then processed by a powerful microcomputer and its database is said to hold at least 35 000 exposure possibilities W ith this input the D 1 s meter provides the photographer with an instant meter reading Asapoint of trivia the RGB meter in the D 1 can actually detect different light sources It can see
59. n In normal operation when the AE L AF L button is depressed both auto exposure and autofocus are locked until you are no longer depressing the button W ith this Custom Setting you can overridethe AE L AF L button so that either oneor theother function AE L or AF L is locked and not both at the same time when the AE L AF L button is depressed O ption 0 Default Both the auto exposure and autofocus functions are locked upon depressing the AE L AF L 17 TheD1 button Option 1 Only the auto exposure is locked when the AE L AF L button is depressed Option 2 Only the autofocus is locked when the AE L AF L button is depressed O ption 3 Auto exposure is locked when the AE L AF L button is depressed and it remains locked until the AE L AF L button is depressed a second time Custom Setting 22 Aperture Selection T his Custom Setting takes you back into the dark ages It allows you to set your aperture via the aperture ring on the lens rather than through the Sub Command Dial Option 0 Default T he aperture can be set only via the Sub Command Dial O ption 1 T heaperturecan be set only via the lens s aperture ring Custom Setting 23 Sharpening Be sure to refer to David s explanation of this on page 201 T he D1 has an U nsharp M ask capability that can be applied to each image captured by the D1 T his increases the edge sharpness of the images you capture or not depending on which optio
60. n you select Option 0 Default Normal Option 1 Low Option 2 High Option 3 None Becauseof thelow pass filter utilized in the D1 JPEG and TIFF files should be sharpened with what is equivalent to low radius sharpening in Photoshop The Normal setting applies just such sharpening even though some find that moreis required while altering an image using Photoshop or similar image manipulation software Custom Setting 24 Tone Compensation Really besure to refer to David s explanation of this in H ow the D 1 Family Works T his Custom Setting is rocket science and is not for the pixel impaired like me In a nutshell this Custom Setting permits you to mess with the cur ves preset in the D 1 to maximize in theory how the camera captures and then records exposure You could almost think of this as contrast control filters like in the old days of black and white printing with Polycontrast paper T heD 1 s softwareis designed to maximize exposure curves when the camera is shot using M atrix metering Option 0 Default Auto T he D 1 adjusts the curves to capture the greatest exposure range possible optimizing contrast T his is true only when the D 1 is in M atrix metering Option 1 Normal T his is a curve suitable for scenes with anormal contrast range for digital film athree to four stop range between shadows and highlights Option 2 Low contrast T his is for scenes in which the range between shadow
61. ng M ode Shutter Speed Aperture exact numbers not rounded off Exposure Compensation for D 1 only F lexible Program Exposure D ifference F lash Sync M ode Sensitivity ISO Fixed W hite Balance but not if you ve dialed in any or W B Tone Compensation Sharpening You can view all of this information only by using a DAM such as Nikon s Capture control software 41 TheD1 D1 Basic Operational Features T he operation of the D1 is pretty much a cookie cutter replica of the F 5 For those who are unfamiliar with some of these basic controls and features this is how they operate Depth of Field Preview is possible by depressing the button on the left of the lens mount below the shutter release button T his stops down the aperture of the lens permitting you to view the DOF at the selected aperture With the DOF button depressed the viewfinder becomes very dark and may be hard to view through Once the button is released the lens automatically goes back to its maximum aperture for viewing T he PC Flash Sync Terminal on thetop right side of thefront of the D1is for PC flash not computer connection This is where you can plug external studio flash units into the D1 T his is an electrical socket so if you lose your PC cap call Nikon Parts see Appendix and order a replacement to prevent dirt or moisture from entering the camera through this socket and possibly causing electrical problems Note Do not attach an external flash
62. nges the aperture in Aperture Priority and M anual modes If you shoot in Aperture Priority as do you ll probably leave this Custom Setting left at the default If you shootin Shutter P riority you ll probably want to use Option 1 T hepurposeof this Custom Setting is to speed up your shooting through faster camera handling T he fastest shooting performance is achieved when you use theSub Command Dial to change your most commonly used settings whether shutter speed or aperture Custom Setting 13 Exposure Compensation Settings T hisis a popular Custom Setting with many used in conjunction with CS 2 It permits you to dial in exposure compensation without having to first depress the button on thetop of thecamera Option 0 Default Requires you to first depress the button to dial in exposure compensation Option 1 Permits exposure compensation to be dialed in via the M ain or Sub Command Dial depending on the exposure mode you re in In Aperture Priority you dial in compensation viatheM ain Command Dial In Shutter Priority or Program mode you dial in compensation via the Sub Command Dial unless you have activated CS 12 in which case this is reversed W hen using this Custom Setting thereis the tendency to accidentally dial in exposure compensation You must be vigilant about looking for the sign inthe Top LCD and viewfinder Custom Setting 14 Center W eighted Metering Area If you use center weighted metering
63. oesn t have film in order to make the OT F calculations T he reflectance value of the D1 s CCD which has taken the place of film in the D1 is not the same as film and therein lies theroot of the D 1 s problem with foolproof flash exposure W ith the traditional off the film TTL flash metering component missing from the D1 flash exposure is relying on the M onitor Pre Flash which has huge limitations H owever by understanding these limitations and working within them you can take perfect flash images with the D1 TheM onitor Pre Flash has arange of just over 20 feet Keeping the M onitor Pre F lash distance constant and therefore exposure performance constant is important and requires the use of a high voltage battery such as the Quantum T urbo Turbo Z or perhaps Nikon s SD 8a Relying on AA batteries of some type alone can vary the pre flash and the flash exposure by as much as 1 2 stop from frame to frame T he external battery cuts that degree of inaccuracy to a maximum of 1 10 stop between frames W hile the pre flash can be relied upon for many aspects of photography it doesn t work for wildlife photography because of the pre flash s limited distance This is kind of a step backwards in flash technology because you need to start being aware of the distance between the subject and the flash again You also need to be watching the background as it 38 Moose Press directly affects flash exposure as well oh brother all that m
64. of copies Save your selection by depressing the CSM enter button D ate when checked prints out the date of the file T his is checked by highlighting Date using theAF Selector and then depressing the CSM enter button Setup This is the last item on the main Playback M enu but it has six submenus you didn t think you were done that soon did you Setup s six submenus are Folders Options Auto Off Language Video Output and Cardformat Folders H as four submenus of its own all designed to aid in organizing the files captured by the D1 The submenus are New D1 NC_D1 DCF All and NC_D1 1 mthefirst to admit that the logic behind this design and workflow flies right over my head T his feature is very limited in its options and because of that never worry about it except that use Custom Setting 29 1 to sequence my files It s what we re stuck with so this is how it works New T his permits you to create a new folder with the name NC_D1 anda new folder number By highlighting N ew with theAF Selector and then depressing the CSM enter button you can access the numbering menu Select the number you want for the folder by using the AF Selector You cannot select a number lower than the oneon the menu only higher Accept your selection by depressing the CSM enter button or depress the AF ON button to cancel your actions D1NC_D1 T his is the default folder the D 1 creates automatically T he D1 starts with folder DCI
65. of the D1 on either side of the prism simultaneously which formats the CompactF lash card deleting all images without having to go into Playback mode You can also select only certain images to bedeleted T his is done by selecting the image to be tagged with the AF Selector then depressing the ISO play button A small icon appears in the top left corner of all images that have been tagged You then delete the images tagged as described above Personally while l m shooting hit the M onitor button to preview images If thereis one don t like hit the D elete button right next to M onitor and kill them on the fly tend to do little editing in the camera though T he lack of quality of the LCD Monitor plus the fact that it displays only about 92 of the entire image makes it risky for me to do in camera edits like waiting until have the image safely in the computer to do my deleting where can still recover an image that s mistakenly been deleted Print Set W hen this option is highlighted you can delete any current print order file you might have created in Print Set to be covered on page 35 Slide Show T his can be a cool thing to do if you want to show off your images on either the small LCD Monitor or a TV monitor as long as you don t mind cocking your head to view verticals W hen Slide Show is selected two submenus appear Start and Frame I ntvl Start T his starts the slide show T he slide show displays t
66. oney and you get a rotten flash system Because of this when I m shooting with my favorite type of background one that s darker than the subject the D1 and SB 28D X combo in 3D Balanced Fill F lash isn t up to thejob the majority of thetime U nder these conditions you can dial in 3 stops compensation on the SB 28DX and it still blows out the subject T here is simply nothing you can do with this setting and get the right flash exposure On the other hand you can have a subject indoors in front of a brightly lit window with the D1 and SB 28DX in the exact same mode and it nails the exposure every time T hese are just the limitations of the D1 s flash technology so we have to recognize them and learn to work with them Like so many other D 1 shooters use the basic approach to flash exposure with the D1 that chant to myself when shooting flash Background Bright TTL Is Right Background Dark U se A for a Lark Yes it s hard to believe but we have to step back ten years in flash technology to obtain predictable flash exposure with the D1 at least we have an LCD to instantly check out our results W hen the background is darker than the subject or any distance behind the subject set the SB 28D X to A Automatic flash mode Luckily the A mode on the SB 28D X works incredibly well is predicable and you can dial in flash exposure compensation W hen the background is as bright or brighter than the subject
67. or F 100 all optional Remote terminal 10 pin connection Video output switchable between NTSC and PAL Nikon View DX browser software Nikon Capture control software optional The D1 Package W hen you buy a D1 the package includes in one big white box The D1 body with a BF 1a body cap and black LCD cover EN 4 Ni MH battery pack MH 16 EN 4 battery charger AN D1 camera strap EG D1 video cable D1 user s manual there are a number of versions of this they don t all agree Nikon View DX CD ROM browser software Nikon View DX Reference CD ROM contains reference manuals Open M e First envelope D1 Serial Numbers M any folks place great importance on serial numbers for reasons other than just to collect trivia Often peopletry to calculate production numbers from them but after being a Nikon watcher for more than two decades can tell you this is not an accurate system M y first D 1 has theserial number 5000650 and my second 5036169 T he most current serial number know of is 5038747 I was told the first D1s had the serial number of 5000500 which believed until saw a D1 with the serial number 5000035 I have never been told officially what the first or the last serial numbers of the D 1 are and l m not sureit really matters except for oneissue noise which discuss in the A ppendix see N oise and Banding ssues Serial Numbers D1 Instruction M anual You might think that one manual is like the next but it is
68. or during the Refresh cycle as this damages the battery A normal charge takes 90 minutes while refreshing it can take up to six hours depending on the state of the battery You can also use the M H 15 Charger for the F 100 NiCad to charge the EN 4 T he advantage to using the M H 15 is that it can charge two EN 4s one at a time unattended T hat means that at night you can plug in two EN 4s and by morning both are ready to go T he M H 16 can charge only oneEN 4 TheM H 15 also has the ability to refresh the E N 4 T he drawback to the M H 15 is that it takes 120 minutes to charge one battery whereas the M H 16 takes only 90 minutes You can find theM H 15 in used condition fairly easily which might be an attractive alternative to the battery eating appetite of the D1 T he EH 3 can also charge the EN 4 T here s no great advantage though unless you already own one The MH 17 Quick Charger can charge the EN 4 as well T his charger is powered by a vehicle s 12v accessory outlet The MH 17 works really well charging the EN 4 in about 90 minutes but it has no refresh option T here are two things you need to be aware of prior to using it First the MH 17 kills a weak or bad car battery Second the MH 17 must remain on continuously to properly chargetheE N 4 W ith some vehicles every time you turn the engine on and off power to the 12v power socket is interrupted T his interruption shuts the M H 17 off and then turnsit back on
69. osing image quality With conventional film traditionally the faster a film s ISO the more grain becomes apparent But digital doesn t have grain instead it has things such as noise and banding T raditionally in digital imaging the faster the ISO the more noise and banding appear usually starting not much above SO 200 In the original D 1s see the Appendix for information on serial numbers there seems to be noticeable banding at the SO 800 and 1 600 settings At 1 600 the noise in the shadows can be really annoying at times In later D 1s the banding problem has been corrected at least to my requirements Y ou can send your D 1 in to N ikon Repair to have the banding problem corrected if it has this problem But noise is noise and without jumping through a number of hoops it is barely noticeable don t hesitate to 23 TheD1 shoot at higher ISO settings as I ve seen many marvelous images captured at these higher speeds but always cringe when do W hite Balance Color Temperature T his is by far the most important setting on the D1 as far as I m concerned Color temper ature white balance is also probably the concept least understood by photographers especially those moving from conventional film to digital capture Setting a white balance valuein the D 1 is pretty simple Y ou depress the W B button abovethe ISO button and then rotate the Command Dial to select the white balance desired The D1 utilizes 3D Matr
70. oting a picture the viewfinder is blocked with your eye but when the camera is shot unattended light can enter through the viewfinder and affect the exposure T his can be prevented by simply closing the eyepiece shutter lever The LCD Monitor Cover is a black plastic cover that protects the LCD M onitor It is a pain to remove You must pull up hard on the right side of the black cap A better option is to buy the Hoodman HOODCAP product H CD 1 see Appendix a clear cover that protects the LCD while also permitting a complete view of the LCD T he Vertical Shooting Shutter Release Button on thelower corner of the handgrip is a shutter release button that is used for shooting vertically 42 Moose Press T he Vertical Command Dial and AF Start are found on the lower right corner on theback of theD 1 T his facilitates easy function operation when shooting vertically D1 Goofies The D1 has its own set of little goofies that happen for no good reason T hey do not really harm anything but basically just serveto annoy the photographer T hese are some of the known D1 goofies that you should look out for Folder Number Changes seem to happen most often when you delete images on the fly for example if you re currently in folder 111 and you re playing back an imageby simply depressing theM onitor button whilein C or S mode After deleting images in this manner when you go back to shooting the D 1 creates a new folder
71. p of the camera and to the left of the prism the Shooting M ode Dial is what you use to select the various shooting modes of the D1 You have three shooting mode options S Single F rame shooting C Continuous shooting and Self T imer and two non shooting options Play Playback and PC AstheD 1isadigital capture camera these modes function slightly differently than those on a conventional film camera body such as the F 5 S or Single Frame shooting mode captures just one frame when you depress the shutter release The next capture cannot be made until the most recent capture has been written to the CompactFlash card T his can slow down the D 1 s response even more if you re shooting in Raw format On the back of the D1 on the right side is the CompactF lash card slot door the rubber on this door is notorious for falling off refer to D 1 Goofies on page 48 On the top left 32 Moose Press corner of this door is asmall green LCD the memory card access lamp W hen the D1 is writing a file this green light is lit You cannot fire the camera again until this light has gone off so if you shoot in this mode get used to watching the green light Because of the nature of shooting in S mode use Custom Setting 1 It is already a slow operation and since don t use it when I m shooting action simply go with the flow and look at the image I ve captured Custom Setting 1 doesn t slow down this process it jus
72. perience slower performance when connected via F ireW ire On the other hand for those wanting a big file to work with in Photoshop the D1 delivers All of the Hi files and especially Raw files provide an incredible wealth of pixels to manipulate clean up and make just perfect for whatever end product you desire Each of the above file formats except Raw offer aB amp W setting T his setting does not merely turn off the color processing The B amp W setting on the D1 captures an incredible depth of black gray and white tones I m an old black and white junkie but like many people don t have space for a darkroom so didn t shoot black and white for along time that is until the D1 came along It now permits me to capture black and white images without any of the mess and with all the depth black and white has to offer I ve shot more black and white images in the last year than in the last two decades T he D1 does a great job in this mode T ry it sometime ISO Button Right next to theQUAL button is the ISO button W hile the term ISO refers to conventional film it s still used to define the sensitivity of digital capture The D1 offers four ISO settings via the Rear Control Panel 200 400 800 1 600 1 600 can be boosted to 3 200 or 4 800 via Custom Setting 31 Probably the most commonly used ISO by D1 shooters is 200 which is what almost always use M any hesitate to use a higher speed because of the possibility of l
73. presented by just two digits W hen more captures remain on a card than the remaining exposure counter can display which is the majority of thetime the counter simply says FL which is really helpful The Rear LCD displays a three digit number capable of representing the actual number of remaining captures Displayed along thetop center and right in the LCD arethe shutter speed and aperture respectively To the right of this is the exposure compensation 1 symbol which indicates that you have dialed in exposure compensation via either the body or the flash this symbol also appears in the viewfinder W hen you depress the Exposure Compensation button located behind the On Off switch this symbol appears Rotate the M ain Command Dial to set the desired exposure comp and if you look atthe symbol it reminds you which way to rotate the M ain Command Dial Rotate it to the left towards the for overexposure and rotate it to the right towards the for underexposure You can changethe way exposure compensation is set by using Custom Setting 13 see page 21 Under the shutter speed and aperture display is the display for Auto Exposure Bracketing when it is activated I1 TheD1 Rear Control LCD Panel Buttons Primary Functions T heRear Control LCD Panel is really the heart and soul of theD1 T his is where you make the decisions that determine how theimageis going to look after you ve depressed the shutter release
74. r Matrix Metering with 1 005 pixel CCD 2 Center W eighted 3 Spot Exposure compensation available in 5 EV range in 1 2 or 1 3 EV steps Auto Exposure Bracketing available for two or three shots in 1 3 1 2 2 3 or 1 step 3D Multi Sensor Balanced Fill Flash controlled by five segment TTL M ulti Sensor with new Speedlight SB 28D X Five flash sync modes 1 Front Curtain Sync normal sync 2 Red Eye Reduction 3 Red E ye Reduction with Slow Sync 4 Slow Sync 5 Rear Curtain Sync 31 Custom Settings Lightweight and strong magnesium body High resistance to penetration by water drops Optical viewfinder with frame coverage of approx 96 Diopter adjustment 3 to 1 m High eyepoint higher than 22mm e Eyepiece shutter provided Interchangeable focusing screen B type BrightView clear matte screen III compatible with focusing screen for F 100 2 in 114 000 dot low temperature polysilicon TFT LCD with histogram indication TheD1 e Convenient playback functions 1 One frame 2 Thumbnail 9 segments 3 Slide show 4 Histogram indication Two Command Dials e Compatible with virtually any F mount Nikkor lens picture angle with D1 is equivalent to 1 5x focal length in 35mm 135 format e Compatible with CompactFlash card T ypes 11 Compatible with Nikon system accessories Interchangeable Ni MH Battery Pack EN 4 and dedicated Quick Charger MH 17 16 compatible with Battery Charger M H 15 f
75. r Program modes the D1 selects the correct shutter speed for the aperture you ve selected T he shutter speed range the D 1 selects is determined by the sync mode and is stepless Red eye Reduction with Slow Sync is a combination of the Red eye Reduction and Slow Sync functions The D1 and the SB 28D X In the viewfinder of the D1 in the lower right corner is a lightning bolt symbol that lights when a flash is attached and charged ready to fire In TTL mode this same lightning bolt indicates when proper flash exposure has been accomplished W hen you fire the D1 the lightning bolt goes off and then on again in less than a second when you ve achieved proper flash exposure If you have not achieved proper flash exposure the lightning bolt goes off and then 37 TheD1 blinks a number of times before going off prior to indicating that it s charged and ready to go again If you re making use of the AF illuminator on the SB 28D X or SB 50D X be aware that the D 1 must be set to S shooting mode S focusing mode and the center AF sensor must be selected Note Refer to the Appendix for the flash compatibility chart You would think that with the D 1 s five flash options and its own special dedicated flash the SB 28D X that using flash with this camera would be cut and dried It s anything but Y ou must understand the idiosyncrasies of using the D 1 with flash if you want to have any hope of making it all work T here are a fe
76. r TIFF images Nikon Capture for RAW images Nikon View DX for YCbCr TIFF images The D1 s quick start and short shutter release time lag approx 0 058 sec from the time the shutter release button is lightly pressed give users the speed to capture once elusive moments Super fast data processing made possible by the newly developed ASIC enables consecutive shooting at 4 5 fps for up to 21 shots T he D1 also boasts 1 16 000 sec maximum shutter speed and 1 500 sec sync speed T he large easy to view LCD monitor 2 in low temperature polysilicon TFT displays the captured images menus and histogram indications Features that boost convenience include the high speed data transfer capability provided by IE EE 1394 the broad data compatibility furnished by the CompactF lash Card T ype1l 11 and the NT SC PAL selectable video output optional Interchangeable Ni MH Battery Pack EN 4 and dedicated Quick Charger MH 17 16 compatible with M H 15 for F 100 From Nikon s critically acclaimed F 5 and F 100 SLR cameras the D 1 has inherited Custom Settings which let users create 2 Moose Press their own combination of 29 sic functions including the D 1 s original features such as Tone Compensation and Edge Enhancer two Command Dials and remarkable durability D1 Major Features 2 74 megapixel 23 7 x 15 6mm size CCD for ultrahigh definition 2 012 x 1 324 effective pixels images e Ultra thin lit
77. r on T herubber pieceis the CF Card Holder Rubber Grip 6K 680 375U 2 80 and the tape is the CF Card H older Tape 6K 115 524 0 90 M ake sure the surface of the CF compartment door is clean before applying the tape and then applying the new rubber piece Conclusion It s easy to writethe conclusion to the D 1 chapter especially after shooting with the camera for nearly two years and especially at a time when they are no longer available and the D1X and D1H are the current favorites As with any computer find the D1 has its quirks that I ve had to learn to work with But that s really the main point the D1 is a camera work with day in and day out and it performs T he thousands upon thousands of images the D 1 has captured for mein beautiful fashion still boggle my mind When think of the complexity of an image and that this camera is recording all of that electronically in a split second I m dazzled have no intention of ever selling my two D 1s and can t seeretiring them in the years to come W hile better technology might come along someday know that the one have in hand right now the D 1 works for me 43
78. r wildlife you ll probably find that the Fine mode works great this is what always use strongly suggest that you do your own testing to discover what is right for you W hat does testing involve F irst you need to capture the same image in different file formats T hen you need to process all the images through your normal workflow It is very important that you test for your camera shooting technique computer and printer to find the right format that solves your individual needs To access the different QUAL settings first depress the QUAL button T hen to select a particular file format rotate the Command Dial and stop when the format type you want appears in theRear LCD T o access B amp W black and white first select the file format then rotate the Sub Command Dial to select B amp W W hen B amp W is selected B amp W appears in the top left corner of theRear LCD Panel Remember you must use Custom Setting 28 to access R aw TheD 1 has eleven different file types it can capture ranging in format size and color T hey are captures captures 160mb CF 512mb CF Image Quality Settings Basic approx 320k file 1580 Norm approx 650k file F ine approx 1 3mb file HI RGB RGB TIFF approx 7 8mb file HI CbCr Y cbCr TIFF approx 5 2mb file HI 2 7r RAW approx 4mb file T hese are approximate numbers for files of normal contrast with no features such as sharpening
79. rame burst with the D1 T he average file size was 890K even though was shooting in F ine mode using a Lexar 256 12x card assumethat because was shooting a smaller average file size and not firing at 4 5 fps the 32M B buffer could accept more captures and write faster to the CompactF lash card There are a number of things you need to be aware of when shooting in C mode T hey all revolve around the 32M B memory buffer and the CompactF lash card The biggest thing that I m still getting used to comes at the end of the roll W ith conventional film you know you re at the end because the frame counter says 36 and the shooting stops that instant T hat s not true for digital T hereis a definite time lag between when the D 1 stops firing and when the frame counter says no more In other words your frame counter may say thereis still room for more captures but the D1 won t fire because it knows there really isn t Because the images are in the memory buffer and slowly writing to the CompactF lash card the frame counter slowly slowly changes reflecting the number of captures T he frame counter is very slow in relating exactly how many captures are left especially when you ve just ripped a dozen or more images T hat s why when see the remaining frames in the counter at 20 or less pop in anew CompactF lash card and keep on shooting W hen you re shooting in C mode it is important that you wait for the little green light m
80. rance of the slow moving Hii file formats is not a problem If you reshooting any action such as sports or wildlife theHi file formats aresimply not an option the vast majority of the time A simple F ine captured image might take a couple of seconds to write from the memory buffer to the CompactF lash compared to an RGB TIFF which can take up to 13 seconds 12x card for a single capture T he last drawback to the Hi mode is the amount of space each file requires Looking at the table on pg 26 you can see very quickly that you need a lot of space to do much shooting in any of the Hi formats M any photographers hoped to get past the slow D1 performance with these larger file sizes by shooting with 22 Moose Press i a Time to write 1 Time to write 21 ImageiQualityiSettings Capture Frame Burst Basic approx 320k 75ec 21 4sec Norm approx 650k 75ec 22 3sec F ine approx 1 3mb 7sec 24 9sec HI r9b RGB TIFF appx 7 8mb 212sec HI CbCr Y cbCr TIFF appx 5 2mb 5 3sec 117sec HI 2 7r RAW appx 4mb 44sec 48 1sec T hese numbers are for files of normal contrast stripped down with no added features such as sharpening added on with a fresh charge in the EN 4 on a Lexar 256 12x card See Appendix for info on making your own tests Because you can take only 10 frame bursts in Raw this time is for a 10 frame burst the D1 tethered by FireW ire to acomputer T hat is not the case and in fact you can ex
81. retty darn straightforward It is used to format your CompactF lash card T he menu comes up with NO highlighted Use the AF Selector to highlight FORMAT and then depress the CSM enter button Every timel move images from the CompactF lash to my computer format the CompactF lash when reinsert it into the D 1 1 do this not by using Card Format but by simply depressing and holding down theD EL button whilesimultaneously depressing theM ODE button located on thetop of thecamera It s alot faster T o prevent any possible card problems format your card before each use Note It is recommended that you format your card after each time you copy or remove all the files from it T his is the best assurance that you ll have error free operation the vast majority of the time have donethis from thevery beginning and I ve not experienced some of the common goofies the D 1 is known to perform see page 48 Nikon released with the D 1 a short list of tested and approved CompactF lash cards which included only the Nikon cards and the SanDisk M anufacturers such as Lexar were not on thelist even though L exar s cards have proven to provide the best performancein theD 1 T heM icrodrives Nikon states are not supported by the D 1 You can use the M icrodrive in the D1 but if you fire off a big burst or a number of bursts the M icrodrive heats up to unacceptable levels which can damage the D1 Shooting Mode Dial Located on to
82. s and highlights is greater than five stops In theory this option helps prevent those highlights from being burnt up Option 3 High contrast T his is for scenes in which highlights dominate but you want to try to maintain shadow detail Option 4 User defined curves You create your own curves in Nikon Capture and then import them into the D1 Using any of these curves might also require going into Photoshop and then fine tuning the image s exposure depending on what you re after T his Custom Setting does not work with theRAW QUAL setting To truly understand this Custom Setting and its benefits and consequences refer to the chapter H ow the D1 Family Works Custom Setting 25 Shooting Speed in Continuous C Shooting Mode T his Custom Setting is a breeze after the last one It simply sets a limit on how fast the D 1 can fire when it is set to C Continuous shooting mode Option 18 Moose Press CH Default Permits the highest firing rate of 4 5 fps Option 3 Approximately 3 fps Option 2 Approximately 2 fps Option 1 Approximately 1 fps Option CL Each image is written directly to the CompactF lash not stored in memory and the camera does not take another picture until the image is stored Custom Setting 26 Maximum Number of Consecutive Shots in Continuous C Shooting M ode T his Custom Setting permits you to regulate how many images are stored in the temporary memory buffer in Cont
83. s really small which is why toggle back and forth between these two settings depending on the information I m seeking Refer to David s chapter How the D 1 Family Works to better understand what a histogram can tell you about exposure Custom Setting 28 Save RAW Images T his oneis pretty straightforward Y ou have to activate this Custom Setting if you want to capture R aw files See page 213 for a better understanding of Raw files Option 0 Default Raw images cannot be captured Option 1 Raw images can be captured Custom Setting 29 Auto File Numbering Mode T his Custom Setting determines how each image s file is uniquely numbered by the D1 upon capture T wo options are available Option 0 Default T he D1 assigns to the image a number that is sequential as long as you never format your CompactFlash card If you do reformat your flash card the D1 starts numbering over again so you run the risk of having different images with the same file namein your computer when you finally file your images T his can cause problems in the process of transferring your images to your computer Option 1 The files are numbered sequentially no matter what you do to the 19 TheD1 CompactFlash cards The D1 doesn t start back at 0 again until it has reached 999 Because of the possibility of duplicating file names and knowing there will be occasions when I m in a hurry use option 1 T his also has to do wi
84. s with this Custom Setting causing the image to double on the LCD 13 TheD1 Custom Setting 2 EV Steps for Exposure Control This Custom Setting is pretty self explanatory Option 1 Default Permits exposure compensation to be increased or decreased in 1 3 stop increments via the button atop the camera or Custom Setting 13 Option 2 Makes the compensation in 1 2 stop increments Option 3 M akes 1 stop increments initially used Option 1 until realized that Option 2 makes more sense for digital W ith digital imaging having such a wide exposure latitude compared to conventional photography could quickly dial in 1 2 rather than 2 3 Option 1 and have the effect wanted in those instances when wanted exposure compensation Custom Setting 3 Bracketing Order T his Custom Setting s explanation is totally botched in the instruction manual Option 0 Default Causes the Auto Bracketing order to be correctly exposed underexposed and then overexposed zero minus plus in that order Option 1 Changes thebracketing order to underexposed correctly exposed and overexposed minus zero plus Ignore what the manual states as it contradicts itself on pages 55 and 67 Custom Setting 4 Autofocus Activation This Custom Setting changes which button activates the camera s autofocus Option 0 Default Activates the autofocus when the shutter release is partially depress
85. shooting with the D1 I instantly went to the HI RGB TIFF mode thinking that had to have a giant file for the quality required The amount of space and theslow processing of these big files sent me looking for better options called my good friend at Nikon to see what others were doing He told me that Fine was the answer and I ve been using it ever since have gorgeous 20 x 30 prints in my home and office made from a Fine mode s tiny 1 3M B file HI This is not a friendly greeting from the camera but rather the image quality setting that creates no file compression Images made at any of the Hi settings are not compressed when saved T hree file format settings are available at the Hi setting RAW 2 7r YCbCr TIFF CbCr and RGB TIFF r9b You first must have Custom Setting 28 set to Option 1 to capture Raw files T he Raw file format can be read only using software such as Nikon Capture or Bibble read David s chapter How the D1 Family Works for more on this The YCbCr format models the color data from the image using measures of luminance Y and chrominance Cb Cr hence the name T his file format can be read using Nikon View DX or Nikon Capture software W hile these formats capture big beautiful files you need to be forewarned that they really slow down the speed that the D 1 processes images which directly affects the D 1 s performance W hen you havea scene in which nothing is moving very fast the hind
86. so you re no longer in folder 111 but 112 T his doesn t cause any images to be lost but it s just an annoying feature when it comes time to file your images No known repair is available Multiple File Copies can occur in the D 1 which can create a filing nightmare No known repair is available A Magenta Cast appears when photographing people T hereis something about flesh tones that the D 1 doesn t like and so it gives the subject a sunburn No known D1 repair is available but there are software fixes Banding at high ISOs is discussed in the Appendix Increase of DPI when shooting in F ine modeis a cool thing that happens with the D1 Normally in Fine mode the dpi is 72 but there are times that the D 1 records 180 dpi without notification T hesenumbers are actually assigned by software such as Photoshop when the file is opened the D1 doesn t assign the dpi Nikon had no explanation as to what causes the actual fileto change so that the software records the dpi increase do know that this same thing occurs with other digital cameras as well T he CF Door Rubber loves to come off W hile it has not happened to me I ve seen it happen right before my eyes plenty of times to other folks Normal glues and rubber cements do not fix the problem T he only surefire way to fix it is to order another from Nikon Parts see Appendix You need two pieces the rubber don t reuse what fell off and the tape that holds the rubbe
87. system is particularly effective with brightly colored white or yellow or dark colored black or dark green subjects that occupy a substantial portion of the frame W hile I ve found part of this statement to be true the other part is not as accurate and compensation is required for the perfect exposure maybe it s a bad translation have found that the 5 of goofed up exposures are of something like a brightly lit subject such as a white bird on blue water in mid afternoon sun T he D 1 s meter just doesn t like such scenarios and it tends to overexpose the white bird Specifically the D1 doesn t like the combination of light against dark with strong front lighting In this scenario dialing in 1 3 to 2 3 stop compensation is all that is required to make the exposure perfect remember you can useCustom Setting 13 to makethis a faster operation By previewing a questionable exposure by depressing theM onitor button and viewing theimageon theLCD using Custom Setting 27 3 you can make exposures you know for a fact are dead on read about histograms on page 204 can shoot the same subject with the same background with just 1 2 stop of cloud diffusion and the D1 is happy and makes great exposures It is almost as if the D 1 s meter were acting like an old fashioned reflective meter when it wants to be fooled If high reflectivity disappears when there is a slight haze it s happy just like a reflective meter havea
88. t D 1 bodies and the clock is set slightly differently in each when you copy your files over to the computer it is likely to confuse them when displayed in some image preview software programs T he Date T ime settings are powered and maintained by a separate battery in the D1 not by the EN 4 T his clock battery is supposed to havea life of ten years W hen the battery does die a battery symbol with the word CLOCK in it 9 TheD1 appears in the top left corner of the LCD p This means it s time to send the D1 into Nikon to replace the clock battery You might see LOCK appear in your Top LCD which could mean you ve locked either the shutter speed or the aperture so those settings cannot be changed T he actual Lock button is located behind the door next to the Rear LCD and can be accidentally depressed quite easily when pressing other buttons behind the door If you didn t mean to lock these features you need to depress the L ock button and then rotate the M ain Command Dial to unlock the setting an L appears in the viewfinder at the same time that LOCK appears on the LCD TheTop LCD Panel displays many of the same familiar symbols found on other Nikon bodies T he exposure modes A Aperture Priority P Program S Shutter Priority and M M anual are displayed in the lower left corner InA or Aperture Priority mode you select the aperture and the D 1 selects the shutter speed T he shutter sp
89. t permits me to preview the image ve just captured C or Continuous shooting mode captures are made as fast as the camera can go as long as it can go T here are a number of caveats to this because the D 1 is a digital camera In order to capture the most images frames in the fastest amount of time you first need to make sure that Custom Setting 25 is set at option CH Next you need to be shooting at 1 250 sec or faster with the AF mode set to Continuous Servo C the lever to the right of the lens mount a fast CompactF lash such as the L exar 256 12x in basically warm 68 F or warmer temperatures and going downhill with astiff tailwind W ith all of that going for you you can capture 4 5 fps giving you a maximum of a 21 frame burst you might get up to 5 fps depending on the actual file size being captured T he 21 frame burst is not carved in stone You can get around this Capturing more frames depends on a combination of how big the actual file size the D1 is capturing shutter speed CompactFlash card and if you re shooting at a full 4 5 fps If you just depress the shutter release and hold it down you ll see the frame counter go to 21 and that is the maximum number of images you re going to capture If you just start firing and do not hold down the shutter release the 21 doesn t appear in the frame counter so you re not limited to that number of captures ve repeatedly been able to capture as much as a 31 f
90. tal lineand three vertical lines You might want to install the anti fog D K 14 eyepiece as well It s really slick Inside the viewfinder you see the five AF sensors etched on the screen T he active sensor is red while the inactive ones are gray Change the active sensor via theAF Selector on the back of the D 1 Inside the viewfinder on the bottom you ll 39 TheD1 find the following info from left to right Focus Indicator M etering System Auto E xposure Shutter L ock Shutter Speed Aperture ApertureL ock Electronic Analog Exposure Display Exposure M ode Exposure Compensation Frame Counter and the Flash Ready Light Not all of these displays are active at the same time what you have selected determines what is displayed Metering System TheD1 s metering system unliketheF 5 s has perplexed meat times N inety five percent of thetime it is right on the money and delivers the exposure required for great images Working within the five stop range of digital film the D T s metering computer has more to calculate in delivering just one shutter speed and aperture for the correct exposure than the F5 And while it has the same basic components as the F 5 s metering system the D 1 s is different and regrettably it is not dead on accurate 100 of thetime think should have picked this up the first time read the D1 instruction book s Color M atrix M etering 3D Color M atrix Metering section where is states T his
91. th the way have my PC and Notebook organized for accepting new images waiting to be edited and not yet filed Custom Setting 30 Shooting Mode in PC Mode Select Shooting Mode W hen Disconnected from PC in PC Mode T his Custom Setting simply permits you to select the shooting mode you want to take pictures in when the D1 is F ireW ired to a computer Option 5 Default Single F rame shooting Option C Continuous shooting Custom Setting 31 Sensitivity Up T his Custom Setting permits you to increase the sensitivity when shooting at ISO 1 600 by 1 and 2 stops Be forewarned the noise and banding can possibly get you at these speeds Refer to page 217 in David s section Option 0 Default All ISO film speeds remain unchanged Option 1 W hen the ISO is set to 1 600 it is bumped up 1 stop to 3 200 if you depress the ISO button HI 1 is displayed Option 2 W hen the SO is set to 1 600 it is bumped up 2 stops to 4 800 if you depress the ISO button H 1 2 is displayed Note You can reset the D 1 back to all of its factory defaults by depressing theCSM and ISO buttons simultaneously for two seconds or longer D 1 defaults are I mage Quality Normal Sensitivity ISO 200 W hite Balance A 0 AF Area Mode Single Area AF Focus Area Center Exposure M ode Programmed F lexible Program None Shutter Speed Lock Off Aperture Lock Off Auto E xposure Lock Off Exposure Compens
92. the shutter closes long after the flash has turned off In Slow Sync mode you have shutter speeds of 30 to 1 500 sec available when in A or P exposure modes W hen shooting flash fill in Aperture P riority or Program modes the D 1 selects the correct shutter speed for the aperture you ve selected T he shutter speed range the D1 selects is determined by the flash sync mode and is stepless Rear Curtain Sync is very similar to Slow Sync In this sync mode the flash fires after the shutter release has been depressed and the shutter has opened T he flash actually fires when the shutter starts to close T he idea behind this is that any movement the subject might be creating during the ambient exposure happens prior to the flash s effect of freezing the subject In this sync mode you have shutter speeds of 30 to 1 500 sec available when in A or P exposure modes W hen shooting flash fill in Aperture P riority or Program modes the D 1 selects the correct shutter speed for the aperture you ve selected T he shutter speed range selected by the D 1 is determined by the sync mode and is stepless Red E ye Reduction helps prevent red eye in your subject T his is done by a ore flash that goes off one second prior to the main flash to constrict the eye s iris around the pupil and reduce red eye In this sync mode shutter speeds of 1 60 to 1 500 sec are availableto you when in A or P modes W hen shooting flash fill in Aperture Priority o
93. the DT TL matrix symbol or 3D Matrix Balanced Fill Flash works beautifully But do keep the Monitor Pre F lash limitation in mind Because of these tendencies and my normal desire for a darker background the default setting for my flash for flash fill is A But this isn t perfect and there are exceptions such as when use a Sto F en Omni Bounce W hen that is attached switch back to DTTL 3D Matrix The bottom line is you need to do tests using these suggestions as starting points and discover the best solution for yourself Viewfinder Info The viewfinder of the D 1 is ahigh eyepoint finder an old term dating back to the F 3H P T he view you seein theviewfinder is only 96 of what you actually capture and remember you see only 92 of what you capture on the LCD If you re coming from an F 5 to the D1 looking through the D1 for the first time seems like you re looking down a tunnel T his is because of the smaller size of the CCD compared to the size of a 35mm film frame and the way it is related to you the photographer in the viewfinder Despite the smaller field of view the D1 has a very bright clean image which is areal blessing T his is in part because of the screen that s installed T he D1 shares the same screens with the F 100 the B type BrightView clear matte screen III is the standard You can install the optional E type BrightView clear matte screen 11 which isthe same screen as theB but with an additional horizon
94. the most confusing explanations for a dead simple task This Custom Setting simply permits constant f stop operation for variable aperture lenses such as zooms or micros Variable aperture zooms for example change the aperture as you zoom in or out to change focal length If you want a constant aperture during the zooming process you can use this Custom Setting to maintain an that constant aperture the maximum aperture being the zoom s slowest maximum when it s zoomed out Option 0 Default Aperture does not change with change in focal length Option 1 Aperture changes as per the focal length of the zoom or extension of the micro Note Y ou cannot make a variable f4 5 5 6 lens a straight f4 5 with this Custom Setting but you could make it a straight f5 6 lens like Option 1 becausein many applications need to set the biggest aperture to blur out the background Depth of field consistency is not what I m after H owever many studio shooters who work with studio strobes prefer O ption 0 Custom Setting 20 Shutter Release Indication via Self T imer LED In some remote shooting applications this Custom Setting can be applied if the D1 is not connected to a computer via FireW ire to indicate the camera is taking a picture Option 0 Default T he self timer lamp does nothing when the camera is fired Option 1 T he self timer lights immediately prior to the shutter firing Custom Setting 21 AE L AF L Butto
95. the picture area for 35mm film T hesizeof aframe of 35mm film is approximately 36 x 24mm whereas the size of the D1 s CCD is 23 7 x 15 6mm T hat makes the picture area of theD1 s CCD approximately 51 of the size of a35mm film frame T his causes lenses that are used on the D 1 to increase in focal length by approximately 1 5x A 400mm lens attached to an F5 becomes a 600mm lens when attached to a D1 However there is no loss of aperture An f2 8 lens on the F5 remains an f2 8 lens on the D1 And while it would appear that the depth of field DOF might change with this 1 5x focal length increase it doesn t T he physical focal length to exit hole ratio of the lens on which DOF is based does not change to alter the depth of field All that happens is that the D1 does not see or capture all the information the lens projects It just sees and captures the center of the projected image hence the increase in focal length The D1 s Layout Power T he way the D1 is laid out carries on the tradition Nikon began with the F 5 and F 100 T his fact makes the D 1 seem like an old friend the first moment you pick it up to shoot with it T his is very important because your familiarity with the F 5 really ends here you re entering a brave new world with the D1 Starting the fun requires turning the camera on take that as you may T he On Off switch is located on the top right panel of the built in hand grip Unlike the F5 s power switch
96. unusable T his is properly called dark current noise T he term is derived from the fact that even when the CCD is dark current is passing through and creating noise See the Appendix for more information Note T o prevent theemergenceof smear on theimage the D 1 incorporates a mechanical shutter in front of the CCD s charge coupled electronic shutter T his prevents intense light from striking the CCD during data processing N ext to the exposure mode indicator is a box depicting what flash mode you have selected if any F lash sync modes are discussed in depth on page 15 Next to that is the autofocus box which indicates whether you rein Dynamic AF mode five signs appear SingleArea AF mode only one AF bracket appears and 10 Moose Press which AF sensor is active N ext to this is the vertical symbol which says CARD and tells you a CompactF lash card is inserted in the camera of course if there is no card the symbol won t be present and the D 1 doesn t function Above this is a battery indicator which you ll get to know very well W hen this symbol is half darkened your battery is on the way down You have perhaps another 15 to 20 Fine captures before you re dead in the water see page 12 for more info on the EN 4 During the period when the battery is this low the info in the LCDs and viewfinder goes off the moment you remove your finger from the shutter release T his is another sign that you re near
97. w things you must know and understand about the D 1 SB 28D X partnership before you use any of their settings successfully See the Appendix for tips on using multiple flash If you re coming from shooting an F5 or an F 100 you re used to the TTL flash system functioning like this You depress the shutter release and the camera fires T he light leaves the flash heads towards the subject and strikes it The light from the flash then bounces off the subject and heads back to the camera goes through the lens and then bounces off thefilm to hit a sensor in the bottom of the mirror box T his sensor meters the light and when the exposure for the flash is correct the camera tells the flash to turn off Before and during this process two other pieces of exposure information are gathered by the camera a measurement of light from the M onitor Pre F lash and distance information from the lens T hese three elements combined are what make flash exposure with the F 5 or F 100 so foolproof T hat istrueT TL flash metering Such is regretfully not the case with the D1 T he F5 F100 and D1 all have an 18 gray card gray shutter T his is for the M onitor PreF lash which is really the first part of the flash exposure calculation OT F or off the film is thesecond crucial part of TT L flash exposure T his is present in the F 5 and F 100 but not in the D 1 W hilethe D1 has the gray shutter for the M onitor Pre F lash to bounce off of it d
98. y capture images with the D1 I m going to explain each setting by first relaying how it s defined in the instruction book and then providing you with my own rules of thumb for D1 white balance One thing have found in my own photography is that exposures are much more to my liking when the D1 is set to the correct color temperature for the light at hand I dial in less exposure compensation if any when the correct white balance is set find that this is another important reason to learn to understand color temperature As a reference conventional film is rated at 5 500 K the basic color temperature for a basic sunny day out in the country near sea level around noon Overcast days and higher altitudes can spike color temperature up to around 10 000 K and sunsets down to 4 000 K A Auto W hite Balance T he D1 automatically adjusts the white balance to properly capture color temperature between 4 200 and 7 000 K I highly recommend that you do not select just this one setting and shoot only in this one white balance M oose s Rule of Thumb T he only time can honestly say this mode works is when the subject can directly see the sun and the sun is beating down on the subject T here can be no clouds partial clouds or overcast no tree limb shadow 24 Moose Press and nothing lying in the path between the sun and the subject that includes smog Even under those conditions rarely use this setting b Incandescent T his white b

D1 Chptr - Moose Peterson

Contents

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents