Shutter speed lock (D700/D800)

Ade

I guess most of you might already know this, but until today I didn't know that on the prosumer D700 & D800, one can lock the shutter speed (e.g., at 1/200), via custom settings. Previously I thought this feature was only present on the flagship Dx cameras (i.e., the special "L" button on the D3 series).

A few times while using strobes I've inadvertently "bumped" the shutter speed past the flash sync speed resulting in the familiar black bars, when all this time I could have just locked down the shutter speed. :O

This setting is perfect for the studio. I.e., with the camera on M, the shutter speed can be locked to the sync speed, then the aperture can be changed to taste.

The shutter speed lock is custom setting f8 on the D700 and f7 on the D800. One can also lock the aperture from the same menu. On the D800, the fn button can be assigned to enable/disable the locks.

This feature doesn't seem to be present on consumer-oriented models (e.g., D7100, D610).

Learn something new everyday!

ChasCS

Hi Ade, thanks for the tips.
It's always good to learn something new that might have been overlooked,
without the shared knowledge and experience of others, here on NR.

Vipmediastar_JZ

I had the same issue until I locked both Aperture and Shutter speed in the D800. Now I don't have to keep re-checking my Manual settings to see if they have changed or not.

John

Hi Ade,
When I first saw this option in the manual of my D800 I couldn't figure out why I would possibly use it.
I could just use manual or speed exposure modes when I needed to set a fixed shutter speed.
So, the use of this setting was completely alien to me.

Thank you for teaching me something new.