D810 Tips & Tricks

SouthSideScubaSteve · December 2016

Ok, two questions for the D810 owners out there:

What did you assign the the Fn button?
What do you have in your "my menu"?

WestEndFoto · December 2016

My Fn button is assigned two ways.

If I press it, it gives me access to my "Non-CPU Lens Date". The setting shows on the top LCD display and I can select my "Non-CPU Lens". Currently that is 15 3.5, 20 2.8, 24 2.8, 28 2.8, 50 1.2, 100 2.8, 400 5.6, 800 8.0 and 1,000 11.0.

Second, if I hold it down in "S" while I have a bracket set and press the shutter, it will shoot the bracket and stop when the bracket is finished.

My Menu is:
-Battery Info
-Self Timer
-Long Exposure NR
-White Balance
-AP Point Illumination
-ISO sensitivity settings
-Built-in AF-assist illuminator
-Flash sync speed
-Non-CPU lens data
-Interval Timer Shooting
-GPS
-Image Comment
-Image Review
-Copy image(s)
-Virtual Horizon
-Trim
-Set Picture Control - is was a toy to see what JPEGS were all about. I used it for a week and went back to shooting raw. I should probably delete it.
-Choose Image Area - I used to shoot in 5:4 and this aided composition. However, I just think about it when I shoot in FX mode and crop to 5:4 in post now, so I should probably delete it.

Pistnbroke · December 2016

I have the D800 and the D810. The menus are so horrible and unreliable I just stick to A mode at f8 and auto iso using P mode for discos.No time to play about pressing buttons to change settings and fiddle in menu.
Interesting comment on the JPEGS ..all you need to do in "standard" picture control is set the sharp to +9 . leave clarity alone its a killer. If using old lenses ..pre 2000 up the contrast to +3.
Photographic enjoyment varies from person to person ..some like to fiddle with settings I like to make money.

SouthSideScubaSteve · December 2016

WestEndFoto said:
My Fn button is assigned two ways.

If I press it, it gives me access to my "Non-CPU Lens Date". The setting shows on the top LCD display and I can select my "Non-CPU Lens". Currently that is 15 3.5, 20 2.8, 24 2.8, 28 2.8, 50 1.2, 100 2.8, 400 5.6, 800 8.0 and 1,000 11.0.

Second, if I hold it down in "S" while I have a bracket set and press the shutter, it will shoot the bracket and stop when the bracket is finished.

My Menu is:
-Battery Info
-Self Timer
-Long Exposure NR
-White Balance
-AP Point Illumination
-ISO sensitivity settings
-Built-in AF-assist illuminator
-Flash sync speed
-Non-CPU lens data
-Interval Timer Shooting
-GPS
-Image Comment
-Image Review
-Copy image(s)
-Virtual Horizon
-Trim
-Set Picture Control - is was a toy to see what JPEGS were all about. I used it for a week and went back to shooting raw. I should probably delete it.
-Choose Image Area - I used to shoot in 5:4 and this aided composition. However, I just think about it when I shoot in FX mode and crop to 5:4 in post now, so I should probably delete it.

WEF - Thanks, I've been looking at the Brkt Burst the "Press" option for my Fn button; I use Brkt a lot when hiking with my wife (I see something, stop & take a couple of BRKT'd shots, and then catchup double time it to catchup to her and repeat!)

SouthSideScubaSteve · December 2016

Pistnbroke said:
I have the D800 and the D810. The menus are so horrible and unreliable I just stick to A mode at f8 and auto iso using P mode for discos.No time to play about pressing buttons to change settings and fiddle in menu.
Interesting comment on the JPEGS ..all you need to do in "standard" picture control is set the sharp to +9 . leave clarity alone its a killer. If using old lenses ..pre 2000 up the contrast to +3.
Photographic enjoyment varies from person to person ..some like to fiddle with settings I like to make money.

I'm sure i'll play with the Custom Menu's for while and then end up using My Menu to access anything I find myself changing frequently .....

Thanks for the tip on the sharpness; what quality & size JPEG's do you shoot??

Pistnbroke · December 2016

First all my Nikons are set the same to +9 ( 810/800/7100/3300). But as important is setting the fine focus adjust. Personally I don't see any difference between large fine and large basic. If I am to put 800pics + short video onto a memory stick (8GB) then they need to be large basic. I do use perfectly clear and Lightroom for minor adjustments. Even if you shoot RAW its a good idea to go to +7 as it sharpens the live view screen when chimping.
Another tip is to set your C low to 2 frames per second and always take 2 or 3 . This gives you the best chance of avoiding blinkers and tongue twitches.
Remember with those horrible Pro menus that if you change anything with a thumb wheel the memory will go to that next time you turn the camera on ,,your original settings are lost .
If you use a GPS to set the clock (Genisis is about $30) then turn the date back to 2014 and when it jumps to 2016 you know its done it .
If you shoot with a flash in the shoe then only shoot landscape and crop the middle to portrait later . This way you will avoid side shadows .Remember too that when you fit a flash in the shoe the iso goes to 4x your base iso so a SB400 is now powerful enough for most things particularly if you set base iso to 200.
Sorry if some of you have read all this bulldust before but this guy is new.

WestEndFoto · December 2016

You might be doing yourself a huge favour if you invest in Lightroom and shoot raw. I suspect that you will eventually graduate to shooting raw unless you are an event photographer like Pistnbroke. If your objective is to get the best out of your lenses and the purchase of a D810 suggests that is the objective, then shoot raw.

Ken Rockwell's "blanket" recommendation to shoot JPEG is one area that gives me huge pause.

framer · December 2016

WestEndFoto said:

Ken Rockwell's "blanket" recommendation to shoot JPEG is one area that gives me huge pause.

Free advise is IMHO worth what you paid for it.

framer

Pistnbroke · December 2016

Rockwell has misled me in the past by saying use small and sharp at + 7 ..you must go +9 large . At work we had a machine with "Test don't Guess" over the top and that is what you must do . RAW certainly has its place in bird photography which I am just getting into but if I come away from an event with 1500 shots they are all technically perfect, and I have not touched a menu button or wheel its the content that puts them in the bin ..blinkers facial expression,repeat etc . This idea of recovering bad shots is not a concept I really need. Modern software can make big changes to JPEG files if required .
West end photo ...the advice on here is free so Test it don't Guess !!
7Ps of photography ...Prior Preparation Prevents Pi$$ Poor Photography.

donaldejose · December 2016

Raw v. Jpeg. Of course RAW is best if you want to have the greatest latitude in post processing. However, post processing can burn up a lot of time. If you can get your exposures spot on in Jpeg you don't need to go through the RAW step for non-critical photos such as family or events. Recently I have been shooting both RAW and Jpeg, sending RAW to one card and jpeg to the other card. I view all images and send my selections to a separate file folder on my hard drive (or I copy all jpeg images to a separate file folder on my hard drive where I view and delete the "bad" ones, then I post process the remaining Jpegs quickly in elements and if I need more latitude I get the RAW and take it to lightroom. I find that I go to the RAW file less than 10% of the time for family and event photos. But if I am going for "art" photography I will start with the RAW file, process it in lightroom and finish it in elements. I just have not seen the need for the RAW step when doing more casual photography.

To get this back on topic, the settings to send RAW to one SD card and Jpeg to another is in the shooting menu. However, on bodies which have only one SD card slot you cannot do this but you can set the camera to send both a RAW and a Jpeg to that one card. I know my procedure is not the "correct way" and shooting Jpegs as your normal format is considered "uncool" but it works for me. Most of the time the extra latitude in RAW just isn't needed for certain types of photography. Since this is a setting you are not going to change often it does not need to be moved into the My Menu menu but I do have it there.

vtc2002 · December 2016

@WestEndFoto I didn't know you had bought the D810

The difference between the D800 and 810 that I have taken advantage of for my shooting preferences are as follows: (I am basing this on memory so their may be some slight variations).
In Continuous-servo mode one thing that Nikon has added on the D810 that the D800 doesn't have, is a custom function A12. So if I go into A12, I can now set my autofocus mode restriction so the camera will not leave Continuous-servo mode, which is what I want because as a back button autofocuser, you need to be in Continuous-servo mode all the time.

There's a new Group Area Autofocus Mode that's on the D810, but the D800 doesn't have it. It's a welcome addition for sports and action shooters. It was introduced to help eliminate the problem of back focus with very moving, very fast moving subjects.

When dealing with moving subjects, Nikon has a very effective AF system called dynamic area. It comes in three basic flavors: D9, a 9-point array, D21, a 21-point array, and D51, which is a dynamic mode that uses all 51 points the AF system. If you have a D800 or D800E, and set your autofocus to dynamic 9 or 21, in the viewfinder, you're just going to see the priority sensor, so it's a little bit of a leap of faith to know the arrays surrounding that priority sensor.
But with the D810, they kind of fixed that situation. Go into the menu, and into autofocus, a5, you'll see focus point illumination, and dynamic AF display. When you turn this on, when you're in dynamic mode, in the viewfinder, you'll not only see your priority sensor, but you'll see the 9- or 21-point array, which lets you know that you're actually in dynamic mode, which is kind of nice.

One autofocus settings I do not recommend is 3D-dynamic auto focus, it's a great idea, problem is I just can't depend on it all the time, which is why I don't recommend it. Don't get me wrong, dynamic 3D is an ultra-sophisticated system, it uses the camera's scene recognition system, it actually knows where your subject is, locks into it and tracks it, so in theory it's good. It works similarly to other dynamic modes where you first need to acquire focus with the priority sensor but unlike the other priority modes, this one, the camera takes over and you lose control over where it's going to go.
Now on the Nikon D800 it doesn't have this capability but on the D810 you can go again into the auto focus menu, the custom settings and then go down to a11, and when you get down there you've got Limit AF-area mode selection, so I could go in here, I use Single-point, I use Dynamic-area 9, 21, 51, 3D-tracking I'm not going to use, Group I love to use in very fast action, Auto-area I'm not going to use.

And one of the things that is markedly different from the 800 and 810 series, the 810 is a lot quieter. And on the 810 you even got a quiet continuous mode.

Concerning the MY Menu. I try to keep my settings to only 7 to 10. Much more than that and you have to hunt for what you are looking for which defeats the purpose. The one that I do not see listed is the exposure delay. I find this very handy in My Menu because usually when I want to use it I am in a hurry because of fading light or changing environment. The other settings listed above are based on personal shooting preferences and experimentation and adjustment will help find the right ones for your style.

vtc2002 · December 2016

@donaldejose I use the methodology you have described quite a bit. When I am shooting my daughters ice skating or horse events I shoot raw and jpeg. I may take 3000 or more images at an event. I do not have the time to physically edit that many images. Focusing on getting the settings correct in the camera most of the time the jpeg's are good for the parents and children. If a parent wants a enlargement of one of the photos I will pull up the raw file and edit the file for them. It saves me a lot of time and the parents and children are happy with the end results. I do not think their is a right or a wrong way for the most part but if you have something that works for you by all means use it.

WestEndFoto · December 2016

I have not bought the D810. I will buy the D820 - and a DF2 if they come out with that.

However, regarding the OP's question, I think that the D800 and D810 are close enough as not to matter.

vtc2002 · December 2016

Having owned and used both extensively I beg to differ that they are close enough to not matter. I guess we will have to agree to disagree. The OP was about the D810 and not the D800.

Ironheart · December 2016

I think for a landscape or portrait photographer, the differences are minimal (e.g. the sensor is the same between them). If you deal with any sort of active subject, or need a quieter shutter (weddings, events) the 810 is a good step up.

vtc2002 · December 2016

@Ironheart The OP was about tips and tricks not technical specs for the 810. The new menu items and functionality are in my opinion are significant as I (and many others ) would not have upgraded if they were so minimal. The impression of providing advice as being a 810 user is misleading. Not trying to beat up anyone or a dead horse.

WestEndFoto · December 2016

I am quite sure that if I had a D810 I would have the exact same Fn and My Menu selection and would therefore offer the same response to the OP's question.

Vipmediastar_JZ · December 2016

when shooting in studio scenarios or Manual
I beleive from memory i enable FN to lock the Shutter and Aperture as I tend to accidentally change it.

I can also enable to lock Flash value when im doing events after getting the TTL value that I like.I lock it and it works great.

donaldejose · December 2016

vtc2002: Good to hear you do that too and for the same reason. Generally, people here don't like to admit they ever shoot in jpeg because they think it makes them look less skilled or a Ken Rockwell follower! Jpeg is a wonderful time saving short cut for appropriate occasions like facebook profile pictures, family snapshots, kid's school performances, etc. I find even a normal jpeg is fine for 5x7 prints and that is the largest most people want to set around. If they want to use your print as a poster on the wall RAW is the file to start with. But facebook, e-mail and 5x7 print is more than fine in jpeg.

Pistnbroke · December 2016

9x6 12x8 and 20 x16 are also fine from Large Basic .I feel the photo print technology has not moved on from the film days..Perhaps its the paper I don't know not being an expert. Would be nice to know what you think.

rmp · December 2016

I often blow images up to 8 feet by 10 feet and "pixel peep" at the result just to make sure they are "sharp enough." Yet I seldom actually print anything larger than 4 foot by 5 foot. In fact 60%-70% of my actual prints are 8.5 inches by 11.0 inches.

For paper prints 13 x 19 inches and smaller, I print them myself with an Epson 3880. I think these prints compare with the prints made from film in the old days.

For anything larger I use "Image Wizards" for prints on metal where the "pixel peeping" details really matter or White Wall for "ultraHD Print Under Acrylic Glass" if I really what the depth of detail to shine. I think these prints are better than the prints made from film in the old days. These prints stop traffic.

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