Monday, May 30, 2011

Troubleshoot A Nikon D3

Released in 2008, the Nikon D3 is a high-end professional camera body. The D3 feature Nikon's "FX" full frame 12.1 megapixel CMOS sensor. The camera is designed and built with professional photographers in mind. It has standard ISO range of 200 to 6400 with a "boost" feature that will let you record images at an ISO of 25600. The camera has a built-in drive that will take pictures at a rate of nine frames per second. As with all digital single lens reflex cameras, troubleshooting any issues is a step-by-step process.








Instructions


1. Review the pictures the camera is producing. Inspect the pictures to see whether they are in focus, or whether the focus point different from where you intended it to be. Look at the pictures to see whether they are properly exposed.


2. Check to see whether the focus settings are correct on both the camera and on the lens. On the front right of the camera on the side of the lens mount housing is a switch that controls the focusing. The three settings are "M" for manual focus, "S" for single-shot auto focus and "C" for continuous autofocus where the camera will track to a moving object. Be sure the camera is set to "S" for single-shot auto focus.


3. Check the autofocus setting on the lens. On most Nikon professional lenses there is a slide switch with the letters "MF/AF." Make sure this switch is in the "AF" position. On longer lenses like a 70 to 200mm lens, there may be another slide switch that controls the focusing range. On this lens the minimum distance is usually 1.5 meters. You will see two settings, the first for "1.5 meters to infinity" and a second setting that is around "3 meters to infinity." If the lens is set to the latter and your subject is 2 meters from you, then the subject will be out of focus.








4. Check your light-meter setting. On the right side of the pentaprism near the front is a round dial selector with three settings. The middle setting is for "Full frame evaluative" metering. The small dot to the left of the middle setting is for "Spot" metering. In this setting the camera only reads a very small amount of the scene and sets the exposure to that point. The last setting is "Center weighted" average in this setting the camera places a higher weight on the exposure in the center of the frame. If your exposures are off, make sure the camera is set to the middle setting.

Tags: middle setting, auto focus, controls focusing, focus Check, meters infinity, pictures whether, pictures whether they