Nikon 1 J5 and Shooting menu tutorial

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NIKON 1 J5


The Nikon J4 has had a fair upgrade in its latest form; the J5, with a new back lit illuminated CMOS image sensor with an effective pixel count of 20.8-million pixels. The new EXPEED 5A image-processing engine will help keep everything speeding along nicely too. Improved noise reduction functions enable even better image quality at high sensitivities. In addition, “the NIKON 1 J5 supports recording of 4K movies that make ultra high-definition imaging expression possible”. This will be very exciting for those wanting to break into this memory card eating video format on a smaller camera body.
A programmable fn key makes it easier for you to shoot by customising the way you use your camera without needing to dive through menu’s.  To further improve shooting there is a command wheel that allows you to change settings without needing to close the live view to go menu diving.
For videographers a tilt screen will help and for those who shy away from P,A,S,M there are a number of custom shooting modes and effects added to the J4’s already long list.
It is also worth noting that the camera now supports a more retro look that looks especially good in silver.
To read more on this camera, head on over to the Nikon blog.
The Nikon 1 J5 can be pre-ordered, with a kit lens, for £429 on Amazon or $496.95 from Adorama.
Alternatively (and back to Amazon) the outgoing Nikon 1 J4 can be bought for as little as £229 now so if the new features the J5 offers don’t quite set you alight then maybe con-sider getting a bargain.
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Nikon announces the development of new firmware for its D4S, D810, and D750


Nikon has taken the unusual move of letting us know that they are working on something rather than just dropping it in our laps after a few weeks of leaks like they usually do. “This new firm-ware will provide support for recording command function with HDMI output to external record-ers. Nikon plans to release the new firmware in succession this summer.”
In basic terms it appears that this firmware update will allow users to use remote HDMI devices to view, record and start/stop recording video. We have seen remote screens being used before so this ought to add further functionality to the camera for videographers.
Nikon were hoping to show demonstrations of this technology at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show to be held in Las Vegas April 11 (Saturday) through April 16 (Thurs-day) so if you got a chance to see this do let us know how well it works.
If you are bummed out you didn’t know about this sooner then make sure you follow us on twitter and/or Facebook where all of the latest news on Nikon gets shared for your viewing pleasure without all of that spam and waffle (for all your waffle needs just stay tuned on here).
To read quite allot more on the subject you should check out the Nikon blog.

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Shooting menu

Shooting menu 1 by in-my-viewfinder
A couple of months ago we talked about the Custom Setting Menu and how you can make custom setting menu memory banks for quick and easy settings changes for regularly used settings. Well it only makes séance that we talk about the Shooting menu and what customisations you can make there.
Unlike the Custom Setting Menu you will find the Shooting menu is far smaller and tends to deal with the more fundamental settings of the camera. More often than not you will set your base setting in here and only change things for special occasions and even then there are often buttons that perform these functions anyway. As with everything menu based the names and number of menu options here will vary so if you are unsure have a look at your manual or hold your (?) button for a quick overview (camera dependant). As usual we will be using a D3x as the basis for this tutorial.
shooting menu bank by in-my-viewfinder
The first thing you will see at the top of this menu is the shooting banks. In here you can set up to four custom menu banks. Each one can bring up a collection of settings that you commonly use in a style of shooting. Having this separate from the Custom Setting menu banks is pretty useful so you can mix and match where needed so long/short lens and sports/tripod can be interchanged without needing a huge list of customised menus.
slot 2 by in-my-viewfinder
Reset shooting menu, active folder and File naming are all fairly self-explanatory. Slot 2 (should you have one) is a useful way of customising how your camera stores its data. Three options are available from overflow; that saves you changing cards, back up; for peace of mind from corrupt cards and RAW card 1 – Jpeg slot 2 allowing you to rapidly share previews whilst keeping your raw data separate and easily filed.
Image quality and size can be changed here as well as the dedicated button on on the camera body. This is helpful if you, for example, always shoot RAW with your long lens so can be added to its custom bank so this will change over automatically when this bank is selected. Similarly image area gives cropping options for general shooting as well as auto cropping when a DX lens is detected. The viewfinder will also be cropped to help with framing.
Shooting menu 2 by in-my-viewfinder
Jpeg compression and NEF (RAW) recording offer quality/compression choices. This is on top of the more general choices you make such as jpeg fine so if you really want a high quality jpeg image then select optimal quality under here. For more on image quality options you might want to look back on Novembers tutorial and the following months raw some more tutorial.
WB by in-my-viewfinder
White balance is a step above the more fundamental options offered by simply holding down the white balance button and spinning the wheel. Each option offers further customisation through tone maps or selecting the particular type of florescent tube your light source happens to be. This is great for when shooting on location and the ambient light is of a strange temperature. It is also fun for when you want to add/enhance a colour cast without having to delve into Photoshop.
Picture control is essentially auto post production that happens during image processing. You get a bank of four basic options that you can chose from or by going into Manage picture control you can upload custom picture control options that you have downloaded or made in picture control utility 2.0 which is another subject entirely.
Colour space Allows you to pick sRGB for straight to printing/sharing or Adobe RGB if you are more likely to edit first.
Shooting menu 3 by in-my-viewfinder
Active D lighting and Vignette control are both post production tools that try to reduce the time you spend in front of the computer by improving high/low light detail and increase peripheral illumination respectively. The trade-off of this is a reduced buffer and slower shooting speeds so if you want to be fast on the field, turn these off.
Long exposure and High ISO Noise reduction do exactly what you would expect and as before add time to saving. The Long exposure noise reduction can double the time your camera takes to expose an image leaving some people to think their camera has crashed after the shutter comes back down but this is just the processing taking place.
We covered ISO sensitivity in last months ISO tutorial and will, for some, provide the basis for this menus custom menu bank.
Live view gives you a couple of options for how live view will work for you. First of all you can pick between hand held or tripod mode. For both; pressing the shutter button will flip the mirror up and display whatever the sensor sees on the screen. The difference lies in that half depressing the shutter in hand held will flip the mirror back down so you can frame with the viewfinder whereas the screen will remain on for tripod mode. Both modes also allow you to zoom in for more precise focussing. This we cover in more detail in our focus tutorial (which we have tweaked and updated a bit to).
Multiple exposure by in-my-viewfinder
Multiple exposure Allows you to layer frames in much the same way you could on older film cameras but even easier. Up to 10 frames can be automatically layered and blended in camera. Unlike film, auto gain takes allot of the thinking out of this so you don't have to worry about just getting an over exposed blown mess but this will make each exposure equal. If you want to control what image is dominant you might want to turn this off and set exposure manually. Or just do it in Photoshop layers later. Pretty good if you want to get an effect quickly and without fuss though.
interval menu by in-my-viewfinder
Interval timer shooting: if you shoot at night, star trails or time lapses, you know all about this already. Again this is another tutorial entirely but we will give it a brief overview. Basically you can set your camera to shoot multiple frames at predetermined intervals. These will be stored as normal and you can chose to use these as layers to show movement or as frames in a time lapse video. This is a powerful and creative part of the camera hidden away at the bottom of the shooting menu which is well worth getting to know.
If you have bracketing and/or multiple exposure enabled, these are stackable and will control the limit of the exposures. So for example:
If you have a 7 frame bracket set on your camera and set intervals for every second, the moment you press start, the camera will rattle off all 7 frames in succession. Or;
If you have a 10 layer multiple exposure on and press start on the same interval timer, the camera will capture all 10 frames with 1 second between each then layer them into one image.

So knowing all of the different menu options you might wonder how you would sort your shooting menu bank?
You might want to set them up to offer the best ISO for your available shutter speed and focal length.
You might want to have four regularly used interval shooting modes pre programed to save you editing them each time.
You might prefer to have more in depth quality and/or lighting presets for places you often visit or maybe a mixture of the above.
Either way we hope this tutorial was useful in highlighting the huge customisation available in this menu and maybe, in conjunction with the Custom shooting menu tutorial will make your shooting life allot easier.
As ever we love your feedback so please do leave your comments on here or on our related Poll.

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