Buttons part III - Metering control

UltraSonicUSA has sent us a message telling us he has organised a Devmeet and Everything-Nikon is invited! All members are welcome to go, just let him know.
Show your attendance on our DevMeet page and read more on UltrasonicUSA's journal

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Well Nikon aim to solve the problem anyway. As rumoured last month Nikon have announced a res-olution to the rust/ oil spots on sensor problem that has been well documented on Nikon's D600 DSLR.
Nikons solution is:
"As a first step, please follow the guidance from the User’s Manual (pages 301-305) related to the “Clean Image Sensor” function and manual cleaning using a blower. If these measures do not re-move all dust particles and you are still experiencing problems, then please consult your nearest Ni-kon service center. They will service your camera, including the inspection, cleaning, and replace-ment of the shutter and related parts. You will not be charged for this service, and Nikon will pay all shipping costs, both to and from the Nikon service centre."
This will come as welcome news to those suffering with this shutter issue and should restore faith in those looking at this problem roll on over the last year from the outside.
Head on over to the Nikon blog to read more on what Nikon have to say.

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Rumours and whispers have been going on since before the D4 was in the shops and finally Nikon have officially announced the Nikon D4s' release.
As the name suggests it is more evolution than revolution with a subtly revised body and the same 16.2MP FX format CMOS sensor but that’s where the many changes creep in. Expeed 4 image pro-cessing gives us faster image pressing that puts out frames per second up to 11 (from 10 on the D4) with AF on, 1080 60p HD video and due to better power management you get more frames per charge which is nice.
Other tweaks outside of the processing are the addition of group AF where the user selects an AF point and the surrounding four points are also activated giving precise focussing yet allowing for movement of the subject. This will be interesting to see hands on to see just how different this is to the existing dynamic area AF.
RAW S files will be another interesting idea. In removing 3/4 of the pixels in a RAW image you get a substantially smaller file without cropping. This will use less space and make editing quicker. For day to day use for those who don't make huge enlargements yet still wish to work with RAW this may well be a good feature.
A 1000BASE-T standard Ethernet port in now featured for an alternative file transfer method. Some may think this is almost a step backwards in technology over USB3 but file transfer rates up to 40 Gbit/s on 802.3ba (USB1-12 Mbit/s USB2-480Mbit/s USB3-5 Gbit/s ) are a marked advantage (whether the D4s can pump them out this fast is unclear). The biggest advantage for us though is being able to have cables up to 10metres long over USB's paltry 2 metres. This is excellent for studio or bench work.
So lots has been tweaked to keep the Nikon top dog compatative with its main rival the Canon 1Dx. We will leave the who is best hand bag fight to other sights however.
You can read more on the D4s on the Nikon blog.
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Dubbed as a free replacement to Nikon's Capture NX-2 software, NX-D will allow you to edit your RAW, NEF, TIFF and JPEG files From Nikon F mount DSLRS, 1 system and Coolpix cameras.
The D is for Developing so expect the usual supply of post processing and editing tools however Nikon are taking suggestions on what the final release will have on it from Beta users.
If you have used Capture NX-2 you will be in a familiar place here and best f all it is free to down-load. Heasd on over to the Nikon blog to read all the details and  

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The P series of Nikon Coolpix cameras offer the user powerful hardware in a compact form. We have come to call these bridge cameras and even with Nikons own S system, mirrorless cameras stealing a good chunk of their thunder, they still have a place today.

P600 and P530

The P600's party piece is its crazily long lens. At 60X zoom, it is the equivalent of a 1440mm lens on a 35mm camera! A Super ED ensures image quality whilst lens shift VR keeps things blur free.
The P530isn't far behind with its 42X zoom and also has Vibration reduction which at these zoom lengths will be very useful!
Both cameras have a 16.1-million pixels and a backside illumination CMOS sensor which will record photographs at 7 frames per second for full 60i HD video.
Shooting features like bird watching and moon mode don't seem like a bad idea on cameras with zooms like these and that is on top of all the featires we have come to expect of a higher end Cool-pix camera.
The P600 has also got wifi and a vari-angle display over the P530 as well as the ability to use a fast charger.

P340

The P340 is a more traditional compact camera in form. Taking a more squared off look it hints to-wards it higher end intentions. The Nikkor 5X lens gives a usable range of 24-120mm, Vibration Reduction helps keep things sharp along with a wide f1.8 aperture. Your image will be recorded onto a 12.2 megapixel back lit CMOS sensor in jpeg or RAW stills or 1080p 50i/60i HD video. All very nice but this is looking very similar to the P330 that this camera is replacing.Well the GPS is gone and Wifi has taken its place. Arguably this is more widely useful, allowing the user to upload images without the need for wires. Users of Bridge may well be sad as the GPS tagging made filing where your images were taken allot easier but this is a minority and we all the big bucks don't come from the minorities. Also the control ring that was popular on the P330 has remained but with add-ed notches to make the movement more tacktile. Firmware tweaks have extended the battery life by up to 10% and the camera is a touch lighter.
For the more shrewd buyers amongst you it might be worth looking at the Nikon COOLPIX P330. With near £130 off its marked price it is a strong contender.
The P600 is available to pre order in black or red
The P530 is available to pre order in black.
You can read about all of the Nikon Coolpix P series cameras on the Nikon blog.

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S9700 and S9600

Coolpix S offers style, function and ease of use and all of this is seen in the series leading S9700.
With a 30X zoom lens, it is close to stepping on the long toes of the P530. It also shares a screen with its higher range cousin and also boosts some fairly advanced GPS features that the P530 does not have. The GPS will locate more quickly with the help of GLONASS and will even track your rout when on or off should you switch this feature on. Somehow they have also squeezed in Wifi so you can upload to your smartphone whilst shooting.
Bridging the gap between the S9700 and its predecessor the S9500 is the new S9600.
Internally similar, with the S9500's 22X zoom and the loss of the GPS, the S9600 will appeal to those that don't feel they need the GPS tracking or extra zoom. Highbrid VR will help keep things sharp and a large range of program modes as well as the more creative M,S,A modes will be useful for amatures and pro's alike.
Oddly the S9700 and S9600 have a slightly lower megapixel sensor at 16 million pixels down from 18. This may not be a bad thing as to high a pixel density can damage image quality just as much as a low pixel count.
As ever savings are there to be made for those not wanting the latest thing with the Nikon Coolpix S9500 now available for as little as £184.

S32

Taking a basic yet quite usable camera and making it robust enough to be kicked about by the kids, Nikon had hit upon a nice idea in the S30.
Now the S32 continues the plan with more megapixels and some useful ideas to make this camera even more usable. The 13.2-million pixels CMOS sensor will record your images of HD video whilst useful notes will pop up when underwater modes are selected or doors have been opened, reducing the chance of accidental water ingress. The camera will even give you guidance on cleaning after a hard day in the park or down the beach.
Waterproof to a depth of approximately 10 m and shockproofing that withstands falls from approx-imately 1.5 m make this camera as robust as it forfather and a special double button press will pre-vent images being deleted by children's exploring fingers.
Fun editing modes, slide shows, voice tags and a grading system will ensure that this will be a great way for the family to enjoy photography from an early age.
Thinking on what this camera is for it is unsurprising that the older Nikon Coolpix S31 is still priced at only £10 under that of the new camera. De-spite quite a few feature changes the camera is still quite capable of delivering what a famliy needs out of a camera but for the sake of a tenner the added features do make the S32 worth while.

You can preorder the S9700 in black, red and white.
You can preorder the S32 in yellow so ensuring you will never lose it.
You can read about all of the Nikon Coolpix S series cameras on the Nikon blog.
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I liked the Nikon AW110 when it came out. I liked it so much in fact that I bought my sister one when I accidentally drowned her Fuji XP30, but I digress.
With the well-received AW110 being pretty good when it came out, it is not surprising that the AW120 is more evolution than revolution. The biggest change being the 5x f2.8-4.9 24-120mm lens, which is wider and faster than the 5x, f3.9-4.8, 28-140mm on the AW110.
As with many of Nikon's compact cameras it also incorporates Dynamic Fine Zoom, which digitally extends the zoom range to 280mm.
As with its predecessor the AW120 is waterproof to depths of 18 m, shockproof from heights of up to 2 m and freeze-proof for temperatures down to -10°C. New optional accessory, the CF-CP001 silicon jacket will add more protection (much like the earlier fuji shock proof cameras) although Nikon doesn't say by how much. An optional chest rig will also be useful for hands free operation.
The camera still has GPS but also has GLONASS, using Russian satellites to improve the speed of positioning.
The camera seems to share the same system as the P600 for GPS/GLONASS with an electronic compass giving directional data on top of the positioning and a world map shows points of interest as well as the locations from which you were shooting.
Altitude or depth can be displayed with the adoption of a pressure sensor, a useful "at a glance" fea-ture although I doubt divers will be selling their computers as a result of this.
Finally a 16.0-million pixels and a backside illumination CMOS sensor will record your image with the aid of 5 axis vibration reduction as with the AW110.
With the outgoing AW110 down to as little as £179 the £329 AW120's improvement may be to small for some but then there wasn't allot to improve on. A brighter lens will be useful underwater and in low light but if you can stomach that then the far cheaper AW110 may well be for you whilst they last.
You cam preorder your AW120 in black, orange or uber cool cammo.
Nikon blog
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In the early days of SLR in camera metering it was an endless battle between the elements and a consistently wrong shutter speed/ aperture selection. Well that’s how it felt anyway. Even the earlier DSLR's with their far more advanced 3D matrix metering struggled when the light got tricky so we knew this button well. In recent years however if we are honest matrix gets it right 99 times out of 100 so we tend to leave this button alone now in all but the craziest lighting situations preferring to throw in a dash of EV or sort it out in post-production later rather than spin the wheel and highlight just what bit you want exposed correctly.

location and design

Button location varies, as does its form, between different SLR's greatly. Even on the current DSLR's there are 4 different ways of doing the same thing;

As seen on this Nikon D3x, pro cameras use this lock and 3 position dial to select the metering mode. These are located on the side on the Prism on all of the pro SLR's right back to the F4 that featured the first multi-meter viewfinder. The F100 also got the "pro" treatment with a viewfinder mounter meter switch.


Set on the right of the viewfinder as a bezel around the AE-L/AF-L button, this three position tog-gleworks works in a similar way to the above only without the need for a lock. This style is now only used on the D800 Po-super camera. The D*00 line all used this style excluding the D600 as did the F80 and no doubt a few others.


The D7*00 and D*0 lines all go with the single button on top and using the thumb wheel to select the desired metering mode. This also has commonality back to the film years as can be seen on the above image of an F90x.

:thumb332319310:
Entry level DSLR users have to change their metering via menu commands; This can be done in the live view towards the bottom of the list on the D5000. If in doubt you might want to take a plunge into the manual.


Finally we have a variety of ways of turning the metre on and off on more basic manual cameras with built in meters. On the Nikon FE seen above you can see when the film advance leaver is pulled out of its detent a red dot can be seen so reminding the user that the meter has been left on. As there is only one area meter in this camera, working much like centre weighted, there is no need for a selection wheel.
Clearly not all SLR's have a way to select what metering mode you can use as there may only be one like the above FE. As ever if in doubt, get the manual out.

What does it do

You are offered three options for metering:
A segmented rectangle.
A dot
A dot with a circle
The first is the matrix metering symbol. This includes 3D/colour Matrix and any other variety of matrix metering Nikon has dreamt up. Taking its shape by roughly looking a bit like the early matrix sensors, it tries to tell you what it does without you really needing to read about it. This metering mode will take in information from the whole frame and try to pick the best exposure for the given scene by comparing with a huge bank of known senarios. Colour and 3d matrix simply take into account distance to subjects as well as their colour and not just their tone. This prevents the camera over exposing when presented with dark colours or vice versa.
The second two are point and centre area. These return the camera to a metering mode more familiar to those who might have used an old Nikon FE. Taking the world as a black and while canvas and trying to find the middle grey, the camera will meter accordingly. These are useful when in high contrast situations as you try to pick out your subject but for most day to day use matrix is infinitely better.
If you are interested to know more on what these buttons are used for then check out our
June 2013 Journal where we covered this already in great detail.
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"Did you use metering whilst taking that lovely photograph"?
"Congratulations you can now submit it to this months project"!!
"What Catch"?
"Oh well there is a little one. Make sure you explain your metering choice and how it impacted upon your photograph in the image description"
Same as last month, The image can be new or old, you can submit as many times as you want (with-in submission rules and make sure it goes in the correct folder.
Good luck!

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Finalists are up for the vote on last month's project.
Finalist selection was made easier by the "limited" participation so you only need to choose between two submissions in our Poll. The winner will be featured mid-month!

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