I can't find this one in the manual... hopefully a clever person here will know.

I normally use Aperture priority autoexposure and it's handy to keep an eye on the relevant shutter speed as I change aperture. The D200 would tell me the shutter speed whatever it was, but I see that on the D700 once it gets below about 1/30th (I haven't done an exact test) it just says 'Lo' - which isn't very helpful.

Is there any way to set it so the display will tell me the actual shutter speed I'll get?

John
www.blokewithacamera.co.uk

I suspect you may be operating at a high ISO and may be exceeding the lower limit of its metering range. Every camera has one and the shutter speed associated with it increases as the ISO increases.

Rick Walker

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>I suspect you may be operating at a high ISO and may be
>exceeding the lower limit of its metering range. Every camera
>has one and the shutter speed associated with it increases as
>the ISO increases.

Thanks Rick, as far as I can tell the metering is correct, it just won't tell me the shutter speed below a certain point. I'll be using it at a wedding tomorrow so will try to define it better.

John
www.blokewithacamera.co.uk

When you mention 1/30 is about as low as it will show, could that be tied into the Auto ISO where the default lowest shutter speed is 1/30?

Bob

Nikon Bob

>When you mention 1/30 is about as low as it will show, could
>that be tied into the Auto ISO where the default lowest
>shutter speed is 1/30?

Hi Bob,

I don't use AutoISO, but a few experiments revealed that it only does it in spot metering mode and only when focusing on a dark area.

Another thing I noticed today (and have noticed before) is that the D700 is slower to lock focus on less than well-lit subjects than the D200 - to the point of forcing me to swap back to the D200. Could that simply be because I use a f3.5-4.5 lens on the D700 and a f2.8 lens on the D200?

So far the D700 is not performing as well in combat situations as the D200.

John
www.blokewithacamera.co.uk

John

Well, it was just a stab in the dark from a beginner D700 user. I have tried Auto ISO but don't like the way it works, maybe it is just me. I have also had that same effect as you where it would say LO at anything less than 1/30 and that is not when on Auto ISO. I have also had it meter to 8 seconds at other times. She is a puzzle alright. As for AF, I have nothing to compare it to but my old F90x and it seems to be just as fast as the F90x. That AF speed suited me then and it does now too. I am still using the same old AF lenses with no AFS.

Bob

Nikon Bob

Rick's explanation sounds likely to me; "Lo" appears when the camera is at the lower limit of its metering range, so the point at which the shutter speed display chanles to "Lo" does vary with aperture and ISO settings.

On my D300, at ISO 6400 (Hi-1 on this camera) and an aperture of f/1.4, Lo appears at around 1/25th. At 200 ISO and f/16, it is more like 25 seconds!

Brian
Welsh Nikonian
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