The
Nikon N80/F80
by
Darrell R. Young
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a friend about this article
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CAMERA
CONTROLS
Happy,
happy, joy, joy…the N80 has a DEPTH-OF-FIELD preview button!
In the last few years Nikon deliberately left this very valuable
feature off of its consumer cameras. I suppose they did so to
push the more advanced photographers into the professional line
of cameras. Depth of field is a very important consideration in
photography, since it allows you to control just what the range
of sharp focus is in your image.
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Nikon
N80 Depth-of-Field preview button
.
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Due
to consumer demand, the depth-of-field button is back! Nikon listened
to the regular photographer for a change.
Maybe
they were losing too many buyers to the competition, who wisely
left a depth of field preview on even their basic cameras.
In
any case, we now have a very powerful tool to view our focus range.
This is an electronic depth-of-field system. When you press and
hold the button it snaps the aperture ring closed to the current
aperture setting. (It "stops down") You can then view the range
of focus provided by that aperture setting.
One
neat thing I use the depth-of-field button for, is to fool someone
into thinking I just took a picture of them. Invariably, when
I shoot a wedding a number of children will come up requesting
that I take a picture of them. If I do not want that particular
picture, I simply press and release the depth-of-field preview
button. The subject will see the aperture ring stop down, and
will hear a satisfying click that sounds amazingly like a normal
picture being taken. Usually, it placates the children for upwards
of five minutes at a time, allowing you to take the pictures you
really want. (chuckle, chuckle).
| You
will use the two "Command Dial" wheels along with other
buttons, to set many functions. These two wheels are also
used to adjust apertures & shutter speeds in when the
N80 is in manual exposure mode.
Note
in the picture at right that there is a wheel on the front
and back of the camera. The front Command Dial is conveniently
just below the chrome Shutter Release button, while
the rear Command Dial is located right above where your
thumb supports the camera on the back. |
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| The
"Mode Select Dial" knob has only six settings. The
P is for Program Mode, S is for Shutter Priority,
A is for Aperture Priority, and M is for Manual
Mode.
There
is also the CSM or Custom Functions (later discussed),
and the ISO, which allows you to set the film speed
(ISO number) manually instead of using the default DX film
setting. Mode Select Dial in picture is set to P - Program
Mode. |
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All
of these are accessed with the Mode Select Dial knob as seen in
the picture at right. Notice just below the knob is a small thumb
operated ring, with a small release button.
By
holding down the small button to the front left of the mode select
dial, you can rotate the ring to select:
1.
Single-Frame film advance (current setting on picture above),
2.
Continuous film advance (2.5 frames per second),
3.
Self-timer (defaults to 10 seconds), and
4.
Multiple Exposure (which allows any number of shots on one
frame of film.)
| The
"Auto-Exposure Bracketing" button as shown above the
green dot in the picture to the right, allows you to shoot
your images at a selected over or under exposure value (+/-
EV).
To
adjust, the BKT button is held in, and the command dials
rotated to turn bracketing on, set the bracketing value,
and select the number of frames to bracket, up to three.
The changing values appear in the external LCD panel. |
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If
the film advance is set to Continuous, the N80 will only fire the
selected number of shots in rapid succession. Then the film will
stop advancing.
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