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    David Busch's Nikon D7500 Guide to Digital SLR Photography
    David Busch's Nikon D7500 Guide to Digital SLR Photography
    David Busch's Nikon D7500 Guide to Digital SLR Photography
    Ebook1,020 pages11 hours

    David Busch's Nikon D7500 Guide to Digital SLR Photography

    By David D. Busch

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    About this ebook

    David Busch's Nikon D7500 Guide to Digital Photography is your all-in-one comprehensive resource and reference for the Nikon D7500 camera. Built around the same 20.9 megapixel sensor as the D500, this mid-level Nikon model has BlueTooth and Wi-Fi wireless control with the SnapBridge smart phone/tablet app. A swiveling screen, 4K video, 8 fps continuous shooting, and ISO speeds up to 1.6 million make the D7500 a significant enthusiast-oriented upgrade. With this book in hand, you can fine tune your camera skills as you explore the world of digital photography, develop your creativity, and take great photographs with your D7500.
    Filled with detailed how-to steps and full-color illustrations, David Busch's Nikon D7500 Guide to Digital Photography covers all the camera's features in depth, from taking your first photos through advanced details of setup, exposure, lens selection, lighting, and more, and relates each feature to specific photographic techniques and situations. Also included is the handy visual guide to the D7500, with close-up photos and descriptions of the camera's essential features and controls. Learn when to use each option and, more importantly, when not to use them, by following the author’s recommended settings for every menu entry. With best-selling photographer and mentor David Busch as your guide, you'll quickly have full creative mastery of your camera’s capabilities, whether you're shooting on the job, as an advanced enthusiast, or are just out for fun. Start building your knowledge and confidence, while bringing your vision to light with the Nikon D7500 today.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRocky Nook
    Release dateAug 22, 2017
    ISBN9781681983233
    David Busch's Nikon D7500 Guide to Digital SLR Photography
    Author

    David D. Busch

    With more than two million books in print, David D. Busch is the world’s #1 best-selling camera guide author, with more than 100 guidebooks for Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, Pentax, and Panasonic cameras, and many popular books devoted to digital photography and imaging techniques. His best-sellers include Digital SLR Cameras and Photography for Dummies, which has sold more than 300,000 copies in five editions, and Mastering Digital SLR Photography, now in its Fourth Edition. The graduate of Kent State University is a former newspaper reporter/photographer, and operated his own commercial photo studio, shooting sports, weddings, portraits, fashion, architecture, product photography, and travel images. For 22 years he was a principal in CCS/PR, Inc., one of the largest public relations/marketing firms based in San Diego, working on press conferences, press kits, media tours, and sponsored photo trade magazine articles for Eastman Kodak Company and other imaging companies. His 2500 articles and accompanying photos have appeared inside and on the covers of hundreds of magazines, including Popular Photography, Rangefinder, and Professional Photographer. For the last decade, Busch has devoted much of his time to sharing his photographic expertise, both in publications, and in seminar/workshops he hosts at the Cleveland Photographic Society School of Photography. He has been a call-in guest for 21 different radio shows nationally and in major markets, including WTOP-AM (Washington), KYW-AM (Philadelphia), USA Network (Daybreak USA), WPHM-AM (Detroit), KMJE-FM (Sacramento), CJAD-AM (Montreal), WBIX-AM (Boston), ABC Radio Network (Jonathan & Mary Show). He’s also been a call-in guest for one Canadian television show, and appeared live on Breakfast Television in Toronto, the Today Show of the Great White North. With a total of more than 200 books to his credit, Busch has had as many as five books appear simultaneously in the Amazon.com Top 25 Digital Photography Books, and when Michael Carr of About.com named the top five digital photography books for beginners, the initial #1 and #2 choices were Busch’s Digital Photography All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies and Mastering Digital Photography. His work has been translated into Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Bulgarian, German, Italian, French, and other languages. Busch lives in Ravenna, Ohio, and you can find him online at www.dslrguides.com.

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      David Busch's Nikon D7500 Guide to Digital SLR Photography - David D. Busch

      DAVID BUSCH’S

      NIKON® D7500

      GUIDE TO DIGITAL SLR PHOTOGRAPHY

      David D. Busch

      David Busch’s Nikon® D7500

      Guide to Digital SLR Photography

      David D. Busch

      Project Manager: Jenny Davidson

      Series Technical Editor: Michael D. Sullivan

      Layout: Bill Hartman

      Cover Design: Mike Tanamachi

      Indexer: Valerie Haynes Perry

      Proofreader: Mike Beady

      ISBN: 978-1-68198-321-9

      1st Edition (1st printing, December 2017)

      © 2018 David D. Busch

      All images © David D. Busch unless otherwise noted

      Rocky Nook, Inc.

      1010 B Street, Suite 350

      San Rafael, CA 94901

      USA

      www.rockynook.com

      Distributed in the U.S. by Ingram Publisher Services

      Distributed in the UK and Europe by Publishers Group UK

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2017939948

      All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.

      Many of the designations in this book used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks of their respective companies. Where those designations appear in this book, and Rocky Nook was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. All product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. They are not intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.

      While reasonable care has been exercised in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein or from the use of the discs or programs that may accompany it.

      This book is printed on acid-free paper.

      Printed in Korea

      For Cathy

      Acknowledgments

      Thanks to everyone at Rocky Nook, including Scott Cowlin, managing director and publisher, for the freedom to let me explore the amazing capabilities of the Nikon D7500 in depth. I couldn’t do it without my veteran production team, including project manager, Jenny Davidson, and series technical editor, Mike Sullivan. Also thanks to Bill Hartman, layout; Valerie Haynes Perry, indexing; Mike Beady, proofreading; Mike Tanamachi, cover design; and my agent, Carole Jelen, who has the amazing ability to keep both publishers and authors happy.

      About the Author

      With more than two million books in print, David D. Busch is the world’s #1 selling digital camera guide author, and the originator of popular digital photography series like David Busch’s Pro Secrets and David Busch’s Quick Snap Guides. He has written more than four dozen hugely successful guidebooks and compact guides for Nikon digital SLR models, several dozen additional user guides for other camera models, as well as many popular books devoted to dSLRs, including Mastering Digital SLR Photography, Fourth Edition and Digital SLR Pro Secrets. As a roving photojournalist for more than 20 years, he illustrated his books, magazine articles, and newspaper reports with award-winning images. He’s operated his own commercial studio, suffocated in formal dress while shooting weddings, and shot sports for a daily newspaper and an upstate New York college. His photos and articles have been published in magazines as diverse as Popular Photography, Rangefinder, Professional Photographer, and hundreds of other publications. He’s also reviewed dozens of digital cameras for CNet Networks and other CBS publications. His advice has been featured on National Public Radio’s All Tech Considered.

      When About.com named its top five books on Beginning Digital Photography, debuting at the #1 and #2 slots were Busch’s Digital Photography All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies and Mastering Digital Photography. He’s had as many as five of his books listed in the Top 20 of Amazon.com’s Digital Photography Bestseller list—simultaneously! Busch’s 200-plus other books published since 1983 include bestsellers like Digital SLR Cameras and Photography for Dummies.

      Busch is a member of the Cleveland Photographic Society (www.clevelandphoto.org), which has operated continuously since 1887. Visit his website at http://www.nikonguides.com.

      Contents

      Preface

      Introduction

      Chapter 1
      Thinking Outside the Box

      First Things First

      In the Box

      Optional and Non-Optional Add-Ons

      Initial Setup

      Mastering the Multi Selector, Command Dials, and Touch Screen

      Inserting a Secure Digital Memory Card

      Battery Included

      Final Steps

      Setting the Clock

      Chapter 2
      Nikon D7500 Quick Start

      Choosing a Release Mode

      Selecting an Exposure Mode

      Choosing a Scene Mode

      Choosing an Advanced Mode

      Choosing a Metering Mode

      Choosing a Focus Mode

      Choosing the Focus Area Mode

      Other Settings

      Adjusting White Balance and ISO

      Using the Self-Timer

      Reviewing the Images You’ve Taken

      Using the Built-in Flash

      Transferring Photos to Your Computer

      Changing Default Settings

      Resetting the Nikon D7500

      Recommended Default Changes

      Shooting Tips

      Photo Shooting Menu Recommendations

      Custom Setting Menu Recommendations

      Chapter 3
      Nikon D7500 Roadmap

      Full Frontal

      The Nikon D7500’s Business End

      Playing Back Images

      Zooming the Nikon D7500 Playback Display

      Viewing Thumbnails

      Working with Calendar View

      Working with the Shooting Information/Photo Data Displays

      Using the Photo Data Displays

      Going Topside

      Lens Components

      Looking Inside the Viewfinder

      Underneath Your Nikon D7500

      Chapter 4
      Nailing the Right Exposure

      Getting a Handle on Exposure

      Equivalent Exposure

      How the D7500 Calculates Exposure

      Correctly Exposed

      Overexposed

      Underexposed

      Metering Mid-Tones

      Choosing a Metering Method

      Matrix Metering

      Center-Weighted Metering

      Spot Metering

      Highlight-Weighted Metering

      Choosing an Exposure Method

      Aperture-Priority

      Shutter-Priority

      Program Mode

      Manual Exposure

      Choosing a Scene Mode

      Adjusting Exposure with ISO Settings

      Dealing with Noise

      Bracketing

      White Balance Bracketing

      ADL Bracketing

      Working with HDR

      Auto HDR

      Bracketing and Merge to HDR

      Fixing Exposures with Histograms

      Tonal Range

      Histogram Basics

      Understanding Histograms

      Fine-Tuning Exposure

      Chapter 5
      Mastering the Mysteries of Autofocus

      How Focus Works

      Contrast Detection

      Phase Detection

      Adding Circles of Confusion

      Using Autofocus with the Nikon D7500

      Autofocus Simplifies Our Lives . . . Doesn’t It?

      Bringing the Advanced Multi-CAM 3500FX II AF System into Focus

      Autofocus Point Selection Overview

      Choosing Autofocus Area Mode

      Store Points by Orientation

      Autofocus Mode and Priority

      Autofocus Mode

      Autofocus Activation . . . and More

      Back Button Focus

      Activating Back Button Focus

      Fine-Tuning the Focus of Your Lenses

      Lens Tune-up

      Chapter 6
      Advanced Techniques

      Continuous Shooting

      A Tiny Slice of Time

      Working with Short Exposures

      Long Exposures

      Three Ways to Take Long Exposures

      Working with Long Exposures

      Delayed Exposures

      Self-Timer

      Time-Lapse/Interval Photography

      Multiple Exposures

      Geotagging with the Nikon GP-1a

      Using SnapBridge

      Using the SnapBridge App

      Chapter 7
      Working with Lenses

      Sensor Sensibilities

      Crop or Not?

      Your First Lens

      Buy Now, Expand Later

      Your Best Do-Everything Option?

      What Lenses Can You Use?

      Ingredients of Nikon’s Alphanumeric Soup

      Zoom or Prime?

      Categories of Lenses

      Using Wide-Angle and Wide-Zoom Lenses

      Avoiding Potential Wide-Angle Problems

      Using Telephoto and Tele-Zoom Lenses

      Avoiding Telephoto Lens Problems

      Telephotos and Bokeh

      Nikon’s Lens Roundup

      The Magic Three

      Wide Angles

      Telephoto Lenses

      Macro Lenses

      Chapter 8
      Making Light Work for You

      Continuous Lighting Basics

      Living with Color Temperature

      Daylight

      Incandescent/Tungsten Light

      Fluorescent and LED Lamps

      Other Lighting Accessories

      Chapter 9
      Electronic Flash with the Nikon D7500

      Electronic Flash Basics

      The Moment of Exposure

      A Tale of Two Exposures

      Measuring Exposure

      Guide Numbers

      Choosing a Flash Sync Mode

      Ghost Images

      High-Speed (FP) Sync

      Working with Flash

      Flash Control

      Manual Flash

      Repeating Flash

      Using Flash Exposure Compensation

      Locking Flash Exposure

      Specifying Flash Shutter Speed

      Previewing Your Flash Effect

      Activating Bracketing

      Working with Nikon Flash External Units

      Nikon SB-300

      Nikon SB-400

      Nikon SB-500

      Nikon SB-700

      Nikon SB-R200

      Nikon SB-910

      SB-5000

      Using Zoom Heads

      External Flash Modes

      Chapter 10
      Wireless and Multiple Flash

      Elements of Wireless Flash

      Master Flash

      Remote Flashes

      Channels

      Groups

      Lighting Ratios

      Wireless Flash with the SB-500

      Radio Control

      Chapter 11
      Playback, Photo Shooting, and Movie Shooting Menus

      Anatomy of the Nikon D7500’s Menus

      Playback Menu Options

      Delete

      Playback Folder

      Hide Image

      Playback Display Options

      Image Review

      After Delete

      Auto Image Rotation

      Rotate Tall

      Slide Show

      Rating

      Select to Send to Smart Device

      Photo Shooting Menu Options

      Reset Photo Shooting Menu

      Storage Folder

      File Naming

      Flash Control

      Choose Image Area

      Image Quality

      Image Size

      NEF (RAW) Recording

      ISO Sensitivity Settings

      White Balance

      Set Picture Control

      Manage Picture Control

      Color Space

      Active D-Lighting

      Long Exposure NR

      High ISO NR

      Vignette Control

      Auto Distortion Control

      Flicker Reduction

      Remote Control Mode (ML-L3)

      Auto Bracketing Set

      Multiple Exposure

      HDR (High Dynamic Range)

      Interval Timer Shooting

      Movie Shooting Menu

      Reset Movie Shooting Menu

      File Naming

      Choose Image Area

      Frame Size/Frame Rate

      Movie Quality

      Movie File Type

      ISO Sensitivity Settings

      White Balance

      Set Picture Control

      Manage Picture Control

      Active D-Lighting

      High ISO NR

      Flicker Reduction

      Microphone Sensitivity

      Frequency Response

      Wind Noise Reduction

      Electronic VR

      Time-Lapse Movie

      Chapter 12
      The Custom Settings Menu

      Custom Settings Menu Layout

      Reset Custom Settings

      a. Autofocus

      a1 AF-C Priority Selection

      a2 AF-S Priority Selection

      a3 Focus Tracking with Lock-on

      a4 Number of Focus Points

      a5 Store Points by Orientation

      a6 AF Activation

      a7 Focus Point Wrap-Around

      a8 Focus Point Options

      a9 Built-in AF-Assist Illuminator

      a10 Manual Focus Ring in AF Mode

      b. Metering/Exposure

      b1 ISO Sensitivity Step Value

      b2 EV Steps for Exposure Cntrl.

      b3 Easy Exposure Compensation

      b4 Matrix Metering

      b5 Center-Weighted Area

      b6 Fine-Tune Optimal Exposure

      c. Timers/AE Lock

      c1 Shutter-Release Button AE-L

      c2 Standby Timer

      c3 Self-Timer

      c4 Monitor Off Delay

      c5 Remote on Duration (ML-L3)

      d. Shooting/Display

      d1 Continuous Low-Speed

      d2 Max. Continuous Release

      d3 Exposure Delay Mode

      d4 Electronic Front-Curtain Shutter

      d5 File Number Sequence

      d6 Viewfinder Grid Display

      d7 ISO Display

      d8 LCD Illumination

      d9 Optical VR

      e. Bracketing/Flash

      e1 Flash Sync Speed

      e2 Flash Shutter Speed

      e3 Exposure Compensation for Flash

      e4 Auto Flash ISO Sensitivity Control

      e5 Bracketing Order

      f. Controls

      f1 Custom Control Assignment

      f2 OK Button

      f3 Customize Command Dials

      f4 Release Button to Use Dial

      f5 Reverse Indicators

      g. Movie

      g1 Custom Control Assignment

      Chapter 13
      The Setup Menu, Retouch Menu, and My Menu

      Setup Menu Options

      Format Memory Card

      Save User Settings

      Reset User Settings

      Language

      Time Zone and Date

      Monitor Brightness

      Monitor Color Balance

      Virtual Horizon

      Information Display

      Auto Info Display

      Info Display Auto Off

      AF Fine-Tune

      Clean Image Sensor

      Lock Mirror Up for Cleaning

      Image Dust Off Ref Photo

      Image Comment

      Copyright Information

      Beep Options

      Touch Controls

      Flash Warning

      HDMI

      Location Data

      Wireless Remote (WR) Options

      Assign Remote (WR) Fn Button

      Airplane Mode

      Connect to Smart Device (Auto)

      Send to Smart Device (Auto)

      Wi-Fi

      Bluetooth

      Eye-Fi Upload

      Conformity Marking

      Battery Info

      Slot Empty Release Lock

      Save/Load Settings

      Reset All Settings

      Firmware Version

      Retouch Menu

      NEF (RAW) Processing

      Trim

      Resize

      D-Lighting

      Quick Retouch

      Red-Eye Correction

      Straighten

      Distortion Control

      Perspective Control

      Fisheye

      Filter Effects

      Monochrome

      Image Overlay

      Color Outline

      Photo Illustration

      Color Sketch

      Miniature Effect

      Selective Color

      Painting

      Edit Movie

      Side-by-Side Comparison

      Using My Menu/Recent Settings

      Chapter 14
      Basics of Live View

      Essentials of Live View

      Focusing in Live View

      Focus Mode

      Focus Area

      Viewing Live View Information

      Shooting Stills (and Movies, Too!) in Live View

      i Button Options

      Chapter 15
      Shooting Movies with the D7500

      Capturing Video

      Using the i Button

      Stop That!

      Viewing Your Movies

      Trimming Your Movies

      Saving a Frame

      Chapter 16
      Tips for Shooting Better Video

      Lens Craft

      Depth-of-Field and Video

      Zooming and Video

      Keep Things Stable and on the Level

      Shooting Script

      Storyboards

      Storytelling in Video

      Composition

      Lighting for Video

      Illumination

      Creative Lighting

      Lighting Styles

      Audio

      Tips for Better Audio

      External Microphones

      Special Features

      Preface

      You don’t want good pictures from your new Nikon D7500—you demand outstanding photos. After all, the D7500 is the most advanced DX camera currently in the Nikon lineup. It boasts 21 megapixels of resolution with amazing low-light capabilities, blazing-fast automatic focus, and 4K video capabilities. But your gateway to pixel proficiency is dragged down by the fat but confusing book included in the box as a manual.

      You know everything you need to know is in there, somewhere, but you don’t know where to start. In addition, the camera manual doesn’t offer much information on photography or digital photography. Nor are you interested in spending hours or days studying a comprehensive book on digital SLR photography that doesn’t necessarily apply directly to your D7500.

      What you need is a guide that explains the purpose and function of the D7500’s basic controls, how you should use them, and why. Ideally, there should be information about file formats, resolution, aperture/priority exposure, and special autofocus modes, but you’d prefer to read about those topics only after you’ve had the chance to go out and take a few hundred great pictures with your new camera. Why isn’t there a book that summarizes the most important information in its first two or three chapters, with lots of illustrations showing what your results will look like when you use this setting or that? This is that book.

      If you can’t decide on what basic settings to use with your camera because you can’t figure out how changing ISO or white balance or focus defaults will affect your pictures, you need this guide. I won’t talk down to you, either; this book isn’t padded with dozens of pages of checklists telling you how to take a travel picture, a sports photo, or how to take a snapshot of your kids in overly simplistic terms. There are no special sections devoted to real world recipes here. All of us do 100 percent of our shooting in the real world! So, I give you all the information you need to cook up great photos on your own!

      Introduction

      Despite its bulging feature list, the D7500 retains the ease of use that smooths the transition for those new to digital photography. For those just dipping their toes into the digital pond, the experience is warm and inviting. It has the same great sensor found in Nikon’s pro model APS-C camera, the Nikon D500, a tilting touch screen, and 4K video capabilities. The Nikon D7500 isn’t just a full-featured camera—it’s a tool for the most serious thinking photography enthusiast.

      Once you’ve confirmed that you made a wise purchase decision, the question comes up, how do I use this thing? All those cool features can be mind-numbing to learn, if all you have as a guide is the manual furnished with the camera. Help is on the way. I sincerely believe that this book is your best bet for learning how to use your new camera, and for learning how to use it well.

      If you’re a Nikon D7500 owner who’s looking to learn more about how to use this great camera, you’ve probably already explored your options. There are DVDs and online YouTube tutorials—but who can learn how to use a camera by sitting in front of a television or computer screen? Do you want to watch a movie and click on HTML links, or do you want to go out and take photos with your camera? Videos are fun, but not the best answer.

      There’s always the manual furnished with the D7500. It’s thick and filled with information, but there’s very little about why you should use particular settings or features. Its organization makes it difficult to find what you need. Multiple cross-references send you searching back and forth between two or three sections of the book to find what you want to know. The basic manual is also hobbled by black-and-white line drawings and tiny monochrome pictures that aren’t very good examples of what you can do.

      I’ve tried to make David Busch’s Nikon D7500 Guide to Digital SLR Photography different from your other D7500 learn-up options. The roadmap sections use larger, color pictures to show you where all the buttons and dials are, and the explanations of what they do are longer and more comprehensive. I’ve tried to avoid overly general advice, including the two-page checklists on how to take a sports picture or a portrait picture or a travel picture. You won’t find half the content of this book taken up by generic chapters that tell you how to shoot Landscapes, Portraits, or Product photographs. Instead, you’ll find tips and techniques for using all the features of your Nikon D7500 to take any kind of picture you want. If you want to know where you should stand to take a picture of a quarterback dropping back to unleash a pass, there are plenty of books that will tell you that. This one concentrates on teaching you how to select the best autofocus mode, shutter speed, f/stop, or flash capability to take, say, a great sports picture under any conditions.

      This book is not a lame rewriting of the manual that came with the camera. Some folks spend five minutes with a book like this one, spot some information that also appears in the original manual, and decide Rehash! without really understanding the differences. Yes, you’ll find information here that is also in the owner’s manual, such as the parameters you can enter when changing your D7500’s operation in the various menus. Basic descriptions—before I dig in and start providing in-depth tips and information—may also be vaguely similar. There are only so many ways you can say, for example, Hold the shutter release down halfway to lock in exposure. But not everything in the manual is included in this book. If you need advice on when and how to use the most important functions, you’ll find the information here.

      David Busch’s Nikon D7500 Guide to Digital SLR Photography is aimed at Nikon and dSLR veterans as well as newcomers to digital photography and digital SLRs. Both groups can be overwhelmed by the options the D7500 offers, while underwhelmed by the explanations they receive in their user’s manual. The manuals are great if you already know what you don’t know, and you can find an answer somewhere in a booklet arranged by menu listings and written by a camera vendor employee who last threw together instructions on how to operate a camcorder.

      Family Resemblance

      If you’ve owned previous models in the Nikon digital camera line, and copies of my books for those cameras, you’re bound to notice a certain family resemblance. Nikon has been very crafty in introducing upgraded cameras that share the best features of the models they replace, while adding new capabilities and options. You benefit in two ways. If you used a previous Nikon camera prior to switching to this latest D7500 model, you’ll find that the parts that haven’t changed have a certain familiarity for you, making it easy to make the transition to the newest model. There are lots of features and menu choices of the D7500 that are exactly the same as those in the most recent models. This family resemblance will help level the learning curve for you.

      Similarly, when writing books for each new model, I try to retain the easy-to-understand explanations that worked for previous books dedicated to earlier camera models, and concentrate on expanded descriptions of things readers have told me they want to know more about, a solid helping of fresh sample photos, and lots of details about the latest and greatest new features. Rest assured, this book was written expressly for you, and tailored especially for the D7500.

      Who Am I?

      After spending many years as the world’s most successful unknown author, I’ve become slightly less obscure in the past few years, thanks to a horde of camera guidebooks and other photographically oriented tomes. You may have seen my photography articles in the late, lamented Popular Photography magazine. I’ve also written about 2,000 articles for magazines like Rangefinder, Professional Photographer, and dozens of other photographic publications. But, first, and foremost, I’m a photojournalist and made my living in the field until I began devoting most of my time to writing books. Although I love writing, I’m happiest when I’m out taking pictures, which is why I spend four to six weeks in the Florida Keys each winter as a base of operations for photographing the wildlife, wild natural settings, and wild people in the Sunshine State. In recent years, I’ve spent a lot of time overseas, too, photographing people and monuments. You’ll find photos of some of these visual treasures within the pages of this book.

      Like all my digital photography books, this one was written by a Nikon devotee with an incurable photography bug who has used Nikon cameras professionally for longer than I care to admit. Over the years, I’ve worked as a sports photographer for an Ohio newspaper and for an upstate New York college. I’ve operated my own commercial studio and photo lab, cranking out product shots on demand and then printing a few hundred glossy 8 × 10s on a tight deadline for a press kit. I’ve served as a photo-posing instructor for a modeling agency. People have actually paid me to shoot their weddings and immortalize them with portraits. I even prepared press kits and articles on photography as a PR consultant for a large Rochester, NY company, which older readers may recall as an industry giant. My trials and travails with imaging and computer technology have made their way into print in book form an alarming number of times, including a few dozen on scanners and photography.

      Like you, I love photography for its own merits, and I view technology as just another tool to help me get the images I see in my mind’s eye. But, also like you, I had to master this technology before I could apply it to my work. This book is the result of what I’ve learned, and I hope it will help you master your Nikon D7500 digital SLR, too.

      Guide to the Guide

      Whether you subscribe to the my camera is just a tool theory, or belong to the an exquisite camera adds new capabilities to my shooting arsenal camp, picking up a new Nikon D7500 is a special experience. Those who simply wield tools will find this camera as comforting as an old friend, a solid piece of fine machinery ready and able to do their bidding as part of any creative process that calls for high resolution and reliability.

      Other photographers see the high-res 21-megapixel sensor, advanced movie-making capabilities, unexpectedly good ISO performance, and sophisticated tools like built-in high dynamic range (HDR) capabilities, and gain a sense of empowerment. Here is a camera with fewer limitations and more capabilities for exercising renewed creative vision. In either case, using less mawkish terms, the D7500 is one of the coolest cameras Nikon has ever offered. Whether you’re upgrading from another brand, from another Nikon model, or (O brave one!) your D7500 is your first digital camera and/or SLR, welcome to the club.

      But, now that you’ve unwrapped and recharged the beast, mounted a lens, and fueled it with a memory card, what do you do with it? That’s where this book should come in handy. Like many of you, I am a Nikon user of long standing. And, like other members of our club, I had to learn at least some aspects of my newest camera for the very first time at some point. Experienced pro, or Nikon newbie, you bought this book because you wanted to get the most from a very powerful tool, and I’m here to help.

      Depending on your path to the camera, the Nikon D7500 is either the company’s most ambitious camera for the avid amateur, or most affordable entry-level pro camera (if you discount the Nikon Df, which I also love dearly, but is something of a niche camera). Amateur and Pro are both distinctions that I find almost meaningless in the greater scheme of things. I know consummate professionals who produce amazing images with an aging D300s even today and experienced wedding photographers who evoke the most romantic photos from an old Nikon D700. The Nikon D7500 is a professional camera in most of the traditional senses: well-built, reliable for hundreds of thousands of exposures, capable of lightning-fast autofocusing and superb image quality, whether you’re shooting in a studio or exposed to the elements. But whether your images are of professional quality, both technically and inspirationally, depends on what’s between your ears, and how you apply it. The goal of this book is to provide you with the information you need to put your brain cells together with your Nikon’s electro-mechanical components to work productively.

      There’s a lot to learn, but you don’t have to master every detail all at once. Some of the other camera guides I’ve seen winnow this information down to about one-third as many pages. Indeed, I find it odd that those guidebooks use the same basic template for the advanced D7500 cameras as for a resolutely amateur-level model like the Nikon D3400. A camera like the D7500 has a lot more depth than that, and deserves the in-depth coverage you’ll find here.

      Some readers who visit my blog have told me that the Nikon D7500 is such an advanced camera that few people really need the kind of basics that so many camera guides concentrate on. Leave out all the basic photography information! On the other hand, I’ve had many pleas from those who are trying to master digital photography as they learn to use their D7500, and they’ve asked me to help them climb the steep learning curve.

      Rather than write a book for just one of those two audiences, I’ve tried to meet the needs of both. You veterans will find plenty of information on getting the most from the D7500’s features, and may even learn something from an old hand’s photo secrets. I’ll bet there was a time when you needed a helping hand with some confusing photographic topic.

      In closing, I’d like to ask a special favor: let me know what you think of this book. If you have any recommendations about how I can make it better, visit my website at www.nikonguides.com, click on the E-Mail Me tab, and send your comments, suggestions on topics that should be explained in more detail, or, especially, any typos. (The latter will be compiled on the Errata page you’ll also find on my website.) I really value your ideas, and appreciate it when you take the time to tell me what you think! Some of the content of the book you hold in your hands came from suggestions I received from readers like yourself. If you found this book especially useful, tell others about it. Visit http://www.amazon.com/dp/1681983214 and leave a positive review. Your feedback is what spurs me to make each one of these books better than the last. Thanks!

      1

      Thinking Outside the Box

      If you’re a veteran Nikon shooter, you’ve probably been eagerly anticipating the release of the D7500 for a long time. When your camera finally arrived, you probably rushed out and took a few hundred (or a few thousand) photos with your new camera. The basic controls and features are similar to what you’ve grown to love about Nikon cameras. But as valuable as a book like this one is, few of us can suppress our excitement long enough to read the instructions before putting a new, exciting tool to work. Of course, on the other hand, you may be new to the Nikon world, or the D7500 may be your first advanced digital camera, and you need some guidance in learning to use all the creative options this camera offers.

      In either case, despite your surging creative juices, I recommend a more considered approach to learning how to operate the Nikon D7500. This chapter and the next are designed to get your camera fired up and ready for shooting as quickly as possible. As a worthy companion to Nikon’s pro-level D500 model, your D7500 is the most advanced enthusiast camera in Nikon’s APS-C/DX lineup. (That is, it’s a so-called cropped sensor, non-full-frame camera. Check out Chapter 7 if you want to read about the difference.) While it boasts a sophisticated Programmed Auto mode and an assortment of scene and effects modes, the D7500 is not a point-and-shoot model; to get the most out of your camera, you’ll want to explore its capabilities fully.

      So, to help you begin shooting as quickly as possible, I’m going to first provide a basic pre-flight checklist that you need to complete before you really spread your wings and take off. You won’t find a lot of detail in these first two chapters. Indeed, I’m going to tell you just what you absolutely must understand, accompanied by some interesting tidbits that will help you become acclimated to your D7500. I’ll go into more depth and even repeat a little of what I explain here in the chapters which follow, so you don’t have to memorize everything you see. Just relax, follow a few easy steps, and then go out and begin taking your best shots—ever.

      I hope that even long-time Nikon owners won’t be tempted to skip this chapter or the next one. No matter how extensive your experience level is, you don’t need to fret about wading through a manual to find out what you must know to take those first few tentative snaps. I’m going to help you hit the ground running with this chapter, which will help you set up your camera and begin shooting in minutes. Because some of you may already have experience with Nikon cameras similar to the D7500, each of the major sections in this chapter will begin with a brief description of what is covered in that section, so you can easily jump ahead to the next if you are in a hurry to get started.

      Note

      In this book, you’ll find short tips labeled My Recommendation or My Preference, each intended to help you sort through the available options for a feature, control, or menu entry. I’ll provide my preference, suitable for most people in most situations. I don’t provide these recommendations for every single feature, and you should consider your own needs before adopting any of them.

      First Things First

      This section helps get you oriented with all the things that come in the box with your Nikon D7500, including what they do. I’ll also describe some optional equipment you might want to have. If you want to get started immediately, skim through this section and jump ahead to Initial Setup later in the chapter.

      The Nikon D7500 comes in an impressive gold box filled with stuff, including connecting cords, booklets, and lots of paperwork. The most important components are the camera and lens (if you purchased your D7500 with a lens), battery, battery charger, and, if you’re the nervous type, the neck strap. You’ll also need a memory card as one is not included. If you purchased your D7500 from a camera shop, as I did, the store personnel probably attached the neck strap for you, ran through some basic operational advice that you’ve already forgotten, tried to sell you a memory card, and then, after they’d given you all the help you could absorb, sent you on your way with a handshake. If you purchased your D7500 from a mass merchandiser or through an online source, you might not even have gotten the handshake.

      In every case, however, the first thing to do is to carefully unpack the camera and double-check the contents with the checklist on one side of the box, helpfully designated under an Accessories Included listing. While this level of setup detail may seem as superfluous as the instructions on a bottle of shampoo, checking the contents first is always a good idea. No matter who sells a camera, it’s common to open boxes, use a camera for a demonstration, and then repack the box without replacing all the pieces and parts afterward. Someone might have helpfully checked out your camera on your behalf—and then mispacked the box. It’s better to know now that something is missing so you can seek redress immediately, rather than discover two months from now that the USB cable clip you thought you’d never use (but now must have) was never in the box.

      In the Box

      At a minimum, the box should contain the following components:

      Nikon D7500 digital camera. It almost goes without saying that you should check out the camera immediately, making sure the back- and top-panel LCD monitors aren’t scratched or cracked, the memory and battery doors open properly, and, when a charged battery is inserted and lens mounted, the camera powers up and reports for duty. Out-of-the-box defects like these are rare, but they can happen. It’s probably more common that your dealer played with the camera or, perhaps, it was a customer return. That’s why it’s best to buy your D7500 from a retailer you trust to supply a factory-fresh camera.

      Rechargeable Li-ion battery EN-EL15a. You’ll need to charge this 7.0V, 1900mAh (milliampere hour) battery before use, and then navigate immediately to the Setup menu’s Battery Info entry to make sure the battery accepted the juice and is showing a 100% charge. (You’ll find more on accessing this menu item in Chapter 13.) You’ll want a second EN-EL15a battery as a spare (trust me), so buy one as soon as possible. The battery is supplied with a plastic terminal cover to protect its contacts and avoid short circuits.

      Lens (optional). At the time I write this, the D7500 is available as a body only, or in a kit with the excellent Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens. Nikon may offer other lenses as part of a kit in the future, and most retailers will readily package this camera with the lens of your choice, often at a savings over buying them individually.

      Quick charger MH-25a. This charger comes with both a power cable and a power adapter that can be used instead of the cable to plug the charger directly into a wall outlet.

      USB cable UC-E20. You can use this cable to transfer photos from the camera to your computer (I don’t recommend that because direct transfer uses a lot of battery power), to upload and download settings between the camera and your computer (highly recommended), and to operate your camera remotely using Nikon Camera Control Pro software (not included in the box).

      My recommendation: This is a standard USB 2.0 cable with a micro-B connector that works with many digital cameras (Nikon and otherwise) and other devices. Note that it is not a USB 3.0 micro-B cable, which has a different connector. You can tell them apart by the color of the insert in the A connector end of the cable (the part that plugs into your computer or power pack). The USB 2.0 version compatible with your D7500 has a white plastic insert in that end, while the USB 3.0 type has a blue plastic insert (and the micro-B plug has a distinctive notch). If you need a USB 2.0 micro-B cable that’s longer than the Nikon cable, you can find them for much lower prices online.

      AN-DC3 BK neck strap. Nikon provides you with a neck strap emblazoned with your camera model. It’s not very adjustable, and, while useful for showing off to your friends exactly which nifty new camera you bought, the Nikon strap also can serve to alert observant unsavory types that you’re sporting a higher-end model that’s worthy of their attention.

      My recommendation: I never attach the Nikon strap to my cameras, and instead opt for a more serviceable strap from UPstrap (www.upstrap-pro.com). An UPstrap is shown in Figure 1.1, with its patented non-slip pad that keeps your D7500 on your shoulder, and not crashing to the ground. If you order one of these, tell inventor-photographer Al Stegmeyer that I sent you. I’m not a big fan of the trendy straps, especially those that suspend your camera upside-down and allow it to swing around too freely when you’re on the run. Give me a strap I can hang over either shoulder, or sling around my neck, and I am happy.

      Figure 1.1 Third-party neck straps like this UPstrap model are often preferable to the Nikon-supplied strap.

      BF-1B body cap. The body cap keeps dust from infiltrating your camera when a lens is not mounted. Always carry a body cap (and rear lens cap) in your camera bag for those times when you need to have the camera bare of optics for more than a minute or two. (That usually happens when repacking a bag efficiently for transport, or when you are carrying an extra body or two for backup.) The body cap/lens cap nest together for compact storage.

      Note

      If you happen to have one of the earlier BF-1 body caps for older film cameras, do not use it, as it may damage the lens mount’s protruding autofocus screw (Nikon calls it the AF coupling), which focuses lenses that don’t have an autofocus motor built in.

      DK-28 rubber eyecup. This is the square rubber eyecup that comes installed on the D7500. It slides on and off the viewfinder. If you prefer, you can also use round, screw-in eyepiece accessories, such as the DK-3 circular rubber eyecup or DG-2 eyepiece 2X magnifier by substituting the Nikon No. 2370 eyepiece adapter for the DK-28 eyecup.

      DK-5 eyepiece cap. This small piece can be clipped over the viewfinder window to prevent strong light sources from entering the viewing system when your eye is not pressed up against it, potentially affecting exposure measurement. That can be a special problem when the camera is mounted on a tripod, because additional illumination from the rear can make its way to the 2,016-segment CCD that interprets light reaching the focusing screen. I pack this widget away to keep from losing it. As a practical matter, you’ll never find it when you really need it, and covering the viewfinder with your hand (hover near the viewfinder window rather than touch it, to avoid shaking a tripod-mounted camera) works almost as well.

      User’s manuals. Even if you have this book, you’ll probably want to check the user’s guide that Nikon provides, if only to check the actual nomenclature for some obscure accessory, or to double-check an error code.

      My recommendation: Nikon offers downloadable versions of its printed manuals from the Support page for your country. You can obtain PDF versions of the main manual, a menu guide, and SnapBridge setup guides for both Android and iOS devices. You can also Google Nikon D7500 Manual PDF for (often) quicker access to the guidebooks you are looking for. Store the PDF file on your laptop, on a USB stick, or other media in case you want to access this reference when the paper version isn’t handy. You’ll then be able to refer to the reference anywhere you are, because you can always find someone with a computer that has a USB port and Adobe Acrobat Reader available. Better yet, if you have an Android or iOS device, Nikon also offers a manual reader app for your phone or tablet you can use to read the factory manual. The Nikon app includes links to let you download manuals directly from their website, without needing to Google them.

      Warranty and registration card. Don’t lose these! You can register your Nikon D7500 by mail or online (in the USA, the URL is www.nikonusa.com/register), and you may need the information in this paperwork (plus the purchase receipt/invoice from your retailer) should you require Nikon service support.

      Optional and Non-Optional Add-Ons

      Don’t bother rooting around in the box for anything beyond what I’ve listed previously. There are a few things Nikon classifies as optional accessories, even though you (and I) might consider some of them essential. Here’s a list of what you don’t get in the box, but might want to think about as an impending purchase.

      I’ll list them roughly in the order of importance:

      Memory card. As I mentioned, the D7500 does not come with a memory card. That’s because Nikon doesn’t have the slightest idea of what capacity or speed card you prefer, so why charge you for one? The Nikon D7500 is likely to be purchased by photographers who have quite definite ideas about their ideal card. Perhaps you’re a wedding photographer who prefers to use 16GB cards—and lots of them—as a safety measure when capturing a nuptial event. Other photographers, especially sports shooters, instead prefer larger cards to minimize swapping during non-stop action. If you are shooting at high frame rates, or transfer lots of photos to your computer with a speedy card reader, you might opt for the speediest possible memory card.

      My recommendation: The D7500 accepts any SD, SDHC, or SDXC memory card. (I’ll generally refer to all three as just SD card in this book.) The latest SDXC type is available in capacities up to 512GB. I recommend using cards with at least 16GB of capacity; I’ve personally standardized on 64GB and 128GB cards.

      Extra EN-EL15a battery. Use only an EN-EL15a or the older EN-EL15 battery marked with the designation Li-ion 02 to the left of the hologram on the cell’s bottom. Note that older versions of this battery, marked with a Li-ion 01 designation instead, are not fully compatible with the D7500, and will, in fact, show less capacity than they really contain when used. In addition to the Li-ion 02 labeling, you can recognize the latest EN-EL15a type by its color, which is gray instead of black. In the past, the Nikon support site has offered free replacements for those who purchased a camera requiring the newer version. In addition, I have not found any third-party EN-EL15 batteries that will work in the D7500 at all. (The camera reports a dead battery even if it’s fully charged.)

      My recommendation: Buy an extra (I own four, in total), keep it charged, and free your mind from worry. Even though you might get 1,000 or more shots from a single battery, it’s easy to exceed that figure in a few hours of shooting sports at 6 fps. Batteries can unexpectedly fail, too, or simply lose their charge from sitting around unused for a week or two. Although third-party vendors may eventually reverse engineer the encoding required to allow their batteries to function in the D7500, I don’t recommend using them simply to save $40 or so.

      Nikon Capture NX-D or Nikon ViewNX-i software. You can download a free copy of these software utilities from Nikon’s website. Nikon no longer packs a CD-ROM with its cameras.

      Camera Control Pro 2 software. This is the utility you’ll use to operate your camera remotely from your computer. Nikon charges extra for this software, but you’ll find it invaluable if you’re hiding near a tethered, tripod-mounted camera while shooting, say, close-ups of hummingbirds. There are lots of applications for remote shooting, and you’ll need Camera Control Pro to operate your camera.

      My recommendation: You may already own Adobe Lightroom, which does an excellent job for tethered shooting, or DxO Labs’ Capture One. Buy a suitably longer USB cable, too.

      Add-on Speedlight. While the D7500’s built-in flash is serviceable, if you do much flash photography at all, consider an add-on Speedlight as an important accessory.

      My recommendation: An add-on flash can serve as the main illumination for your picture, diffused or bounced and used as a fill light, or, if you own several Speedlights, serve as a remote trigger for an off-camera unit. At around $250, the Nikon SB-500 has the most affordable combination of power, compact size, and features, including a built-in LED video light. If you need more power, the Speedlight SB-700, SB-910, or new SB-5000 also offer more flexibility. I’ll provide more information on electronic flash in Chapters 9 and 10.

      BS-1/BS-3 accessory shoe cover. This little piece of optional plastic protects the electrical contacts of the hot shoe on top of the D7500. You can remove it when mounting an electronic flash, Nikon GP-1 GPS device, or other accessory, and then safely leave it off for the rest of your life. I’ve never had an accessory shoe receive damage in normal use, even when not protected. The paranoid among you who use accessories frequently can keep removing/mounting the shoe cover as required. Find a safe place to keep it between uses, or purchase replacements for this easily mislaid item. My previous go-to source for this and other items has shut down, so I bought a bunch of shoe covers, bubble levels, body and rear lens caps, and other gadgets and offer them at near my cost at www.laserfairepress.com.

      HDMI audio/video cable. Although the D7500 can be connected to a high-definition television, you’ll need to buy a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) cable to do that. No HDMI cable is included with the camera, although Nikon offers the optional 9’6" HC-E1 cable for about $50. You’ll need an HDMI Type C Mini cable, available from a variety of sources for a fraction of Nikon’s price.

      ML-L3 infrared remote. The D7500 has an infrared sensor that can receive signals from this optional remote control. It works best when pointed at the sensor at the front of the camera, but, unlike the MC-DC2 remote, you can be positioned farther away than one meter. Nikon also sells the WR-R10/WR-T10 remote controller components, and WR-1 wireless remote. Note that the D7500 does not have a rear IR sensor, unlike the previous D7200.

      My recommendation: The ML-L3 remote is your most economical choice, but because it is easily overpowered by bright lights, I use it as my secondary remote control and generally work with a wired remote (described next). However, the ML-L3 is cheap and small, so I’ve bought a couple to keep handy in several camera bags.

      Remote control cable MC-DC2. You can plug this one-meter-long electronic release cable accessory into the socket hidden behind a rubber cover on the side of the D7500, and then fire off the camera without the need to touch the camera itself. In a pinch, you can use the D7500’s self-timer to minimize vibration when triggering the camera, or even take advantage of the mirror up (MUP) release mode and delayed release feature to reduce camera shake. (These are all described later in this book.) But when you want to take a photo at the exact moment you desire (and not when the self-timer happens to trip), or need to eliminate all possibility of human-induced camera shake, you need this release cord.

      My recommendation: These sometimes get lost in a camera bag or are accidentally removed. I bought an extra MC-DC2 cable and keep it in a small box in the trunk of my car, along with an extra memory card.

      Nikon GP-1a global positioning system (GPS) device. This accessory attaches to the accessory shoe on top of the Nikon D7500 and captures latitude, longitude, and altitude information, which is imprinted in a special data area of your image files. The geotagging data can be plotted on a map in Nikon ViewNX-i or other software programs.

      AC adapter EH-5b/EP-5b power connector or EH-5c AC adapter. There are several typical situations where this AC adapter set for your D7500 can come in handy: when you’re cleaning the sensor manually and want to totally eliminate the possibility that a lack of juice will cause the fragile shutter and mirror to spring to life during the process; when in the studio shooting product photos, portraits, class pictures, and so forth for hours on end; when using your D7500 for remote shooting as well as time-lapse photography; for extensive review of images on your standard-definition or high-definition television; or for file transfer to your computer. These all use prodigious amounts of power, which can be provided by this AC adapter. (Beware of power outages and blackouts when cleaning your sensor manually, however!)

      My recommendation: Unless you regularly do time-lapse or interval photography for long periods of time, you can probably skip this expensive accessory. I’ve shot for up to eight hours using a freshly charged EN-EL15 battery, and that proved to be enough.

      DR-6 right-angle viewer. Fastens in place of the standard square rubber eyecup and provides a 90-degree view for framing and composing your image at right angles to the original viewfinder, useful for low-level (or high-level) shooting. (Or, maybe, shooting around corners!)

      DK-21M magnifying eyepiece. Provides a 1.17X magnification factor of the entire viewing area (unlike the 2X DG-2 eyepiece, which enlarges the center of the image), making it easier to check focus. You might have to move your eye around a little to see all the indicators outside the image frame, but this magnifier is still suitable for everyday use.

      My recommendation: This is not the best accessory for those who wear glasses while shooting. I tend to flip my glasses up on my forehead, and have adjusted the diopter setting for my vision, so this magnifying eyepiece works fine for me.

      SC-28 TTL flash cord. Allows using Nikon Speedlights off-camera, while retaining all the automated features.

      SC-29 TTL flash cord. Similar to the SC-28, this unit has its own AF-assist lamp, which can provide extra illumination for the D7500’s autofocus system in dim light (which, not coincidentally, is when you’ll probably be using an electronic flash).

      My recommendation: If you intend to work with an external flash extensively, you’ll definitely want to use it off camera. Either of these cables will give you that flexibility. Wireless flash operation (described in Chapter 10) is more versatile, but requires more setup and has a steeper learning curve. With a flash cord, you just connect the cable to your camera and flash and fire away.

      Initial Setup

      This section familiarizes you with the three important controls most used to make adjustments: the multi selector and the main and sub-command dials. You’ll also find information on inserting a memory card, charging the battery, mounting a lens, setting the clock, and making diopter vision adjustments.

      Once you’ve unpacked and inspected your camera, the initial setup of your Nikon D7500 is fast and easy. Basically, you just need to charge the battery, attach a lens, and insert a memory card. I’ll address each of these steps separately, but if you already are confident you can manage these setup tasks without further instructions, feel free to skip this section entirely. While most buyers of a D7500 tend to be experienced photographers, I realize that some readers are ambitious, if inexperienced, and should, at the minimum, skim the contents of the next section, because I’m going to list a few options that you might not be aware of.

      Mastering the Multi Selector, Command Dials, and Touch Screen

      I’ll be saving descriptions of most of the other controls used with the Nikon D7500 until Chapter 3, which provides a complete roadmap of the camera’s buttons and dials and switches. However, you may need to perform a few tasks during this initial setup process, and most of them will require the MENU button and the multi selector pad. The MENU button is easy to find: it’s located to the left of the LCD monitor, the first button in the series of five located to the left of the monitor. It requires almost no explanation; when you want to access a menu, press it. To exit most menus, press it again.

      Multi Selector

      The multi selector pad may remind you of the similar control found on many point-and-shoot cameras, and other digital SLRs. It consists of a thumbpad-sized button with projections at the north, south, east, and west positions, plus an OK button in the center. It can also be pushed in diagonal directions to give you northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest orientations. Figure 1.2, left, shows the location of the OK button and the thumbpad containing the raised directional indicators at its edges.

      With the D7500, the multi selector is used extensively for navigation, for example, to navigate among menus on the LCD monitor or to choose one of the 51 focus points, to advance or reverse display of a series of images during picture review, or to change the kind of photo information displayed on the screen. The center button is used to select a highlighted item from a menu.

      So, from time to time in this chapter (and throughout this book) I’ll be referring to the multi selector and its left/right/up/down buttons, and center (or OK) button.

      Figure 1.2 The multi selector pad has four directional positions for navigating up/down/left/right, and a center button to confirm your selection (left). The main command dial and sub-command dial are used to adjust many settings (right).

      The main command dial and sub-command dial are located on the rear and front of the D7500, respectively. (See Figure 1.2, right.) The main command dial is used to change settings such as shutter speed, while the sub-command dial adjusts an alternate or secondary setting. For example, in Manual exposure mode, you’d use the sub-command dial to change the aperture, while the main command dial is used to change the shutter speed. (In both cases, the dial is active for these adjustments only when the D7500’s exposure meter is On.) The meter will automatically go to sleep after an interval (you’ll learn how to specify the length of time in Chapter 12), and you must waken the camera (just tap the shutter release button) to switch the meter back on and activate the main and sub-command dials.

      Touch Screen

      The swiveling LCD monitor supports a number of touch operations. For example, you can use it to navigate menus or make many settings. However, the touch screen can be especially useful during image playback and when shooting in live view. Here’s a list of things you can do:

      In Playback mode:

      Navigate among images. You can flick the screen to advance to other images during playback. (I’ll explain all the touch screen gestures shortly.)

      Zoom in or out. Double tap on the touch screen to zoom in or out of an image under review.

      Relocate zoomed area. You can slide a finger around

      Enjoying the preview?
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