Lesson Info
9. Basic Controls: Left And Right Of Camera
Lessons
Class Introduction
06:20 2Photo Basics
05:31 3Basic Controls: Top Of Camera
04:45 4Basic Controls: Auto Modes-
09:24 5Basic Controls: Manual Modes
23:47 6Basic Controls: Back Of Camera
20:29 7Basic Controls: Flash Modes
14:05 8Basic Controls: Live View
13:10Basic Controls: Left And Right Of Camera
06:21 10Basic Controls: Bottom & Front of Camera
03:03 11Nikon D3400 Lens Options
07:25 12Menu Functions Overview
02:51 13Playback Menu
05:02 14Shooting Menu
21:46 15Setup Menu
23:52 16Setup Menu: Connect to Smart Device
17:01 17Camera Operation Overview
09:19Lesson Info
Basic Controls: Left And Right Of Camera
Over on the left side of the camera, as I mentioned before, this camera comes supplied with a retractable lens barrel lens which allows the lens to be even smaller in size when it's in storage and you're not shooting photos, but you need to press that button and turn it, and it's not something a lot of lenses have, so it's something that a lot of photographers, like myself, kind of forget about. They pick the camera up, and it doesn't shoot, and it tells you, you gotta press that button and rotate it in order to get the lens into the usable position. Flash, button on the left hand side, is a three-positioned button, you might say, in that there's three different things that it can do. So let's talk about flash for a moment here. So, in a full auto mode, the flash automatically fires for you, and you have a few different modes that we have talked about. If these seem familiar, it's because they were in the I button, or the information screen that we looked at earlier. So we'll move by t...
hese fairly quickly 'cause we've already seen 'em but it is accessible directly with a button on the camera without using the screen on the back. If you are in the semi-automatic modes, we'll have a few more additional modes that we can get to, like the slow-sync and the rear-sync, and the way that you change these is you press the flash button once to pop the flash up, and then you will press the button again and turn the dial on the back of the camera, and then we'll see those again in the mode setting in here. So let me give you a quick demo on that. On the side of the camera, we're gonna come over and we're gonna press the button once and flash will pop up. Now on the back of the camera, I need to reach around and press the flash button, and you'll see this becomes yellow, and I can change between the various available modes, depending on which mode I am in, and it will change, as I say, depending on which mode dial I have set. And so, once to go up, and then once again to change it here. So that's the flash modes, and once again, we can go in and we can change the flash exposure compensation. Now this one's tricky, 'cause it requires three fingers: one on the flash button, one on the exposure compensation button, which is right up by the shutter release, and then one turning the dial on the back of the camera, and this is once again to power down the flash if you don't want as much power, which I think, if you do a lot of people photography, I would leave it at minus one. One thing to note is that the camera's fastest shutter speed that it can use is 1/200th of a second so if you're trying to change the shutter speeds and get to something faster, that is the limit that the camera has in shooting flash pictures. Right below that is a function button which you get to dive into the menu system and we will get there in the next section of the class, and we can decide what do we want to change with a single press of the button. Now the more serious photographers in many cases, enjoy being able to set the ISO sensitivity very quickly, and so that's where I'm gonna recommend you change this function, but if you find something else more useful, you can change it to whatever you want, it's your choice. Limited choices, but it is your choice. Next up, over on the door on the side, we have our micro-USB connection so that if we wanna download directly from the camera to the computer, we can do that. The HDMI port will allow us to connect our cameras up to a TV or monitor so that we can view movies and still images on a larger screen than the back of the camera. There is a Bluetooth symbol there that's letting you know that the camera has that Bluetooth feature and I think that's where the signal is, it is at its strongest over on that side of the camera. Moving over on to the right side of the camera, we have our memory card slot. Camera uses the secure digital memory cards. Most common on the market these days. And we have different sizes of cards. Well, we have a lock on the side of the card to prevent it from being deleted or played, or anything else, and so be aware if your card doesn't work, it might just be it's in the lock position. Different memory sizes will be designated by the SD or the XC designation on it, and so you can use all the different SD, SDHCs, and XC cards in the camera. The camera only uses a UHS-1 standard, but you can put a UHS-2 in there, it just doesn't help out at all, it doesn't use the faster cards. And the maximum speed is slightly important to people who shoot a lot of action photographs 'cause a faster card will allow you to shoot pictures more quickly to the camera and get 'em downloaded to the memory cards. It also allows you to pull information off the cards onto a computer a little bit more quickly. People who shoot a lot of video are a little bit more concerned about the minimum speed on the cards, and for this camera, you wanna look for cards that are Class 3 or faster, or have 30 megabytes per second or faster for getting the best video performance out of the camera. For downloading from the camera to the computer, you can indeed go directly from the camera to the computer with that USB connection, but it is relatively slow, in comparison to using a card reader, and so, 10 to 30 dollars for a card reader will get you something that will get those images into the computer faster. If you have a computer that has a slot, that's very good as well. One of the things you wanna be doing on the memory cards on a regular basis is formatting the memory cards. It deletes all the photos, file directories, and all the extra stuff that may be on a memory card, so that your card has nice clean communication back and forth between the camera and the card. Also on the right hand side, there's a little power connector cover so that if you wanted a continuous power source, very few people get this, it allows you to plug your camera essentially into the wall outlet so that you don't ever have to worry about the battery dying. But you are of course limited to a camera that is now connected by a cord.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Jan
I just purchased my first DSLR which is a Nikon D3500. There are few changes from the 3400 and this class has helped me tremendously with the transition from point and shoot and phone cameras. I am planning two once in a lifetime trips coming up and along with John's other courses on here I hope to be ready to capture some great memories. Would highly recommend his classes as he is a great teacher. I have tried other courses online and this and his Beginning 3 hour course so far have been the most helpful. Look forward to diving into his Fundamentals class.
Tuan Hoang
John Greengo is a great instructor. He is indeed an expert. 1) Great voice ( clear tone) 2) Extremely friendly look ( must be a humble person) 3) Is indeed an expert ( know what he's talking about) 4) Have a passion teaching the secrets ( some instructors tend to hold back the information but not John) 5) And many more...
Andrea
Great course to help an amateur get familiar with this camera. As a first time DSLR owner, and new to photography in general, there are settings and abilities of this camera that I find to be intimidating at times because they are over my head as a newbie. John explained settings and buttons in a way that cleared up some confusion left from reading the camera manual. I highly recommend this class to every owner of a D3400! John is a great instructor and I look forward to watching more videos of his.
Student Work
Related Classes
Camera Guides