So over on the side of your camera is a little marking, this is the focal plane indicator which lets you know where the sensor is. Now chances are you'll never need to use this, but there are some people who need to measure an exact distance between their subject and where the sensor is. And so macro photography, there's some cinematographers that have very precise lenses that need to make this measurement, and that's why it is there. So visible on the top, but we're gonna kinda look at it a little bit more in the back, is our release mode. There is a lock which keeps our release mode locked into its particular position, but we can see it more easily here on the back of the camera. And this controls kind of our frame to frame basis on there. Most of the time we're probably gonna be shooting in the single frame mode, when you just wanna get one shot at a time. We have a continuous low and we can have a continuous high setting, the high setting would be at 10 frames per second, the conti...

nuous low setting can be customized anywhere between one and nine. Just kind of a little side note, I've shot a lot of running, alright, and one of the things you may not know about running is that runners run at a particular pace. No matter how fast a runner they are, their leg movements are at a very particular pace. And if you shoot them at six frames per second every other photo looks exactly the same with the opposite foot, and so if you're shooting a sport where you just need a different shutter speed or motor drive, so I don't like shooting runners at six frames per second, seven or five is better than six. And you might find that other sports are similar in that regard. We do have a quiet mode and a quiet continuous. Now this probably, should be better called a less noisy mode but that's not quite as elegant of a name. And so just in case you're wondering and you don't own this camera, let's do a couple shutter firings of this. I'm gonna go into manual focus just so that we're not dealing with any auto focus, as to how loud the shutter is between a normal shutter and a quiet one. So here's the normal one. (shutter clicking) And then let me dial it over to the quiet setting. (shutter clicking) And so what it's doing is it's slowing down the movement of the mirror up and down to reduce the noise. And so they have a shutter dampening system in here and they're able to kinda crank it up a little bit so that the mirror moves more slowly and it bangs up against the top of the mirror box with a little less noise. And so if you were photographing in a theater or you're photographing birds or animals that just, you want that as low a noise as possible. A lot of times when I'm doing travel photography I'll put it in the most quiet setting. It does slow down the shot to shot speed, but if you're not in a hurry for shot to shot images then you can put it in the quiet mode and it's just gonna make things a little less noisy. We have a self timer mode, that'll be able to be customized when we get into the menu system. And then we get to the mirror up mode. And this is necessary because that mirror moving upwards can cause a vibration and cause a problem. So let's take a look at what's going on with the mirror lock up mode. So with a normal shutter release you're gonna press down on the shutter release, and the mirror's gonna move up and out of the way as quickly as it can. And it does so so quickly that it causes a vibration at the exact time that you are taking your exposure. And so there are certain instances where you will get blurry photos, and these typically tend to be with slower shutter speeds while you have the camera mounted to a tripod. With faster handheld shutter speeds you're not gonna have a problem on this. So the solution to solving this problem or at least one of the solutions is to put the camera in a mirror lock up mode. When you do this the first press of the shutter release locks the mirror up. So we go ahead and press down on the shutter release, mirror goes up, we get the same vibration as always but we wait in order to take the photo until that vibration has settled out which usually takes two to three seconds, and then we press the shutter release a second time and that's the one that actually takes the photo. And so it's one for the mirror up and the second for the picture being taken. And if you've not used an SLR before you might think this is kinda picky, and yes it is. We wanna get the sharpest photos possible. Now because touching the camera is not wise while you're shooting the photo, this is where a cable release like the Nikon MC 36A remote is a handy one. It's not the only one that's available, there are other devices out there. This is the fanciest and the nicest of the modes in the ones that are out there. And as I said before you may be wondering is this really necessary? Well I was actually out shooting just the other day and I was shooting our space needle here in Seattle, and I took a look at the results and I thought well that does not look like a very sharp image, does it. And so then I put the camera in the mirror lock up mode, and got a much much sharper image. And part of the problem was that I was on a tripod at a eighth of a second, and an eighth of a second is right smack dab in the middle of the vibration zone, as I like to call it. And this is where you're likely to get the mirror slap vibrations in the camera. You don't get it at faster shutter speeds because the shutter speed is so fast and you don't get it at the slower ones because the vibrations kind of settle out and they're not a problem. But an eighth of a second is about the worst shutter speed that you can be at. And so the solution is the mirror lock up and the other solution to the problem is live view, because live view puts the mirror in the upward position and so live view is kind of a shortcut. It's the same thing as mirror lock up with the exception of you're able to look at the image on the back of the camera. And so the reason that I would use mirror lock up is if I want the camera on a tripod, ready to shoot, but I don't wanna be wasting battery power by having the camera in the live view mode.

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John Greengo

John Greengo is an award-winning photographer specializing in outdoor and travel photography. Shooting for over 3 decades, John has developed an unrivaled understanding of the industry, tools, techniques and art of photography. When he's not traveling for a new shoot,

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topics covered in this class

Camera Guides Nikon Tutorials Digital Photography

Ratings and Reviews

Carl Vanderweyden

John Greengo is the best! I purchased a Nikon D500 and this course around the same time. Because of this camera being so complex, I felt that a course would be beneficial. This course that John teaches is exactly what I needed. His knowledge of this camera as well as photography in general is exceptional. In fact, I own a couple of other courses presented by John and I also bought a couple of his books! I would highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to know the ins-and-outs of this D500! Thanks again John for a great course and your great way of explaining things with clear dialect and great visuals!

M Jo

Wow! What a great class! John is a natural teacher, moving at a good pace and explaining things carefully, never assuming you already know more than you might. I just got my D500 last week and am so pleased to have gone through this entire class. I learned a LOT and took some notes to refer back to. I've also just bought a Z6 and have purchased John's class for that. Can't wait to dive in!!!

Christina Brittain

By The class. John is the gold standard for teaching. He repairs lessons to perfection. He speaks in ways students comprehend all that he presents. Never waste words. Never bores. Always demonstrates his points. I will continue to purchase his classes as they provide the best learning I have found. He is making me a much better photographer, both technically and creatively. You can't make good images if you don't know your gear. Hope he teaches lessons in Portland Oregon one day. I know Pro Photo Supply would sponsor him.

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Back of Camera: Release Mode

Back of Camera: Release Mode

Lesson Info

7. Back of Camera: Release Mode

Lessons

Class Introduction

Nikon D500 Overview

Camera Basics

Basic Camera Controls

Top of Camera: Exposure Control

Top of Camera: Buttons