Complete Guide to the Nikon D200- P4 doc

V1.03 Digital converters (ADC) These converters have a relatively simple job, which is to evaluate the number of electrons they see at each photosite and convert that into 12-bit digital values that are then passed on to the rest of the camera’s circuitry Another wrinkle enters into play here, as well: Nikon is adjusting for white balance while the signal is still in the analog domain (i.e., before the ADC does the conversion to digital) Nikon calls this “color preconditioning.” More on that in the section on White Balance (see page < 272>) H Tip: For a fuller discussion of how sensors work, see http://www.bythom.com/ccds.htm H Power The D200 uses two batteries, only one of which is user37 accessible The main battery is an 7.4V, 1500mAh LithiumIon EN-EL3e pack, which is similar to but not the same as the EN-EL3 used in the D50, D70, D70s, and D100 Each ENEL3e battery weighs about 2.6 ounces (75g), which makes carrying multiple batteries painless F The differences between the EN-EL3e and the previous ENEL3 and EN-EL3a are: The EN-EL3e stores more mAh than the EN-EL3 (1500mAh versus 1300mAh; the EN-EL3a was also 1500mAh) The EN-EL3e has a third connection terminal that the camera uses to monitor the battery condition It’s this third connection that makes it impossible to use older EN-EL3 and EN-EL3a batteries in the D200: the camera will 37 What’s mAh mean? That stands for milliamp hour In other words, the battery could provide a constant 1500 milliamps of current for an hour Since the camera at idle draws less than 3mA, which would mean that the camera could be left on for over 20 days before the battery would go dead Of course, once you start taking pictures and using the many powered features of the camera, that number drops considerably Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 91 V1.03 not operate at all if it can’t get information about the status of the battery However, note that an EN-EL3e battery works in a D50, D70, D70s, or D100 To keep the confusion to a minimum, EN-EL3e batteries—the ones that work in a D200—are gray instead of the black color of the earlier, incompatible batteries Bottom line: gray Nikon batteries work in the D200, gray or black Nikon batteries work in the D50, D70, D70s, and D100 Note: Like all EN-EL3 type batteries, the terminals are exposed, so the risk of shorts that can cause battery damage, explosion, or generate heat that could start a fire are a small issue while carrying batteries without the protective cover Keep the protective cover on the battery when it is outside the camera or charger, if possible In the United States, the battery and MH-18a Quick Charger are supplied with the camera; in other parts of the world, the battery and charger may need to be purchased separately In any case, you’re most likely going to want a spare EN-EL3e The charger is light (3.6 ounces, or 100g) and modestly sized The battery “docks” in the charger by sliding it into the charging position (don’t worry, you can’t it wrong) The AC power cable is removable The design of the EN-EL3e battery makes it impossible to insert it incorrectly into the D200’s battery compartment, so never force it The same is true of putting the EN-EL3e into the charger The MH-18a Quick Charger can fully charge a fully Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 92 V1.03 depleted EN-EL3e battery in a little over two hours The MH18a is fully compatible with 120 or 240 volt, and 50 or 60Hz outlets Another point of confusion for D200 purchasers coming from older consumer Nikon DSLRs will be the MH-18 versus MH18a charger It shouldn’t be Technically, the MH-18a is the charger designed to work with the 1500mAh batteries (ENEL3a and EN-EL3e) while the MH-18 is designed to work with the older 1300mAh batteries (EN-EL3) But either will charge a D200 battery The only real difference between them is that the older MH-18 is a little bit bigger than the MH-18a supplied with the D200 For those of us who travel a lot, that was a welcome change The fact that the charger only has two connection terminals while the battery has three also confuses some users The charger just charges the battery—more sophisticated battery systems sometimes use extra connections to tune or balance cells within the battery, which the MH-18a doesn’t do—so the MH-18a only needs the two power connections That third connection on the battery is only used by the camera, and it specifically is used to report the status of the internal power cells in the battery Note: Unlike the NiMH batteries used for the D1 series, the Lithium-Ion EN-EL3e used with the D200 shouldn’t have to be “conditioned” prior to use Still, it has been observed by many that new EN-EL3e’s seem to improve slightly with use, which means that they may have some storage or initialization effects that need to be rectified I would suggest, therefore, that you fully exhaust the battery () H • Microdrives generate heat during constant use Informally, Nikon has stated that one reason they didn’t endorse Microdrives with the original D1 was that the location of the CompactFlash slot coincided with the “hot spot” in the camera While the D200 has shifted the positions of components, heat is still potentially an issue • Microdrives have a significantly narrower temperature operating range than regular CompactFlash cards (the specifications state approximately 41°F to 131°F (5°C to Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 117 V1.03 55°C) for Microdrives versus –13°F to 167°F (-25°C to 75°C) for solid-state memory) If you regularly photograph in cold climates, keep some CompactFlash cards handy • Microdrives don’t work well at high altitude Because Microdrives rely upon a read/write head that is cushioned by air flow and air pressure is lower at high altitudes, there is a chance that a Microdrive will fail when used at altitudes above ~9000’ (~3000m) • Some card readers don’t work readily with Microdrives due to power consumption requirements (especially true if you connect your card reader through a USB hub) • The mechanical nature of a Microdrive makes it likely to have a shorter usable lifespan than a CompactFlash • If the top LCD displays a blinking CHA, a serious miscommunication has occurred between the camera and the Microdrive Anecdotally, Microdrive users seem to report seeing this warning more often than memory-based cards • Microdrives are slower than state-of-the-art solid-state CompactFlash cards The fastest Microdrive writes at about half the speed of the fastest solid-state card • Microdrives can’t be used to update camera firmware Nikon recommends against using a Microdrive for updating camera firmware, and several users I know can confirm this can cause troubles If you use a Microdrive with your D200, I’d recommend the following: • Avoid using it in extremely cold or hot weather • Always carry one or more spare CompactFlash cards with you, in case the Microdrive fails I carry several memorybased cards with me as backups • Turn the power to the D200 OFF when you’re not using it; otherwise, you run a slight risk of the Microdrive overheating (Note that this seems to conflict with my earlier comment about battery life; the issue here isn’t the Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 118 V1.03 battery, but trying to keep the camera electronics from generating heat, which ultimately may impair Microdrive use.) • Tip: Copy images from the Microdrive to your computer as soon as it is practically possible Don’t accumulate images on the drive over the course of several days or weeks if you can avoid it If you have a Microdrive (or CompactFlash card) die on you and you absolutely need the images that were on it, Drivesavers Data Recovery ( http://www.drivesavers.com) can perhaps recover them for you, though this is not an inexpensive service (it can range from US$200 to US$2000, with an average bill in the US$800 range) Other companies that perform the same recovery work include CBL Data Recovery ( http://cbltech.com) and ActionFront Data Recovery Labs ( http://www.actionfront.com) Note that these services go further than shareware products such as Photo Rescue; drive recovery services have managed to pull data off disk platters of otherwise inoperative drives, and even grab data on drives that have been subjected to fire, water, or odd substances, such as hairspray They’re useful when you know you’ve got that once-in-a-lifetime shot but experience a catastrophic disk or card failure H H H The card goes in connector-edge first, with the main label facing the outside of the camera (toward the door) You’ll feel a bit of resistance when you’ve pushed the card most of the way in—you need to continue to push until the card is fully engaged with the connector inside the camera Using CompactFlash õ To insert a CompactFlash card in the D200: Turn the D200’s power switch to the OFF position Move the CompactFlash Card Door switch towards the top of the camera (counterclockwise) The card door on the right side of the camera should pop open Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 119 V1.03 Insert the CompactFlash card (connectors first, label side towards the back of the camera; e.g facing you the way you’d normally be holding the camera) The camera prevents you from inserting it incorrectly, so if seems like you need to use excessive force, you’re probably inserting the card backwards) Close the door that covers the CompactFlash slot Turn the camera ON Tip: It is possible to “take” pictures without a card in the CompactFlash slot if Custom Setting #F7 has been set to OFF With this setting, the camera acts like it takes pictures, but because there’s no card in the camera; nothing will be saved (unless you’re connected to a PC running Nikon Capture) If no card is present in the camera, you’ll see an -E- on the top LCD instead of the frames remaining indicator õ If you haven’t previously used the CompactFlash card before inserting it into a D200, or if the card contains images you no longer need, you should format it as follows: Turn the D200’s power switch to the ON position Hold down the two buttons labeled k (in red) for two seconds (One is just to the left of the viewfinder; the other is just in front of the top LCD.) When the top LCD begins blinking the label FOR, release the buttons Immediately press the two k buttons again Formatting time varies with the size of the card; a fast 1GB card usually takes a few seconds The top LCD shows FOR in the Frames Remaining indicator while the camera is formatting Note: Step #3 is a bit confusing to new D200 users Apparently, Nikon didn’t think that holding down two buttons once for two seconds was a unique enough combination to preclude accidental formatting Since erasure is a permanent loss of data, I agree with Nikon’s conservatism here Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 120 ... into on one side, two on the other side of the tray) b Push the battery tray back into the MB-D200 Note carefully the white orientation arrows on the top of the battery tray; these point to the. .. possible to the storage card After an image is written to the storage card, the buffer space it Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 109 V1.03 used is freed up Put another way: on the. .. is just to the left of the viewfinder; the other is just in front of the top LCD.) When the top LCD begins blinking the label FOR, release the buttons Immediately press the two k buttons again