Complete Guide to the Nikon D200- P5 pptx

V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 121 Once the card is formatted, the Frames Remaining indicator resets and shows the number of images you can take at the current image quality setting (if that number is larger than 999, then K is displayed just above the Frames Remaining indicator; 1.7 in the Frames Remaining indicator with the K also showing would mean 1700 frames can be taken). Note: Alternatively, you can use the Format option on the SET UP MENU, but the method just documented is usually quicker, and doesn’t eat up battery power by lighting up the color LCD. Note: Formatting a CompactFlash card “removes” all information and images from the card. Always save your images to a computer before formatting a card! I use the quotes around “removes” because the image data isn’t actually erased; only the directory information that points to it is rewritten. While it is possible to recover images immediately after performing an in-camera format, it is a hassle to do, and won’t be fully successful if anything has been written to the card since the format. The D200 tells you when a CompactFlash card is full by blinking the card indicator and 0 in the Frames Remaining indicators in the top LCD, and blinking 0 in the viewfinder. The card isn’t necessarily full, however. It just doesn’t have enough room to store another picture at the current image quality setting. Tip: If you’ve been shooting using NEF or the NEF+JPEG qualities, both of which chew up considerable space per image, you can often squeeze a few more JPEG-only images onto the card because the JPEG compression makes the resulting image files much smaller. õ To remove a CompactFlash card from the D200: 1. Turn the D200’s power switch to the OFF position. Important: Before moving to Step 2, confirm that the green CompactFlash Access lamp is not lit (the camera does not completely shut down until buffered data is written to the card). V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 122 2. Open the door by moving the CompactFlash Card Door switch towards the top of the camera (counterclockwise). The door on the right side of the camera should open. 3. Press the large, grey, rectangular button just below the bottom edge of the CompactFlash card. The card should pop out slightly, allowing you to grab its edge. 4. Remove the card from the camera. 5. Insert another card into the slot, if desired. 6. Close the door that covers the CompactFlash slot. 7. Turn the camera ON. Check to make sure the Frames Remaining counter shows, and not CHA. Nikon-Approved Cards Nikon used to make a big deal about “operation not guaranteed” unless the CompactFlash card has been tested and approved by Nikon. The list is short (though subject to change): • SanDisk cards to 2GB (SDCFB, SDCF2B, SDCFH (Ultra), SDCFH (Ultra II), and SDCFX series (Extreme III). • Lexar Media 4x, 8x, 10x, 12x, 16x, 24x, and 40x cards, plus Lexar Media Pro 40x, and 80x WA (Write Accelerated) cards. • The Lexar Pro 80x WA Locktite card (which includes encryption abilities so that the files on the card can be secured for either privacy or chain-of-evidence reasons). • 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, and 6GB Microdrives. I’ve used a wide range of other cards in the D200, and have yet to find any that cause operational issues with the camera. My understanding is that Nikon technical support no longer refuses to deal with troubleshooting a camera that uses a card not on Nikon’s list. That’s not to say that at some point the card itself can’t be isolated from the problem, so I generally recommend that you have at least one Nikon tested card V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 123 handy, as this sometimes allows you to remove a specific storage card from the list of suspects for a problem. How Much Card? Files created by the D200 are large; much larger than you’re used to if you’re coming from a previous Nikon DSLR other than the D2x. As you’ll find out in coming sections, this can put a crimp on the number of shots you can get on a card. Let’s put it in perspective: shooting NEF format you’ll get about 60 images on a 1GB card. Add a JPEG Fine image to your NEF shooting, and that drops to 39 (39 NEFs and 39 matching JPEGs). You can recover somewhat by using NEF compression, which will net you somewhere between 70 and 80 NEF+JPEG images depending upon the data in the images (more on this when we discuss Compressed NEFs on page < H149>). Still, none of those numbers are much more than a couple of rolls of film (and in the worst case, about the same as a roll of film). For uninterrupted shooting, you’re really going to want at least 2GB cards in your D200. As I write this, 2GB cards are the best compromise between capacity and price, though you can often find good deals on high-capacity 4GB and 6GB Microdrives. If you need to shoot more than 120 NEFs at a time, you’ll have to spring for 4GB, 6GB or 8GB cards, in which case I’d recommend the 6GB Microdrive as the most economical option and the SanDisk Extreme III as the speediest. Personally, I’m using multiple solid-state 2GB and 4GB cards backed up with an Epson P-4000. Unlike my books on other Nikon DSLRs I’ve made a separate section in this eBook about card size to call attention to the fact that you’re going to chew through storage space. I’ll have some more to say on that subject as we get down to the details, but I wanted to warn you up front that, if you’re going to shoot at the full size this camera is capable of, be prepared to move beyond your 512K storage cards! V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 124 CompactFlash Troubleshooting Problem: The capacity of your CompactFlash card seems to be a little less than the one stated on the label (e.g. you seem to only be able to store 114MB of data on a 128MB card). Solution: Actually, this is normal. CompactFlash works just like a disk drive on a computer, with an area set aside for a file allocation table and a file directory. In addition to the reserved space, storage manufacturers sometimes use 1K to mean 1000 instead of the more correct 1K=1024. Also, the number of folders created has a small impact on overall capacity. Like disk drives, sometimes areas of the card are marked as “bad,” and this, too, reduces capacity. Problem: It seems to take longer to store information on a CompactFlash card than it did when you first obtained it. Solution: If you erase individual files instead of reformatting the card, it’s possible to get file fragmentation on the card. When this happens, data for any given file is non-adjacent, and the camera has to write extra information into the file directory. This, in turn, can cause slightly longer write times due to the extra information that must be written in the directory (and on Microdrives, the extra head positioning that must be performed slows the process even more). Likewise, it’s possible for cards to get lost clusters F 43 and files on a card. Use the D200’s Format function to erase all information from a card instead of individually deleting files. Alternatively, you can reformat cards on your computer if you have a card reader (it works just like formatting any disk drive—open a window for the drive in Explorer [Windows] or Finder [Macintosh] and use the normal formatting procedure for drives; just make sure that you pick FAT, not FAT32 if 43 Clusters are the basic unit in which information is stored on disk drives (and CompactFlash). A file is made up of many clusters, and the directory and other information stored at the beginning of the disk keeps track of which clusters belong to which files. When a cluster is damaged, the information tracking it is tracking is lost. This means that your data may still be intact, but that the structure of the disk is incorrect, hiding that data. As noted elsewhere, having a good disk recovery utility handy can sometimes help you retrieve precious photos you thought the camera had lost forever. V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 125 you’re using a recent version of Windows, such as XP, and aren’t using a 2GB or larger card). Problem: You get occasional “black” frames instead of images. Solution: Two possibilities. First, your battery may be low. Replace the battery and see if the problem goes away. If not, there’s likely a bad sector on the card that isn’t marked as such. Another symptom is sometimes excessively long writes to the card (or the green “writing to card” light stays lit), or you get large black areas through your images. You need to perform a full format F 44 on the card using a card reader attached to a PC (which should detect and mark bad sectors). However, if black frames appear on more than one of your cards or on a regular basis, you should have your camera checked by Nikon. Black frames are also a possible indication of a shutter problem on D200 bodies. Problem: You can’t find images on the card or the computer complains about damaged files when you try to transfer images from camera to PC. Solution: One of several problems is likely present on the card: (1) the FAT (File Allocation Table, which tracks clusters in use) is corrupt; (2) the directory has incorrect information about files, usually either cross links of data between two images or missing cluster information; or (3) something else is wrong with the data or structure on the card, such as a damaged sector, an incomplete file, an unexpected End-of- File marker, and so on. In every case, you must immediately fix the problem or risk the permanent loss of your image data. You may or may not be able to fix the problem, but if anything gets written to the card before you begin attempting a correction, your ability to recover data is compromised. Macintosh users should be extremely careful when mounting problematic cards on their computers, as several behind-the- scene tasks can write to the card without your knowledge. 44 Note that in some versions of Windows the default is to perform a Quick Format. V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 126 So how do you fix the structure and data and recover your images? The best choice is to use a product such as Photo Rescue ( Hhttp://www.datarescue.com/photorescue). This tool— versions are now available for both Macintosh and Windows—generally can find and recover images that are the result of most structure errors, though you may have to go into the advanced mode and play with some of the settings in order to do so. Current versions of Photo Rescue understand the NEF format, and can resurrect a raw data file, complete with the proper extension. If you haven’t written anything to the card after the error occurred, you can often recover every image on the card. Note that to use Photo Rescue you need a way to mount the card either by inserting the card into a PCMCIA adapter on a portable, or by putting the card into a card reader attached to your desktop machine. Another possibility is to use SCANDISK (or CHKDSK, or the Disk Doctor portion of Norton Systemworks). If the error on the card is purely structural and no data has been overwritten or “orphaned” (left without a directory entry), you’re likely to recover the images. However, since generalized disk tools know nothing about image file formats, they can’t scan data on the card and resurrect orphaned data or rebuild incomplete image files. Personally, I travel with Photo Rescue installed on my laptop and with both a PCMCIA adapter for my Microdrives and a card reader for other CompactFlash cards. Problem: Images you shot don’t seem to be recorded on the card. Recovery software finds no record of them, and the file numbering seems sequential. Solution: You probably turned the camera off and pulled the card out before the buffer flushed all the images. Remember, the camera is buffering images to memory before writing them to the card. If you have a full buffer of 40 images it can take a few seconds to clear that buffer to CompactFlash. Fortunately, the D200 doesn’t have the design problem of previous Nikon DSLRs, which you could turn off before flushing the buffer completely (the D1 series only flushed one image before letting the camera turn off). But you can still get too hasty and V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 127 pull the CompactFlash card out of the camera before all of the images have been written to the card. Pay attention to the green CompactFlash Access lamp—if it’s on, the camera is still writing images to the card and you shouldn’t remove the card. Problem: A 4GB or larger capacity card only shows 2GB of storage space available. Solution: To fully address the 4GB of space on the card it must be formatted using FAT32 formatting. If the card was formatted using FAT (or FAT16 as it is sometimes called), the maximum capacity is limited to 2GB. Note that some recent cards with large capacities also have a switch that must be flipped to enable them to be used above 2GB. Image Formats The D200 saves images to the CompactFlash card in two image formats, JPEG and NEF: • Saving an image in JPEG format performs the necessary steps to convert the sensor data into an image using the camera settings that are in effect, reduces the 12-bit capture data to 8 bits, copies the camera settings into the EXIF fields, and applies data compression that loses image information. (Unlike most previous Nikon DSLRs, all manipulations of the image data are done in 12 bits prior to reducing to the final 8 bits required by the JPEG format.) V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 128 • The NEF format “preserves” the sensor dataF 45 along with copying the camera settings into the EXIF fields. In addition to the raw sensor data, NEF format also stores a JPEG Normal image as a “thumbnail.” If you want the highest quality image the D200 is capable of, use NEF (though note that the latter requires that you use appropriate software to decipher the data; see “NEF Format“ on page < H145>). If you know your way around digital image editing programs and immediately convert your JPEG files into a lossless format, such as Adobe’s PSD (Photoshop data) format, the actual loss of data using JPEG can be kept essentially invisible, at least at moderate viewing sizes. I should probably take a moment here and elaborate on a sentence in the previous paragraph (the one that starts “If you want the highest quality…”). The primary difference between JPEG and NEF is that, for JPEG the camera’s electronics have to do all the work of assembling an image from the data and your settings, while with NEF that work is postponed until you get to a computer. JPEG (potentially) suffers from three things that can “harm” image quality: • The camera’s electronics are static. They’re only as good as the state-of-the-art in early 2005 when they were locked down in design. Those of us who’ve been using DSLRs for years know that image processing software is still getting better every year. By delaying the processing, you potentially can take advantage of image techniques that came to be after the camera was designed. • The camera’s electronics “reduce” the data set. In particular, tonal data is reduced from 12-bits to 8-bits in the process of creating a JPEG image. That’s not a big issue if you never post-process your images, but it can be if you make drastic changes in software post-processing of 45 Preserves is in quotes because the D200 doesn’t really preserve the actual 12-bit values when it stores in the compressed NEF format, instead using a “visually lossless” compression format. It does preserve the data if you don’t use compression on NEF images, though. V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 129 the image. Note that the D200 doesn’t reduce the data set until it’s done manipulating the image. All in-camera adjustments are made in 12-bit by the D200. Still, if you’re going to make any changes after the fact to the image, 8-bit data storage is a limiting factor. • The camera uses the settings you made. Make a mistake on setting white balance, sharpening, or some other camera setting? Well, with JPEG that mistake is encoded into the image data, and it’ll take careful post-processing to take it back out (if that can be done—not all such mistakes can be undone). NEF allows you to alter many of your camera settings after you’ve taken the picture. If you’re getting the feeling that I’m strongly in favor of the NEF format, you’re right. For serious photographers, shooting in NEF is like retaining and working with a negative while JPEG is like accepting the print that comes out of the lab. The reason most amateurs avoid NEF format is that they don’t want to spend any time post-processing their images. Likewise, some event photographers shoot so many images that post processing all of them would take too much computing power and time. Fair enough. Just realize that you’re going to have to make some choices about how you shoot with your D200, and JPEG versus NEF is one of the key ones. Make sure you’re making the right decision for yourself F 46 . Okay, let’s delve into the details so you can better understand what you just read. Pixels Before we get to the individual data formats, let’s make sure that we have some basic understanding of the underlying element used in them: pixels. 46 JPEG shooters should note that the D200 does a pretty darned good job of rendering into the format. It’s not that JPEG quality is bad, it’s that NEF quality can be better in the right hands. By these comments I don’t mean to try to scare anyone off from shooting JPEG—I do it myself from time to time when the situation warrants it—but only to point out that you give something up by doing so. V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 130 A pixel is the smallest element of a digital picture. You’ve probably seen camera resolution figures expressed in the form of two numbers, say 3872 x 2592. This means that the camera produces results that have 2592 rows containing 3872 columns of data. At each row/column intersection, there’s a pixel, which is used to describe the color that should be displayed there. Pixels contain color information, usually expressed as individual values for red, green, and blue F 47 . Each color value is stored in a series of bits. Bits are the smallest data elements computers understand; a single bit has a value of either 1 or 0 (thus, an example 8-bit value is 0100 1101). While the D200 is capable of producing 12-bit values for each color (assuming you shoot NEF and use a converter that retains that data), most computer imaging programs, including Photoshop, normally use 8-bit values for most work F 48 . In computer jargon, eight bits are called a byte, and most disk and memory storage capacities are expressed in bytes. For example, the main memory of your computer might have 67,108,864 bytes (64MBs) of space. The non-round number is caused by the binary nature of computers, where everything is expressed as a power of 2. A thousand in computer counting turns out to actually be 1024; therefore most storage capacities are slightly understated. CompactFlash cards used by the D200 have storage capacities expressed in bytes, as well. To form one complete digital image you must store 24-bit (for JPEG) or 12-bit (for NEF) values for each pixel. Why 24-bit for JPEG? Remember, we need 8 bits to store each of the three primary colors for JPEG files, while NEF files just contain a single 12-bit data point for each photosite (the remaining 47 When I write about the Red channel, Blue channel, and Green channel elsewhere in this eBook, I’m referring to these individual color data points. 48 Photoshop CS now allows most of its image editing tools to function with 16-bit data, but since all consumer printers and almost all commercial printers only accept 8-bit data, some people still use Photoshop only with 8-bit data. [...]... Press the MENU key to show the menu system 2 Use the Direction pad to navigate to the SHOOTING MENU (green camera icon tab) 3 Use the Direction pad to navigate to the Image Quality option and press the > key on the Direction pad to select it 4 Use the Direction pad to navigate to the JPEG quality you wish to use (JPEG Fine, JPEG Normal, or JPEG Basic), and press the > key on the Direction Thom Hogan’s Complete. .. Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 134 V1.03 pad to select it 5 Use the Direction pad to navigate to the Image Size option and press the > key on the Direction pad to see the options 6 Use the Direction pad to navigate to the JPEG size you wish to use (Large (2872x2592/10.0M), Medium (2896x1944/5.6M), or Small (1936x1296/2.5M), and press the > key on the Direction pad to select it 7 Use the Direction... Direction pad to navigate to JPEG Compression and press the > key on the Direction pad to select it Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 135 V1.03 8 Use the Direction pad to navigate to the option you wish to use (Size Priority or Optimal Quality) This last bit (Steps 7 and 8) first appeared on the D2x and is relatively new to Nikon DSLRs You may think it’s another way to set Fine or... holding down the QUAL button on the top of the camera and rotating the Rear Command dial; Image Size can be set by holding down the QUAL button and rotating the Front Command dial (assumes you haven’t used Custom Setting #F5 to change the dial functions): Top LCD (only one of the options is highlighted at time): Let’s examine how the three JPEG options impact the look of an image Surprisingly, there’s not... Size Priority, JPEG BASIC as the JPEG Quality, and to post process on a smooth tone ramp Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 141 V1.03 Here’s an example of the mosquito artifact Look closely at the very edges of the letters in this example All the letter edges have clear edge issues, and the insides of the P and R in the word “PRODUCT” are completely white A second artifact is usually seen... your copy, you may need to download an update to the Adobe Raw Converter from Adobe’s Web site 54 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 146 V1.03 image (in JPEG Normal format), and finally the raw pixel data stored in a simple left -to- right, top -to- bottom format Many details for the D1 NEF format can be found at http://www.tidalwave.it/projects/nefio/NEF.pdf and the original site that inspired... novices (Nikon and others sometimes also refer to this format as RAW) Nikon advertises it as the highest quality format, one that preserves the “raw” image photosite data What Nikon doesn’t tell you is that you need to purchase an additional software product to really get 52 the most from this format Nikon Capture 4.4 (or later) is what Nikon recommends, but other alternatives exist (see “D200-related... tries to do more than just average two adjacent data points Complex interpolations examine a matrix of adjacent cells, usually a minimum of a 3 x 3 grid, but sometimes as wide as a 16 x 16 grid Obviously, the smaller the grid, the faster the results are generated But also, the smaller the grid, the cruder the results will be Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 148 V1.03 Compressed NEFs The. .. blocks The blocks don’t always appear in 8x8 pixel size This sky, for example, varied gradually from top to bottom, but not left to right, resulting in bands of blockiness rather than distinct blocks (I’ve exaggerated the contrast to make the blocking more visible.) The only way I can get even a hint of blockiness from the D200 is to use JPEG Compression set to Size Priority, JPEG BASIC as the JPEG... noise) processed to reveal what’s really happening at the edges of the rim You should be able to see that there’s artificial detail happening just above the actual rim (mostly orange and magenta “halos” as shown Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 142 V1.03 in this altered image; the edge of the rim should be a perfect boundary between black and mostly cyan/green pixels the way I’ve processed . switch towards the top of the camera (counterclockwise). The door on the right side of the camera should open. 3. Press the large, grey, rectangular button just below the bottom edge of the. Use the Direction pad to navigate to JPEG Compression and press the > key on the Direction pad to select it. V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 136 8. Use the. anything to the card after the error occurred, you can often recover every image on the card. Note that to use Photo Rescue you need a way to mount the card either by inserting the card into a