Ask Matthew
Our resident Nikon expert Matthew Richards answers your questions and solves your problems. If you have a Nikon-related question, email it to mail@nphotomag.com
Our Nikon savant Matthew answers all your questions
QHaving switched from a DSLR to a Z 6, I’m a bit confused about the different shutter options and when to use them. Can you help?
Mick Mclellan
AThe Z 6 and Z 7 offer three shutter options, namely fully mechanical, electronic front curtain, and fully electronic. Fully mechanical is generally best, but ‘shutter shock’ can degrade sharpness, especially when using macro lenses at shutter speeds of around 1/4 to 1/60 sec. Electronic front curtain shutter reduces shock, but the maximum available shutter speed drops to 1/2000 sec. The default ‘Auto’ mode selects the most appropriate option depending on the shooting conditions.
The ‘Silent Photography’ option in the shooting menu engages the fully electronic shutter. This is good for macro photography as there’s absolutely no shutter movement at all to jog the camera. This mode also disables flash, long exposure noise reduction, flicker reduction and the beep speaker. However, it takes a while to ‘read’ the sensor information line by line, which can end up causing ghastly banding under
QI have a D7000 and am happy with the DX format, but I’d like to upgrade to a camera that gives less image noise at higher ISO settings. Would you recommend the D7500, D500, or perhaps something else?
Robert Hendricks
AThe D7500 and D500 have exactly the same image sensor and processor, and virtually identical image quality. The D500 is more of a pro-spec camera with tougher build quality and a control interface that’s typical of Nikon’s professional DSLRS. Even so, the D7500 has a very high standard of construction, and its control layout will feel much more familiar if you’re upgrading from a D7000.
From a shooting perspective, the only real advantages of the D500 are its superior 153-point, rather than 51-point, autofocus system, and its faster 10fps vs 8fps maximum burst rate. There’s also a bigger memory buffer, so you can keep shooting rapid bursts of Raw files for longer.
It’s arguably worth spending 50 per cent more on the D500 than the D7500 for all-weather action sports and wildlife photography, but the D7500 is no slouch and better value at around £900/$900.
QIssue 107’s Big Test says the Nikon SB-700 flashgun only works in ITTL-BL instead of regular ITTL mode, unless you select spot metering in camera. What’s the difference between them? Ron Bell
AThe SB-700 defaults to ITTL-BL flash mode and doesn’t have a physical switch or menu option for changing to regular ITTL mode. ‘BL’ stands for ‘Balanced Light’, in which through-thelens flash metering aims for a good balance between flash and ambient lighting.
The end result is that lighting should look fairly natural, with decent exposure levels for foreground and background areas. The
flip side is that images can look a little dark, although ITTL-BL flash works well with Auto ISO.
Switching to ITTL mode can yield punchier-looking results with foreground areas looking brighter, but without such a good balance across the scene. If you find your flash images are a bit dark, a quicker and easier alternative is often to dial in some positive flash exposure comp.
QI dropped my camera and Sigma lens and now the shutter doesn’t always fire unless I’m in manual focus mode. I’ve sent them for repair but there was no fault found. What can I do? Steve Simmons
AAs the shutter fires reliably in manual focus mode, it sounds like you’ve got an autofocus problem with either the camera body or the lens. Dirty electronic contacts on the body or lens might be the problem, but these should have been checked when you sent them in for that initial inspection. It’s also worth considering that after being dropped, there may be an intermittent fault that possibly didn’t show up during inspection.
Your Sigma 24-70mm has a whisper-quiet autofocus system, but you should still be able to hear whether or not it’s actually still operating, and see movement in the focus distance scale. The viewfinder’s focus confirmation lamp should also light up once autofocus has been achieved, after which the shutter should fire. Try using a different lens on the camera to isolate the cause of the problem to either the camera body or the lens.