Nikon D7000 tips

[wfooshee]

Different behaviors, but both came down to not returning the mode dial to the commonly used position when finished with the special work.

I can feel your panic when nothing happened other than focusing, though!

In my earlier post I was going to criticize the design, putting the other modes on a dial that in effect is a drive mode dial, but my F4 also has the self timer on the drive mode dial. Nikon apparently likes it there, then!

[Grandpaw]

Why I like single point focus

I am a big fan of single point focus when I shoot because I know that if I get the point of focus located where I want it on my subject the focus will come out exactly like I planed it to be. When using multiple active focus points I find that often the camera seems to lock on to something different than what I wanted to be in sharp focus. The more focus points you activate the greater the chances are of the camera choosing a focus location other than the one you had intended to choose. Have you ever gone to something like a dance recital and tried getting a picture of your little girl or grand daughter on stage, only to find that the camera chose to focus on someone's head in a seat between you and your little princess? As interesting as seeing every hair on that person's head come out very sharp it would be a much better picture if the subject that you were trying to get a picture of was what came out tack sharp instead. By using single point focus you can place that single point of focus exactly where you want it to be and eliminate your camera choosing something closer throwing the real subject out of focus. There are times when I use all 39 focus points but I will say that probably 95% or better of the time my camera is set to single point focus. I also shoot a lot of nature subjects such as birds and wildlife and when I use a long telephoto the depth of field gets shorter and it also gets shorted the larger the opening or F stop that you use for your shot. When shooting longer lenses or wider openings the focus point is even more critical. Another thing that really reduces depth of field is using a longer lens and shooting closer subjects. If you use a single point focus the camera will not have the chance to focus on the limb that the beautiful bird you are trying to get a picture of is standing on and you can place that single point right on the birds head or eye to get a really nice picture. It doesn't take having the point of focus off but an inch or two to ruin a picture.

My tip this time is to get you to try using the single point focus a little more and see if your shots don't improve and get away from letting the camera make so many of the choices for you. If you be more specific in telling you camera what you want it to do I think you will find that your keeper rate on photos will increase dramatically. Jeff