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On this article, I’ll clarify the right way to arrange Nikon’s capturing menu banks so to incorporate them into your images workflow. What are capturing menu banks for, and the way can they make your work quicker and extra satisfying? Right this moment, I’ll reply these questions and extra.
In fast-moving genres of images – together with wildlife, road, sport, and so forth – you have to to make choices in a short time. And it’s not simply choices. Your reactions need to be fast, too. Dropping only one or two seconds can imply lacking a fantastic photograph. Nikon’s capturing menu banks might help you save these valuable seconds.
Menu banks are nothing new underneath the solar at Nikon. In truth, they’re even within the menus of my outdated Nikon D200 from 2005. However I didn’t use them again then, so I missed out on lots of their advantages. Now I exploit them on a regular basis.
To place it merely, Nikon’s capturing menu banks are a saved batch of digicam settings which you can rapidly recall. You’ll be able to rapidly swap between these batches of saved settings in response to altering circumstances in entrance of your digicam.
For instance, think about you’re photographing a heron standing on the sting of a fast-flowing river. So as to add motion to the photograph, you determine to shoot with a comparatively lengthy shutter pace for wildlife images of 1/10 second.
However then the heron immediately jumps up, spreads its wings, and begins to fly. How rapidly can you modify your digicam settings to freeze the movement? By the point you’ve set your aperture again to f/6.3 and your shutter pace again to 1/1600 second, the heron is gone.
Nevertheless it doesn’t need to be that manner. In case your capturing menu banks are arrange accurately, you may rapidly revert to your “typical” wildlife images settings instantly. Simply press an assigned button whereas turning the command dial a few clicks. It’s one thing you must be capable to do within the blink of an eye fixed. That’s the ability of menu banks.
Observe that Nikon’s menu banks don’t reset to their initially set place. For instance, for those who create a menu financial institution and set f/8, then change to f/11, the following time you return to that menu financial institution, it is going to be at f/11 and never f/8. The flexibility to “lock” menu banks in order that they reset to the unique state has been a requested characteristic amongst Nikon photographers, however for now, that’s not how Nikon’s menu banks work.
Lastly, I like to recommend holding one thing in thoughts about menu banks. Assuming that your explicit Nikon digicam has menu banks within the first place, you’re at all times in a single financial institution or one other. Even for those who by no means arrange the capturing menu banks in any respect, that merely means that you’re spending all of your time in Financial institution A.
So, these are usually not actually “simply one other digicam setting” however slightly one thing that can not be prevented for those who personal a Nikon digicam with menu banks. (In fact, you may keep on with Financial institution A the entire time and never attempt to find out how menu banks really work, however you’ll be lacking out on some helpful capabilities of your digicam.)
As I discussed earlier, Nikon’s menu banks are present in quite a lot of Nikon cameras, from a few of their oldest DSLRs to lots of their latest mirrorless cameras. Nevertheless, the method of establishing the menu banks is basically the identical from digicam to digicam.
First, within the digicam’s menu, go to the principle Picture Taking pictures Menu. In case your digicam has menu banks, they’ll be proper on the prime of this menu.
The digicam will let you create as much as 4 particular person banks of digicam settings. These are labeled by default with the letters A, B, C, and D. Nevertheless, you may add a brand new title to every financial institution. I’ve named mine “Wildlife Common,” “Birds In Flight,” “Panorama,” and “Folks.”
The following merchandise to arrange is the “Prolonged Menu Banks” choice, which is the second merchandise in the principle Picture Taking pictures Menu. Change the default setting from OFF to ON. If you happen to don’t do that, any adjustments you make in financial institution A can be mirrored within the different banks. This may defeat the entire thought of getting 4 totally different settings for 4 totally different capturing situations.
Then comes a very powerful step. It’s time to truly arrange every of the banks. Simply choose the financial institution you wish to arrange, after which begin going by your digicam to set it up the way you need. Virtually something within the Picture Taking pictures Menu is honest recreation. So are your publicity settings.
In fact, the precise settings that you simply select are going to rely by yourself images and which financial institution you’re engaged on. Take into consideration the standard situations that you simply shoot and the way you’ll need the digicam to be set for these situations. Undergo not simply the digicam menu, but in addition your publicity settings, for every capturing menu financial institution.
For instance, for bird-in-flight images, I like being in Handbook mode with Auto ISO. So, I arrange my “Birds In Flight” financial institution to be in Handbook with Auto ISO! In the meantime, I arrange my “Panorama” financial institution to be in aperture precedence with base ISO as a substitute.
The largest good thing about menu banks is to let you optimize the digicam rapidly for various photographic conditions. For the reason that complete thought is to avoid wasting time, you in all probability don’t wish to dive again into the digicam’s menu every time it is advisable change the financial institution. How will you make this course of quicker?
One choice is to place the capturing menu banks as the primary merchandise within the My Menu, then assign a button in your digicam to entry the highest merchandise in My Menu. However there’s a quicker manner: within the Customized Setting Menu, assign one among your digicam’s customizable buttons to “Taking pictures Menu Financial institution.”
When you’ve finished that, all it is advisable do with a view to change menu banks is press that button and rotate the command dial on the digicam! It will rapidly leap between your 4 totally different banks. Personally, I discover that the video report button or the Fn2 button are good decisions to assign for this function on most Nikon cameras.
There may be one limitation with Nikon DSLRs, nevertheless: You’ll be able to’t see within the viewfinder which financial institution is at present in use. Within the viewfinder of mirrorless cameras, you may see a yellow “SHOOT A/B/C/D” when switching between banks:
However on a DSLR, you’ll have to test the rear LCD or prime show to inform which financial institution you’re utilizing. Proven beneath is the rear LCD of a DSLR when altering menu banks:
Nevertheless, with sufficient expertise in your DSLR, this isn’t essentially an issue – even for those who look by the viewfinder the entire time. Based mostly on how the digicam settings within the viewfinder change, and what number of clicks of the command dial you probably did, you’ll finally be capable to inform intuitively which financial institution you’re utilizing.
Just like the title implies, Nikon’s capturing menu banks are confined to the settings in your digicam’s Taking pictures Menu. (In addition they apply to your publicity settings in addition to your digicam mode, like handbook or aperture-priority.) Which means they don’t apply to your digicam’s Setup Menu or Customized Settings Menu, for instance. Any settings inside these menus will maintain regular throughout all 4 of your capturing menu banks.
Nevertheless, not each digicam setting that you’d anticipate is saved in your menu banks. Throughout the Taking pictures Menu, for instance, the exceptions are a number of publicity, interval timer capturing, focus shift capturing, time-lapse video, and auto seize.
There are a couple of different settings that aren’t saved by the menu banks. Probably the most annoying is the digicam’s drive mode. I’ve had a number of events the place I’ll take a panorama photograph with a 2-second self-timer, then swap to my wildlife menu banks rapidly after I see an animal close by. Guess what occurs after I take a photograph? A two second delay. I would like to recollect to change the drive mode again to high-speed steady. It may be very irritating.
Other than that, I’ll point out once more that any digicam settings in your Setup Menu or your Customized Settings Menu are usually not saved to the capturing menu banks. If you end up altering any of those continuously – for instance, AF activation or Starlight View – I like to recommend saving them to the highest of My Menu to rapidly recall them.
Confusingly, Nikon has a separate menu financial institution choice throughout the Customized Settings Menu (the pencil menu). These are referred to as customized settings banks. As with capturing menu banks, there are 4 choices – A, B, C, and D. They aren’t tied to the capturing menu financial institution that you simply’ve chosen. Nevertheless, they perform equally, permitting you to rapidly recall as much as 4 totally different states of the Customized Settings Menu. In that sense, they’re similar to the capturing menu banks, however for a distinct portion of Nikon’s menu.
Personally, I consider that this will get out of hand rapidly. I like to recommend staying in Customized Settings Financial institution A the entire time and never worrying about making extra of them. It’s the capturing menu banks, not the customized settings menu banks, which are vital.
Nevertheless, when you have an excellent grasp of Nikon’s menu banks usually, and you end up altering numerous the settings within the Customized Settings Menu, you could finally determine to make some banks right here, too. However I don’t suggest coping with these till you’re completely snug with the (much more helpful) capturing menu banks first.
Conclusion
Nikon’s capturing menu banks could appear complicated at first, however they’re very helpful and simple when you perceive them. They’re by far the quickest option to swap dozens of digicam settings suddenly, permitting you to seize photographs that you simply in any other case might need missed.
There are some limitations and issues price understanding, although. As I mentioned above, Nikon’s capturing menu banks don’t reset again to your originally-chosen settings; as a substitute, they keep nevertheless you set them most just lately. Additionally, they don’t embody each setting on a Nikon digicam – they give attention to simply your publicity settings and many of the Taking pictures Menu.
Whereas these limitations might frustrate some photographers, Nikon’s capturing menu banks nonetheless make for a really great tool. I can consider many instances that they saved me from lacking a photograph. Not simply that – they’re an integral a part of how I method wildlife images. For instance, I’ll use Menu Financial institution A when a hen is perched on a department, then instantly flip to Menu Financial institution B (my bird-in-flight settings) when the hen takes off – capturing each photographs in underneath a second with sharp outcomes.
I hope that goes to indicate how helpful Nikon’s capturing menu banks may be, even when they’re a bit of complicated at first. When you have any remaining questions on these menu banks, please let me know within the feedback beneath!
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