I am a bit confused about the analog exposure display on the D40. I understand that in the Manual mode it indicates the resulting exposure of your settings. What I am confused about is it's display in the P mode ( an possibly A & S too ? ). Assuming I have no exposure compensation dialed in, in the Program mode the display only comes up if the inbuilt flash is popped up. But I am not sure what information it conveys in that mode. I tried searching older threads for this and found a couple but didn't seem to have been answered well ( or at least in a way I (newbie) would understand). I have also looked in the manual and it does not explain much.
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D40 Analog Exposure Display
- Thread starter desidown
- Start date
André BARELIER
Forum Pro
Strange,
In all modes, the analog exposure display of my D40 indicates the actual settings, even in the "AUTO" mode.
This lasts for 8 seconds only, and if you want to see it again, you have to half press the shutter, or the "info" button, or the flash release button, for example.
André
In all modes, the analog exposure display of my D40 indicates the actual settings, even in the "AUTO" mode.
This lasts for 8 seconds only, and if you want to see it again, you have to half press the shutter, or the "info" button, or the flash release button, for example.
André
Are you talking about the entire lcd monitor ?
I am talking about the "analog exposure display" bar scale that looks like this :
+ | . . . | . . . o . . . | . . . | -
I am talking about the "analog exposure display" bar scale that looks like this :
+ | . . . | . . . o . . . | . . . | -
When you raise the flash the analog exposure display has the same meaning in P, S & A modes as it does in M mode, i.e. it represents the degree of under- or overexposure that would occur WITHOUT the flash firing. In A mode, for instance, the flash sync speed never falls below 1/60s. If you're indoors then that might not be slow enough for correct exposure, if the flash was not to fire, and hence this is indicated as underexposure on the display.
In fact you can bring up the exposure display even without raising the flash if you go to S mode. Just point the camera at a bright light source and deliberately choose a long shutter speed, say 5s. In this case, the camera cannot compensate, even by stopping the lens down completely (selecting the largest f-number) and this is represented as overexposure on the analog display.
In fact you can bring up the exposure display even without raising the flash if you go to S mode. Just point the camera at a bright light source and deliberately choose a long shutter speed, say 5s. In this case, the camera cannot compensate, even by stopping the lens down completely (selecting the largest f-number) and this is represented as overexposure on the analog display.
Thanks for your reply. I think I understand it now : I think the key thing is that it displays the exposure that would occur WITHOUT the flash firing BUT at or above the minimum flash sync shutter speed (and below the fastest sync speed). So it is not considering the flash when calculating exposure but is considering the shutter speeds that are imposed due to the flash. That would explain why it suddenly shows a large underexposure on the meter when I pop up the flash.
Yes that's right, and you can confirm the effect by panning towards a bright light source in A mode. You should see the degree of underexposure decrease (assuming the aperture is fairly wide open, if you're indoors) up to the point where the flash sync speed can even begin to rise above 1/60s.
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