Flash with D700

[KPratter]

New D700 owner & have a question about flash. Camera is P Mode & without flash there s no analog over/under exposure scale. Using either the built in flash or and SB-800, the electronic analog dispy bar shows up & indicates an under exposure condition (which varies depending on the available light). Call to Nikon tech support indicated that this is normal as the camera is set to the flash parameters (shutter speed (1/60) & a required aperture for the existing light (i.e. f5.6)). Looking at the anolge display, my frst inclination is to adjust for the underexpsure condition, but it would apear I don't have to.Taking a picture gives a corretly exposed picture (at least it looks like it to me). Seems kind of confusing, to have the camera indicate under exposure but in reality it is setting up the correct expsure. I have not tinkered with any settings in the menus leaving things as per out of the box setting & slowly learning the camera.

Not that I question Nikon & their knowledge, but does anyone else see this & can it be corrected, if indeed it needs to be corrected?
--
K. Pratter

 

[phila_guy]

you're not going to get a reading on the analog scale with flash until just before you take the picture since the flash has to fire the pre-flash, the camera gets a reading from the reflected light, numbers are crunched and then the camera decides how much light the flash should fire to get proper exposure.

get out of P mode to use the camera and flash to its fullest capability, set the aperture and shutter speed manually and let TTL decide how much flash to use. You'll have to add/subtract flash compensation depending on the situation.

New D700 owner & have a question about flash. Camera is P Mode &
without flash there s no analog over/under exposure scale. Using
either the built in flash or and SB-800, the electronic analog dispy
bar shows up & indicates an under exposure condition (which varies
depending on the available light). Call to Nikon tech support
indicated that this is normal as the camera is set to the flash
parameters (shutter speed (1/60) & a required aperture for the
existing light (i.e. f5.6)). Looking at the anolge display, my frst
inclination is to adjust for the underexpsure condition, but it would
apear I don't have to.Taking a picture gives a corretly exposed
picture (at least it looks like it to me). Seems kind of confusing,
to have the camera indicate under exposure but in reality it is
setting up the correct expsure. I have not tinkered with any settings
in the menus leaving things as per out of the box setting & slowly
learning the camera.

Not that I question Nikon & their knowledge, but does anyone else see
this & can it be corrected, if indeed it needs to be corrected?

--

We have art that we do not die of the truth.
--Friedrich Nietzsche

 

[RossWM]

New D700 owner & have a question about flash. Camera is P Mode &
without flash there s no analog over/under exposure scale.

Did you have he camera set to Auto ISO mode? I did. So if the camera detects under exposure to your initial shutter/aperture settings in which ever mode, and if it's out of possible range with the max aperture/lowest shutter speed, it will auto adjust ISO to correct. Therefore there's no analog over/under indication because it is just right after the ISO adjustment!

Using

either the built in flash or and SB-800, the electronic analog dispy
bar shows up & indicates an under exposure condition (which varies
depending on the available light).

This is normal too. If you pop the flash or use a Nikon flash, it will over-ride the auto ISO. i.e. set it back to your original default level (mine is 200). There you will see the under exposure readings on the scale indicating how much it is under exposued by with your settings. Then, the flash unit will do the compensation by firing the correct amout of light. That's why use see a correctly exposed picture most of the time.

Hope this help.

Cheers

 

[tmv506570]

In P mode (automatic) the camera will certainly give the correct exposure 99% of the time, so there's no under/overexpose scale.

When using flash in P mode, default setting will be 1/60 f5.6. It's infact will give you an underexposed picture (hint the underexpose on the scale,) but the flash (in TTL mode) will take care of the lighting to make it a correctly exposed picture.

In other word, nothing's wrong with your camera. Enjoy it.

 

[KPratter]

Thanks for the feedback.

I didn't hink there was anything wrong, I just wasn't sure (only had the camera for 2 weeks). I am relying on my film experience & when the camera tells me underexposure is a possibility I look to correct for it.

I must say it is an awesome camera & the possibilities, well what can you say. I'm certainly looking forward to learning how to really utilize this camera.

Thanks again.
--
K. Pratter