Thanks. Good tips for sure but I won't have time to query the students' learning desires. I've already identified the subjects to be covered so they generally understand the scope of the lesson - very basic. My course will be for Point 'n Shoot and entry level DSLR ops who understand little if anything about photography.

Thank you Linda. MUCH information here to draw from.

After years of refusing, I've caved to the request of a local arts organization to teach a beginners course on photography; it's about a month away. I have plenty of time to prepare but I'm sure it won't be necessary to reinvent the wheel. Have any of you taught such a course and if so can you steer me to a pre-prepared lesson plan and perhaps some training aids that focus on fundamentals (light, subject, composition, etc.)? I'll be teaching the course outside because of COVID and I plan on keeping the class at or under 2 hours.

I have two D7200s, each at the ready with its own lens attached all the time. One of the cameras has two problems that I've been unable to solve:
(1) The ISO drifts high, sometimes as high as 5,000. It'll stay put for a while at the lower settings (e.g. 100 or 200, etc.) but eventually/unpredictably it drifts upward. It's ruined some images.
(2) The green LED battery light on the back of the camera comes on when it shouldn't, usually right in the middle of shooting a series of images. Sometimes, the light being on seems to be the cause of my shutter release not working (can't take a pic), but other times I'm able to shoot images while it's on. Trouble is it's unpredictable and I've missed some really good images because of it. I've read some blogs that suggest moving the on-off switch all the way over to the lightbulb position then snapping it back to the off position. That doesn't work for me. There are also suggestions for either re-formatting a card or replacing it with a new one - neither one has worked. Any suggestions?

I've been repeatedly looking at the AF/M switch for the last 2 days as part of my double check of settings. It appeared to be in AF so I didn't touch it. Just touched it and found it was off of the AF position by a hair - and that's what caused the problem. Gave it a little nudge back into AF and all is well. Live and Learn.

Thanks everyone.

Out of the blue the AF isn't working. Double checked all settings and nothing is amiss. I then cleaned the lens and camera contacts and tried another couple lenses but the problem persists. I do see occasional flashes of the ball but mostly nothing at all that indicates the camera/lens is even attempting to focus.

Me too, on both counts. Thanks again.

I just tried your solution and it worked! Many thanks.

Tried resetting to factory settings. It failed to solve the problem - still unable to shoot.

Thanks Bruce but same result. That said, I'm leaning toward reset pending responses from others.

Any RX100 III owners out there who've experienced this? I'm seeing this message on the screen upon power-up: "Writing to the memory card was not completed correctly. Recover data?" beneath which appears Enter and Cancel, neither of which resolve the problem. Have tried new card but same message pops up. Have also tried powering up and down with no resolution to the problem. With various manipulations of buttons, the camera's screen sometimes shows the scene that the lens sees but "Error" shows up on the screen so unable shoot. Bought this refurbished from Adorama 18 months ago, along with a 2-year Green Leaf warranty, but Adorma/Green Leaf won't cover anything because the warranty language (on the invoice) says "Lens only". I failed to recognize that when I purchased the camera. I'm quite disappointed in Adorama for limiting the warranty to a fixed lens, but not much I can do about it. As far as trouble shooting and repair services are concerned, I live in Maine quite distant from reputable repair shops but have a trip planned to Arizona so I might take the camera to Tempe Camera for trouble shoot and fix. I've had very positive past experiences with them. Suggestions?

Great shots (and galleries), Rob. I live about 3 hours up the coast from you on the Schoodic Peninsula. Have you shot up here before?

Thanks, Ken. Yes, I've already shipped the lens & hood back and will receive a new lens and HB-39 hood.

Yeah, the filter is on my mind too. I mistakenly said "at full extension" and "at 300mm" - the vignetting is only at the widest setting (18mm), not zoom.

Just took my new lens out for a "spin" only for the third time since purchasing it 10 days ago through Amazon (Cameta Camera). The first two times out it worked fine, although the barrel movement was/is stiff and I don't like the vignetting (only at full extension) with the thread-on tulip hood. This morning the auto focus failed after using it for about 10 minutes. I had to shift to manual focus to capture the image I wanted. The auto focus failed in both manual (aperture priority) and automatic modes. My body is a D7200. I will call Cameta Camera today to ask for guidance on returning this lens. In the meantime, has anyone experience this type failure with this lens? Also, has anyone else experienced the vignetting with this screw-on (not twist on) hood? I have mine threaded (67mm) over my UV filter. It appears to me that I must either live with the vignetting at 300mm or buy a different hood.