safeman wrote:
I take delivery of my D-7200 sometime on Tuesday. With my luck probably sometime around 8:00 PM and I need to be somewhat functional with by the following morning. I have read the manual (twice) but it is really hard to relate without the camera in your hand. Lens is going to be Sigma Aspherical IF 28-300 And a Nikkor 40mm DX. My questions are: Are the factory settings sufficient to get me started. If not are there some other BASIC things I need to tweak? Warning, I have never even touched a DSLR in my life so please be gentle with your comments.
I take delivery of my D-7200 sometime on Tuesday. ... (
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Factory settings are relatively useful. CHARGE ALL BATTERIES (hopefully you ordered an extra or two). Put the camera on full auto, and see what it does.
You were VERY smart to read the manual! It will make a lot more sense with the camera in hand.
Learning photography is a life-long, never-ending process for some, and a casual hobby for others. You can get really deep into the finer points of the gear, the technique, the art, and so forth, or you can just "point and shoot".
The D7200 is an extremely capable tool. Your challenge will be to tap those capabilities. The best advice I can give you is to NEVER blame the camera for a bad image, unless you truly cannot get it to work. 98% of problems people think they have with camera gear are simply lack of knowledge leading to operator error.
If you once used medium to large format film, forget all the rules of thumb you learned. You'll need f/stops larger (wider) than f/11. You can work at much higher ISOs than we used to with film. Tilt/shift is mostly done in software these days. The only filters you need are Neutral Density, Graduated Neutral Density, Circular Polarizer, and a Clear Glass Protector. UV filters are useless for digital below about 6000 feet. Practically all other filtration can be done in software. Good depth of field can be had at medium apertures for most scenes.
As you grow into your camera, you'll learn that successful digital imaging requires a systems approach. Some of the tools that build that system:
Tripod, monopod, beanbag (camera stabilizers)
White balance reference tools (18% Gray Cards, One Shot Digital Calibration Targets, WhiBals, ExpoDiscs, ColorChecker Passports...)
High speed SD card readers (USB 3.0, capable of reading SDXC cards used by newer cameras)
A recent Mac or Windows Computer (8-16 GB RAM, 1TB or more drive space, fast video card...)
A decent computer monitor (not a laptop monitor) capable of displaying 100% of the sRGB ICC color gamut, or better, 99% of Adobe RGB color gamut
A monitor calibration and profiling kit (from X-Rite or DataColor)
Software for post-processing raw files (many choices there...)
A decent photo lab (do a Google search for 'professional photo labs') AND/OR (if you're a control freak):
A decent *photo quality* inkjet printer (more than four ink colors... Epson and Canon are the top brands)
Depth of field calculator app for your smartphone
Enjoy!