Superb !

'Manual' can also be "very fast" and give just as quick access to change Aperture or Shutter if you use Auto ISO (but then some may not consider this 'Manual' in the true sense).

It's speed and ease of use is also determined by make and model of camera you have.

Is this something Nikon model specific or am I confused?

I have just pointed my heavy D800 with 80-400mm at a target and on pressing BBF (AF-ON) button, VR is activated immediately. It will of course de-activate after a while if I do nothing else.

Can you describe how much "Quality" you are getting with the tubes plus lens you are using at present?

I ask because what you consider as 'quality' others may not and it may be referring to something totally different that what I'm thinking. As an example, I recently read a post where someone described 'quality' as what most would describe as 'DOF'.

Then ....................



Learning Manual Mode will not automatically get you better photos but will allow you to select individual settings that may produce better results than the settings an 'Automatic' mode considered were 'best'.

My advice additional to that which has been mentioned already emphasising the understanding of how/what aperture, speed and ISO do is to practice. For practising, you can simply sit in a comfy chair outside or in a reasonably lit room indoors and shoot away.

Example, shoot an ornament, lampshade, bush, bicycle.................. whatever, take a shot to maximise DoF, adjust the other two settings to obtain good exposure, then another one to minimise DoF. Take shots of the same subjects using a high shutter speed as would be used for birds in flight and adjust the other two settings to get a good exposure. Delete, practice, delete ...........................

Good detail and perspective. I'm curious how you achieved such good DoF?

For the 'entire figure to be in focus' this is going to be influenced by the focal length plus the distance from subject (that determines how large it is within the frame) and aperture used.

If your Minifigure is say 15mm depth you could use a DOF calculator to see what's needed with your sensor to get that depth of field.

I would agree with that.

I would suggest it depends entirely upon your own personal circumstances, living/storage environment and condition of your equipment.

Do any of your lenses show any signs of fungal growth inside? This can be easily seen, if so you should reconsider how and where you store your gear.

I live at the edge of a rain forest on the coast where humidity is often 95%, cameras and lenses need to live in a humidity controlled cabinet.

I find that when hand-holding including partially supported, manual focus and moving my body to acquire accurate focus on a moving subject, VR remaining on (shutter half pressed) assists in providing a steadier view in the viewfinder. With this method the VR start up time delay is removed.

Is there a downside to this method?

With respect to the fourth image where you used flash with a Manual exposure of 0.8 sec, f/13, ISO 100, there may have been enough ambient light with that shutter speed to affect the sharpness of the image. When using flash and hand holding I always use my max sync speed.

With respect to the first three, as already mentioned the shutter speed was way too low for hand holding.

Have to admit I'm a bit confused as to what you are asking but based upon your above statement, I would suggest the setting/power of the flash would be determined upon the distance of your subject.

A very long shot but have you somehow set up for BBF (back button focus) and disabled AF activation from the shutter button without knowing it. I'm not conversant with the D7200 or if this is reverted after a reset.

The reality is that Nikon gave the user the ability to 'Fine Tune' using both the 'Default Option' and the 'Individual Lens Option' methods, I doubt they would have added these functions if they did not have some merit.

Until a user actually undertakes some pretty basic controlled testing to confirm the actual status of what his lens/camera combination is doing it's all supposition regarding the next move.