I shoot dancers and use AF-C auto ISO but I set the upper limit to 3000. I also use single point of focus. My zoom lens is Nikkor 18-105mm f3.5-5.0. I had a D3100 for 10 years I now have a Z6 with FTZ so I use the same glass. The suggestion to use Nikon's app it is now Nikon NX Studio. I have it on all my systems. My friend has a D5500 and had trouble with focus point as well. I ran some test shots of various focus settings and found that the single point to be the most reliable for live action shooting. I have learned alot over the last 10 years. I generally do not use flash due to the environment. I would advise that you try different shutter speeds as well. I usually stay at 160 and wait for the shot. Think about a plus 1 compensation setting too. I use DXO P4L and/or ON1 RAW 2022 to process RAW generally. Have fun.

Hey Doc I drive one of those too. Great car! I worked on the fine over engineered German cars so I do know better. I took up Ballroom dancing to be with people that liked people. That guy that gave you the finger was not worth your time. Good call that. I mainly shoot dancers. I am a retired IT Pro. I don't charge, I just have fun.

18~105mm 98% of the time. I shot mainly dancers.

I have a friend that purchased the Nikon Coolpix A1000. It is does not have a changeable lens. Has a 24Mb sensor, shoots RAW and ran about $500. Great for trips.

If you are connecting to a WIFI hub the issue could be too many other connections. It is a shared resource so the more connections the slow the speed & throughput.

I was beginning to wonder about some of the Laylafan69 explanations. Thanks for the info.

I have been using versions of Nikon's processing apps since 2008. Exporting is the key after you make the adjustments you need since you are shooting RAW or NEF. You may want to download the reference manual. It is quite comprehensive and easy to follow. Just hit the F1 key in the APP and it will open a browser window to the online reference with a selection to download the manual.

The original NX View app (2008) had elements of the Uview system used in the current NIK Collection now by DXO. The NX Studio ver 1.1 is a great free app for Nikon cameras and I started using it when I bought my first Nikon a Coolpix S630 for travel. I still use it but now my goto is a Z6 with a D3100 backup.

I was using NX Studio to process my Lady's Coolpix A 1000 images since DXO PL4 & 5 do not support the body. There are advantages to using NX Studio. There is an option to turn on the focus point. It uses the EXIF data to show you where the camera was camera was focusing when the image was captured. I was surprised more than once using this feature. It helped me to pay attention while shooting.

There is an app that comes with the NX Studio called Nikon Transfer 2. This app will transfer the images from the camera or memory card to your computer and change the name in the process. I use this extensively to rename my images to match the project or perhaps my trip vs leaving it the name that the camera uses. The next feature I use in NX Studio is the EXIF editor. Not all photo apps have an editor that allows you to update the metadata.

Granted the export takes awhile to run. It depends upon the resources available on your computer.

I hope this information helps. I remember the learning curve I had with my first set of NEF/RAW photos. My Coolpix is JPG only. My D3100 was purchased in 2013.

Have fun, keep asking for help, we all do. Almost forgot there is no watermarking since the app does not support layers.

I just updated my ON1 Raw 2018 to 2022.1 version and found it a much better product. I was using Adobe for about 4 years in between but was tired of the breakage everytime their was an update. I have been using DXO PL4 for the last year along with the NIK Collection which I have used for 6 years and before DXO bought them. I use Affinity photo for special edits & composites. ON1 export is much improved. Much faster over DXO. DXO while a good product does not process a camera used by my lady. A Nikon A1000. It is a P&S so I use Nikons Studio NX for that until I upgraded to the newest ON1. Frankly all of photo apps are good until they aren't for what ever reason. I still use GIMP on occasion too.

Thanks for asking for Best or Favorite Photo for this year. I scrolled thru 33 pages of uploads. All of you are a bit intimidating with the quality of the images shared. Well Done! I mainly shoot dancers. I purchased a reconditioned Nikon Z6 and my first big shoot with it was a Spring Showcase at the dance studio that I have been with for about 25 years ( I dance too) now. So I know all of the people that I am shooting. I shoot landscapes and a bit of wildlife as well.

Well I shot 1800 pictures during the showcase. There were 50 performances in the space of 2 hours. Of the images I had about 100 great images that I would consider my best. I was very happy with the results with the Z6 my other camera is a Nikon D3100 with about 85,000 shutter releases since 2013. These were processed using DXO PL4, Nik collection and Affinity Photo. I do this just for fun.

This married couple compete at the USA Dance contests.


My dance instructor with Tim


Shot by my friend with her Nikon D5500. I do the processing & edits. This is a Fav.

I am not a pro photog but retired IT. I have a QNAP NAS with 2 external drives attached. The NAS is dual drive 4TB ea. Externals attached via USB 3.1. 4TB & 2TB. This is a total of 12TB on line. These are not compressed and the externals could travel and used without the NAS. I do selective backups using Free File sync.

I only use cloud systems to transfer files between others and for documents while travelling.

I do have 14 years of photos and video edits for a dance studio plus my own travels in digital since 2009.

So glad you understand the value of backups.

Funny you should ask. I have just upgraded my ON1 RAW 2018 to 2022.1 recently. I also have DXO Photolab 4 Elite. As well as NIK collection from DXO. I tried DXO 5 but they still do not support Nikon's A1000 model. My lady bought one for travel. I have contacted DXO on that issue and the reply was less than satisfactory. I gave up on Adobe over a year ago after an update screwed up both LRC and PS for the third time. I switched to DXO and Affinity Photo.

After using DXO for a year I find that ON1 RAW 2022 is easier to use now. Their workflows are similar and the ON1 processing (export) is much faster. Plus it does process Nikon A1000 NRW files.

Do download the trial ON1 to be sure it will run. My laptop will not run it due to its graphic chip. It's 8 years old so I was not surprised. I did have to upgrade my desktop in 2018 to run ON1. But I got a deal for the app at Shutterfest.

ON1 also has a decent Metadata editor where DXO 4 does not but DXO 5 does. I use Nikon's NX studio and transfer apps as well for file renaming and metadata edits. Been using that since 2009 with my first digital camera.

I have never had the use for LRC catalog system and found it annoying at times. ON1 browser is all I need. It does have a catlog of sorts that you can use to point to favorites and DXO has projects that you can build. My achiving system moves my files between 3 different devices. I offload images from my desktop to a NAS and other external devices to freeup space. That broke LRC catalog. Granted there are ways to use LRC to do that but I am a retired IT pro and I do the file management. I have had apps that have deleted files in the past.

Good luck. Happy Holidays to you.

Frankly I agree with you that post processing is the choice of the photographer first. Especially if you are not shooting for a client. There is a distinction between film and digital that persists as well. As photogs if we are not happy with the image then we try again. That is pretty simple. What we see vs the camera's capture is always different. Post processing to me is a way to bring the vision I saw at that moment to the viewer. I mainly shoot dancers.

You were capturing a bird, you want to showcase that subject, you processed as you saw fit to accomplish that. Well done!

She was absolutely right. Thanks for sharing.

I have a Nikon Coolpix S630 for travel. I use a Z6 with FTZ and Nikkor 18-105 for everything else. Orginal Was D3100 which is my backup now with 80K releases. My friend bought a Coolpix A1000 for our last cruise. Night shots were not so great but it was a new camera. Her other is a D5500 with Tamron 18-200. She did not want to deal with the overall size & weight. We also had our Samsung phones. Hers took great night shots and RAW as well. Have a great trip.

I was one of those snapshot folks. Shooting with film till 2008. It is a P&S Nikon Coolpix S630 that brought me into the digital world. I still take on my trips. It has been around the world with me. Bought a Asus Netbook in 2009 to store my shots and learned the art of post processing with it. I am a retired IT Pro (2009) so I view 99% on computers.

What I have been shooting since 2012 have been my dance friends. I have a D3100 with about 85,000 shutter count. I recently purchased a reconditioned Z6 with FTZ to use the glass I prefer. So yes I wanted a bigger sensor but I really wanted better shots in low light.

I print rarely as I post to social media for my dance studio. U Can Dance in St. Louis Mo. I also dance Ballroom so I usually know what movements are coming. I also post process for my lady so that basically doubles the output. The last showcase we shot 4000 images in 3 hours. 5% were a bit blurred due to motion another 30% were not satisfactory ( missed the shot) but the rest made me smile. That is why I shoot. Get the shot, share what we see that my dance friends cannot while they are in the moment.

I have grown my digital infrastructure to include 18TB of storage to handle the videos, images etc. Desktops, laptop you know, stuff.

Thanks for the Rant. Still shooting, dancing and will be heading to Europe next year.

May you find a new door to open and renew your place behind the camera. Shooting always for me first but hoping it will be good enough to share.