How to keep the viewfinder display (or at least the focus display) on after release

GracieAllen

Senior Member
I THOUGHT this was a simple thing, but I'm either not doing something right, or it's not...........

You're out in the woods with your "favorite" lens and extension tubes on your Nikon D810. And of course, the extension tubes, even though they SAY they couple perfectly to the autofocus, DON'T... SO, you're in manual focus mode, trying to get the focus EXACTLY RIGHT on EXACTLY the spot you want. And because of the angle/position/bright sun/whatever you CAN'T USE THE LIVE VIEW... SO, to make life more manageable, you press the AE button and release it (or the shutter button part way). And the viewfinder shows you the little arrows and circle in the lower left to indicate whether or not the exact spot you want are in focus... BUT, about TWO SECONDS LATER the viewfinder display goes blank and you no longer have the focusing information.........

HOW DO I GET THE VIEWFINDER INFORMATION TO STAY ON LONGER? Yes, I've looked at the timer settings in the menu, but there doesn't APPEAR to be an obvious one for the viewfinder display. I've set them ALL to ridiculously long times, like 1 min or even 5 min, and the viewfinder STILL blanks after a couple seconds.....

SO, IS there a way to have the viewfinder display stay lit for longer after I release the button, and if so, HOW???
 

nickt

Senior Member
That should be the standby timer under menu C. I don't have the d810 to test, but on my camera the standby timer does it. You should be able to keep it on forever if you want.
 

J-see

Senior Member
Standby does the trick. I have mine on 6sec which corresponds to the duration of the viewfinder info. Setting it longer will solve the duration issue you'll have when not using backbutton focus.
 
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GracieAllen

Senior Member
Thanks guys. I KNEW it had to be there somewhere, staring me in the face....... And once I knew what it was called, THERE IT WAS, BIG AS LIFE, AND JUST AS UGLY!!!!!!!

Changed it to make life a little simpler...
 

Johan65ZA

Senior Member
That should be the standby timer under menu C. I don't have the d810 to test, but on my camera the standby timer does it. You should be able to keep it on forever if you want.
Keep it on forever will slash your battery power by half. Seen many people complain about nikon bad battery life just to change this setting back to 6 seconds an suddenly battery time is back to normal
 
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