Pointer to more detailed information than the manual has?

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GracieAllen

Senior Member
New D500. I'm one of those folks that actually reads manuals. But, in this case, the manual is NOT very explanatory. For example, "Customize Command Dials". In the manual, if you want to understand what this MEANS, it sends you to page 302. On which it says:

Reverse rotation
Change main/sub Choose the roles played by the main and sub command dials
Aperture setting
Menus and playback
Sub-dial frame advance

I know WHAT those dials are. I know I want the rotation reversed. All that's fine.
What I DON'T know is exactly WHY I would either ignore or change "Aperture setting" for example. Or "menus and playback"...

I'm finding quite a few of these sort of situations and doing a google search for "Nikon D500 customize command dials" isn't much help. I'm hoping someone has a pointer to a better source of info in the Internet.........

Another example is the whole wifi, bluetooth, location info thing in the setup menu... I have NO interest in sending images from the camera to my cell phone. I put snapbridge ON, but can't EVER see using it. What I WOULD like is to get location info if possible for images. Of course, the recommendation is to save battery life by turning AIRPLANE MODE ON which kills ALL this as near as I can tell... BUT, it would be really useful if somebody can point me to a better source of fer-real, actual INFORMATION about exactly what I'm doing, why, the pros and cons of doing it, and HOW whatever it is will get me the location info... Just for example.....

Thoughts?
 
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GadgetComa

New member
I'm about 2/3 of the way through Thom Hogan's book. I highly recommend it. He gives a great deal of technical background to help you understand how various settings interact and how the design of the camera relates to the settings. I especially like his recommendations on how to learn the way the camera's autofocus features work.


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Leif

Senior Member
Speaking as someone who dislikes guides by people such as Hogan, I agree the Nikon D500 manual is rather lacking. I tried to understand lens AF calibration and failed. I resorted to an online explanation. From what I have seen Hogan's guide should be good, but a bit long winded, in part because he is aiming at a large market including relative newbies. What some of us would like is an 'expert/intermediate guide', targeted at someone who knows what features such as matrix metering, iTTL and exposure calibration are, but just wants the camera controls and menus explained in a plain and clear manner.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Leif said:
Speaking as someone who dislikes guides by people such as Hogan, I agree the Nikon D500 manual is rather lacking. I tried to understand lens AF calibration and failed. I resorted to an online explanation. From what I have seen Hogan's guide should be good, but a bit long winded, in part because he is aiming at a large market including relative newbies. What some of us would like is an 'expert/intermediate guide', targeted at someone who knows what features such as matrix metering, iTTL and exposure calibration are, but just wants the camera controls and menus explained in a plain and clear manner.
Click to expand...
This is what David Busch does in most of his books. He explains in casual language not only what a particular function does, but when you might want to use it and why. His "Digital Field Guide for the D7100" is what the manual that came with my camera *should* have been while his "Guide to Digital Photography" series is all that and more. You can preview his books on Amazon pretty extensively, I'd suggest you do that and see if it's more what you're looking for. I put a link to his D500 book in Post #3 of this thread.
 
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GracieAllen

Senior Member
thanks all. I"ll check both... I must confess to being rather disappointed in the manual. I don't REMEMBER older manuals giving totally non-useful verbiage instead of EXPLAINING the function. BUT, I reckon we'll all survive, though I suspect someone new to these bodies would find it fairly difficult to make use of some of the more esoteric capabilities.
 
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