black pictures on D7000 indoors in manual mode. Help!

Hi everyone!
Yesterday my camera started bahaving weird. In manual mode the pictures come out super dark (almost black except some kinda reddish light source).
In aperture mode I set the aperture and the shutter speed stays on LOW despite the aperture and ISO I select. It causes blurry or dark pictures.
In shutter speed it's the opposite. I select shutter speed and aperture stays on low all the time and the pictures come out absolutely black. It doesn't matter what shutter speed and ISO I select aperture number doesn't change...

Pictures outside in a day time are OK, not great though....
I'm trying to make pics in a room with normal artificial light. It's not bright but definitely not too dark, so pics are just absolutely black. I've done photos in the same surrounding before and it always was good without even any flash. And when I turn on the flash the picture is good enough although I need to set a very high ISO.

I need to say that I always shoot only in manual mode, so I know hot to set the right exposure. I hope the reason is in settings (coz I did messed up with settings, but then changed everything back again), but not a technical issue with aperture or shutter speed...

Any ideas? Please help me if you can !

What lens are you using? Give me example of your manual setting inside (iso,aperture,shutter speed). Can you see properly in the viewfinder? I hope the lens cap is not on… One never knows and sorry if you think this is a stupid question because I've seen it happen.

In manual mode try setting you iso to 1600 and then turn the main command wheel and the sub-command wheel until the display inside the viewfinder says 0 in the bottom. This should make it work.

Let us know what happens when you do that. Post an image (small jpeg) so we can see the data of the picture (exif).

Maybe you've moved some thing...You might want to reset your camera to it's default settings...It might fix it..

Thanks everybody for your respond.
Marcel, i tried your advice, but it didn't help unfortunately. I included pictures i did yesterday with artificial light in the room and today in a day time.
Yesterday I couldn't properly see in a viewfinder, it was super dark, same as pictures. Then it started working properly again after I turned the camera on and off a couple of times. But pictures are still dark.
Outdoors it works good, althought I can notice that something is different.

Pedroy, I hope the problem is in settings, but not anything more serious...

I tried different lens as well, same result (18-105 mm, 35 mm, 70-300 mm).
I did reset, but no difference. If I do reset should I see some message that reset was complete?

Just curious... Did the camera confirm right expose before you took the shots?
Also, have you tried a shot on AUTO with the flash turned off to see how it comes out?

Obir, the exposure should be right. I tried to make a shot on AUTO without flash and the result is good. I'm from Orlando too by the way.

Bagira said:

Obir, the exposure should be right. I tried to make a shot on AUTO without flash and the result is good. I'm from Orlando too by the way.

Click to expand...

Great to have a fellow Floridian on the forum. Welcome!

If you're confident you have the right exposure shooting on Manual, and shots in AUTO without flash are ok, then I'd think you moved/switched something (IMHO). AUTO overrides a lot of custom settings. I find it odd that the reset did not fix it.
Other than checking to see if you have any bracketing on, I'd just go through the Custom Setting Menu and check one by one.

Hope this helps

Ah, your exposure meter is set on "SPOT" Change it back to "Matrix" and you should get a way better result.

Please try it and let me know.

At least it's good that you guys think that the problem is in settings only. I think so too. I'll keep checking everything.

The exposure meter is set on center-weighted area. Marcel, what changes should I make with it?

Bagira said:

The exposure meter is set on center-weighted area. Marcel, what changes should I make with it?

Click to expand...

Looking at the Exif data, you have the metering set to Spot, set it to Matrix and you should see a better result

Bagira said:

At least it's good that you guys think that the problem is in settings only. I think so too. I'll keep checking everything.

The exposure meter is set on center-weighted area. Marcel, what changes should I make with it?

Click to expand...

This is what you're looking for.


Change setting to match the icon above.

This is the settngs what I have. I tried everything, but the photo remains being black.

Bagira said:

This is the settngs what I have. I tried everything, but the photo remains being black.

Click to expand...

OK, I think that you need help from someone that has a Nikon camera and lives close to you. Where did you buy your camera? If it is from a store, I strongly suggest you go back with your camera and ask them to explain why you keep having dark pictures. Or a friend maybe. Otherwise, use the camera in auto mode or A mode and in the menu use auto iso.

I'm sorry I can't help you more, but it is impossible for me to know if the camera is broken or if you don't know how to use it. If it works outdoor, maybe there is not enough light to take photos inside where you are. I'm runnning out of idea on how to help you, sorry.

Thank you guys for trying! Yes, I will need somebody to take a look at it. Thanks again.
Also when I'm turning camera on and often after there is one focusing dat on the display. May it cause problems? I dont think I had it before.

What is your exposure compensation set at?

In normal daylight, should be absolutely no image, place on tripod, find a nice wall lit from a window, just put in auto, if the camera still screws up,, accept that something is wrong with camera, and have it serviced.

Just one more question, did you read the manual? You might find the answer right in there.

Set your EV at +0-. Also, what is your White Balance set at? Try setting it on the Fluorescent setting for indoor shots and the Sun setting for outdoors. I have a feeling it's a combination of EV and WB settings that are not set right. Oh...and don't use 100 ISO for indoor shots that are not well lit. Bump up the ISO to something like 400 or 800. Outdoors, use 100 ISO in bright sunlight.