Nikon D7100 - mixed up settings

I mixed up my Nikon D7100 settings and now it takes only very dark, nearly pitch black when it is on A,S or M mode. The exposure indicator shows it is all correct. It works fine when on Auto. What could I have done wrong. Can't figure out myself.

Welcome to Nikonites.

You might want to try the two buttons factory reset... It's somewhere in the user's manual.

Hard to say what's wrong without knowing a lot more information but have you made any adjustments to the camera settings? Since the camera takes perfectly good shots when in full-automatic, this sounds like this is probably some kind of "Pilot Error". If you've made adjustments to the settings the simple solution might be to do a two-button reset.

To do a two-button reset, press and hold the two buttons on your camera body that have the green dots next to them, there's one on the top of the body near the shutter release and another on the left side near the bottom.

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Actually, it sounds a LOT like what I did with my D3100 last month. It sounds like you've accidentally adjusted the exposure compensation to an extreme, which will cause the symptoms you've shared. Check there!

I'm voting for extreme exposure compensation myself. If that's not it, go with the factory reset.

I still do that once in a while. Can't figure out why my exposure is off, then after getting frustrated for a few minutes I'll have "DUH" moment.

Unless you set your camera for spot metering and the center of you image is white.

Thank you ever so much for the quick reply. That was exactly what I have done. All fixed now. Can I ask one more question? How to set up one click zoom on the LCD and assign back button focus? If I am asking too many questions I may start a new thread.

Nevena said:

How to set up one click zoom on the LCD...

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Go to Custom Setting Menu/Controls (F)/OK button/Playback mode/Zoom On/Off and set it to "Medium magnification". I suggest using medium magnification, but that's really up to you.

Nevena said:

... and assign back button focus? If I am asking too many questions I may start a new thread.

Click to expand...

How to setup back button focus (BBF): Back Button Focus Setup Guide

Nevena said:

Thank you ever so much for the quick reply. That was exactly what I have done. All fixed now. Can I ask one more question? How to set up one click zoom on the LCD and assign back button focus? If I am asking too many questions I may start a new thread.

Click to expand...

Could you be a little more specific and tell us what exactly you had done. This could be very helpful for others as well.

O, yeah. As I just started using the forum didn't realise that my post will appear beneath all of the replies. What I have done is I have set the exposure compensation to -5. Exactly what some of the members here suggested.

It is amazing how everyone is so helpful here. I should have joined the forum long time ago. I bought my Nikon D7100 last year just when it was released. Since then I have been struggling with my focus. Out of 3000 picture, mostly of my daughter who is super, super fast and active, only a handful are tack sharp. It is that bad. With her it is hard to acquire focus on first place. She is that fast. I tried Continuous but it doesn't seem to work. From what I understand C is for subjects moving either towards you or far from you. What if she is moving sporadically all over the place. Maybe I should use 3-D. I haven't tried this one. Also it looks like I have shaky hands. I tried holding my breath when pressing and releasing the shutter. Nothing seems to work. Can someone give me an idea what focus setting to use when photographing my daughter and also suggest a good article on which focus configurations in which situations.
Thank you very much.

Nevena said:

It is amazing how everyone is so helpful here. I should have joined the forum long time ago. I bought my Nikon D7100 last year just when it was released. Since then I have been struggling with my focus. Out of 3000 picture, mostly of my daughter who is super, super fast and active, only a handful are tack sharp. It is that bad. With her it is hard to acquire focus on first place. She is that fast. I tried Continuous but it doesn't seem to work. From what I understand C is for subjects moving either towards you or far from you. What if she is moving sporadically all over the place. Maybe I should use 3-D. I haven't tried this one. Also it looks like I have shaky hands. I tried holding my breath when pressing and releasing the shutter. Nothing seems to work. Can someone give me an idea what focus setting to use when photographing my daughter and also suggest a good article on which focus configurations in which situations.
Thank you very much.

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It's difficult to say without seeing the pictures and understanding the shooting situation. Are you sure the pictures are suffering from focus? Could it be too slow shutter speed? If you would post some photos with the exif intact, then maybe we could help you more.

I use AF-C a lot for wildlife, and it doesn't seem to matter what direction the subject is moving, as long as you keep it in the selected focus point and hold the shutter button halfway down, it will keep focusing.

I have less luck with 3D, as the subject must have a sharp contrast to the background for it to work, and with wildlife this is rarely the case - You may have more luck with your daughter so give it a go.

There is a very helpful Doc here, it's technical but is great to get an understanding of what modes work best where:- http://www.pixelfinesse.com/_docs/D7000_AF_Explained.pdf

Nevena said:

It is amazing how everyone is so helpful here. I should have joined the forum long time ago. I bought my Nikon D7100 last year just when it was released. Since then I have been struggling with my focus. Out of 3000 picture, mostly of my daughter who is super, super fast and active, only a handful are tack sharp. It is that bad. With her it is hard to acquire focus on first place. She is that fast. I tried Continuous but it doesn't seem to work. From what I understand C is for subjects moving either towards you or far from you. What if she is moving sporadically all over the place. Maybe I should use 3-D. I haven't tried this one. Also it looks like I have shaky hands. I tried holding my breath when pressing and releasing the shutter. Nothing seems to work. Can someone give me an idea what focus setting to use when photographing my daughter and also suggest a good article on which focus configurations in which situations.
Thank you very much.

Click to expand...

Keep using either Auto-focus Auto or Auto-focus Continuous, either should be fine, with 21 focus points. Adjust these settings by pressing the AF/M button on the side of your camera body. It's located at about eight o'clock if you're looking at the backside of your camera. Press it and at the same time, turn the Sub-Command Wheel (the one on the front of your camera) until you see "d 21". Press that same button but this time use the main Command Wheel (the one on the back of your camera) to adjust between AF-A, AF-S and AF-C.

Set your cameras Mode Dial to "S", This is Shutter (Speed) Priority Mode.

Now go into your cameras menus, go into the Shooting Menu and drop down to "ISO Sensitivity Settings".

Set your ISO Sensitivity to "100".
Set ISO Sensitivity Control to "ON".
Set Maximum Sensitivity to "6400".
Set Minimum Shutter Speed to "Auto.
Press "OK" and exit the menus.

Now, what you're going to do is use the Command Wheel on your camera, that's the wheel on the back of the camera, to dial in a specific shutter speed, say 1/200 or 1/250. That should be enough shutter speed to get consistently sharp shots of the fastest kid on the planet. Half press your shutter button, look at your top mounted LCD and spin that wheel until you see a shutter speed of 1/200 or 1/250. You want to use the lowest ISO that gives you proper exposure but Auto ISO is on, so the camera will manage that for you automatically.

With these settings, you should be good to go.

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