Skip to main content

Bottom and Front Camera Features

Lesson 15 from: Nikon D5 Fast Start

John Greengo

Bottom and Front Camera Features

Lesson 15 from: Nikon D5 Fast Start

John Greengo

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

15. Bottom and Front Camera Features

Next Lesson: Lenses

Lesson Info

Bottom and Front Camera Features

Looking at the bottom of the camera, we'll have our serial number and we'll see the actual model number. We can see we have a D5-b there which means we're using compact flash cards in that particular camera and so, that's how you can tell which type of card your camera is using. Has of course a standard tripod socket, 1/4- and this camera has an alignment hole here. So, if you are mounting this up and you do not want the camera to twist, you can have a pin that works into that spot so the camera does not twist on you in any sort of attachment. Looking at the front of the camera, the sensor on the camera, as we mentioned before, is a 20.8 megapixel, full frame sensor. It's a CMOS sensor. We can see our dual microphones for stereo sound out on the front. We have our command dials for horizontal and vertical shooting. We have our depth of field preview button. We've talked a little bit about this before, but by pressing this button in under normal circumstances it stops the aperture down ...

to the working aperture so that you can see how much depth of field you're going to get. Now, normally with a digital camera, I would just recommend people shoot a photo, look at it on the back of the camera, and you'll see how much depth of field that you're gonna get, but in some cases, it's hard to see the back of the camera. So, pressing in on this button, like this, you stop the aperture down and you can see how much depth of field you are getting in your particular image. Below that, we have another programmable button, this is function button number one and two. These can be customized and I'll show you and give you some tips on how I would program those when we get to the menu section of the class. Over on the right hand side, we have a couple more ports on the camera. We have our PC flash sync and just for those of you into computers, this has nothing to do with Macs and PCs. This is a prontor control. I believe it is. And so, this is for connecting up for studio flash units. There's a lot of flash units that use a very retro, traditional style flash plug which really has not changed much in about the last 50 years. Much more sophisticated is Nikon's ten-pin remote and boy are there a lot of things that you can plug in here. If you wanna trigger the camera, you can get the MC- and it's just a simple electronic plunger. You can press the shutter release. You can lock it in for doing bulb exposure. If you want something a little bit fancier, the MC-36(A) will give you many more functions that you can set the camera up. It has a light on it. It has a timer and some other little cool features to it. If you need an extension cord because the three foot cord that it comes with is not long enough, there's an extension cord. There is an adaptor cord, let's see, for connecting up different types of devices over the years. The adaptor cord here is for hooking up older adapters that use a different, I believe it was a three or is two pin, two pin to ten pin adaptor there. And then, finally, there is what's often referred to as a banana plug and this can be kind of cool if you wanna attach your own device. I remember one time I was doing a lot of sports photography and I wanted a really long wired remote 'cause I was shooting with a long telephoto lens, then I would have another shorter lens and then when the ball got to the goal, I wanted a third camera to fire that was fired remotely and so I hooked, I used one of these banana plugs and I built my own foot pedal. So, I had a foot pedal like a guitarist has and when they, ball got close to the goal, I would just hit the foot pedal and I would trigger that third camera that was mounted in a far off location. So, you could do it with a foot pedal. You could do it with a sound trigger, an infrared trigger, or hook up whatever you want to it using that MC-22(A) option. So, fun for people who like to, to medal with gadgets. We can also plug in the WR-A10 wireless adapter so the camera has a signal or a receiver that you can use the WR-10T wireless transmitter. So, if you just want a simple, short range wireless transmitter this would work. And then, there is a third piece to it that you could plug in, so that you can trigger flashes as well. And, if you want, you can buy a kit that you get all of these in one kit. The kit sells for a little under $200 bucks or you can buy the individual units if you want them to plug in. For instance, if you needed a number of the WR-R10's to go in multiple flash units you could do that. We also have a infrared remote which will give you a little bit more distance. The ML-3 modulite remote will give you more distance than the previous remote we just talked about. And then, we can also plug in the GP-1(A) GPS unit for logging GPS data in with the camera. That GPS unit sells for about $250. And, if you wanna hook in your own GPS unit, you can do it with the MC-35 cord. You'll, of course, need to have the right adapters on your GPS unit to get that information logged into the camera's metadata. We have our lens release and our lens locking pin that moves back and forth so that we can mount our lenses on and off. There is a lens mounting mark on the lens and on the camera itself. Those white dots are what you're aligning when you're putting your lenses on and off. There are CPU contacts both on the lens and on the top of the mount which need to be free and clear so that the cameras can communicate clearly with the lenses. The camera has an AF drive shaft for driving the older pre-AF-S lenses. They have a little archaic drive shaft and so they spin this little drive shaft and they focus the lens. They make a little bit more noise and they're a little bit slower focusing, but it does allow you to use the oldest of the auto focus lenses. And up on top, there's little meter coupling lever and this is so that the camera can still work with some of the older, manual focus lenses. And so, they had this old ridge which were indicating what the maximum aperture mechanically was and this has all gone to electronics now days, but this still allows this very modern camera to be used with very, very old lenses.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

NikonĀ® D5 Recommended Settings
NkonĀ® D5 Fast Start Class Slides

Ratings and Reviews

Michelle Mealing
 

As usual, John Greengo has provided me with a wealth of information, this time to decide on my next Nikon camera purchase. John has a talent for explaining technical aspects in a simply to understand, yet intelligent, language. I feel very lucky to be able to tap into the knowledge of such experts and thank the day I found out about Creative Live. Unfortunately I had to miss a little part of the live broadcast due to international time differences. I will definitely be watching the class again and again (there's so much content). Thanks John and Creative Live. Looking forward to my next class.

a Creativelive Student
 

Already set the Fn3 button for Voice Memo - easy peasy thanks to this and so many other "buried" ( in the manual ) treasures. Notwithstanding three years with the D4 and one year with the D5, I am substantially more familiar and comfortable with the available tools / features of this amazing camera, Nikon's D5. Thank you, John, for the relaxed, easy-to-follow yet informative, professional instruction - well done!

Dave Safley
 

John Greengo does a fantastic job of going over all the great features of this camera. Yes, there is a lot of information, but the format of the class enabled me to drive right into the features I needed for an upcoming shoot. I am new to Creative Live but this class is showing me the fantastic value of this platform. Happy Shooting!

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES