Nikon D40 question
 

Hello folks :) This is my first post in here, so please be patent with me.

I'm pretty new to digital photography and have recently purchased a Nikon 40 with the standard lens, also a Nikon 55mm X 200 zoom, and finally a Nikon ML-L3 wireless remote.

My question relates to the remote. I am aware that to get the remote to work you need to go into the shooting mode and select either delayed or quick response remote, the problem is the camera only seems to hold one of these two selection for a maximum of around 1 minute, after which the camera seems to forget that I have made the remote selection, and the remote no longer works with out re-selection back in shooting mode. If I take a photo within every minute it will let take pics continuously.

I've been reading an article by Ken Rockwell that suggests you can set the camera up in such a way, that it will retain the remote settings for up to a maximum of 15 minutes after which the camera needs triggering or it reverts to what I assume must be a default setting in which the camera shooting mode needs setting up again. I've been through (I think all the options) but can find nothing about retaining the remote mode for 15 minutes. Any help on this would be much appreciated.

:confused:
I don't know if I'm allowed to ask two questions in the same post, nevertheless I'd like the camera to time & date stamp the photos I take, but I can't figure out how to do this either.

Thank you very much for any help :)

Cheers hondo

Hi Hondo,

No quick answers on your remote problem but I will see what info I can dig up. I have just been through the instruction manual and no help there.

Re date/time stamp, then that info is recorded in every picture you take, but cannot be imprinted on the image like the old data backs. I need to find out what software came with the camera to point you in the direction of viewing the exif for each pic you have taken. The exif contains this info and a lot more.
If you have info on the software that came with the camera then please post details.

Don

Hello Don thanks for your reply :) I've checked the instruction book too and found nothing about either

Re the software the only thing I had was a CD called Nikon Picture Project 1.7 It might be me, but it didn't look much help.

Thanks & Cheers hondo :)

OK. Answer No1 :
A more thorough read through the manual and the duration for the ML-3 can be set in Custom Settings. See Page 79 of the manual item 17:Remote Duration.

I will check out Picture project later.

Don

Don I take my hat off to you, for finding that reference in the instructions :) I must be honest I'd missed out on that. :o

But I can't find that Remote on duration menu in the camera, I've looked in the custom menu and have nothing resembling it. Is it possible for some reason that my camera docent have it, or should they all be the same? :)

Thank you. Cheers hondo :)

Hi Hondo,
Is it the D40 or the D40x you have?
As the menus are different

Hondo,

Check out this link. It shows all the options screen by screen that should be available to you in the Custom Menu. The Remote Duration is at the bottom of the page. I hope this helps.
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PROD...nu_custom.html

Re Picture Project I see it is no longer available for me to download to be able to do stuff by screen grabs for you. It has been replaced by View NX and I would need to download that.
It is a 50mb file and ( Foxy will laugh at this :rolleyes: :D) but might screw up View6 which I do use. So the question now is are you going to download ViewNX and if so perhaps Foxy can do a screen grab that will show how you can view the exif info.

Don

Re the D40, perhaps I should have posted the link to the full Imaging Resource review.
So here it is.
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/ND40/ND40A.HTM

Don

Hello Joe thanks for the reply, it is a D40 and not a 40X :)

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PROD...nu_custom.html

Woot Don. Many thanks that link was great, I didn't know all that stuff was in there, I like this camera very much, but its more tricky than I first thought :D


I don't know what View NX is, but is there any point in still downloading it now?
Many, many thanks :) I'm over the moon :D

Hondo,

After a lengthy trawl around the net I cannot really find out much detail about Picture Project. One thing I have found out is that it is not compatable with my Nikon View 6 on the same computer, so I cannot download it without uninstalling View 6.

I have however installed NX View. This program is really an image browser with very limited editing ability with nef files ( exposure compensation, white balance and through Picture Control Utility, curves and picture controls ). Picture Control Utility only functions with out of camera nef (RAW) images not Jpeg. So I think the program is OK as a browser, but it is obviously designed to be part of an integrated package with NX, which is a proper image editing program.
Should you get NX2, the image editing program then you might consider it worthwhile having. I have NX2 but I use the browser built into that.

I have attatched a screen shot to show where the exif info for any particular image is. I suspect Picture Project has a similar tab.

Don

Hi Don :) I don't know if there's been a problem with my PC or the site, but I've been having problems posting a reply, fingers crossed this time now though.

I do hope you haven't spent a great deal of time looking round for software for me, to be honest I hardly ever bother using image editors, just how pictures come out of the camera is usually good enough for me. *I think*:confused:

However I have tried View NX now, which does give me both a time & date stamp (+ some) of the pictures that I've taken.

Therefore you have successfully satisfied both of my opening questions for which, I thank you very much. :)

It's highly likely that you aren't getting the best out of your images. They can almost always be improved with a bit of a tweak and a tidy up, some pictures more than others.

I have a D40 and i never knew you could change the time of the remote, cheers.

It has another quirk in that if you have it set on manual and to 'bulb' to do a
timed exposure, when you change it to use the remote, the bulb setting goes
off the display. Then sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt, very strange.

If your just relying on what comes out of the D40 then from my experience
you're certainly not getting the best from your pictures.

Lol, I've got a better chance of seeing God yesterday than ever getting my head around apps like Photo Shop.

I'm willing to take on-board what you guys and have just downloaded an app I've just seen on this site Photo Plus 6 free edition, to see how good and user friendly that is. BTW I love FOC :D

Rob_W It sounds like my lack of knowledge of the D40 menu helped you too, now to me thats a bonus :)