I should have asked what controls the aperture in aperture priority mode.

And you answered my question anyway.

Thank you!

In Manual mode the command dials control the shutter and aperture values.

How do you control aperture values in shutter priority using a lens with no aperture ring?  (Nikon 24-85 mm)

No, no angle finder.  I'm already working below waist level so one isn't necessary.

Something was changing in the view finder, but I thought it was the exposure value.  After sending my original query, I figured out it was the shutter speed.

I figured out what it was doing: changing the shutter speed.

Strange combination for that activity, but potentially useful to know.

BTW: the camera was using factory default shooting and custom settings.

Okay, I'm new to this so some of the TLAs will be new to me.

BBF I was able to google up as Back Button Focus.

SR means?

thanks

Hello,  I'm a long-time Nikon owner and user.  I had a cousin with an FTN back in the early 1970s and used her camera when it was available.  I bought my first Nikon, one of the first FMs to hit San Diego when the FM first came out (~1975?) along with a 50mm f1.4 and the then new Vivitar Series 1 70-210 macro zoom.  They keep me busy for years after.  I eventually added a handful of other lenses, from 24mm to 500mm (fixed aperature, mirror).

That FM was and remains my favorite camera, despite eventually owning two FTNs and an F3-HP.  The FM was light weight, straight forward, and quick - three lights to tell you about the exposure level, and only two things to think about: aperature and shutter speed (ISO/ASA already determined when you loaded film).

Then film itself got too expensive to shoot regularly and Kodak stopped making the film I was used to shooting (Kodachrome 25, Ektachrome 64, and Kodacolor 100).  <sigh>

I stopped doing much photography after that.  Then a few years ago I bought a used D700 so I could put my old lenses to use.

Then I got busy doing other things and it just sat in the closet.

With the current stay at home situation, I have lots of time to start learning about digital photography (aside from a Canon S-110 that I use for taking pictures of the dogs).

My initail goal was to constrain the D700 to as closely as possible to the FM in terms of limited things to think about while behind the camera.

After digging into books on DSLR photography, I realize that's not a realistic way to approach things.

Now I'm at the point of figuring out how to set up the camera for specific photographic tasks - to begin with, general photography with a 24-80mm AF lens and a setup for just my AI-S primes.  Getting the interactions between the Shooting and Custom Menu settings organized in my head looks a bit daunting.

So that's why I'm here, looking for general help by going through the archives, and asking specific questions when I think I understand enough about my problem to ask them.

I can also tell that there's a lot of jargon to master.

 

I have had a D700 for several years that I bought to use with my AI-S lenses.  I was using it with a Nikkor Micro 55mm 3.5f on a copy stand for the first time to shoot some fountain pens.  Not paying attention, I had the camera in Manual mode rather than Aperature Priority like I thought.

The exposures were not coming out the way I wanted.  Everything being upside down, I got confused about what I was doing and began holding the AF-ON button down (thinking it was the Exposure Control button) and rotating the main command dial. 

This was changing the exposure but not in a way that made sense in what I was seeing in the viewfiender.

Fairly quickly I realized what I was doing wrong, set the camera to A and started using the exposure control, and got good photos.

I would just like to know what the camera was changing with the AF-ON button and Main Command Dial.  I can't find anything in the manual.

Thanks