DocPit

I would like to be able to program my D5 so that a single press of the shutter release (w/o having to hold it down) would result in an immediate burst of X-number of shots.  Basically, the camera would function as it does in continuous mode (CL or CH) but w/o my having to hold down the button.

I believe it is possible to do that using the self-timer; however, not surprisingly, the self-timer has a minimum 2 second delay.  I see no way to set that to zero.  I believe it also is possible to do multiple shots with a single press in time lapse, but that requires start/restart from a menu. 

If there is a way to do this, I would appreciate any assistance.  Thanks.

I’ve been experimenting shooting bursts with auto bracketing.

I have my D5 in manual mode.  Aperture is locked at f/5.6 and shutter speed is locked at 1/250.  I have Auto Bracket set to 3 frames, 1 f/stop difference.  CL set to 6 fps.  Auto ISO is on.  Maximum ISO = 51000, and minimum shutter speed = 1/15.  I shoot a burst of 3 frames.  I expect that the camera will maintain aperture and shutter speed but will vary ISO.  Not so.  It maintains aperture and ISO but varies shutter speed: 1/250, 1/125, 1/500.  ISO is always well below the 51000 limit.  Does the same even if I set minimum shutter speed to 200.

However, if I go to aperture priority and set a minimum shutter speed, then the D5 will maintain the aperture and shutter speed and will bracket the ISO.

It’s not really a problem because aperture priority with a minimum shutter speed does what I need it to do.  But it is puzzling, and I would love to understand why it performs that way.  Any insight would be much appreciated.

I'm attaching a .pdf that shows 12 shots of a golden tamarin monkey.  All pics were shot in manual mode, matrix metering +0.33EV, at f/5.6, 1/200, auto ISO.  The ISO varies not just widely but wildly, from 140 to 10000. 

In the first pic, the little guy is out of direct sunlight, and an ISO of 2500 seems about right.  Looking at a few other ballpark exposures, it seems like something between 1500 and 2500 is what I would expect to see.  I'm at a total loss how the matrix meter drops the auto ISO from 2500 (pic1) to 140 (pic2 ); jumps from 1100 to 10000; or drops from 8000 to 360 (last two pics).  I'm also unable to explain how at ISO 10000, that string of 5 pics are totally blown out, but the next to last pic, at 8000 (a difference of 1/3 stop) is not too radically messed up.

My understanding is that Matrix is complicated by the camera's attempt to weight the exposure at the point of focus and to somehow "read the scene" and figure out what it's exposing for (e.g., I may experiment with an average center-weighted metering (supposedly just averages the entire frame) tweaked with exposure compensation.  Perhaps, more simplicity and less "intelligence" might be a virtue in these contrasty situations.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

I have three cameras--a D5, D500, and D810--and I have the same intermittent problem with all of them:  At times, I am unable to move the focus point from whatever position it happens to be in.  Camera and lens are in AF.  AF mode is not Group (usually S, sometimes d25).  The focus selector is not locked.  If I turn the camera off, then turn it back on, the focus point "unfreezes."  But that's annoying.  Any idea what it might be?

Ideally, I would be able to print all my images with very high IQ at 300 ppi as large as 24.5"x36.5" (full bleed).  At times, I just don't have the telephoto reach to fill the frame.  I can crop and resize with Photozoom.  I can try to get more pixels on my subject (go to telextender, go to DX, go to DX and telextender).  So, I've been running some tests, trying to determine my best options.  My problem is that I'm not sure I'm properly interpreting the test results.  I'm attaching a .pdf. that compares enlargements from a D500 + 2X telextender (less cropping, higher ISO) and a D810 w/o telextender (more cropping, lower ISO). 

The two shots have similar brightness.  However, the D810 pic gets more actual light (f/4, 1/200 vs. f/8, 1/200) and less amplification (ISO 4000 vs ISO 16000).  So, I expect the D810 to show lower noise (better SNR).  Thing is, given the cropping and then the high magnification, I'm not sure that the finer "grain" in the D500 pic vs. the coarser "grain" in the D810 pic is noise,  TelextenderQuestion.pdf   382.46KB   224 downloads or whether I'm confusing noise with the actual pixels.

I used to shoot film a few decades ago, but I'm relatively new to digital.  Any help would be much appreciated.