Nikon^® D7500™ For Dummies^®

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. Nikon and D7500 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nikon Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit https://hub.wiley.com/community/support/dummies.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017953579

ISBN 978-1-119-44832-7 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-44806-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-44808-2 (ebk);

About This Book

Unlike many photography books, this one doesn’t require any previous knowledge of photography or digital imaging to make sense of things. In classic For Dummies style, everything is explained in easy-to-understand language, with lots of illustrations to help clear up any confusion.

However, even if you have some photography experience — or quite a bit of experience, for that matter — this book has plenty to offer. I provide detailed information about all the camera’s advanced exposure, focus, and color controls, explaining not just what each feature does but why and how to put it to best use.

In short, what you have in your hands is the paperback version of an in-depth photography workshop tailored specifically to your Nikon picture-taking powerhouse.

Icons and Other Stuff to Note

If this isn’t your first For Dummies book, you may be familiar with the large, round icons that decorate its margins. If not, here’s your very own icon-decoder ring:

The Tip icon flags information that will save you time, effort, money, or some other valuable resource, including your sanity. Tips also point out techniques that help you get the best results from specific camera features.

When you see this icon, look alive. It indicates a potential danger zone that can result in much wailing and teeth-gnashing if ignored. In other words, this is stuff that you really don’t want to learn the hard way.

Lots of information in this book is of a technical nature — digital photography is a technical animal, after all. But when I present a detail that is useful mainly for impressing your tech-geek friends, I mark it with this icon.

I apply this icon either to introduce information that is especially worth storing in your brain’s long-term memory or to remind you of a fact that may have been displaced from that memory by another pressing fact.

Additionally, replicas of some of your camera’s buttons and onscreen graphics appear in the margins and in some tables. I include these images to provide quick reminders of the appearance of the button or option being discussed.

Preparing the Camera for Use

After unpacking your camera, you have to assemble a few parts. In addition to the camera body and the supplied battery (charge it before the first use), you need a lens and a memory card. Later sections in this chapter provide details about lenses and memory cards, but here's what you need to know up front:

• Lens: You can mount a wide range of lenses on your D7500, but some lenses aren’t compatible with all camera features. Your camera manual lists all the lens types that can be mounted on the camera and explains what features are supported with each type.
• SD (Secure Digital) memory card: Your camera accepts only this type of card. Most SD cards carry the designation SDHC (for High Capacity) or SDXC (for eXtended Capacity), depending on how many gigabytes (GB) of data they hold. SDHC cards hold from 4GB to 32GB of data; SDXC cards have capacities greater than 32GB.

With camera, lens, battery, and memory card within reach, take these steps:

1. Make sure that the camera is turned off.
2. Install the battery into the compartment on the bottom of the camera.

3. Attach a lens.

   First, remove the caps that cover the front of the camera and the back of the lens. Then align the mounting index (white dot) on the lens with the one on the camera body, as shown in Figure 1-1. After placing the lens on the camera mount, rotate the lens toward the shutter-button side of the camera. You should feel a solid click as the lens locks into place.

4. Insert a memory card.

   Open the card-slot cover on the right side of the camera and orient the card as shown in Figure 1-2 (the label faces the back of the camera). Push the card gently into the slot and close the cover. The memory-card access light, labeled in the figure, illuminates briefly to let you know that the camera recognizes the card.

5. Turn on the camera.

6. Set the language, time zone, and date.

   When you power up the camera for the first time, you can't do anything until you take this step.

   The easiest option is to use the touchscreen. To select an option, just tap it as you do on any touchscreen device. If you see an OK symbol in the lower-right corner of the screen, tap it to finalize your selection and return to the previous screen. To exit without making changes, tap the exit arrow in the upper-right corner of the screen.

   You also can use the Multi Selector and OK button, labeled in Figure 1-2, to navigate menus. Press the edges of the Multi Selector up, down, right, or left to highlight an option; press OK to select it. You can find more details about selecting menu options later in this chapter.

7. Adjust the viewfinder to your eyesight.

   This step is critical; if you don't set the viewfinder to your eyesight, subjects that appear out of focus in the viewfinder might actually be in focus, and vice versa. If you wear glasses while shooting, adjust the viewfinder with your glasses on.

   After taking off the lens cap and making sure that the camera is turned on, look through the viewfinder and press the shutter button halfway. In dim lighting, the flash may pop up. Ignore it for now and concentrate on the row of data that appears at the bottom of the viewfinder screen. Rotate the dial labeled in Figure 1-3, officially known as the diopter adjustment dial, until the data appears sharpest. The markings in the center of the viewfinder, which relate to autofocusing, also become more or less sharp. Ignore the scene you see through the lens; that won't change because you're not actually focusing the camera.

   When you finish, press down on the flash unit to close it if necessary.

8. Adjust the monitor position as desired.

   You can lift the monitor up and away from the back of the camera and then tilt it up or down to view the screen at different angles, as shown in Figure 1-4. To return the monitor to its original position, gently push it inward toward the back of the camera.

9. If you prefer to use the monitor instead of the viewfinder to compose your photos, switch to Live View mode.

   Live View enables you to compose photos using the monitor rather than by looking through the viewfinder. You must use Live View to record movies. To shift to Live View for still photography, rotate the Live View switch to the still-camera icon, as shown in Figure 1-5. Then press the LV button in the center of the switch. The viewfinder goes dark, and the live preview appears on the monitor, as shown in the figure.

   To set the camera to Movie mode, rotate the Live View switch to the movie-camera symbol and then press the LV button. You can then start and stop recording by pressing the red button on top of the camera.

   To return to viewfinder shooting, press the LV button again.

That's all there is to it — the camera is now ready to go.

Using the Touchscreen

If you've used a smartphone, tablet, or other touchscreen device, working with the camera's touchscreen will feel familiar. Just as with those devices, you communicate with the camera by tapping the screen or by dragging one or two fingers across the screen. For example, you can tap a menu option to select it. And during picture playback, you can magnify a photo by placing your thumb and forefinger in the center of the screen and then dragging outward — a maneuver Nikon refers to as a stretch. Dragging inward from the edges of the screen — pinching — reduces the image magnification.

By default, the touchscreen is enabled for both shooting and playback. But you can disable it entirely or use it just for playback if you wish. The following steps walk you through the process of adjusting this option and give you some practice in using the touchscreen:

1. Press the Menu button to display the camera menus.

   Sadly, there's no touchscreen control that takes you to the menus.

2. Tap the Setup menu icon, labeled in the left screen in Figure 1-11.

   The options on that menu appear to the right of the icons.

3. Drag the scrollbar, labeled in Figure 1-11, to scroll the menu display until you see the Touch Controls option.
4. Tap Touch Controls to display the screen shown on the right in Figure 1-11.

5. Set your touchscreen preferences.

   First, tap Enable/Disable Touch Controls to display these choices:

   • Enable: All touchscreen functions on (the default setting).
   • Playback only: The touchscreen works only when the camera is in playback mode. This setting avoids the possibility that an errant tap during shooting adjusts a picture-taking option that you didn’t mean to change. But it also prevents you from using the touchscreen to change shooting settings that you do want to adjust. Instructions in this book assume that you stick with the Enable setting, but in most cases, you can change settings via other means if you prefer not to use the touchscreen.
   • Disable: All touchscreen functions are turned off. To restore touchscreen function, you must use the Multi Selector and OK button to select Enable or Playback Only. (See the next section for more help with navigating menus.)

   Tap your choice to return to the Touch Controls screen. Or, to exit without making any changes, tap the exit arrow in the top-right corner of the screen, labeled on the right in Figure 1-11.

   The Full-frame Playback Flicks setting on the Touch Controls screen determines which direction you flick to see photos in the order you took them. At the default setting, a right-to-left flick scrolls from photo 1 to photo 2, and a flick in the other direction takes you back to picture 1. Choose left-to-right to reverse things. Again, tap your choice or tap the exit arrow to leave the settings screen without making any changes.

6. Tap the exit arrow to return to the Setup menu.

Some final tips about the touchscreen:

• A white border around a symbol indicates that tapping the symbol performs a function. For example, a border appears around the exit arrow in the second screen in Figure 1-11.
• During Live View shooting, you can tap the screen to set focus and take a picture. The last section of this chapter tells you more about this feature, known as the Touch Shutter. You also can tell the camera to set focus only when you tap or to disable both tap-to-focus and tap-to-shoot.

• Don't apply a screen protector. Applying a screen protector can actually damage the monitor and make it less responsive to your touch.