Nikon Coolpix 8400By: Shawn Barnett & Dave Etchells(none) <<Operation & User Interface :(Previous) | (Next): Image Storage & Interface>> Page 9:Camera Modes & MenusReview First Posted: 09/16/2004, Updated: 12/13/2004 |
Camera Modes and Menus
The Coolpix 8400's operation revolves (no pun intended ;) around the Mode Dial, located in the rear, right hand corner of its top panel. The Mode Dial selects one of eight operating modes for the camera, plus a setup mode and three parameter-adjustment settings. The operating modes are Auto, Program, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Manual, and Scene still-capture modes, Movie mode, and Playback mode. The three parameter-adjustment positions let you set White Balance, ISO, and Image size/quality.
With the exception of Auto mode, all of the operating modes have menu systems associated with them, accessed by pressing the Menu button on the camera's rear panel. You navigate through the menu system by using the 5-way controller's arrow keys and central Select button to move a cursor and confirm selections, but some submenus also let you select options by rotating the Command Dial, without actually entering the submenu itself. Submenus having this option are marked on the LCD screen with a rotating dial icon when they are selected.
Recording Mode (still images)
Nikon's higher-end "prosumer" digicams have a somewhat different
setup in their menu system from that found in most competing models. The limited
function offering on the initial "My Menu" can be confusing to first-time
users, but does offer some efficiency for more experienced owners of the cameras.
Our advice to new owners is to scan through the options available in the full
menu system (see the "Show all menus" option at the bottom of the
My Menu), and then select a subset of your most frequently used options to appear
in the My Menu. Customizing the My Menu like this can make the camera much easier
and more intuitive to operate. (Likewise, assigning a commonly-used function
to the FUNC button makes for smoother operation as well.)
With the above as a preface, let's take a look at the 8400's still-capture
menu screens:
My Menu
As just
noted above, this first menu lets you select any six submenus to appear on the
screen, based on the settings you're likely to want to adjust most often. The
default choices are: Metering, Continuous, BSS, Image adjustment, Saturation
control, User setting, and Show all menus. The "Show all menus" settings
lets you scroll down through all three menus. In many cases the Command dial
can be used to scroll through submenu choices without actually selecting the
submenu with the Five-way controller. The features allowing use of the Command
dial are indicated on the menu by the Command dial icon (represented by a small
disk with arrows beneath). Having a My Menu is good, but having to bypass it
when you want more is sometimes annoying. The trick is to hit the up-arrow and
press the Enter key (the Five-way controller's center button),
which takes you to the *real* menu. Unfortunately there appears to be no way
to disable My Menu
Menu One (1/3)
Once you leave the Coolpix 8800's My Menu, the menus do get complex enough
to warrant a table to describe them.
| Menu Selection | Options | Notes |
| White balance |
|
Options marked with "*" can be tweaked +/- 3 units to shift to warmer or cooler white balances using the Command dial. Fluorescent option offers choice of 3 lamp types. |
| Metering |
|
Defines area and pattern of metering. |
| Continuous |
|
Allows multiple shots to be taken and recorded while shutter release is pressed. Also enables interval timed shooting. |
| BSS |
|
Best Shot Selector takes series of pictures and selects either sharpest (BSS On) or best exposed (AE Exposure BSS). Exposure can be set to favor highlights, shadows, or overall (histogram) exposure. |
| Image adjustment |
|
Increases or reduces contrast between light and dark areas. |
| Saturation control |
|
Increases or reduces vividness of colors. |
| User setting |
|
User camera settings are automatically stored in bank 1. A second bank of settings can be set up. |
Menu Two (2/3)
| Menu Selection | Options | Notes |
| Image Mode |
|
RAW and HI (TIFF) settings are uncompressed. (Or
possibly compressed losslessly in the case of RAW files.) Compression
(JPEG) increases as user moves from EXTRA down to BASIC. |
| Sensitivity |
|
|
| Image Sharpening |
|
Controls the amount of image sharpening applied by the camera. |
| Lens |
|
Configures the autofocus system to compensate for auxiliary
lenses. Optional adapters are:
|
| Exposure options |
|
AE lock locks in exposure and white
balance for a series of pictures. |
| Focus options |
|
AF area mode options control the choice of active autofocus area from among the 9 available. |
| Zoom options |
|
Digital tele increases zoom range 4x but at the
cost of resolution. |
Menu Three (3/3)
| Menu Selection | Options | Notes |
| Speedlight opt. |
|
Flash exposure can be compensated +/- 2 EV in 1/3 EV intervals. Internal flash can be disabled when using external strobe unit. |
| Auto bracketing |
|
Exposure bracketing can capture either 3 or 5 shots
in the bracket. WB bracketing Takes three exposures--one 'normal,' one with a more bluish cast, another with a more reddish cast. |
| Noise reduction |
|
When enabled, noise reduction operates only at shutter speeds below 1/4 sec. |
| Reset |
|
Resets current user setting bank to default values. |
| My menu | Allows selection of options for "My Menu" from all submenus on Record menus 1-3. | |
| CF card format |
|
Reformats CF card, erasing all images. Displays message: 'Warning! All images will be deleted!' (Note that formatting the CF card erases even images that have been "protected" via the playback-mode menu option. |
Playback Mode
No surprises here, the Coolpix 8400's Playback mode lets you view and manage
images stored on its memory card. The Playback mode menu system is very straightforward,
with two screens of primary options. (No My Menu in this mode.)
Menu One (1/2):
| Menu Selection | Options | Notes |
| Delete |
|
"Selected images" shows 3 images
at a time with the center one highlighted for deletion. 'Erase all images' option excludes protected images. |
| Folders |
|
Options allow creation, naming, and deletion of new folders on the memory card, in addition to the default Nikon folder (which cannot be deleted). |
| Slide Show |
|
Sets up options for and starts automated picture playback. |
| Protect |
|
Shows three images. Highlighted image can be marked as "protected.". Protected image will not be deleted unless card is formatted. |
| Hide image |
|
Allows highlighted image to be hidden for slide show or other showing. Image remains accessible through Hide image menu. (Hide the club photos when delivering your trip report at the office? ;-) |
| Print set |
|
Displays image to be printed directly from camera (PictBridge) or marked for subsequent printing (DPOF). |
| Auto transfer |
|
Sends selected pictures can be automatically transferred to a computer running Nikon's PictureProject software. |
Menu Two (2/2):
| Menu Selection | Options | Notes |
| Move image |
|
Allows user to move pictures from one folder to another. |
| CF card format |
|
Reformats CF card, erasing all images. Displays message: 'Warning! All images will be deleted!' (Note that formatting the CF card erases even images that have been "protected" via the playback-mode option described above. |
| Small pic. |
|
Controls size of copies made with Small picture option. |
Scene Mode
Offers a choice of fifteen different "scenes" that correspond to common situations. A variety of camera settings are automatically adjusted to give optimum results for each scene type.
| Menu Selection | Options | Notes |
 Portrait |
|
Favors larger apertures for softer backgrounds. Focus area selectable via multi-selector. |
 Party/Indoor |
Use to capture lighting effects in background. | |
 Night portrait |
|
Longer shutter time combined with flash balances exposure between subject and background. |
 Beach/Snow |
Reduces tendency to underexpose bright scenes. | |
 Landscape |
Enhances colors and contrasts. | |
 Sunset |
Uses fixed white balance setting and a little negative exposure compensation to preserve deep hues. | |
 Night landscape |
Slow shutter speed with noise reduction. | |
 Museum |
Engages BSS to capture sharpest image when hand-holding. | |
 Fireworks show |
Slow shutter speed to capture bursts, small lens aperture to preserve color in streamers. | |
 Close up |
|
Engages macro focusing, allows manual selection of focus area. |
 Copy |
For black copy on white background. | |
 Back light |
Activates fill flash for subject. | |
 Panorama assist |
White balance and exposure are fixed on first shot in series to avoid exposure or color variations between shots. | |
 Sports |
Favors fast shutter speeds. | |
 Dusk/Dawn |
Uses fixed white balance setting to preserve colors. Turns on noise reduction. |
Movie Mode:
The Coolpix 8400 can record movies with sound (except for time-lapse movies,
which are silent) ranging in length from 60 seconds at 640x480 resolution to
the limit of the available card in 320x240, sepia, and black & white (895
seconds for 256 MB card).
| Menu Selection | Options | Notes |
| Movie options |
|
In time-lapse mode, the interval between shots can be set to 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5m, 10m, 30m, or 60m. |
| Auto-focus mode |
|
Single AF sets focus at the beginning of the movie clip, continuous AF focuses during the entire recording. |
Setup Mode Menu One (1/3):
| Menu Selection | Options | Notes |
| Language |
|
|
| Date |
|
Time Zone displays the currently set time zone and allows user to toggle across all time zones on a world map to select a main time zone and an optional second time zone. |
| Folders |
|
Options allow creation, naming, and deletion of new folders on the memory card, in addition to the default Nikon folder (which cannot be deleted). |
| Monitor options |
|
Release speed can be set to reduce shutter lag at
the cost of a slightly inferior preview image. |
| Seq. numbers |
|
Sequential file numbering continues from one card to another when this setting is on. |
| Shutter sound |
|
Controls camera 'beep' for a number of functions and warnings. |
| Auto off |
|
Puts camera in standby mode. |
Setup Mode Menu Two (2/3):
| Menu Selection | Options | Notes |
| Language |
|
|
| Date |
|
Time Zone displays the currently set time zone and allows user to toggle across all time zones on a world map to select a main time zone and an optional second time zone. |
| Folders |
|
Options allow creation, naming, and deletion of new folders on the memory card, in addition to the default Nikon folder (which cannot be deleted). |
| Monitor options |
|
Release speed can be set to reduce shutter lag at
the cost of a slightly inferior preview image. |
| Seq. numbers |
|
Sequential file numbering continues from one card to another when this setting is on. |
| Shutter sound |
|
Controls camera 'beep' for a number of functions and warnings. |
| Auto off |
|
Puts camera in standby mode. |
Setup Mode Menu Three (3/3):
| Menu Selection | Options | Notes |
| Date imprint |
|
Date or Date and Time are imprinted into images themselves. |
| Firmware version | Displays current firmware version on the LCD screen. |
Image Mode
This mode-dial option lets you adjust image quality and size settings without
having to delve into the normal record mode menu system. Its entries are just
duplicates of those for the Image Mode submenu, found on the second screen of
the full record menu. As such I won't include a new screenshot here, but do
repeat the menu options for the sake of clarity.
| Menu Selection | Options | Notes |
| Image quality |
|
RAW and HI (TIFF) settings are uncompressed. (Or possibly compressed losslessly in the case of RAW files.) Compression (JPEG) increases as user moves from EXTRA down to BASIC. |
| Image size |
|
The 3:2 setting crops the top and bottom of 8 megapixel images to match the proportions of a 35mm film frame. |
Sensitivity Mode
This is another Mode dial option that simply repeats a menu option, this
time one that's available both on the main Record menu, as well as the default
My Menu. This option lets you adjust the camera's light sensitivity to ISO equivalents
of 50, 100, 200, 400, or let the camera control it automatically.
White Balance Mode
The third and final Mode dial option that repeats a menu option, letting
you adjust the camera's response to differently colored lighting.
Menu
Selection |
Options |
Notes |
| White balance |
|
Options marked with "*" can be tweaked +/- 3 units to shift to warmer or cooler white balances using the Command dial. Fluorescent option offers choice of 3 lamp types. |
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