Nikon d50 Histogram and Focus areas

GemGem

Hi everyone!

I am having a wicked hard time checking the histogram in my camera.
Supposedly, when in the picture, I press the up or down control and it should come up.. but it doesn't also, the AF doesn't move! I am stuck (for now) on the AF area in the middle, it does not move from there. According to the manual, it does!

Please, if there is info on this on the forum already, I will appreciate it if someone can hook me up witht this info.

Thank you everyone!

ziggy53

GemGem,

Are you saying these are things you used to be able to do and now cannot do?

According to the manual:

http://www.nikonusa.com/pdf/manuals/dslr/D50_en.pdf

When you review a simgle image the multi-selector up-down function should scroll through the following features:

File Information
Shooting Data Page 1
Shooting Data Page 2
Highlights
Histogram
File Information

Are any of those other features showing when you do the up-down?

Regarding selecting the focus "bracket" (what Nikon calls the single focus dots), are you selecting either "Single Area" or "Dynamic Area" focus mode? (Note that you should not be in most of the program "auto-everything" modes.)

Does the multi-selector move either left-right or up-down?

If the multi-slector is not moving things around it may be that the swutch has failed and the camera would need to be returned for service.

GemGem

ziggy53 wrote:

GemGem,

Are you saying these are things you used to be able to do and now cannot do?

According to the manual:

http://www.nikonusa.com/pdf/manuals/dslr/D50_en.pdf

When you review a simgle image the multi-selector up-down function should scroll through the following features:

File Information
Shooting Data Page 1
Shooting Data Page 2
Highlights
Histogram
File Information

Are any of those other features showing when you do the up-down?

Regarding selecting the focus "bracket" (what Nikon calls the single focus dots), are you selecting either "Single Area" or "Dynamic Area" focus mode? (Note that you should not be in most of the program "auto-everything" modes.)

Does the multi-selector move either left-right or up-down?

If the multi-slector is not moving things around it may be that the swutch has failed and the camera would need to be returned for service.

ziggy53,
Thank you for your reply. Correct. I used to use the Histogram ( I confess, a WHILE ago as I mostly look at the meter). But the focus bracket I could never figure out.

My camera settings right now are.
Mode, Manual.
AF-Area, Dynamic
AF assits, AF area Ill. all off.
ISO auto is also off.

On a single picture, the multi-selector does move up and down and lft to rght, but I have never seen the menu you mentioned is supposed to pop up.

I have a photoshoot coming up and I really want to have all the feature to be able to control the focus!!!

I really hope it is a setting I have wrong...

jonh68

It's not a menu that pops up, it's different views for the picture when you press the selector up or down. Those views get cycled through when viewing the picture. If you can select the left and right to view the pictures, then up or down will give you the histogram, you just have to cycle through the views.

I am not sure about what you mean about using the histogram to control focus. The histogram is used to control exposure.

GemGem

jonh68 wrote:

It's not a menu that pops up, it's different views for the picture when you press the selector up or down. Those views get cycled through when viewing the picture. If you can select the left and right to view the pictures, then up or down will give you the histogram, you just have to cycle through the views.

I am not sure about what you mean about using the histogram to control focus. The histogram is used to control exposure.

Hi Jonh68,

yes, sorry, I want to use the histogram to check for exposure. The bracket for focus.. just getting frustrated that I can't seem to get this menu.
I select a single pic, move the multi-selector up/down/lft/right, it does move, but no menu comes up.. nothing.. just moves the picture side to side or up or down

dancorder

GemGem wrote:

Hi Jonh68,

yes, sorry, I want to use the histogram to check for exposure. The bracket for focus.. just getting frustrated that I can't seem to get this menu.
I select a single pic, move the multi-selector up/down/lft/right, it does move, but no menu comes up.. nothing.. just moves the picture side to side or up or down

If it's moving the picture then I think you must be zoomed in, try pressing the "Enter" button once to zoom out and then try the multi-selector. (The Enter button also has a magnifying glass next to it to remind you that it goes from full picture to zoom mode when viewing pictures.)

As jonh68 said, there is no menu, you just press up or down and the display changes, if you keep pressing you'll cycle all the way back round to just the image.

Just to be on the safe side, you do know that the multi-selector does different things at different times don't you? When you initially view a picture it should do what jonh68 said, once you press Enter once it switches to panning around the picture. Finally, it will only change the focus point if the camera is awake and ready to shoot rather than reviewing pictures or asleep (try pressing the shutter half way to wake it up, you can alter the "Meter-Off" timeout in the menu if you want to).

ziggy53

GemGem wrote:

Hi Jonh68,

yes, sorry, I want to use the histogram to check for exposure. The bracket for focus.. just getting frustrated that I can't seem to get this menu.
I select a single pic, move the multi-selector up/down/lft/right, it does move, but no menu comes up.. nothing.. just moves the picture side to side or up or down

That sounds like you are in a magnified view of the image.

To look at the histogram I believe you would (from camera on, or from normal capture mode):

Press the "Play/Review" button once.
Move the multi-controller up or down until you see the histogram.

---

Since it sounds like the multi-controller is working, since you can scroll the image left-right and up-down, you may need to check your custom settings and item 8 to see if the "AF Area Illm" is turned off. I believe you want it turned on.

Alternately, you may want to just reset to defaults.

Both of these things are covered in your user manual or in the link I provided above.

nightowlcat

Once you have a picture displayed, you use the up/down to cycle through and find the histogram.

Shoot image. It displays on LCD, hit down or up and cycle through, without hitting the Enter key on the lower left.

Do the right/left keys work to change the file displayed?

GemGem

yea!!!!!

nightowlcat wrote:

Once you have a picture displayed, you use the up/down to cycle through and find the histogram.

Shoot image. It displays on LCD, hit down or up and cycle through, without hitting the Enter key on the lower left.

Do the right/left keys work to change the file displayed?

I GOT IT!! thank you all!!

nightowlcat, I followed yours exactly, them bam!! I follow everyone else cycling through.. and I got the histogram!!!! YEA!!

Thank you all!!!!!!!

now , I just need to figure out how to move the brackets (to select the focus area I want...) anyone wants to give it a shot

dancorder

dancorder wrote:

Finally, it [the multi-selector] will only change the focus point if the camera is awake and ready to shoot rather than reviewing pictures or asleep (try pressing the shutter half way to wake it up, you can alter the "Meter-Off" timeout in the menu if you want to).

Did this not do it for you?

GemGem

focus

dancorder wrote:

Did this not do it for you?

Ok, this may be a very dummy question, but it may help someone else also
I did what you said, here is the question.. it is the whole bracket that is supposed to move or it is a
very fine thin line that moves up/down right/left when the selector is pressed in either direction?

OMG.. forgive me lack of... understanding..

Thank you!

dancorder

I'm not sure I understand your question, but I'll try to explain and we'll see if we can understand each other

The current focus point show up in two places, on the top LCD and through the view finder. Looking through the view finder you should see the 5 focus points, one of them should be solid and the other 4 just outlines. The solid one is the selected one, by pressing the multi-selector you should be able to change which focus point is solid.

Ah, maybe I've worked out what the problem is, are you expecting the bracket to move? It won't, you only have the 5 fixed points that you can use for focusing (more expensive cameras have more points) and you can choose between them, however you can't actually move them.

GemGem

dancorder wrote:

I'm not sure I understand your question, but I'll try to explain and we'll see if we can understand each other

The current focus point show up in two places, on the top LCD and through the view finder. Looking through the view finder you should see the 5 focus points, one of them should be solid and the other 4 just outlines. The solid one is the selected one, by pressing the multi-selector you should be able to change which focus point is solid.

Ah, maybe I've worked out what the problem is, are you expecting the bracket to move? It won't, you only have the 5 fixed points that you can use for focusing (more expensive cameras have more points) and you can choose between them, however you can't actually move them.

Dancorder! you have decoded! . yes, I thought that the whole bracket had to move.! goodness.
Ok, so if I move the focus, it will highlight the focus to either side.. (the color I get is a red.)

I am going to try that....see if it works! I really hope so!:D

Thank you!

dancorder

GemGem wrote:

Dancorder! you have decoded! . yes, I thought that the whole bracket had to move.! goodness.
Ok, so if I move the focus, it will highlight the focus to either side.. (the color I get is a red.)

I am going to try that....see if it works! I really hope so!:D

Thank you!

Glad we worked it out . Yes it will flash red when you change focus points, but on my camera at least I can't really tell which one is flashing, I just look at which is solid.

You can also check on the top LCD, there is a box with five '+'s in it, they represent the five focus points and the current one will have brackets around it

nightowlcat

GemGem wrote:

Dancorder! you have decoded! . yes, I thought that the whole bracket had to move.! goodness.
Ok, so if I move the focus, it will highlight the focus to either side.. (the color I get is a red.)

I am going to try that....see if it works! I really hope so!:D

Thank you!

Yup, the color you get is red, briefly, to show you which is selected, and as noted, you can also see it on the top LCD panel. Glad you were able to get your questions resolved :

GemGem

This is Great!

nightowlcat wrote:

Yup, the color you get is red, briefly, to show you which is selected, and as noted, you can also see it on the top LCD panel. Glad you were able to get your questions resolved :

Thanks everyone! I am in business now!! yea!:ivar I see the focus pts in the view finder and control window. This is great! I am going to have some fun today using this new knowledge!