Counting Shutter Clicks on a Nikon DSLR

If you are interested in how many times your shutter has gone off in your Nikon DSLR, you can look at the EXIF data of your most recent picture. The information is embedded there, but it may not be very obvious how to find it. The following has been checked on a D40X, D50 and D300.

If your latest photo is a NEF, open it with Adobe Photoshop. Then go to File > File Info... > Advanced. Expand the schema http://ns.adobe.com/exif/1.0/aux/ . The field aux:ImageNumber contains the shutter count. (If you try opening a JPEG from the camera, that field is not available in Photoshop.)

If your latest photo is a jpeg, and you have a Mac, open the photo with the free EXIF Viewer. The shutter count is in a field called "Camera Actuations".

If your latest photo is a NEF, but you do not have Adobe Photoshop or money to buy Photoshop or any additional software at all, you can convert the NEF to JPEG using ViewNX (which is free) and then open it with EXIF Viewer, and the information will be there, still called "Camera Actuations".

People with Windows seem to often use Opanda for the same purpose.

I have not been able to localise this kind of information in Nikon's own software.

If you have a Mac, the shutter count can be found in Preview: Tools > Show Inspector > I > Nikon.

About D300

D300 is a "mid range" DSLR from Nikon. Here are some of the features that makes it stand out against low range DSLRs, or at least compared to the D40X.

• The D300 has Liveview, so you can see the motive on the LCD screen before taking a photo. The function is somewhat clunky compared to compact cameras, but there are situations where it is indispensible.
• The D300 has easy access to standard configurations, like changing ISO or image size and quality.
• The D300 has bracketing, which means that the camera can take several pictures in a row with slightly different configurations. This is very useful for HDR.
• The D300 has an auto focus motor, so lenses without auto focus motor still work without manual adjustments.
• The D300 has higher ISO and much better noise control in low light situations.
• The D300 has slightly more pixels than current low end Nikon DSLRs.
• The D300 has more 51 possible focus points, so the focus point can be virtually anywhere in the picture. Low end cameras have much fewer points - sometimes just 3.
  
• The D300 has a faster motor, so it can take 6 photos per second, while a low end camera may only take half of that. The high speed is very useful for photos of moving objects like birds, acrobats and Formula 1 cars.

The cameras that currently are defined as high range are the D3 and D700. However, already the mid range D300 can easily create pictures that can be used for serious professional purposes.

Taking pictures for HDR

To work with HDR one needs pictures that are almost identical. Each pixel needs to match, even though their values may be different.

To achieve this one needs a) a tripod, b) a good camera.

I have not figured out if this is possible with my D40X, so the following just describes how to do it with my D300.

The task is to take a series of pictures of exactly the same motive but with varying exposure - bracketing. The D300 has different kinds of bracketing, but here we talk just about exposure bracketing.

• Make sure the Custom Setting e5 in the camera is set to "AE only".

• Press the lower button next to the lens and turn the small command dial (away from you on the camera) to select the bracketing exposure increment. Possible values are 0.3, 0.7 and 1. Check the LCD display to see the values.

• Press the lower button next to the lens and turn the main command dial (closest to you) to select the number of shots in the bracketing sequence.

Values to the left of "Off", toggle between positive and negative. For example "-3" means that 3 frames will be taken that are increasingly underexposed. "+2" means that 2 frames will be taken that are increasingly overexposed.

Values to the right of "Off" increase the number of frames on both sides of the current setting. Check the LCD screen to visualise the settings.
The lower button next to the lens is called "Fn button" in the manual.

To launch the shooting of images

1. Attach the camera to a tripod.
2. Go to the Shooting menu > Interval timer shooting > right arrow (to enter the Interval shooting panel).
3. Highlight Now and press left arrow. (Not right arrow, unless you have modifications to make.)
4. Press up arrow to highlight "On".
5. Press "OK".

The images will be taken with a start after about 3 seconds.

The number of images entered in the Interval timer shooting panel does not matter. What matters is what you selected with the Fn button and the command dials. Neither does it matter what start time you enter, unless you really use the start time option. "Now" means "in three seconds".

Self-Timer mode and the time set for it in Custom setting C3 is not used. It even prevents the Interval timer shooting from working.

Do not bother with the camera setting "Multiple exposure". That is just a setting to make one picture of several shots inside the camera - something we do not intend to do now.

(The explanation above may not be simple, but the usability in this particular area is confusing and incomprehensible without several trials and errors. Try and err. You may soon understand it.)

D50 vs. D40X & D300

There are two things I consider incredibly important in a camera:

1. It should be good.
2. It should be light.

My first Single Reflex Camera was a Nikon D50, which was a good compromise. It was fairly good and fairly light. However, this year I decided to upgrade in both directions. Therefore I got a D40X, which is incredibly light as SLRs go, and then a D300, which is really good.

The D40X I use when I travel or go on hikes, and the D300 I use when I want to actually take good pictures.


D40X with AF-S DX VR 18-200 f/3.5-5.6G lens. Light and powerful.

For a comparison between these and other Nikon DSLRs check for example Nikonians' comparison chart and Imaging Resources' reviews, which have some interesting performance information regarding auto-focus speed.