Nikon Qc Mode
Giuseppina Worster
Just wondering if anyone has ever encountered this issue before. I noticed recently that my D7200 wasn't including everything that was in the viewfinder. I'd seen the 1.3 at the side and wondered what that was about, checking the menu the camera is definitely set at DX and not 1.3. Tried switching back and forwarded between the two settings, images are definitely being cropped to 1.3 every time. I saw a mention of a soft reset online, tried that, no difference whatsoever. I've never used the camera with the 1.3 crop mode before, checking back I can see that the camera changed from DX to 1.3 crop about a month ago.
I seem to be "lucky" with these glitches as both my D7200 and D800 have to have their sensors cleaned in Live View as the menu mode for cleaning the sensor leaves the shutter stuck in front of the sensor these days!
In the full DX mode, the D7200 should generate a 6000x4000 RAW image, hence it is 24MP. In the 1.3x crop mode, it is 4800x3200. It should be straight-forward to determine when you open an NEF or JPEG file. When the camera is in the 1.3x mode, there is a frame inside the viewfinder to depict the capture area and the 1.3x indicator should be visible in the top right corner.
Several years ago, during a whale-watching trip, somehow my D7200 entered the 1.3x crop mode by itself. Not sure how that happened, but I noticed it soon enough to switch back to DX. If you cannot switch it back and forth, it sounds like the electronics inside your camera is malfunctioning.
Just double checking, as I have a D7200 in front of me as I post. There are two ways to get between DX and 1.3X mode. You can do it in the shooting menu or in the "i" menu. It's on the top of the second page in the "i" menu. When you look there, is it set to DX? On the D7200 I'm holding, either of the menu options produces the result, and a change in one is a change in the other, but it occurs to me that if there's a glitch somewhere in the electronics or the firmware, perhaps if you have not changed it in one of those places it would be worth a try to see if it makes a difference.
Cropping DX all round in camera seems like a totally useless feature to me, unless you're absolutely desperate to squeeze one extra fps, or fraction thereof, out of it. But having had a premature shutter failure on my first sample, I now tend to treat its shutter like eggs. It's not a camera I'd willingly and regularly treat like a machine gun.
The 1.3x crop brings the D7200 down to 15MP, and the frame rate goes up by 1 from 6 fps to 7 fps @ 12-bit RAW capture (or from 5 fps to 6 @ 14-bit). I have almost never used that crop mode, except for the time the camera somehow entered the 1.3x crop mode on its own. I assume I might have pressed some wrong button somewhere.
I have never used the i menu either, but based on Matthew Currie's post above, I tried to set the image area from there on my D7200. If I change the image area from the i menu, I can easily change it back from the photo shooting menu. I don't understand how it can get stuck in the 1.3x crop mode. If this were an FX body, I can understand that mounting a DX lens could automatically change the area to DX. (In the case of the Z6 and Z7 mirrorless bodies, you cannot override the auto DX crop.)
The 1.3x crop mode (or DX crop mode on FX) could be useful if you are capturing a small or distant, stationary subject that only occupies a small portion of the frame. Why waste file space for areas outside of the subject that you are going to crop in post processing anyway? For moving subjects such as birds in flight, I prefer to use a larger frame because I have a hard time keeping the subject in the center. I crop afterwards to improve the composition.
I rarely use the crop mode, since memory and computer speed make file size pretty unimportant, but it also increases the number of shots the buffer will hold, which makes a difference on a D7100. An increase of two to five shots may not seem like much, but if you're trying to catch whales or leaping monkeys anything that adds to the D7100's measly buffer may be worth it.
edit to add: although it seems almost all the changes between the D7100 and 7200 are improvements, I make exception for the "i" menu. On the D7100, this comes up as an info screen with all the options shown. ON the D7200 it comes up as a multi-page menu screen, in which you cannot know all the available options if you don't navigate further, which seems as if it reintroduces the very thing an "i" button was meant to avoid.
Thanks Matthew! When I checked the camera again this morning after putting the battery back in. No surprise it was still stuck with the 1.3 crop mode but showing DX in the main menu. I tried i button which took me back to the same menu, except that this time the menu showed 1.3 selected rather than DX. So I was finally able to put it back to DX. A very strange software glitch or so it would seem!
Hi Shun, just checked and on my camera it says C 1.02 and L 2.09, so obviously not running the latest software version. I don't tend to have much luck with electronic devices, they often seem to behave in strange ways!
I've been wanting to shoot Nikon gear for a long time just to see what all the hype is about and when I found a Nikon EM with a Series E 50mm 1.8 for $5 and an N2020 with a 50mm 2.8 macro for $0.99 (thrift shops are amazing) in the same week I thought I may as well find the perfect camera for myself. I love 70s-80s film slrs for their size, silence, and reliability. My favorite camera is my Canon A-1 with my 28mm 2.8 lens. It works in all program modes and manual mode and I usually find myself jumping between P and S modes. The Nikon FA was the only Nikon camera that fit the bill before you get into auto winding cameras and those are too noisy and plastic for me. The FA even has a 1/4000 shutter speed and mechanical 250 shutter so it's more reliable than the A-1, or so I thought it would be.
Getting to the point, I bought the FA online in black and with the battery grip for $100 listed in excellent condition and fully functional which is a pretty good deal. Whoever was testing it out (the seller was a big Japanese company) must not have been checked it very carefully cause it's P and S modes don't work. The only reason why I bought the camera. Figures. They were to slow to update me on getting a refund so now it's my problem, may as well fix it.
Now I know I'm definitely using the camera right, I've read the instructions and lens compatibility charts several times over. My 50mm E lens is Ais as is the macro lens so they should both be fully compatible as the FA was one of the few cameras to recognize Ais lenses. I rotate the aperture down to it's minimum, f22 or f32, set the mode to P or S, and put the shutter speed on any position besides M250 or B, and when I take the shot the lens always stops down all the way and selects the shutter speed for the minimum aperture regardless of what the computer has selected inside the viewfinder (The display will read 1/60 but fire for 2 seconds).
The first guy asks the question, everybody else hops around the question and talks about whatever they want, and the last guy who posted in 2012 on page 5 never gets a response. So what's the problem? I really want to expand my Nikon lens collection but I need a working camera and don't want to blow another $100 or more on another camera. I have too many. Please help. Thanks.
Understand that the earliest models of the FA were named "FAilure" by those of us in the camera repair side of things at the time as there was a major problem in the flex which showed up fairly soon in the operation of the camera.
Nikon corrected it very quickly and repair parts and part numbers (I have it somewhere, but don't ask; it's unlikely that I could ever find it) were soon published. It's very likely that parts are unavailable anywhere or at any price if your camera has the original issue. It's a great camera when working properly, but if you have an unupdated early model it's way too late to get Nikon to remove it from the rug it was swept under decades ago.
Charles- I have no external grips or anything, just the body with two new lr44s. I swapped them out with another 2 fresh ones to be sure. The contacts on the bottom are clean and have the original cover protecting them. The mode selector seems fine, it clicks and locks at each stop. I tried out the camera using A and M modes just to make sure it was fine and it works but doesn't suit my style. I do a lot of street photography and most of the time I gotta keep moving so I shoot quickly. I typically set the speed to 1/125 or 1/250 as I am prone to shaky hands. I'd rather have a photo with too shallow depth of field than a blurry shot when shooting by selected aperture. Sometimes the lighting dramatically changes if a cloud passes over and my subject is then in the shades. Stuff like that for example. I found shooting in A mode I would find myself fiddling around a lot to reach 1/125 as it would keep changing the reading and I'd have to switch to Manual which I'm fine with using. I get why people tend to shoot in A but it doesn't suit me and it seems to be the only reliable option Nikon offers. Canons were all about shutter priority so I guess I should stick to them. I also considered the F4 but I wanted something smaller and I like manually winding the film. Thank you though.
Michael- Man despite all my research I never heard anything about that. Guess in the future I should look up problems with cameras before I decide to buy them. I don't see any way of telling exactly how old my camera is, just that the FA started at Serial number 5000001 and I've got 5197136. Seems pretty high to me but Nikon did sell a lot more than the competition. I'm pretty savvy with taking things apart but I wouldn't call myself a certified repair man by any means. Would you happen to know what exactly that flex problem was and if it would directly relate to my issue? Maybe I'll go for an FE2 or FM2, something more reliable. Thanks for the info.