Chapter 1

Getting Up and Running

In This Chapter

Preparing the camera for its first outing

Getting acquainted with camera features

Viewing and adjusting camera settings

Setting a few basic preferences

Restoring original camera settings

Shooting for the first time with a camera as sophisticated as the Nikon D3300 can produce a blend of excitement and anxiety. On one hand, you can’t wait to start using your new equipment, but on the other, you’re a little intimidated by all its buttons, dials, and menu options.

Well, fear not: This chapter provides the information you need to start getting comfortable with your D3300. The first section walks you through initial camera setup; following that, you can get an overview of camera controls, discover how to view and adjust camera settings, and get my take on some basic setup options.

Preparing the Camera for Initial Use

After unpacking your camera, you have to assemble a few parts. In addition to the camera body and the supplied battery (be sure to charge it before the first use), you need a lens and a memory card. Later sections in this chapter provide details about working with 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 D3300, but some aren’t compatible with all camera features. For example, to enjoy autofocusing, you need an AF-S or AF-I lens. (The 18–55mm lens sold in a kit with the D3300 body is an AF-S lens.) Your camera manual offers details about lens compatibility.

  The AF in AF-S stands for autofocus, and the S stands for silent wave, a Nikon autofocus technology. AF-I lenses are older, professional-grade (expensive) lenses that are no longer made but may be available on the secondhand market.

• 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; the SDXC moniker is assigned to cards with capacities greater than 32GB.

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

1. Turn off the camera.
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.

   Figure 1-1: Align the white dot on the lens with the one on the camera body.

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.

   Figure 1-2: Insert the memory card with the label facing the back of the camera.

5. Turn on the camera.
6. Set the camera language, time zone, date, and time.

   When you power up the camera for the first time, the monitor displays a message asking you to select the menu language and set the time zone, date, and time. Navigate the screens and adjust the settings by using the Multi Selector and the OK button (refer to Figure 1-2):

   • Press the edge of the Multi Selector up and down to move the highlight cursor vertically; press right/left to travel horizontally. Press OK or press the Multi Selector right to reveal options related to the highlighted setting.
   • When a value box is highlighted, press the Multi Selector up/down to change the value. Press left/right to jump to the next value box.
   • After making your selections on a screen, press OK.

   (The later section “Ordering from camera menus” provides more help with using menus.)

   The date/time information is included as metadata (hidden data) in the picture file. You can view metadata in some playback display modes (see Chapter 9) and in certain photo programs, including Nikon ViewNX 2. (Refer to Chapter 10.)

7. If using the 18–55mm kit lens, unlock and extend the lens.

   The kit lens sold with the D3300 is a pancake lens, which means that when you're not shooting, you can retract the lens barrel so that the camera takes up less space in your camera bag. Before you can take a picture, you must unlock and extend the lens. (This applies to any retractable lens, not just the kit lens.) Figure 1-3 shows the lens in its retracted (left image) and extended (right image) positions.

   To extend the lens, press the lens lock button, highlighted in Figure 1-3, while rotating the lens barrel toward the shutter button side of the camera. To retract the lens, press the button while rotating the lens in the other direction.

   Figure 1-3: Press the lens lock button while rotating the lens barrel to extend and retract the lens.

8. Adjust the viewfinder to your eyesight.

   Tucked behind the right side of the rubber eyepiece that surrounds the viewfinder is a dial that enables you to adjust the viewfinder focus to accommodate your eyesight. I highlighted the dial in Figure 1-4.

   This step is critical: If you don’t adjust the viewfinder to your eyesight, subjects may appear sharp in the viewfinder when they aren’t actually in focus, and vice versa.

   To set the viewfinder focus, remove the lens cap, look through the viewfinder, and then press the shutter button halfway to display data at the bottom of the viewfinder. (In dim lighting, the flash may pop up; ignore it for now and close the unit after you adjust the viewfinder.) Now rotate the dial until the data appears sharpest. The markings in the center of the viewfinder, which relate to autofocusing, also become more or less sharp.

   Figure 1-4: Rotate this dial to set the viewfinder focus for your eyesight.

That's all there is to it — the camera is now ready to go. From here, my recommendation is that you keep reading the rest of this chapter to familiarize yourself with the main camera features. But if you’re anxious to take a picture right away, I won’t think any less of you if you skip to Chapter 3, which guides you through the process of using the camera’s automatic shooting modes. Just promise that at some point, you’ll read the pages in between, because they actually do contain important information.

Exploring Basic Camera Features

If you’re new to dSLR photography, some aspects of using your camera, such as working with the lens, may be unfamiliar to you. But even if you're a seasoned pro — it pays to take some time before your first shoot with a new camera to get familiar with its controls. To that end, the upcoming pages provide an overview of the D3300’s main features and also offer a primer on working with lenses and memory cards.

Checking out external controls

Scattered across your camera’s exterior are numerous controls that you use to change picture-taking settings, review your photos, and perform various other operations. In later chapters, I discuss all camera functions in detail and provide the exact steps to follow to access them. This section provides just a basic “what’s this thing do?” guide to each control. (Don’t worry about memorizing the button names; throughout the book, I show pictures of buttons in the page margins to help you know exactly which one to press.)

Topside controls

Your virtual tour begins with the bird’s-eye view shown in Figure 1-5. There are a number of features of note here:

• On/Off switch and shutter button: Okay, I’m pretty sure you’ve already figured out this combo button. But you may not be aware that you need to press the shutter button in two stages: Press and hold the button halfway and wait for the camera to initiate exposure metering and, if you're using autofocusing, to set the focusing distance. Then press the button the rest of the way to take the picture.
• Exposure Compensation button: This button activates Exposure Compensation, a feature that enables you to tweak exposure when working in the P (programmed autoexposure), A (aperture-priority autoexposure), or S (shutter-priority autoexposure) modes. (I cover this feature in Chapter 4.) To set the amount of Exposure Compensation, press the button while rotating the Command dial (the black dial on the upper-right corner of the camera back). In M (manual exposure) mode, press...