My Thoughts on the U2 Setting

I’ve described in earlier blogs and site reviews of the D7000 that I use my U1 setting to hold my “normal” shooting setup, which is essentially Auto-ISO and manual mode.  That lets me pick both shutter speed and f-stop and the camera then sets ISO accordingly.  I can change one or the other if I don’t like what ISO I get, of course.  I’ve worked with this setup quite a bit and it’s payed off for me, but I have found a situation where another option would be helpful.

In reviewing my New Zealand shots, I realized that there were many shots in deep cover where exposure changed literally with every step.  Under these conditions it’s very difficult to set a shutter speed and f-stop that will work optimally, and if you succeed the simple act of turning to take a shot of a bird on a branch will blow the whole equation.  And there’s no time to change things because the darn birds, as we all know, flit in and out in seconds.

My thought now is to use the U2 setting to save an alternative setting, this one for P-mode operation with Auto-ISO but with the minimum shutter speed 1/320th.  That’s the low end (but not the minimum) for hand-holding with VR at 400mm zoom levels on my 80-400 Nikon lens.  With this setting in deep cover, I’d hope to have the camera pick a reasonable combination of f-stop, lens opening, and ISO even if flitting birds create major changes in lighting.  I can still diddle the f-stop/shutter combination using the dials.

I’ll need to test this out, though, because the problem is that there are three variables that the mode has to set, and the mechanism used isn’t clearly documented.  What I think will happen is that the camera will try to find a combination f-stop and shutter at the “preferred” ISO value I select, and will gradually open the former and slow the latter until it hits the lower limit (for f-stop on the 80-400 that depends on the zoom; for shutter speed it would be 1/320th with my setting).  Then it will raise ISO but stay at the 1/320th and whatever the maximum opening for the zoom level happens to be.  That’s not perfect versatility; it would be nice if it tried to optimize all three settings, but that’s not going to happen.  I’ll report on my results when I’ve had a chance to put the mode through its paces.

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