Nikon D7200 For Dummies
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To enable you to shoot oodles of pictures without having to swap out memory cards, the Nikon D7200 has two card slots. Open the cover on the right side of the camera to reveal them. The top slot is Slot 1; the bottom slot is Slot 2. Several options are available to you when you install two cards.

Here's what you need to know to make best use of the dual-card system:

  • Specifying how cards are used: For still photography, you can specify how you want the camera to use the card in Slot 2. Open the Photo Shooting menu and choose Role Played by Card 2, as shown. You get three choices:

    • Overflow: This setting is the default. The camera fills the card in Slot 1 (the top slot) and then switches to the second card.

    • Backup: The camera records each picture to both cards. This option gives you some extra security — should one card fail, you have a backup on the other card.

    • Raw Slot 1 - JPEG Slot 2: This setting relates to the Image Quality option. If you select one of the Raw (NEF)+JPEG settings, Raw files go on the card in Slot 1, and the JPEG files go on the card in Slot 2.

      This option tells the camera how to use the card in Slot 2.
      This option tells the camera how to use the card in Slot 2.

    When you shoot movies, the camera automatically uses Card 1 to store the movie file. But if the card in Slot 2 has more empty space, you may want to put the movie file there. The option that enables you to do so lives on the Movie Shooting menu. From that menu, choose Destination, as shown on the left. On the next screen, you can see the available recording time for each card. Select the card you want to use and press OK.

    You can select which card you want to use to store your movie files.
    You can select which card you want to use to store your movie files.
  • Monitoring card use in the Information display: You can tell which secondary slot function is in force by looking at the Image Quality readout of the Information screen, highlighted on the left. The card symbols tell you what's going where. In the figure, the symbols show that the camera is set up to send Raw files to Slot 1 and JPEG versions to Slot 2. (Fine represents one of three available settings for JPEG files.) If you see the same file type data for each card, the Backup option is selected. And if the file type label appears in only one card, with the other card appearing empty, the Overflow option is selected.

    These symbols represent your memory cards.
    These symbols represent your memory cards.
  • Monitoring card use in the Control panel: Symbols representing each card also appear in the Control panel, as shown on the right. If you set the slot function to Overflow, the number of the card currently in use appears (1 or 2). At the other settings, you see both a 1 and a 2, as in the figure, showing that both cards are in use.

  • Determining how many more shots you can take: When you set the second card to the Backup or Raw/JPEG option, the number of shots depends on the card that contains the least amount of free space. When either card is out of space, you can't take any more pictures. For the Overflow option, the shots remaining value tells you how many pictures you can fit on the card in Slot 1 until you fill that card. Then it changes to indicate the space on the second card. The figure reminds you where to find the shots-remaining value in the Information display and Control panel; this data also appears at the right end of the viewfinder and in the lower-right corner of the Live View still-photography display.

About This Article

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About the book author:

Julie Adair King's history as a digital photography author dates back to 1997 with the publication of the first edition of Digital Photography For Dummies. Since then she has authored over 50 books on digital photography, cameras, and photo editing and design software. She also teaches workshops at various locations including the Palm Beach Photographic Centre.

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