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Easy Live View and Bracketing for shooting HDR with a D700

Nikon D700 Preview and Function buttons
Nikon D700 Preview and Function buttons

Nikon D700 Preview and Function buttons

In the video below you will see how I set my Nikon D700 for quick live view. Instead of turning the dial from CL or CH to LV all I have to do is click the Depth of Field preview button. This is a custom function in the Nikon D700. Custom function f6 to be exact. Now, I knew this existed but until today I never thought of making the preview button turn on live view. In addition, the button right below that, the function button, can also be programmed to perform an action. I have mine set to turn on Auto Bracketing. If I am not mistaken, the Nikon D300, D300s, D3, D3s and D3x can all do this same thing. I’m sure other Nikon DSLR cameras can do it as well but the configuration and buttons would be slightly different.

So there are quite a few steps in order to get to that point.  You can see in the chart created by Imaging Resource that it isn’t a 5 second setup but it is fairly quick and well worth it.  Once it is setup you never have to change it again.

Imaging Resource Chart of D700 Custom Menu
Imaging Resource Chart of D700 Custom Menu

For some further explaination, here is some informatino from the Nikon D700 manual

Nikon D700 - Function Button

BKT – Bracketing burst: If the Fn button is pressed while exposure or flash bracketing is active in single frame release mode, all shots in the current bracketing program will be taken each time the shutter-release button is pressed. If white balance bracketing is active or continuous release mode (mode CH or CL) is selected, the camera will repeat the bracketing burst while the shutter-release button is held down (in single frame release mode, white balance bracketing will be repeated at the frame rate for CH release mode).

Nikon D700 - Preview Button

LV – Live view: Press the Preview button to toggle live view on and off. Not available when the mode dial is set to a or MUP

So there you go.  Quick and easy.  Now you can quickly switch to live view for more framing and composition.

Thanks for reading and happy shooting,

Scott


By Scott

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384 comments

  1. Thanks for this great info Scott. I had been wanting to use Live View on my D700 more but just didn’t want to hassle with it most of the time. This makes it so much easier! You know, I knew I could reassign the preview button but it never dawned on me to put Live View in there. Duh.
    I did a google search of “easy way to set live view on a Nikon D700” and this link came up. So glad you took the time to post this(way back in 2010!).
    Not sure if you were one of the guys I met at the coffee shop in Bar Harbor this past fall but I’m thinking you were with Bob Lussier on that trip. Happy shooting!

  2. Thank you so much for the chart that you created. I was having issues setting up the preview button for bracketing, and it is because I wasn’t choosing preview + command dials. I had been searching for a while for this and you finally solved my problem, thank you!

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