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I usually use BASIC JPG and sometimes NORMAL JPG.
BASIC JPG looks almost the same as NORMAL, unless you're making six foot wide prints. It also
makes a file half the size of Normal, which speeds up everything and saves space on my hard
drives and backup CDs.
I never use FINE; it looks the same as NORMAL and wastes space. Feel free to use any settings
you like; that's why they're here.
You can see examples from my D200 at D200 Quality Setting Examples.
Image Size
This selects L, M or S image (pixel) size for the JPG images. I always use L.
I print L BASIC JPG files at 12 x 18" (30 x 50 cm) and they look great.
I might use M if I'm shooting many hundreds and hundreds of images of something I don't expect
to print larger than 8 x 12" (20 x 30cm), like sports, weddings and parties.
White Balance
I leave my WB at AUTO. See also How to Set White Balance (page 44) and White Balance
Examples (page 50).
Trick: to fine-tune (make warmer or cooler) each setting individually, after selecting it in the menu,
press OK (or click right) to get to the +3/-3 trim setting. + is cooler (bluer) and - is warmer (more
orange). This delicate, but critical, adjustment is missing from the D50, and it was my biggest
complaint about the D50.
The WB settings are:
Auto (A): I use this all the time. It makes its best guess for WB. It's usually very good. Indoor
tungsten can be too orange unless you have some bright tungsten light also in the image. If you
do, it removes the orange and compensates completely. If not, the D40 only partly compensates
and you get a nice warm image instead.
Tungsten (hanging light bulb icon that's easy to confuse with the sun icon): This makes the
picture very blue. Use this only for deliberate Arctic freezing effects, or under conventional
tungsten light bulbs.
Fluorescent (glowing tube icon): Used to make crappy fluorescent light look less crappy.
These settings rarely work; use the preset setting for better results.
Direct Sunlight (sun icon): Use this in direct frontal sunlight. Use other settings for shadows or
indirect sunlight.
Flash (lightning bolt): I never use this. It's almost the same as direct sun. I'm told it's really for
studio strobes, since the Auto mode compensates magically for flash if you use it on-camera. The
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