Nikon D3400 Guide:
Playback Menu
( [ > ] icon)

Please help KenRockwell..com

 

Nikon D3400

Nikon D3400 and included 18-55mm VR AF-P. bigger.

 

March 2017      Nikon D3400 Review    Nikon Reviews   Nikon Lens Reviews

How to Set and Use the D3400's Autofocus System

D3400 Guide Page Index

Top of D3400 User's Guide

 

Help Me Help You

I support my growing family through this website, as crazy as it might seem.

The biggest help is when you use any of these links when you get anything. It costs you nothing, and is this site's, and thus my family's, biggest source of support. These places always have the best prices and service, which is why I've used them since before this website existed. I recommend them all personally.

I got mine complete with lens at Adorama, also in red. You also can get it at B&H, also in red, at Amazon in all forms and at Crutchfield in all forms. It also comes as a kit with both the new 18-55mm VR AF-P and new 70-300mm DX AF-P lenses at Adorama and at B&H.

If you find this page as helpful as a book you might have had to buy or a workshop you may have had to take, feel free to help me continue helping everyone.

If you've gotten your gear through one of my links or helped otherwise, you're family. It's great people like you who allow me to keep adding to this site full-time. Thanks!

If you haven't helped yet, please do, and consider helping me with a gift of $5.00.

As this page is copyrighted and formally registered, it is unlawful to make copies, especially in the form of printouts for personal use. If you wish to make a printout for personal use, you are granted one-time permission only if you PayPal me $5.00 per printout or part thereof. There is no PDF or download; this is for if you want print from your browser window. Thank you!

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Mr. & Mrs. Ken Rockwell, Ryan and Katie.

 

Adorama Pays Top Dollar for Used Gear

B&H Photo - Video - Pro Audio

Crutchfield

I buy only from these approved sources. I can't vouch for ads below.

Free Live Help (USA only)

Want free live phone support?

In the USA, call (800) NIKON-UX.

 

How to get to the PLAYBACK Menu

Press MENU, click to the left and then up to select the top "[ > ] " (play) icon. You'll then see PLAYBACK MENU at the top of the color LCD.

 

What it Does

It sets a few playback options.

 

What I Change

I use this menu to activate the RGB histogram.

 

MENU ITEMS:        top

 

Delete

This option is helpful if you want to delete all images, or all images of a certain date, while saving those you locked with the Key / AE-L AF-L button.

I don't use this. I do all my editing and selection in my computer and I do my in-camera deletions one-by-one with the trash can key.

 

Playback Folder       top

The camera can record to and play back from different folders.

CURRENT ignores photos in folders other than the one to which you're recording. This means it won't see images recorded on different cameras, and if you're a smarty-pants who makes new folders in your D3400, it will only play from the current folder.

When you select CURRENT, you'll see "D3400" displayed in the menu system.

ALL shows you everything on the card. I leave my D3400 set to ALL. It tends to reset itself to Current, meaning it won't play images made on a different camera if they are on your card.

 

Playback Display Options       top

This lets you activate or deactivate various playback information screens.

To set these, press:

MENU > PLAYBACK > Playback display options.

Once in Playback display options, you have more choices called Additional photo info and Transition effects.

"Transition Effects" are silly effects as you switch among different images on playback; turn them OFF.

"Additional photo info" is where we add more display screen options for playback. Set them by:

MENU > PLAYBACK > Playback display options > Additional photo info > (check any you want by clicking to the right when selects) > OK.

Once activated, you move through these screens on playback by pressing the up or down buttons while playing an image.

 

Your Additional photo info choices are:

None (image only)

This option displays your picture with no other garbage on the screen.

 

Highlights

Overly bright parts of the image blink.

I don't use this; I can see which parts are too bright. If you don't use histograms, you might want to consider this option.

 

RGB Histogram

I always use this. It's the only useful form of a histogram. More at RGB histograms.

 

Shooting Data

This adds three pages of playback data.

If you want to know minor details like how much sharpening you used, this is how you get it all to display.

I use this, too.

 

Overview

This is a screen with a small image, a B&W histogram and a whole bunch of other data.

I also use this; it's handy.

 

Image Review       top

ON makes the picture appear right after you take it.

OFF makes the screen stay blank unless you press PLAY.

 

Auto Image Rotation        top

Leave this ON.

If you turn it off, your vertical shots will be sideways when you play them or send them to people!

This sets a flag in vertical images which keys most, but not all, software to display the image vertically. Leave this ON, otherwise all your vertical shots will be sideways!

It does not actually rotate the images; it merely sets a flag read by most software. Someday the camera's firmware will work properly and rotate the image itself as does my 2003 Kodak EasyShare CX4310, but no camera does this today.

I rotate the images themselves later in Phase One Media Pro to ensure that they always display properly on everything.

Auto Image Rotation is easy to fool if you're shooting directly up or down. Turn it off if you're photographing your shoes on your feet all day.

 

Rotate Tall        top

This is Japanese for rotating the vertical shots on playback. I keep it OFF, otherwise vertical shots never fill the screen.

It doesn't affect your images or files; it only changes how they are displayed on the D3400.

I leave this OFF and turn the camera.

When set to ON, it shows small vertical pictures on the big horizontal screen with black sides.

The D3400 isn't smart enough to rotate the pictures as you turn the camera during playback.

 

Slide Show        top

This lets you amaze your friends with an exciting slide show on the rear screen.

I don't bother with this. I guess it's popular in Japan. Whoo hoo! Let's all watch a show on a 3" screen!

You can plug your D3400 directly into a TV, HDTV or video projector. If you do, use the HDMI output, and it looks pretty awesome.

The analog A/V output looks bad because analog video resolution is poor.

 

Rating        top

I never use this.

This lets you mark images with your ratings. This is swell, but none of the software I use recognizes any of this, so for me it's meaningless. I prefer to do my sorting at back on my Mac Pro where I can see what I'm doing.

 

Send to Smart Device        top

This lets you mark which images will be sent to your iPhone or other doo-dad via Bluetooth. I never use this; Nikon's Snapbridge app isn't very reliable.

 

back to top of page     back to top of Nikon D3400 User's Guide

 

KNOBS, BUTTONS and CONTROLS

Autofocus System

 

MENUS

     PLAYBACK MENU  

     SHOOTING MENU < NEXT

     SETUP MENU

     RETOUCH MENU

     RECENT SETTINGS MENU

Nikon D3300 Users Guide App

Ken Rockwell's Nikon D3300 Users Guide app. There is no D3400 app, but the D3300 is 95% the same.

 

© Ken Rockwell. All rights reserved. Tous droits réservés. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

 

Home  Donate  New  Search  Gallery  Reviews  How-To  Books  Links  Workshops  About  Contact