Help needed with Nikon p510 focus

[nicolawilliamz]

Hi,

I went on an Introduction to DSLR photography course yesterday and borrowed a friend's DSLR. On their Canon D1100 camera, I could push a button on the top right of the back of the camera which has a cross made up of squares (for want of a better description) which highlights dots on the screen and you can select where you want to be in focus on the screen. I can see the same image on the T-W zoom around the shutter button on the top of my Nikon P510.Can anyone please tell me if and how I can access the cross of dots on the screen to highlight specific ones, as my first instinct was to go out and get a new camera!!!

Thanks for any advice you can give

 

[darkman]

Will most likely be in the menu options.
Check your manusl

 

[nicolawilliamz]

Sorry... I have spent a couple of hours looking at the manual and not sure what term or phrase I should be looking for to describe the dots on the screen. Any suggestions?

 

[darkman]

The P510's focus modes include AF, Macro, Infinity and Manual. AF can be centre-spot, user selectable fromm 99 focus points or camera selectable from 9 points. In Face Priority AF mode, the camera can detect up to 12 human faces and will focus on the one closest to the camera. We found that regardless of AF area mode, auto-focus speed was satisfactory for still subjects, but a little too slow for fast-moving ones. Manual focusing is also possible, though a bit awkward: you get a rudimentary distance scale on the right-hand side of the screen, and can adjust focus via the Up and Down buttons. The centre of the picture is enlarged to aid you with checking focus, but unfortunately this is achieved by* way of interpolation rather than real magnification. The whole process is pretty slow, but can still be a godsend when the auto-focus system starts acting up.


Focus mode possibly

 

[nicolawilliamz]

Thanks for the help darkman... found it in the menu settings - it is not in the same format as the Canon with the dots on screen, but you can manually select one of 99 positions on the screen for the focus.