D300 Owners Thread - Anything related to the D300!

[wibbly]

If it's good enough for the D90 owners then it's got to be good enough for the D300 owners too :p

Whilst I'm counting all my pennies up and waiting for the best time to buy one (after Xmas) I thought I would be great to try and get a thread started to hear all the hints, tips and experiences of other D300 owners :)

C'mon then guys and gals, share your experiences here :D

[kardo]

Just got my D300s last night so far its great.

[mr bizzare]

I love my D300, I would like to buy a D3/s but just can't bring myself to sell my D300.

[PhotoTalk]

I'm in, but what shall we talk about? :thinking: erm... mine's black. What colour is yours? :p

[peterjones00]

D300 is a brill camea get one!

[kevshore]

I love my D300, I would like to buy a D3/s but just can't bring myself to sell my D300.




Keep the D300 as a backup. ;) :D


Kev.

[kevshore]

Ok, the one setting that I made on mine was to set focus to activate with the af-on button.
That way you focus with your thumb and when you half press the shutter button, VR activates on vr lenses.
If you keep your thumb pressed on af-on and have the camera set to continuous focus, you can pan and stay in focus as it readjust itself.
I know this ones basic, but its aimed for the new owners.

Kev.

[foggy4ever]

Only had it a couple of months, kept the D60 as a back up and to be able to have a long and short combination. Picking up the D60 again, it's sooooo small it feels like it should be on a key ring.

[Yv]

Only had it a couple of months, kept the D60 as a back up and to be able to have a long and short combination. Picking up the D60 again, it's sooooo small it feels like it should be on a key ring.

I keep a D70s as back up, not as small as a 60, but still feels dinky-ish.


Anyway, seeing as I have never tried it, can't understand the dratted manual anyway, can anyone explain in easy to understand language, how to use focus tracking and whether its actually any good?

[Messiah Khan]

Ok, the one setting that I made on mine was to set focus to activate with the af-on button.
That way you focus with your thumb and when you half press the shutter button, VR activates on vr lenses.
If you keep your thumb pressed on af-on and have the camera set to continuous focus, you can pan and stay in focus as it readjust itself.
I know this ones basic, but its aimed for the new owners.

Kev.

I couldn't get on with the AF-ON button, so went back to using the focus on shutter depress. I did however set the two buttons at the front to be spot metering and exposure lock. This way I can easily keep the camera in matrix metering, but quickly spot meter and lock the exposure.

[dod]

I couldn't get on with the AF-ON button, so went back to using the focus on shutter depress. I did however set the two buttons at the front to be spot metering and exposure lock. This way I can easily keep the camera in matrix metering, but quickly spot meter and lock the exposure.

That's one thing I'm struggling with a bit on mine, the sheer number of buttons. Having said that it did convince me to move to the dark side :)

[Jim B]

I still don't see the advantage of the AF-ON button, I find it easier to just hold the shutter button half way, and have my thumb free to adjust shutter speed while looking through the viewfinder?

foggy I agree, my D50 feels like a toy in comparison to the D300, the smaller buttons and tiny screen make it seem so awkward!

[f1charlie]

As there are captive D300 owners here, should I take up the Nikon Flashback offer and get a D300S instead of my D90?

[scottthehat]

As there are captive D300 owners here, should I take up the Nikon Flashback offer and get a D300S instead of my D90?simple answer, yes if you can afford it.

[scottthehat]

i love the d300 my advice is turn of the noise reduction and the active d lighting.
i will take time to get used to.

[alexkidd]

honestly, depends what you're using it for f1 the benefit of having the buttons on the outside rather than menus is great for professional use but they're pretty much the same camera afaik

granted i'd prefer a d300 over a d90 but wouldn't find myself upgrading unless there was a particular need

[desantnik]

how to use focus tracking and whether its actually any good?

Focus tracking good?!!! Errrm only the best thing about the D300/D700/D3...

Its nothing short of fantastic!

Oh and my top tip for this thread, dial in -0.7EV exposure compensation in the menus - these things overexpose (just like it seems every Nikon does)

[RVF]

Only had mine since March/April time & haven't really used it that much, been too busy :'(
But what little I have used it, I've been very, very impressed :D

Oh and my top tip for this thread, dial in -0.7EV exposure compensation in the menus - these things overexpose (just like it seems every Nikon does)
I'd agree to some extent, but it's no where near as bad as my previous D80 was for overexposing. I upgraded from a D70 to the D80 & was very frustrated & disapointed with the D80.........should have gone staright for the D300 in the first place :shake:

[jonnyjogpants]

i love my D300, D80, D70 but really now want a D700...

the d300 is great for sport etc. but want something more for low light....

[Yv]

Focus tracking good?!!! Errrm only the best thing about the D300/D700/D3...

Its nothing short of fantastic!

Oh and my top tip for this thread, dial in -0.7EV exposure compensation in the menus - these things overexpose (just like it seems every Nikon does)

so to use it I do what? .... yeah, I know RTFM :lol:

btw, I dont find mine over exposes that much, at most .3, but as I use it on manual more often than not, less of an issue. Mind you, my D70 is prone to a similar amount of under exposure :shrug:

[awp]

I never liked my D300's - felt like only half a camera - and I hated the stupid grip that you had to remove to change a battery!! Nothing like a pro body. Much happier with what I use now.

[dod]

I never liked my D300's - felt like only half a camera - and I hated the stupid grip that you had to remove to change a battery!! Nothing like a pro body. Much happier with what I use now.

Just as a matter of interest, how do you rate the D2Hs to the D3?

[awp]

so to use it I do what? .... yeah, I know RTFM :lol:

btw, I dont find mine over exposes that much, at most .3, but as I use it on manual more often than not, less of an issue. Mind you, my D70 is prone to a similar amount of under exposure :shrug:

Try the 51pt 3D tracking - and use the AF-ON button - works really really well.

[awp]

I still use the D2Hs - it has a very special quality to the pictures - and good to around 1250/1600ISO - focus tracking is also excellent - D3 scores on high ISO and the much better screen! D3 has better dynamic range - D2Hs has nicer/smaller file sizes. D2Hs has better 'reach' - D3 has quality at larger print sizes - although I've printed to 18 x 12 @1250ISO from the D2Hs andthey look great - also half pages in the press are no probs at all! I need them both. :) TBH I think the D2Hs was Nikons best body (prior to the D3). I'd still rather use it than a D300!

[AtominoTalk]

D300 is a great camera - same feeling like F100 from film area. Backup is a D60.
However DX lenses are another story, e.g. 35/1.8 http://joergvetter.oyla.de/cgi-bin/hpm_homepage.cgi BR Atomino

[mr bizzare]

Keep the D300 as a backup. ;) :D


Kev. it is use as a backup I have a D3x which is the other member of my love triangle

[merv]

Hi Kev - that suggestion about the AF-ON button you made on another thread. Sorry for the stupid question but why is that better than just holding the shutter button down 1/2 way? merv:thinking::thinking:

[Messiah Khan]

Hi Kev - that suggestion about the AF-ON button you made on another thread. Sorry for the stupid question but why is that better than just holding the shutter button down 1/2 way? merv:thinking::thinking:

Means you can recompose the shot without the focus changing. In theory it gives you more control as you separate the focusing and the shutter.

[awp]

It is really worth your while practising the AF-ON button till you master it! It does take a little getting used to but far better control - you can also change quickly from continuous focus to locked focus -just take your finger off the button and shoot!

[karmagarda]

Ok, so this begs the question... can you turn off the half click focus then? Because I'd like to put this AF button on trial. I'm really liking the sound of it.

[awp]

yes you can - don't have the manual with me but it's in there - I can post how to in the morning.

[karmagarda]

I'll have a root meself. Sure I could get off me bum and read the manual meself!

I so lazy :lol:

[merv]

I'm listening with interest as the discussion advances.:thinking:

[Davec223]

Ok, so this begs the question... can you turn off the half click focus then? Because I'd like to put this AF button on trial. I'm really liking the sound of it.

Go into the Custom Setting Bank, Then select a Autofocus. then select option a5 AF activation then select AF-ON only. Job done this will make your camera focus on AF button only not with shutter release.

[aberal]

Means you can recompose the shot without the focus changing. In theory it gives you more control as you separate the focusing and the shutter.

No it doesn't - not in continuous focus. It does in single focus but you get the same result when you press the shutter release half way down. The AF-on button serves the same function as the shutter release button - says so in the manual.

[karmagarda]

Go into the Custom Setting Bank, Then select a Autofocus. then select option a5 AF activation then select AF-ON only. Job done this will make your camera focus on AF button only not with shutter release.

Aye, just figured it out! I have noticed that it will now only release the shutter when I keep AF-ON depressed. Presume that sounds all spiffing and correct?

[Davec223]

Aye, just figured it out! I have noticed that it will now only release the shutter when I keep AF-ON depressed. Presume that sounds all spiffing and correct?


If option a1 is set to release and focus or focus then yes if the shot is not in focus then it will not allow you to take a shot.

[karmagarda]

If option a1 is set to release and focus or focus then yes if the shot is not in focus then it will not allow you to take a shot.

Ah, I've had a revelation! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Firstly I was shooting on AF-S so it was refusing to shoot full stop. AF-S was set to Focus. Changing this to "Release" means it releases the shutter regardless.

[Davec223]

Ah, I've had a revelation! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Firstly I was shooting on AF-S so it was refusing to shoot full stop. AF-S was set to Focus. Changing this to "Release" means it releases the shutter regardless.


Pleased you have it sorted, stick with af-on, it takes a little time to get used to it, I tried it several times before I got used to it now I will only shot this way, the only time I switch it off is when one of my daughters uses one of my cameras as their hands are a little to small to use it.

[wibbly]

I'm listening with interest as the discussion advances.:thinking:

Me too, and I haven't got a D300 yet, I'm scouring eBay and the like looking for the right one at the right price :)

Sounds an awesome piece of kit though!

[karmagarda]

Pleased you have it sorted, stick with af-on, it takes a little time to get used to it, I tried it several times before I got used to it now I will only shot this way, the only time I switch it off is when one of my daughters uses one of my cameras as their hands are a little to small to use it.

Which way do you recommend by the way, stopping the shutter from firing unless AF is depressed? Or firing regardless?

[Tracer]

Hi - joining in here because I have my D300 set up the same way with AF-ON. I use "continuous focus" nearly all the time - press the AF button once and then recompose at leisure, or for moving subjects keep it depressed.

I only use AF-S for trap focus - use the button to pre-focus on a spot that your subject is going to pass through, hold the shutter button down, and it will only fire once the subject has moved into focus. It can be very handy. (Hope you can follow my garbled description - it's my bedtime!)

[Davec223]

I have mine set so it will only release if in focus.

[awp]

No it doesn't - not in continuous focus. It does in single focus but you get the same result when you press the shutter release half way down. The AF-on button serves the same function as the shutter release button - says so in the manual.

yes it does - just take your thumb off the AF-ON button and the focus stays put! I keep mine in 'C' mode all the time and you control whether it's continuous or not with your thumb on the button. Easy! More control.

[-Rob-]

I got my first D300 this time last year and loved it instantly. At the time I had a D70 as a back up but it was obviously a massive step down from the D300 so I never used it. I thought an upgrade of the D70 to a D80 would help but still compared to my D300 it just wasn't the same so a couple of months ago I upgraded the D80 to another D300. Now I have 2 of them I can take either camera out of the bag and know I have a top quality camera in my hand.

It's been interesting reading about all this AF lock stuff because I didn't know any of it. I generally use AF-S with a half press of the shutter so I'm going to have a play with the AF lock button and see if I can get used to using it. I can imagine it being like learning a new skill.

I've only just got a grip for one of my D300's so learning to use the portrait shutter release is going to be hard enough.

[karmagarda]

Had a play with the AF-On for a bit last night and really liking it. That's interesting what you were saying too Tracer, although I found that mine would only take the photo 60/70% of the time when in focus. Dramatically brought down my FPS too. I think the combo AF-C with forcing AF-On to be pressed is what I'm going to try out. Be interesting how this works in street photography. Although, the D300 is a loud bugger! The shutter/mirror flip sounds excellent, but I won't be doing Street candids on a quiet day methinks :lol:

[desantnik]

yes it does - just take your thumb off the AF-ON button and the focus stays put! I keep mine in 'C' mode all the time and you control whether it's continuous or not with your thumb on the button. Easy! More control.

Whilst I use a lot of continuous focus (with focus tracking and using the AF-ON button) for motorsport, single focus has one key advantage - when you have all the focus points active, in AF-S mode you can see which ones have aquired focus (assuming you have it set to light up the focus points) whereas in AF-C it doesn't do this. Dunno about you, but I like to make sure its focusing on the right bits ;-)

[desantnik]

I have mine set so it will only release if in focus.

Bet you miss a lot of shots of moving things then!

[Yv]

yes it does - just take your thumb off the AF-ON button and the focus stays put! I keep mine in 'C' mode all the time and you control whether it's continuous or not with your thumb on the button. Easy! More control.

This does actually make a great argument for using the af-on option as if offers the best of both worlds I suppose. I have been trying to get in the habit of using the button so I think I might well be swapping to the full set up soon, following all the comments here :thumbs:

[Martyn...]

Oh and my top tip for this thread, dial in -0.7EV exposure compensation in the menus - these things overexpose (just like it seems every Nikon does)

My D300 exposes perfectly, no EV adjustment needed, my D80 always needed the -0.7 adjustment

Hi Kev - that suggestion about the AF-ON button you made on another thread. Sorry for the stupid question but why is that better than just holding the shutter button down 1/2 way? merv:thinking::thinking:

Merv think of it like the old cameras where you focused the lens manually, you had control. Using the AF ON gives you that separate control, you can focus and recompose, or with panning moving subjects (like birds in flight) you can release the button if they go behind an obstruction that would make the camera refocus, or if they go across a confusing background that would make the camera refocus.

It does take time to master, once it sank in with me I found it so much easier.

An example, a bird in a tree with some branches in front and behind, once I have the bird in focus I can release the AF ON button and press the shutter safe in the knowledge that at the last moment it is not going to focus on the foreground or background branch.

No it doesn't - not in continuous focus. It does in single focus but you get the same result when you press the shutter release half way down. The AF-on button serves the same function as the shutter release button - says so in the manual.

It does work in continuos focus, just release the AF ON button and it stops focusing.

I have mine set so it will only release if in focus.

I have mine set so that it will fire when I tell it to, that way I am in control, not the camera.

[Martyn...]

This does actually make a great argument for using the af-on option as if offers the best of both worlds I suppose. I have been trying to get in the habit of using the button so I think I might well be swapping to the full set up soon, following all the comments here :thumbs:

Yv, I have had my D300 just over 2 years, I switched to this way of using the camera about 12 months ago, it did take a while to adjust to (old dog new tricks :D ), but it is second nature now, and something I do without thinking.

This shot shows what I mean, using the AF ON button has allowed me to achieve focus on the bird, release the button and not have the AF try and refocus on the foreground twig, which it would have done using the shutter release.

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/2718/thumbs/158_063.jpg (http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=70743)

[karmagarda]

... in AF-S mode you can see which ones have aquired focus (assuming you have it set to light up the focus points) whereas in AF-C it doesn't do this. Dunno about you, but I like to make sure its focusing on the right bits ;-)

I'd try AF-C again, because it does the opposite, as in highlings the sensors after shutter release. So when you shoot it will highlight the sensor(s) that were in focus. I know this definitely happens when using AF-On, because I spotted this last night when I was messing around with the settings.

[Davec223]

Bet you miss a lot of shots of moving things then!

Don't shoot a lot of moving things at the moment. Will have a play in the new year and see how I feel then.

[awp]

This does actually make a great argument for using the af-on option as if offers the best of both worlds I suppose.

Got it in one! Takes a little practice but once you've got it you'll never go back!

[MatthewA]

I only use AF-S for trap focus - use the button to pre-focus on a spot that your subject is going to pass through, hold the shutter button down, and it will only fire once the subject has moved into focus. It can be very handy. (Hope you can follow my garbled description - it's my bedtime!)

And if you set e.g. continuous shooting (CL) and set with shutter button locked open using a remote, you can walk away and leave the camera to take pictures only when something is in focus like when a bird lands in the focus zone to feed. Possibly not recommended at a high fps though :D

[aberal]

yes it does - just take your thumb off the AF-ON button and the focus stays put! I keep mine in 'C' mode all the time and you control whether it's continuous or not with your thumb on the button. Easy! More control.

Oh, well...duh! If you take your finger off the button, then that figures. :bang:

Got it in one! Takes a little practice but once you've got it you'll never go back!

Oh contrare mon amee. :) It's horses for courses I reckon and depends on your type of photography. I take landscapes, buildings and people and have mine set to 'S' mode 95% of the time. I use the AE-L button a lot to set the exposure (when I want skies for example) and recompose and fix focus with a half press of the shutter and then recompose again, so the AF-On button is of no real use to me. Set AF-C by all means and use the AF-ON button for motorsport, action, birdlife etc. But its no means a useful tool for all of us. That, in a sense is the beauty of the D300 - its range of controls for all kinds of photography.

[Graham00]

I like the custom menu saves going through ALL the coloured sub menu's when you want to change something quickly like the AF points 9,21 or 51.

[RustyMac]

Well having just bought a D300S myself, and finding it hard to adapt (Used to be a Canon owner!) This looks like the thread to be watched. Some great tips there. Keep 'em coming please:clap:

[aberal]

Well having just bought a D300S myself, and finding it hard to adapt (Used to be a Canon owner!) This looks like the thread to be watched. Some great tips there. Keep 'em coming please:clap:

Try reading either "Mastering the D300" by Darrell Young or David Busch's "Nikon D300". I have them both. Both are really good, full of info, explanations, tips and tricks, neither are brilliant and not one of them is loads better than the other. Darrell Young's is cheaper, smaller and lighter and a little more readable. David Busch's is tome-like and a bit unwieldy and suffers a bit from his endless comparisons to the D200 (matters to him as an ex-D200 user, irrelevant to those of use who aren't) but includes some good bits of info missing in Darrell Young's. So its a bit of a toss up between them.

[Jim B]

Anyone used 51 point 3D tracking for motorsport or aviation (or anything fast moving for that matter)? Would be interested to hear how you found it! :thumbs:

Cheers,

[RustyMac]

Try reading either "Mastering the D300" by Darrell Young or David Busch's "Nikon D300"...

Cheers, I'll keep a look out for them :thumbs:

[dod]

Try reading either "Mastering the D300" by Darrell Young or David Busch's "Nikon D300". I have them both. Both are really good, full of info, explanations, tips and tricks, neither are brilliant and not one of them is loads better than the other. Darrell Young's is cheaper, smaller and lighter and a little more readable. David Busch's is tome-like and a bit unwieldy and suffers a bit from his endless comparisons to the D200 (matters to him as an ex-D200 user, irrelevant to those of use who aren't) but includes some good bits of info missing in Darrell Young's. So its a bit of a toss up between them.

on a similar theme I got the Nikon D300 Expanded Guide by Jon Sparks, excellent :thumbs:

[wibbly]

Try reading either "Mastering the D300" by Darrell Young or David Busch's "Nikon D300". I have them both. Both are really good, full of info, explanations, tips and tricks, neither are brilliant and not one of them is loads better than the other. Darrell Young's is cheaper, smaller and lighter and a little more readable. David Busch's is tome-like and a bit unwieldy and suffers a bit from his endless comparisons to the D200 (matters to him as an ex-D200 user, irrelevant to those of use who aren't) but includes some good bits of info missing in Darrell Young's. So its a bit of a toss up between them.

on a similar theme I got the Nikon D300 Expanded Guide by Jon Sparks, excellent :thumbs:

Excellent, both on my Christmas list. All be it a little late to be on there at this stage in proceedings! :thinking:

[Jim B]

Anyone used 51 point 3D tracking for motorsport or aviation (or anything fast moving for that matter)? Would be interested to hear how you found it! :thumbs:

(Was last post of the previous page, thought I'd repost it in case any missed it! :$)

Cheers,

[davekiddle]

Just got the D300 guide by Ken Rockwell for the iPhone - £2.99 - very handy to have with you at all times.

[fracster]

Anyone used 51 point 3D tracking for motorsport or aviation (or anything fast moving for that matter)? Would be interested to hear how you found it! :thumbs:

(Was last post of the previous page, thought I'd repost it in case any missed it! :$)

Cheers,

I have tried it for birds, simply can`t get on with it.Though, in fairness, that could be my fault rather than the cameras.

[cambsno]

Anyone used 51 point 3D tracking for motorsport or aviation (or anything fast moving for that matter)? Would be interested to hear how you found it! :thumbs:

(Was last post of the previous page, thought I'd repost it in case any missed it! :$)

Cheers,

So what exactly is 3d tracking? Think I have the 'normal' 51 point AF. Mainly shoot portraits, mainly kids so sometimes a lot of movement.

[cambsno]

Love my D300, great step up from the D90.

Shoot in RAW so turn off NR and DLighting,

[desantnik]

Anyone used 51 point 3D tracking for motorsport or aviation (or anything fast moving for that matter)? Would be interested to hear how you found it! :thumbs:

No its pants.

If you want to see how pants it is, turn on the af point illumination and then try it... you will see the AF points light up as it "tracks" things... and you'll see it go bonkers and loose the plot plenty :D

Probably good if you are a numpty and can't work the rest out, but trust me, for consistant results keep it to stuff you control...

[dod]

No its pants.

If you want to see how pants it is, turn on the af point illumination and then try it... you will see the AF points light up as it "tracks" things... and you'll see it go bonkers and loose the plot plenty :D

Probably good if you are a numpty and can't work the rest out, but trust me, for consistant results keep it to stuff you control...

thank goodness it's not just me then :D

[awp]

51 point 3D tracking on the D3 is superb - and I'm pretty sure it's the same as on the D300. Pick up the subject in the centre point and it sticks with it flawlessly - if it doesn't - you don't have the camera set up properly. I use it 99% of the time!

[Oli R C]

It could be worth changing menu a4 (Focus tracking with lock-on), to 'Short', or 'Off', to increase the responsiveness of 3D tracking.

It all depends on your subject really...

[kevshore]

51 point 3D tracking on the D3 is superb - and I'm pretty sure it's the same as on the D300. Pick up the subject in the centre point and it sticks with it flawlessly - if it doesn't - you don't have the camera set up properly. I use it 99% of the time!



Same here. I've used it on the D3 and D300. Worked ok, but I must admit I don't use it much. Haven't even tried it on the D3s yet.

Kev.

[Oli R C]

51 point 3D tracking on the D3 is superb - and I'm pretty sure it's the same as on the D300. Pick up the subject in the centre point and it sticks with it flawlessly - if it doesn't - you don't have the camera set up properly. I use it 99% of the time!

Same here. I've used it on the D3 and D300. Worked ok, but I must admit I don't use it much. Haven't even tried it on the D3s yet.

Kev.

Chaps (or anyone else), would you care to explain a few of the settings you use. It'd be good to establish if the folk not getting along with this system, just haven't managed to get it set up in a way that would be good for them.

I'm mainly thinking about which Dynamic AF Area you use (maybe you change from time to time), and what you have ' Focus tracking with lock-on' set to, considering that switching it to 'off', increases the responsiveness of Dynamic AF, but may then cause problems if it's likely that something may briefly block your view.

Also, what situations are you 100% confident in using the system, and when would you turn it off?

I think with some extra info, we could make sure the TP D300 users fully understand how to use this system, and the world will be a much better place. :lol:

I've not yet used the system in anger, and I'm dying to use it for my Mountain Bike photography, as previously I've always pre-focused on the spot where I want to capture the rider, and then switched to manual.
But I have now set up my camera to use the AF-ON button, switched servo mode to continuos, and enabled 3D-Tracking, set 'Focus tracking with lock-on' to OFF, and with a bit of luck, that's how I'll be leaving it. (Although D300 digitutor does recommend the 9point AF Area for the mountain biking stuff - we'll see...)

I hope users can take the time to explain the points I've raised. :D

Cheers
Oliver

[desantnik]

Also, what situations are you 100% confident in using the system, and when would you turn it off?

Answers... never and always :D

Select a focus point with focus point assist (middle setting), using the AF-ON button to track the subject for a little while before squeezing the shutter.

Two things you need to take into consideration here...

1) If you have VR on your lens you need to half depress the shutter release button to engage it. It takes time to spin up, so if you have not got that time, turn it off or it WILL muck up your shot. Personally, turn it off and leave it turned off.

2) As subjects get closer (subject distance decreases) your AF system and lens focus motor has to work harder. The D300's AF system is superb, but your glass might not be (only certain lenses are really suitable for this). This will be most taxing with things coming straight towards you, less taxing the less the subject distance changes least. If its really up close and personal and fast, AF tracking won't really work, so go back to basics and use pre-focus instead.

Probably 95% of a considerable number of shots I take are taken like this. The D300 is a fantastic bit of kit and the number of focused shots is very, very high. Ok, so camera shake or subject movement kills some of the slow shutter stuff, but thats not the D300's fault. Its a quality bit of gear that you can rely on.

[DiddyDave]

This thread has made interesting reading. When I buy a new camera I'm one of the few that reads the manual - cover to cover. I marvel at the new fancy things they can do

Then I turn off just about everything and go back to centre point focussing and centre weighted average on a small circle - just like my old film cameras :D

Works perfectly for me and I certainly don't get the overexposure or focusing issues others have commented on :)

DD

[Oli R C]

Answers... never and always :D

Oh bugger! So much for world peace, then. :lol:

But you've covered some very important points there, and exactly the kind of info we need in this thread. :thumbs:

Still want to hear more from both sides...

[kevshore]

Check out this site guys. There are a few threads near the top with a lot of info.

http://www.nikoncafe.com/vforums/forumdisplay.php?f=125

Kev.


Edit. Bugger you need to be a member.I am. Its worth it though. So join! :thumbs:

[Ginsey]

I have just started using my D300 again after a long break. Can't really explain why it just stayed in its bag. I think the main problem is i'm not sure what I want to photgraph, if that makes any sense. Can anybody recommend a good training coarse. Don't really like books or DVD's, much prefer a classroom with an expert and lots of hands on. Really need to get to grips with all these buttons and functions, at the moment it rarely gets off P, what a waste.

[aberal]

I have just started using my D300 again after a long break. Can't really explain why it just stayed in its bag. I think the main problem is i'm not sure what I want to photgraph, if that makes any sense. Can anybody recommend a good training coarse. Don't really like books or DVD's, much prefer a classroom with an expert and lots of hands on. Really need to get to grips with all these buttons and functions, at the moment it rarely gets off P, what a waste.

You know mate, the thing is... it really is hard work. I mean the D300 is HARD WORK! Seriously. In ye olde days camera were simple - aperture and shutter speed and choose your film and that was about it, apart from an eye for the fotie. Nowadays - you need a degree in electronics simply to turn it on. But the rewards are there, if you have the eye. The D300 will give you what you want if you work at it. But buy the books, read the web pages, work at it...its hard work all in all. But its worth it, in the end. You'll capture images you never thought possible, it's all there, in your hands - in the D300. But don't let anyone tell you that its easy.

[fracster]

51 point 3D tracking on the D3 is superb - and I'm pretty sure it's the same as on the D300. Pick up the subject in the centre point and it sticks with it flawlessly - if it doesn't - you don't have the camera set up properly. I use it 99% of the time!

Have you tried it for fast moving subjects?

[Martyn...]

I have just started using my D300 again after a long break. Can't really explain why it just stayed in its bag. I think the main problem is i'm not sure what I want to photgraph, if that makes any sense. Can anybody recommend a good training coarse. Don't really like books or DVD's, much prefer a classroom with an expert and lots of hands on. Really need to get to grips with all these buttons and functions, at the moment it rarely gets off P, what a waste.

Have a read of Ken Rockwell's guide, it is written in plain English, is short and to the point, much easier to follow than the 400+ page manual. Whilst he has his own strange ideas on 'vivid', it should guide you to make the basic settings to get decent results.

LINK (http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d300/users-guide/index.htm)

[Jim B]

No its pants.

If you want to see how pants it is, turn on the af point illumination and then try it... you will see the AF points light up as it "tracks" things... and you'll see it go bonkers and loose the plot plenty :D

Probably good if you are a numpty and can't work the rest out, but trust me, for consistant results keep it to stuff you control...

Only used the camera a couple of times for motorsport, initially was using single point AF and tracking the cars with that. Having actually picked up the manual for the first time (:lol:), it appears dynamic AF would perhaps be a better option. My reasoning is if I didn't keep the car nailed on the AF point (i.e. it strayed outside it), the camera would use AF data from the other AF points. Currently had that set to 51 points, but wondering if that would slow things down as it has to calculate from a lot of points?

Was just interested in peoples experiences of 51 point 3D tracking, particulary for fast moving subjects. Not tried it on moving subjects yet but seen the AF point bouncing around messing about. For a moving subject is it supposed to keep the focus point above the subject you're tracking no matter where it is in the frame?

It could be worth changing menu a4 (Focus tracking with lock-on), to 'Short', or 'Off', to increase the responsiveness of 3D tracking.

It all depends on your subject really...

Have it set to off, which I think means its at its most responsive. Would only think about putting it on (short, or normal) if I knew something would temporarily come between me and the subject.

... Select a focus point with focus point assist (middle setting)...

What is focus point assist?

Cheers,

[Graham00]

If you can find one they're still retailing for £1000+ :clap: :notworthy:

[awp]

Have you tried it for fast moving subjects?

yes I have.

[desantnik]

What is focus point assist?

On your focus point selection switch you have "single focus point" (top), "dynamic" (which is all focus points, on the bottom) and "focus point plus focus assist points" (middle). The middle setting uses you selected focus point to work on and uses the points surrounding it to help get the best focus.

[fracster]

yes! How many examples do you need?



For goodness sake grow up.

I`m asking about fast moving animals/birds, not lethargical creatures like those.

I have tried it it for birds, often, and I can`t get it to work fast enough.Now that is either my fault or the cameras.Bearing in mind I have a "useless D300 rather than a D3", how do YOU get the 3d to work with small flighty birds?

Or maybe, you can`t?

[Oli R C]

I`m asking about fast moving animals/birds, not lethargical creatures like those.

:lol: Indeed, one mans fast moving subject is another man's lathargic creature.

I'm keen to find out the limits of the Dynamic AF, and it certainly looks like small flightly birds are going to be beyond this system. I'm hoping, from a personal point of view, that it's going to be usable for me, for my mountain bike stuff. awp's examples certainly paint things in a favourable light, but then they were taken on a D3 (I assume), so not really sure of their validity in this thread :thinking:

Unfortunately, it's the wrong time of year for MTB races, so I'll have to wait a little while before I can really test it out. But I think it could work for me. I'd only need to keep the rider in the same portion of the viewfinder (or at least not move him too quickly to another portion) which I think is perfectly plausible.

Here's hoping.... It'd just be a refreshing change, not to have to pre-focus, and thus restrict when I can take the shot. If something happens before or after the pre-focused spot, a crash for example, then I'm not going to miss the shot due to not being focussed correctly.

EDIT: Although, switching to using the AF-ON button will help in this situation. :)

[Kaouthia]

Just got mine yesterday, my wife buys me the best presents :)

http://images.nikonians.org/galleries/data/500/D300_70-200VR.jpg

The attached lens was my birthday present :D

[aberal]

Have a read of Ken Rockwell's guide, it is written in plain English, is short and to the point, much easier to follow than the 400+ page manual. Whilst he has his own strange ideas on 'vivid', it should guide you to make the basic settings to get decent results.

LINK (http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d300/users-guide/index.htm)

He's also got some strange notions about shooting in RAW too. I realised that once that Ken uses his camera like a point and shoot and doesn't do PP work, his strange notions make some kind of sense. They don't make sense for those of us who do (and enjoy) a bit of PP work now and again.

[awp]

awp's examples certainly paint things in a favourable light, but then they were taken on a D3 (I assume), so not really sure of their validity in this thread :thinking:



Mine were taken with a D3 but as far as I know the D3 and the D300 have the same focussing system.

[wibbly]

Anyone got any comments on the D300s regarding it's abilities for Video?

I'd be interested in some feedback on this :)

[wibbly]

So I spent out today on a D300s.... What a lovely bit of kit!

All tips and hints most welcome :)

[Jim B]

On your focus point selection switch you have "single focus point" (top), "dynamic" (which is all focus points, on the bottom) and "focus point plus focus assist points" (middle). The middle setting uses you selected focus point to work on and uses the points surrounding it to help get the best focus.

Ah I've never heard it called focus point plus focus assist points before, just dynamic. I realise what the settings do, but when in the dynamic mode how many points do you let it use to assist? I'm using 51 (not 3D tracking).

Been experimenting with 3D tracking today and it works to a degree. Had the 300/4 on, focused on a bird on the bird feeder, then moved the camera around and it kept the focus point above the bird however I composed the shot. As far as a fast moving subject in the frame goes, I don't think it'd keep up, so I use single point and dynamic depending on the scene.

One thing that annoys me is you can't use 1/3 steps for the Auto ISO "maximum sensitivity" setting. It goes from 800 to 1600, ideally I'd like to set it to 1000! :bonk:

[Mud]

Just got mine yesterday, my wife buys me the best presents :)

*image snip*

The attached lens was my birthday present :D

I recently got this exact setup, it's amazing. I shot tight candid portraits in India from moving motorised richshaws on bad roads and the results blew me away! :love:

[LASTOLITE]

So I spent out today on a D300s.... What a lovely bit of kit!


May have been said BUT there is a FREE:thumbs: speedlight SB900 with that purchase! direct from NIKON - get the camera registered AND make sure IF yours has the 2 year extended warranty included you register with HomeServe - The 0800 no is on the box! as the Nikon system of registration sometimes falls over So I was told;)

And as happened to me - If I had nor have followed up from a post in a forum of the same issue I would have lost the additional year:thinking:

[wibbly]

make sure IF yours has the 2 year extended warranty included you register with HomeServe - The 0800 no is on the box! as the Nikon system of registration sometimes falls over So I was told;)


Thanks for this, I registered online for the warranty but think I may give them a call to confirm I have the 2 years :thumbs:

I have been on to Nikon about the SB900 and am awaiting my voucher to send back to them for my SB900, it's what swung me to buy the S :cool::thumbs:

[ecniv]

Is there a way to have a setting recorded for use - ie I have iso 200 when a flash is up or attached, but if there is no flash can it be set to 1000?

So may be two settings, one for normal (ie user adjusts) and one for preset...

I am asking as I used the 300 with the tokina 11-16 for a pic of all people at the new years bash. Worked a treat got all in. But I had forgotten to drop the iso back to 200, so was noisy... Sigh.

So being lazy really - is there a way to set this sort of thing up? I am guessing no. :)

Next time ... :)

[chivers67]

Anyone got any comments on the D300s regarding it's abilities for Video?

I'd be interested in some feedback on this :) I've taken some video and it's pretty clear and the microphone built into the camera does well picking up sound. If you're hand holding you need to keep the camera really steady best sticking to a tripod. I'm quite mpressed with the built in flash. Ken Rockwell doesn't seem to rate it for some reason :shrug:

[Kaouthia]

Ken Rockwell doesn't seem to rate it for some reason :shrug:
That could be because he's never actually used one, or at least hadn't at the time of his "review". I've no idea if he has since then, but he hasn't updated the review to reflect it, so I suspect not.

The D300s movie mode isn't terrible. It's certainly not as versatile as a dedicated video camera, but no DSLR that has a built in movie feature is. It has its issues, but then so does the Sony EX1R (and that costs almost 7 grand once you get the Letus adapter for Nikon glass).

So far in limited playing around, you'll want to have the camera set in A or M in tripod mode (and actually on a tripod) for best results. You never get complete manual control, it will constantly try to adjust the gain (basically the ISO) in order to try to get "accurate" exposure on the frame, so you'll need pretty even lighting thoughout each shot.

It does suffer from rolling shutter issues, although not quite as badly as the previous Nikon bodies that also shot in HD (still fairly obvious though in hand-held or quickly panned tripod shots). There is software out there to correct for this, which ranges anywhere from free to about £500, and you'd never notice it if processed correctly. Having an actual video tripod can help with this (even a low end one) as they're designed for more fluid pan shots than photography tripods. I use a cheap Libec video tripod (it cost me about £120 at the Broadcast Video Expo last year) that I initially bought for use with Sony Z7 HD cameras, but it works great with the D300s. Very smooth and fluid movement and the head is adjustable with a built in level to get perfectly horizontal pans.

It definitely has a learning curve which requires you probably will be shooting video differently than you may have done in the past with dedicated video cameras or even cheap camcorders, but the results can be excellent.

[wibbly]

I must admit part of the reason I went for the 300s over a secondhand 300 was for the movie mode having been suckered in by watching Nikons PR about it.

Having tried it a couple of times I am somewhat disappointed, however as others have pointed out I guess there are results available if you are willing to spend a lot of time and effort getting to them... something I don't know whether I want to given the option to pick up a Video Camera and point and shoot, something I was hoping to avoid with a D300s...

Having said that, the camera is complicated enough in single frame use for me, let alone movie mode :lol:

[Shelby Tree]

Only had it a couple of months, kept the D60 as a back up and to be able to have a long and short combination. Picking up the D60 again, it's sooooo small it feels like it should be on a key ring.
I hear this! It feels like a toy! haha

[LASTOLITE]

Has anyone else noticed in the D300 viewfinder - IF you frame a shot in low light and then bright light the data readout brightens or goes dimmer depending upon the best contrast needed to view the data - who thought of that:thumbs:

[Mud]

You never get complete manual control, it will constantly try to adjust the gain (basically the ISO) in order to try to get "accurate" exposure on the frame, so you'll need pretty even lighting thoughout each shot.


You realise you can use AE-L to lock the exposure? I always hit it before recording.

[_belial]

I've only just noticed, that for whatever reason (?) when I left my camera out tonight taking 30sec exposures with a shutter release locked, it only saved 100 of the images to the card, despite there being about 3gb free!? Any idea why this is? From my calculations there should have been 3 times that many on there?

[Cheng]

Apparently whilst the D3 and D300 have the same AF focussing systems, the D300 does not have the processing power to do a good job of the 51 point 3d focussing system, whereas the D3 3d foccusing is great! :( So 51/3d is a bit useless on fast action for the D300. Think this was KR that said this btw.

[redhed17]

I'd take anything Ken Rockwell says with a huge pinch of salt, and get any 'facts' verified from a respectable source or two. ;)

The chap talks some 'cr*p' just to generate traffic through his site, which is fair enough as he wants to make a living, and seems to be quite successful at it. :shrug: However some people mistakenly take what he says as fact, without knowing that the chap sometimes talks 's***e' for effect and site traffic.


Back to the D300, I found Thom Hogan's guide to the D300 (and D200 and D70) very good. :)

If shooting only RAW, change your picture style to Neutral, as the Histogram shows a Jpeg (as most cameras do) and if the picture style is boosting colours and contrast, this will show in the Histogram, but is not an accurate reading of the RAW file. This is the same with all LCD review images, not just for the D300. Apparently the RAW images can look a bit flat on the LCD and don't look good when trying to sell cameras in shops. :bonk:


Before I got into using Adobe Bridge and to a lesser extent, Lightroom, I used to shoot just RAW and use software called Preview Extractor to generate a Basic Jpeg from the RAW file for previewing which images to do further editing on. It allows for a larger full screen preview image using Window$ Picture and Fax Viewer, which other programs don't give. It is also quicker to scroll through images too imho. Saves shooting RAW+Jpeg just for s preview image. I only stopped using it on my new PC as it doesn't want to work with Vista. You can get the software here (http://drchung.new21.net/previewextractor/). It works with most if not all Nikon cameras btw. ;)

I can't think of anything else at the moment. :shrug:

[Kaouthia]

You realise you can use AE-L to lock the exposure? I always hit it before recording.
That works in video mode? Does it work as an on/off toggle, or am I expected to hold it down the entire time? :)

[Mud]

That works in video mode? Does it work as an on/off toggle, or am I expected to hold it down the entire time? :)

It'll work as assigned, I have it set to toggle the exposure lock on pressing the AE-L/AF-L button. Luckily this doesn't conflict with my normal photography button assignments.

[Kaouthia]

Nice, thanks. I'd only had a quick play with the movie mode a couple of times (as I said, limited playing around) and I hadn't even thought of the AE lock button.

See, this is why we need that DSLR video forum. ;)

[Mud]

Agreed, though I bought my D300s partly as an interim video body to play with whilst Nikon catch up to Canon on the video (quality) front. I don't take the D300s' video capability seriously.

[Kaouthia]

I don't take the D300s' video capability seriously.
Well, now that I know the exposure can be locked, I'm taking it a little more seriously. I'll still be using EX1's for most of the stuff ***.

[davekiddle]

I've only just noticed, that for whatever reason (?) when I left my camera out tonight taking 30sec exposures with a shutter release locked, it only saved 100 of the images to the card, despite there being about 3gb free!? Any idea why this is? From my calculations there should have been 3 times that many on there?

I think that's the max number of shots you can take in either Continuous Low or Continuous High - seems strange to have an upper limit though. (You can set it to less if you like - option d5 in the menu).

[Kaouthia]

Yes, I believe 100 images is the limit on continuous shooting. Why not use the interval timer? 30 second exposures starting every 31 seconds?

[_belial]

Yeah I found the option for the limit,but why is it there? Surely it can just write stuff to the card empty it's buffer then carry on? Seems daft that there's a limit there at all.

I could use the interval timer certainly, but that would leave me with a 1 second gap in the star trail when i've stacked them.

[Kaouthia]

Yup, I agree a 100 image limit is kinda silly, especially on such a long exposure.

I've never done star trails, is a 1 second gap really all that big on a 30 second exposure? Is it noticable when you composite them all together?

[Syx]

Perhaps in case it happens to be switched on in a bag with the shutter depressed? Fairly unlikely though, I must admit.

[wibbly]

Well my receipt has gone back to Nikon today, so now I sit and wait for my new SB900!

Mid Feb I'm thinking :D

[Mud]

I sent mine early Dec, emailed them today wondering if something had gone awry:

"The offer takes up to 30 days to process from receipt of application. Please bear in mind delivery times may also be lengthened due to the recent weather conditions. If your time is over 30 days then you can contact us on 01420525506."

[fordpop]

Can anyone PM me that excel file with the settings on from one of the other forums...............Nikonians I think it was.

I did download it, then lost it, then found it the lost the memory stick I kept it on:(

So if some one would PM is to me I'd be very grateful:)

Cheers

[Davec223]

I will pm it to you over the weekend.

[fernface]

Just beginning to believe that it is better to shoot RAW:) Camera offers:

a. Lossless compressed

b. Compressed

c. Uncompressed

then:

a. 12 bit

b. 14 bit

Bit daunted by all this, by default is uncompressed and 14bit best to use?
Appreciate some views, thank you.

Brian

[Kaouthia]

lossless compressed 12 bit is what I usually shoot.

[AndWhyNot]

I've only just noticed, that for whatever reason (?) when I left my camera out tonight taking 30sec exposures with a shutter release locked, it only saved 100 of the images to the card, despite there being about 3gb free!? Any idea why this is? From my calculations there should have been 3 times that many on there?

Yes, I believe 100 images is the limit on continuous shooting. Why not use the interval timer? 30 second exposures starting every 31 seconds?

Yeah I found the option for the limit,but why is it there? Surely it can just write stuff to the card empty it's buffer then carry on? Seems daft that there's a limit there at all.

I could use the interval timer certainly, but that would leave me with a 1 second gap in the star trail when i've stacked them.

100 images is also the maximum when using the interval timer.

Depending on focal length, you can get away with a 1 second gap in stacked star trails. Wide is more forgiving than long.

[razor777]

Just beginning to believe that it is better to shoot RAW:) Camera offers:

a. Lossless compressed

b. Compressed

c. Uncompressed

then:

a. 12 bit

b. 14 bit

Bit daunted by all this, by default is uncompressed and 14bit best to use?
Appreciate some views, thank you.

Brian

While 14-bit per RGB is great your frames per second will drop down to a measly 2.5 (from the normal 7-8fps). The D3 by and large is unaffected by this.

[davekiddle]

Just beginning to believe that it is better to shoot RAW:) Camera offers:

a. Lossless compressed

b. Compressed

c. Uncompressed

then:

a. 12 bit

b. 14 bit

Bit daunted by all this, by default is uncompressed and 14bit best to use?
Appreciate some views, thank you.

Brian

I normally shoot compressed 12 bit for general stuff, and then 14 bit lossless compressed for landscapes. I can't really see a difference between compressed and uncompressed in viewing terms. You will notice that there is a massive file size difference between compressed and uncompressed. Bythom talks about it in his review of the D300 here (http://www.bythom.com/nikond300review.htm) and here's a more detailed article. (http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/nikon-d300-d3-14-bit-versus-12-bit.html)

[aberal]

If all the technical gobbledegook on the subject bamboozles you, then 12 bit lossless compressed are the settings to use in the first instance. If you get confident that you understand the technicalities of it all, then feel free to switch to settings of your own choice at a later date.

[Kaouthia]

100 images is also the maximum when using the interval timer.
It is? I didn't actually look at this feature in the manual yet, but my D200 shot WAY more than 100 images in a sequence using the interval timer. In fact, going through my D200's menu options right now, it caps out at 8,991 images (9 images per interval, to a maximum of 999 intervals).

Just pulled out the D300s to check its menu and it has the same option. Up to 9 images per interval, up to 999 intervals for potentially 8,991 total images.

[fernface]

If all the technical gobbledegook on the subject bamboozles you, then 12 bit lossless compressed are the settings to use in the first instance. If you get confident that you understand the technicalities of it all, then feel free to switch to settings of your own choice at a later date.

Thanks very much for that, i think that is what i will do. Thanks also to you other guys for your input:)

[Syx]

Why you would ever choose lossless over lossless compressed is beyond me? :thinking:

[Kaouthia]

Why you would ever choose lossless over lossless compressed is beyond me? :thinking:
Why would somebody choose lossless over lossless? That doesn't make any sense.

[razor777]

Why would somebody choose lossless over lossless? That doesn't make any sense.

He means lossless not compressed over lossless compressed. :)

Its an interesting one, if we look into the future there may be a point where memory and buffers become that quick it is actually quicker to write uncompressed as opposed to the processor overhead required to compress the image (this would impact fps).

However, the way I see it is that if memory does become that quick; processors will (by definition of advancements in technology) also be a lot quicker by then so compression would still be the better option.

[Kaouthia]

He means lossless not compressed
So, just plain uncompressed then? ;)

[Kaouthia]

Its an interesting one, if we look into the future there may be a point where memory and buffers become that quick it is actually quicker to write uncompressed as opposed to the processor overhead required to compress the image (this would impact fps).
That time has come and gone with the Nikon D100. Now they have dedicated hardware to accelerate the compression process (whether lossy or lossless) to the point where it's not really noticable.

Shooting compressed NEF on my old D100 took about 30 seconds per image to process.

[Syx]

Sorry for the confusion! It just seems like it's a wasted option to me, and I guess the only reason anyone would choose it is down to compatibility with the compression? Still, as anything I've used to open a NEF handles all three kinds, it seems to be a bit of a "left behind" menu option!

[razor777]

So, just plain uncompressed then? ;)

You've obviously never had canon then, you have to pay for that feature.

:lol:

[razor777]

That time has come and gone with the Nikon D100. Now they have dedicated hardware to accelerate the compression process (whether lossy or lossless) to the point where it's not really noticable.

Shooting compressed NEF on my old D100 took about 30 seconds per image to process.

I think you misread what I said - I said there may be a time when memory/buffer speed overtakes cpu speed to the point where its quicker to write uncompressed.

However, I dont think that will ever happen so that time will never come and go.

[Kaouthia]

I think you misread what I said - I said there may be a time when memory/buffer speed overtakes cpu speed to the point where its quicker to write uncompressed.
Well, I did, but what I said still holds true. On the D100, the compression process did go through the standard CPU on the body, which is why it was so slow, and the need for hardware dedicated to just this process.

That said, looking at going forward from today. I think it's more buffer size than buffer speed. Buffer speed is pretty much held back only by the speed access writing to the memory card.

It's not just the memory card speed that would have to be increased, but also the speed at which the camera can read & write to it. At the moment right now, there's no camera I can recall that can actually take full advantage of the 90mbps offered by the new Sandisk "Extreme Pro" cards, and there's really no reason to buy them over the slightly slower 60mbps "Extreme" cards except to possibly "future-proof" your purchase for faster cameras you may get in a couple of year's time.

[clickclick]

Can anyone help?
I've recently upgraded from a D50 to the D300s and used to use an infra red remote (the ML-L3), the manual for the D300s says that the ML3 is a possible accessory but I can't find out how to set the camera up to make it work. Does anyone know how to do it?

[Kanine]

Can anyone help?
I've recently upgraded from a D50 to the D300s and used to use an infra red remote (the ML-L3), the manual for the D300s says that the ML3 is a possible accessory but I can't find out how to set the camera up to make it work. Does anyone know how to do it?

You can't unfortunately. The ML-L3 and ML-3 are different remotes.

[raider2727]

Can a D300s owner join in too?

Mine arrives tomorrow.
I sold all my Nikon gear on here 2 weeks ago inc my D300, 24-70-70-200 vr, and 1.7TC. and intended to go back to Canon.
Then i inherited a Nikon 14-24 lens (something i had wanted for ages) i was going to sell it to help my Canon fund but i had a complete change of heart and would have liked the D700 but i want to get into wildlife and birds so opted to come back to a D300s, not interested in the video but the info button, dual cards and keeping it's price were my main reasons for buying.
i have also brought another 24-70 and 70-200 VR and am looking for a 300MM F4 a bit later on.

Has anyone else gone to the D300s and was it worth it?

[scottthehat]

Can a D300s owner join in too?

Mine arrives tomorrow.
I sold all my Nikon gear on here 2 weeks ago inc my D300, 24-70-70-200 vr, and 1.7TC. and intended to go back to Canon.
Then i inherited a Nikon 14-24 lens (something i had wanted for ages) i was going to sell it to help my Canon fund but i had a complete change of heart and would have liked the D700 but i want to get into wildlife and birds so opted to come back to a D300s, not interested in the video but the info button, dual cards and keeping it's price were my main reasons for buying.
i have also brought another 24-70 and 70-200 VR and am looking for a 300MM F4 a bit later on.

Has anyone else gone to the D300s and was it worth it?why was you gonna change if you dont mind me asking, what canon was you thinking of getting.

[Kaouthia]

looking for a 300MM F4 a bit later on.

Has anyone else gone to the D300s and was it worth it?

Went from the D200 to the D300s, and it was definitely worth it (even if you forget about the free SB-900). Although, unlike you, the HD Video abilities are a big bonus in my case.

Just on the 300mm f/4. I've owned the 300mm f/4 AF-S for about 5 years now, and as much as I love it, if you can wait and save a bit longer, I'd go for the 300mm f/2.8 VR if you can or even the 200-400mm f/4 VR.

I've really not used my 300/4 since picking up the 70-200VR, and with a 1.4x TC, you get a very similar focal length @ f/4, but with VR. I'd probably sell my 300 to put towards the 24-70 f/2.8 or something else to feed my NAS addiction if my wife didn't need a long lens to go do her wildlife thing (she ain't touching my 70-200VR :nono:)

[raider2727]

i was going to go for a 5DMKII as by selling my D300, 24-70 AND 70-200 VR I had enough cash for the 5DMKII plus 24-105l f4 IS and the 70-200 f2.8l non IS.

Once you sell your gear you suddenly get the shakes and want it back plus the thing you thought you wanted which in my case was FF suddenly becomes less important lol

[raider2727]

Went from the D200 to the D300s, and it was definitely worth it (even if you forget about the free SB-900). Although, unlike you, the HD Video abilities are a big bonus in my case.

Just on the 300mm f/4. I've owned the 300mm f/4 AF-S for about 5 years now, and as much as I love it, if you can wait and save a bit longer, I'd go for the 300mm f/2.8 VR if you can or even the 200-400mm f/4 VR.

I've really not used my 300/4 since picking up the 70-200VR, and with a 1.4x TC, you get a very similar focal length @ f/4, but with VR. I'd probably sell my 300 to put towards the 24-70 f/2.8 or something else to feed my NAS addiction if my wife didn't need a long lens to go do her wildlife thing (she ain't touching my 70-200VR :nono:)

Thanks for that, I had the 1.7 TC on my old 70-200 VR and it was terrible i guess from what you are saying the 1.4 is a better match?

[Kaouthia]

Thanks for that, I had the 1.7 TC on my old 70-200 VR and it was terrible i guess from what you are saying the 1.4 is a better match?

That's the general consensus I've been getting from people who have used the 70-200 with the various Nikon TCs. Personally I didn't buy a TC as I do have the 300/4 AF-S, but it'll be one of the first purchases I make if I can ever convince the wife to let me sell the 300. :)

I'm using the original VR, as was everybody when I was doing my TC research. Perhaps the new VRII has better results with the 1.7, or perhaps Nikon are planning better 1.4 & 1.7 TCs to go along with their new 2.0 TC released in December that could fix the issues you previously experienced?

[Mud]

Went from the D200 to the D300s, and it was definitely worth it (even if you forget about the free SB-900). Although, unlike you, the HD Video abilities are a big bonus in my case.


John, have you gotten your free SB900? I've been having issues with getting Nikon to cough up or even acknowledge that I exist. :shake:

[Kaouthia]

Not yet, I slacked and didn't send the paperwork off to them til a couple of weeks ago. :)

A couple of people on here have posted that they got theirs though.

[Mud]

I sent mine in the first week of Dec...if you don't hear anything for over 30 days assume you've been forgotten!

[Kaouthia]

Hmmm that definitely seems strange then. Did you register your gear on the Nikon website? If so, I'd login and file a support ticket there, and keep calling them until you get through to somebody who can help.

[Mud]

It's all in order now apparently - yes I'd registered on the website, received the voucher (by post) and filled and sent it in, but somewhere in the process I got lost or forgotten. I've got another incident open (the first being I didn't receive the voucher) that asked me to email the proof (which I did) but then got no further response. I asked for acknowledgement of the proof being emailed and it's only on chasing it again that they responded (4 mins back).

I'm sure the above paragraph isn't easy to parse, but the short of it is if you haven't heard anything in 30 days chase it - I assume Nikon are swamped as they've dropped the ball on me a few times here...

[Kaouthia]

Good to know. Have my NPU phone number handy to yell at 'em in a couple of weeks if I haven't heard anything. ;)

[Mud]

Sounds like a plan - on the phones I got passed around a few times...promotions is the department you want, but that's not what they'll say...

[Mud]

Well my free SB900 finally came! :)

[MatthewA]

Just thought I'd post a little 'gotcha' that caught me out last night in case it's of help to anyone else.

I thought the AF assist light had broken as it wouldn't work even though it was turned on in the menu (a9) and conditions were very dark :suspect:
After trying a few things without success, I had to admit defeat and referred to the manual...

Turns out that AF assist lamp doesn't come on when you're in Continuous focus mode, and also when you're not using the centre focus point. I was doing both these things hence no light. Set to S focus mode and centre focus point, all ok again, very relieved :thumbs:

Full details on page 384 of the manual.

[Will B]

Same thing happened to me, I thought it was an intermitant fault on the light......hehehehe

[MatthewA]

Cheers Will, glad to hear it's not just me then :lol:

[Graham00]

I was going to shoot our county dart match today with my D300 & 70-200 f2.8 lens but it's quite a dark nightclub with the stage barely lit apart from the board area so the players would show up as silhouette's, also the practise area is much the same.

I had a try in my living room with just a lamp on and all i could get was 1/20th sec @ 135mm f2.8 and on ISO 1250, anymore and the noise would become unacceptable. I really need a D3 on my lens to make it far more worthwhile, any comments would be great.

[Kanine]

I was going to shoot our county dart match today with my D300 & 70-200 f2.8 lens but it's quite a dark nightclub with the stage barely lit apart from the board area so the players would show up as silhouette's, also the practise area is much the same.

I had a try in my living room with just a lamp on and all i could get was 1/20th sec @ 135mm f2.8 and on ISO 1250, anymore and the noise would become unacceptable. I really need a D3 on my lens to make it far more worthwhile, any comments would be great.

Not much you can do in low light - higher ISO, supplemental lighting (flashes), faster lens or shorter lenses.

If it's a no no to high ISOs or flashes, then the only thing you can do is buy a fast prime - for example, a 30mm 1.4 would be 4 times as fast as 2.8 @ 135mm (2 stops from aperture) but you could hand hold it 4x as slow so gaining you about 4 stops. 50mm would be the same except hand hold it 2x as slow so about 3 stops. Shortening focal length is a bit like VR, won't stop action but will stop shake..

[wibbly]

Well my free SB900 finally came! :)

Got mine this week as well, awesome bit of kit isn't it :cool:

[Mud]

Got mine this week as well, awesome bit of kit isn't it :cool:

It's my 2nd, and suddenly I find myself wanting a 3rd! :o

[ocean336]

Hi folks. This is only my 2nd post so if you've seen it before, i apologise. If it's settings for the D300 your after,then read on. A friend of mine spotted this on you-tube and typed it out for convenience. Link to you-tube is at the end

Action shooting settings for Nikon D3 – D700 _ D300
1. The Shooting Menu:- The RAW setting must be set for uncompressed quality, so, the Raw quality remains the same to allow larger amount of control to adjust the Raw files in post-processing. With this feature set the colour rendering and sharpness can be lost.
2. Active D-Lighting must be turned off to allow you to continue the high speed sequences up to 50 RAW without stopping. This feature slows down the data transfer to the card and can be done in post processing. Active D-Lighting shortens the buffer.
3. High ISO NR (noise reduction) must be turned off because it automatically reduces the amount of noise be adding a Gaussian blur effect – it is similar to D-Lighting it requires more time to process the files.
4. Long Exposure Delay – must be turned off because it will not give you the full frame rate speed that you wish to use. For example, you would like to use 9 frames per second but with Long Exp. Delay turned on it will drop to 3 – 4 frames per second.
5. Custom Setting Menu 1 – The AFC Priority must be set for Focus- that way, the camera will refuse to capture unless the subject is in focus. This feature only takes action when you switch the AF drive to AF-Continuous.
6. Custom Setting Menu 2 – Dynamic AF Area, of course, depends on your preferences, but for better tracking set for the 51-points (3D-Tracking). With the 51 Point set, the camera will widen the ability to focus anywhere within the focusing area. The 3D-Tracking is the newest technology to help the camera by improving its focusing ability. The 3D – Tracking allows your camera to chase the moving subject within the focus area and the AF point will automatically move to stay with the moving subject. With this feature turned on – the camera will focus continuous while moving around to chase the subject.
7. The focusing Tracking with Lock-On - is one of the largest problems that people are ignoring. It must be turned off to allow the camera focus continuously without delay. If you set for short/norm/long that is the time delay between refocuses. The action moves fast and having /this feature turned off will keep the camera focus continuously and fast without delay.
8. Multi-Selector button - can depend on your preferences – it is the best to set it for Shooting Mode> Reset. It allows you to reset the focusing point faster without turning on the info button to see where your current focus point is located, It resets by putting the AF area back into the center of the view finder to prepare for the next chase.
9. The Function button + dial can depend on your preferences – it is the best to set it for Select Image Area (FX/DX/5;4) but you can set it for Select Image Area (FX/DX) without the 5;4 crop mode. It save tie without going through the menus to switch from one IA to another.
10. White Balance – The white balance depends on the lighting controls you are working under, Tungsten, Fluorescent etc. In some areas in rare situations such as basketball gyms have mixed lighting conditions T & F – the trick is to switch into Calvin Temperature (K) and set for the colour temp that is right between the T & F temperatures. This can be adjusted in post processing.
11. The Shutter Speed can depend on how fast the action moves. 1/500 of a second is right, but you will need to set your aperture & ISO to deliver shutter speed of 1/500 +
12. Aperture – Of course 2.8 is not always ideal for sports etc. F4 on a pro lens, f8 for most lenses. It is important to do the maths for manual exp mode by changing the apertures to F4 or F8 until you get 1/500 speed, after changing the ISO sensitivity.

On body adjustments.

1 Front of body shooting selector CSM to C
1 Set Auto area af to top setting (white square in brackets)
1 3D Matrix Metering to – center setting
2 Change from single shot to either CL or CH on top dial
3 Change to magnifying eye piece if you have one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG5UKwgGRJI

[Kaouthia]

4. Long Exposure Delay – must be turned off because it will not give you the full frame rate speed that you wish to use. For example, you would like to use 9 frames per second but with Long Exp. Delay turned on it will drop to 3 – 4 frames per second.
Even if the D300/D300s were capable of 9fps, if you're shooting long exposures, chances are you're not going to be shooting that fast anyway.

[AndWhyNot]

I was going to shoot our county dart match today with my D300 & 70-200 f2.8 lens but it's quite a dark nightclub with the stage barely lit apart from the board area so the players would show up as silhouette's, also the practise area is much the same.

I had a try in my living room with just a lamp on and all i could get was 1/20th sec @ 135mm f2.8 and on ISO 1250, anymore and the noise would become unacceptable. I really need a D3 on my lens to make it far more worthwhile, any comments would be great.

Don't know why you wouldn't push the ISO - I use mine up to H1.0 frequently - better a noisy shot than none at all. Agree with the comments about fast prime. £250 gets you a 85mm f/1.8 or £550-650 for a 105mm or 135mm f/2 (all used examples)

[AndWhyNot]

Back a page for this

It is? I didn't actually look at this feature in the manual yet, but my D200 shot WAY more than 100 images in a sequence using the interval timer. In fact, going through my D200's menu options right now, it caps out at 8,991 images (9 images per interval, to a maximum of 999 intervals).

Just pulled out the D300s to check its menu and it has the same option. Up to 9 images per interval, up to 999 intervals for potentially 8,991 total images.

It allows you to set hundreds of images at a time but IME it needs restarting every hundred images. I tried timelapsing a journey but it cut out bang on 100 shots every time.

[Kaouthia]

That seems kinda stupid tbh. Why give a timelapse option up to 8991 potential images, and then cut out after 100?

Edit : You must be doing it wrong. I just told it to take 120 shots, 1 second apart and it took exactly 120 photos 1 second apart. The LCD even counted down as it took each photo.

This is with the D300s with original firmware. Is that the body you're using too?

[AndWhyNot]

Just D300 for me, with updated firmware. I've searched for the answer and there's no mention of doing it any other way to how I am doing it. There's also no mention of the 100 shot limit (although I'm sure I've read it somewhere).

It could be an error somewhere, though, which would also go someway to explaining why I can't get the interval timer to work on long exposures - I want to stack some shots for star trails.

When I set a 30 sec exposure with 1 second intervals it takes one shot only whether the dial's on S, CL or CH.

When I set a 30 sec exposure with 31 second intervals it takes one shot and then 31 seconds later takes another.

Neither of these are any use to me so in the absence of a remote cable that hasn't yet turned up from melevo (see classifieds for details) I just tape a small stone onto the shutter button.

[Kaouthia]

The interval denotes the start of the exposure, so if you were doing 30 second exposures, you'd be looking at 31 second intervals, meaning that the next exposure starts 1 second after the previous one ends. If you set it to 1 second intervals, it will try to take the next shot while it's already exposing an image, throw an error and crap out (it'll still finish the initial shot, but won't carry on).

Taping a stone to the shutter button is what's causing your 100 image issue. That's nothing to do with the interval shooting, that's a continuous shooting limitation. That's in the D300s manual (I'm guessing in the D300 manual too).

How is 30 second exposures @ 31 second intervals no good to you? Is there really that much noticeable movement in star trails in 1 second?

The other option, of course, is to shoot tethered. Perhaps software via a laptop would give you more control over the timings.

[AndWhyNot]

Cheers for the 1:1 here :)

On the several occasions I've tried interval timer shooting, the same issues arise each time.

First out, an exposure time of 30sec and interval of 1sec just plain doesn't work. That makes sense for the reason you point out. On that basis, you'd expect the next attempt to work just fine but an exposure time of 30sec with an interval of 31sec actually gives me 31 sec between shots (so the second shot starts 61 seconds after the first, or 31 seconds after the first has ended). This happens every time, from the first time I tried back in July (before firmware was updated) to just last Friday.

I can get the timer to work on shorter exposures - for instance shooting 1/50 with interval of 15 x 1sec I get 15 shots each a second apart. And the time in the car I mentioned a few posts above - that was working fine until it hit the 100 shot limit. I'm fairly sure it's not a problem with my understanding of how to set it up.

As for the stone on the shutter button, you're absolutely right about the 100 shots continuous shooting limit, I was just explaining how I get around the issue presently.

FWIW a 1 second gap in star trails would not be that noticeable below about 50mm focal length but beyond that and you'd start to see it.

Shooting tethered is something that keeps cropping up at the moment for all sorts of things I'm playing with. Do need to look into it generally but given the amount of gear I already take with me at night, I want to avoid taking the Macbook along too.

[Kaouthia]

Cheers for the 1:1 here :)
np :)

On that basis, you'd expect the next attempt to work just fine but an exposure time of 30sec with an interval of 31sec actually gives me 31 sec between shots (so the second shot starts 61 seconds after the first, or 31 seconds after the first has ended). This happens every time, from the first time I tried back in July (before firmware was updated) to just last Friday.

That seems REALLY odd. I haven't done any quite that long before (not on an interval anyway), but doing 3 second exposures with a 4 second interval worked ok on the D200. I'll setup both the D200 and the D300s tomorrow and do some tests to compare and see how they both work out (I'll let you know my results).

[Shorty]

Sorry for the bump. I got a D300s yesterday. I've never had a new camera, only second or 3rd hand. How do I register warranty?

And any hidden tips or secrets people have and wanna share?

[foggy4ever]

LINKY (https://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/app/utils/login_form/locale/en_GB) :D

[Shorty]

Awesome, thank you!

[razor777]

Hi folks. This is only my 2nd post so if you've seen it before, i apologise. If it's settings for the D300 your after,then read on. A friend of mine spotted this on you-tube and typed it out for convenience. Link to you-tube is at the end

Action shooting settings for Nikon D3 – D700 _ D300
1. The Shooting Menu:- The RAW setting must be set for uncompressed quality, so, the Raw quality remains the same to allow larger amount of control to adjust the Raw files in post-processing. With this feature set the colour rendering and sharpness can be lost.


I dont get it - if it is lossless compressed then what benefits in terms of larger amount of control does it have?

In other words, where did the person making that statement get the info from in terms of sharpness/colour rendering being lost?

[Kaouthia]

There is no difference between uncompressed and lossless, other than the amount of space it consumes on your storage device, hence the name "lossless".

[razor777]

Yes I know that, hence the reason why I put it in bold. ;)

Which leads me to the conclusion that whoever made that video is just making it up as they go along. :D

[Kaouthia]

Which leads me to the conclusion that whoever made that video is just making it up as they go along. :D

I came to a similar conclusion. ;)

[jeniveeev]

Guys - just a basic question re exposure compensation. Does this function work only when in auto modes such as A, S, P etc? I only operate in manual mode and when i use the -/+ (EV) see absolutely no difference in my pictures or histogram! Am i using this incorrectly or should I be in Auto to have full use of this?

[Kaouthia]

Shooting manually you won't. All it will do is adjust the meter to show you what it's reading and where it thinks you should be. You still have to rotate the dials to get that exposure.

For example, if you're in manual mode with no EV adjustment set, your meter might tell you to shoot 1/125th, f/8 @ ISO200. Telling your meter to go -2EV might tell you to shoot 1/500th, f/8 @ ISO200, but it won't rotate the dials for you. :)

[jeniveeev]

Shooting manually you won't. All it will do is adjust the meter to show you what it's reading and where it thinks you should be. You still have to rotate the dials to get that exposure.

For example, if you're in manual mode with no EV adjustment set, your meter might tell you to shoot 1/125th, f/8 @ ISO200. Telling your meter to go -2EV might tell you to shoot 1/500th, f/8 @ ISO200, but it won't rotate the dials for you. :)

AAAAhhh, Thank you so much! now, thats what i thought was happening but didnt realise i had to adjust the exposure myself with the dials! Im so glad i asked this question as its been bugging me for days! cheers again. :thumbs:

[Kaouthia]

That said, if you are in manual mode, set -2EV and don't adjust your aperture, shutter speed & ISO, and you're using Nikon flashes in TTL mode (whether on-camera, on a TTL cable, or via CLS), they will automatically underexpose themselves by two stops. :)

[chivers67]

Has anyone tried to merge a number of photographs together in camera shooting Raw and if so what have you thought about the images and are you willing to post one up?

[markyboy.1967]

Im needing to know what settings you guys are using for birds in flight, having trouble with focus when in flight.

[wibbly]

Thread Bumpie...

For all you D300/D300s users, what lens are you using with your body?

I am thinking of a walk about lenses but not sure what I want, 16-85mm or something a little more?

[Jack Flash]

Thread Bumpie...

For all you D300/D300s users, what lens are you using with your body?

I am thinking of a walk about lenses but not sure what I want, 16-85mm or something a little more?

At the moment I use any one of the following three lenses depending on what kind of photos I am taking.Sigma 10-20mm,Nikkor 18-200VR or Nikkor24-70 2.8

[tintin]

If I could afford it I'd buy and use the 24-70 f2.8 Nikon as a walk about, however I can't so I use a 28-70 f2.8 Tokina instead, still good quality glass and cropped it's quite a nice range, for me at least. I've also found myself using the 70-300 VR much more than I expected as a walk about lens, I guess it's because I can get those distant candid shots without drawing too much attention to myself. That and it's soooo lightweight!!!

[ammgramm]

Thread Bumpie...
For all you D300/D300s users, what lens are you using with your body?

17-55 f/2.8 DX. Hardly ever off my D300s. And, as it's a DX lens, designed for a crop frame camera, you get wide-ish angle at the 17mm end (equivalent to about a 26mm on full frame). On the down side, it's not cheap. Really, really not cheap.

(For non-DX lenses, don't forget to multiply by about 1.54 to get some idea of the field of view you'll actually get with your D300s.)

[Kaouthia]

For all you D300/D300s users, what lens are you using with your body?
70-200mm f/2.8 VR mostly, but also a bunch of old M42 lenses. Sigma 10-20mm sometimes.

[Barry]

For all you D300/D300s users, what lens are you using with your body?

I am thinking of a walk about lenses but not sure what I want, 16-85mm or something a little more?

I'm using the 16-85mm as my walkabout lens about 75% of the time; the 70-300mm makes up the other 25%.

[Barry]

Hi, I'm looking for a bit of guidance.

My eyesight is not the best and I have varifocal glasses which I wear all the time. The problem is that when looking through the viewfinder, getting the "right" bit of the lens on my glasses is a bit of mucking around, and if I remove my glasses I can't get the framing grid etc. in the viewfinder in focus as there isn't enough range on the diopter adjustment control for my dodgy eyes.

I've been reading about the DK21M and was wondering if anybody on here uses one with "dodgy" eyes and finds it any help to overcome such a situation? Some reports suggest it is only any value for Macro work as you only see the central portion of the viewfinder and have to move your eye around to be able to see the top, bottom, or sides.

Any input gratefully received. Many thanks.

[arclight]

Hi, I'm looking for a bit of guidance.

My eyesight is not the best and I have varifocal glasses which I wear all the time. The problem is that when looking through the viewfinder, getting the "right" bit of the lens on my glasses is a bit of mucking around, and if I remove my glasses I can't get the framing grid etc. in the viewfinder in focus as there isn't enough range on the diopter adjustment control for my dodgy eyes.

I've been reading about the DK21M and was wondering if anybody on here uses one with "dodgy" eyes and finds it any help to overcome such a situation? Some reports suggest it is only any value for Macro work as you only see the central portion of the viewfinder and have to move your eye around to be able to see the top, bottom, or sides.

Any input gratefully received. Many thanks.

I tried the DK21 just for a bit of extra magnification and some of the info in the viewfinder became unsharp.

David Busch's Nikon 300s book states "Should the available correction be insufficient, Nikon offers nine different Diopter adjustment viewfinder correction lenses ranging from -5 to +3".

May be worth asking Nikon UK.

[Barry]

I tried the DK21 just for a bit of extra magnification and some of the info in the viewfinder became unsharp.

David Busch's Nikon 300s book states "Should the available correction be insufficient, Nikon offers nine different Diopter adjustment viewfinder correction lenses ranging from -5 to +3".

May be worth asking Nikon UK.

Excellent. Many thanks for the pointer, I'll give them a try. :thumbs:

[steve_lyt]

try the sigma 17-70 2.8 - 4.5 , ive found it coped with must day to sey situations , or go for the Nikon lens .
Cheers Steve

[arclight]

Excellent. Many thanks for the pointer, I'll give them a try. :thumbs:

Don't know if you are registered with Nikon, but their email help is quite good:-

https://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/app/utils/login_form/redirect/account%252Foverview/session/L3NpZC90dDQ0b0tXag==

[Barry]

Don't know if you are registered with Nikon, but their email help is quite good:-

https://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/app/utils/login_form/redirect/account%252Foverview/session/L3NpZC90dDQ0b0tXag==

Many thanks Dougie; registered a long time ago but never had to use it till now.

Thanks for taking the trouble to find the link. Much appreciated. :thumbs:

[Barry]

David Busch's Nikon 300s book states "Should the available correction be insufficient, Nikon offers nine different Diopter adjustment viewfinder correction lenses ranging from -5 to +3".

May be worth asking Nikon UK.

Turns out that the item I needed is a DK-20C (http://www.parkcameras.com/14455/Nikon-DK-20C--2-Dioptre-Correction-Eyepiece.html). Went down to Park Cameras this morning and got one (+2) which now allows me to focus the viewfinder screen correctly.

The only issue is that the DK-20C has a flange for attaching an eyecup, but the gap between the body and flange is very narrow so the the DK-24 eyecup wouldn't fit back on. Judicious use of a needle file enlarged the flange gap enough to be able to re-fit the standard eyecup again, and all is now great. :cool:

Thanks very much for your help in pointing me in the right direction Dougie. :thumbs:

[arclight]

Turns out that the item I needed is a DK-20C (http://www.parkcameras.com/14455/Nikon-DK-20C--2-Dioptre-Correction-Eyepiece.html). Went down to Park Cameras this morning and got one (+2) which now allows me to focus the viewfinder screen correctly.

The only issue is that the DK-20C has a flange for attaching an eyecup, but the gap between the body and flange is very narrow so the the DK-24 eyecup wouldn't fit back on. Judicious use of a needle file enlarged the flange gap enough to be able to re-fit the standard eyecup again, and all is now great. :cool:

Thanks very much for your help in pointing me in the right direction Dougie. :thumbs:

Good - glad you got sorted out.

[fernface]

I have read this thread and the relevant bits of the manual, but i just cannot get the hang of focus and recompose. I am aware of the AF-ON button but dont want to go that route, happy to use shutter button. It doesnt seem to matter what i do, my subject at the moment is Red Kites on the ground, i focus on the birds eye, i see that focus is locked, keeping button half depressed i recompose, take the shot. When i check result in View NX it shows focus point to be in the middle of the bird!!

I am hoping that someone will kindly look at my settings listed below and perhaps point out where i am going wrong:

Focus mode selecter - set to single servo autofocus

AF area mode selecter - set to single point AF

a1 AFC priority selection - set to release and focus

AFS priority selection - set focus

Dont know if this is enough info to go by? Think i am just too flaming old!!!

[Graham00]

I was assistant to a friend doing a wedding at the back of the church, it wasn't dark at all and i was at ISO800/1000 couldn't get above 1/30th ! tried the tripod got blurry couple, no wonder wedding togs use the D700/D3 !!
I did get some good shots though but not many.

CAN the D300 shoot 1600 ISO successfully ???

[redhed17]

i focus on the birds eye, i see that focus is locked, keeping button half depressed i recompose, take the shot. When i check result in View NX it shows focus point to be in the middle of the bird!!

View NX shows the focus point you used, not where the camera focussed (in this situation) because you recomposed that focus point away from the eye. The thing you focussed on should still be in focus.

[fernface]

View NX shows the focus point you used, not where the camera focussed (in this situation) because you recomposed that focus point away from the eye. The thing you focussed on should still be in focus.

Thanks for that, i was expecting that view nx would show the point at which focus was locked, not where camera was pointing i.e. centre of bird. I also set camera up to show focus point, the magic book say that the point where focus was locked will show up in display, not for me, its still bang in the middle of the screen.. Sorry if i am being thick here:)

[redhed17]

If you used the central focus point to focus on the birds eye, and then recomposed, the central focus point will still be active in the viewfinder, and when you open the image in View NX that should show the central focus point too. Whatever is under that focus point in the image, or when you press the shutter button is irrelevant if you kept the shutter half pressed. The camera doesn't know what was under that focus point, just that you/it used that particular focus point. You 'should' know what you focussed on. ;)

What is this 'magic book' you speak of btw?

[Kaouthia]

Magic Lantern guide I'm guessing.

[fernface]

If you used the central focus point to focus on the birds eye, and then recomposed, the central focus point will still be active in the viewfinder, and when you open the image in View NX that should show the central focus point too. Whatever is under that focus point in the image, or when you press the shutter button is irrelevant if you kept the shutter half pressed. The camera doesn't know what was under that focus point, just that you/it used that particular focus point. You 'should' know what you focussed on. ;)

What is this 'magic book' you speak of btw?

Page 250 of the users manual:D Under focus point, but it doesnt work for me:)

[BazEP]

is there a way to select the af-on button to lock autofocus? I can see how I can do it on the MBD10 menu but for the the main cam.

cheers

[scottthehat]

is there a way to select the af-on button to lock autofocus? I can see how I can do it on the MBD10 menu but for the the main cam.

cheers

take your finger off the af button or use afs not afc mode.

[BazEP]

take your finger off the af button or use afs not afc mode.

is that a no then?
which af button? tried focusing then recompose and full press but it tries to focus again (just neither at the original or recomposed centre).

[scottthehat]

is that a no then?
which af button? tried focusing then recompose and full press but it tries to focus again (just neither at the original or recomposed centre).

turn the af off on the shutter button(menu a5) and use the rear af button on camera and grip.

[Martyn...]

turn the af off on the shutter button(menu a5) and use the rear af button on camera and grip.

What Scott said, get used to focusing with the AF-ON button rather than the shutter release, so much better once you get used to it :thumbs:

[BazEP]

I've found an alternative (primarily as I use the AElock button on the back with my thumb) is to set up the preview button (right index finger on front of cam) to lock focus. works a treat for me. got to love the flexibility of this bad boy.
;)

[DuncanR]

http://www.nikondigitutor.com/eng/d300/index.shtml this may help some with basic focus options if not already posted:thumbs:

I am new to the D300, coming from a long serving D70 then D80........the D300 is a great bit of kit and i'm finding my way around it quite simply but it can be complicated, the above is fairly basic but hopefully useful to some?

[rhonddaboy]

Hi all
I have had some problems lately with my D300, whilst taking shots on rallies some of the pics have focused behind the cars, I am using a Sigma 70-30 f2.8, when veiwed in veiw NX the shots that are out of focus on the cars do not show a focus point. What I am wondering have I changed a setting in the camera menu which could cause this?
In the menu system A1 AF-C Priority Selection I have my camera set on RELEASE is this correct, or shouls it be on Release and Focus.
Alan

[scottthehat]

Hi all
I have had some problems lately with my D300, whilst taking shots on rallies some of the pics have focused behind the cars, I am using a Sigma 70-30 f2.8, when veiwed in veiw NX the shots that are out of focus on the cars do not show a focus point. What I am wondering have I changed a setting in the camera menu which could cause this?
In the menu system A1 AF-C Priority Selection I have my camera set on RELEASE is this correct, or shouls it be on Release and Focus.
Alanshould be set to focus and release.
well both my d300s are set that way and no probs here.
but reading up on it, it should not make that much difference, just if focus and release is selected its still gave priority to release but take focus into considiration.
and just release will fire whatever.

[rhonddaboy]

Thanks for your reply Scott it's really doing my head in.

[ammgramm]

should be set to focus and release...
Agreed - assuming you MUST have focus. The downside is that if the AF response of your lens is a bit too slow for the speed of the action, the lens may not have acquired focus, and won't release when you expect. With 'Release + Focus' in continuous-servo AF mode, you may experience an awkward lag when you press the shutter release fully down and the camera hasn't fixed on the focus yet.

For this reason, a newspaper photographer of my acquaintance tells me he has his cameras set to Release, because 'the editor will say, "Better a slightly out-of-focus shot than no shot at all" '.

[scottthehat]

Thanks for your reply Scott it's really doing my head in.

have you tried a full green button reset.

[rhonddaboy]

Hi Scott, yes I have it made no difference, never had this problem with before don't know whats changed.
Thanks for your reply Ammgram, as above this has only started recently.

[ammgramm]

... this has only started recently.
If you were using continuous servo and had A1 set to 'Release', you've in a sense just been lucky that the lens has been responding fast enough to acquire focus fractionally before the shutter opened.

Assuming you're using the same lens, I'm guessing that the conditions have changed in some way that has made it harder for the lens AF to respond fast enough. The obvious suspect is lighting - at this time of year, the light levels may be quite challenging for the lens AF to acquire focus fast.

If you switch A1 to Release + Focus, you won't have the problem of the shutter firing too soon, but the frame rate may drop to provide the lens with more time to get focus. With fast cars, I guess the focus point may then be behind where you intended it to be.

[scottthehat]

what setting are you using single point focus, what dynamic 9 or 21 or 51 point.

[rhonddaboy]

spot focus 21 point, thinking about it they were dull overcast days.

[scottthehat]

9 is faster.

[desantnik]

I use focus+release - you are right, no focus point displayed on the camera or in cNX means that no focus was achieved.

In spot focus (ie single focus point) the number of focus points selected though makes no difference.

I normally use 9 or 21 with the focus point assist (middle position) set.

Yes the speed of the AF motor on the lens does make a difference though, the camera can only ask for the lens to focus, but it might not make it. The Sigma 70-200 in my opinion is pretty slow compared to the Nikon 70-200... but even that can fail too with motorsport, you just have to understand it a bit better to shoot for the most reliable scenarios.

[rhonddaboy]

Thank you for all your replies, it puts my mind at rest at least there's nothing wrong with my equipment.

[fernface]

Just wondered if anyone has any ideas? When i fit the grip to the camera (using the correct and fully charged AA batteries), the display shows that the grip batteries are being used. When i fire of a few shots, switch off the camera and grip, then when i switch both back on the display shows that the camera battery is in use not the grip. Tried clean contact etc, but to be honest it has done the same thing since i got it!

It could be a case of you get what to pay for i guess, anyone any thoughts?:)

Have told the camera what batteries are in use and told it to use grip first and then camera battery.

Thanks - Brian

[Kaouthia]

Have you updated to the latest firmware? I vaguely remember reading something about errors using batteries other than EN-EL3e that were fixed, but beyond that my memory's not so good. :)

[DADDYBLINKMAN]

I get a lot of noise with the 300, Thanks for the tip, turning of noise reduction and active d
lighting.Lets see what happens.

[fernface]

Have you updated to the latest firmware? I vaguely remember reading something about errors using batteries other than EN-EL3e that were fixed, but beyond that my memory's not so good. :)

Thanks for that, have just checked and 1:10 is in place:)

[ecniv]

Cant remember if I posted here already on this... dont think so :)

Been trying to use the flash (onboard) with rear sync and I get two falshes... One at the start (no expected) and one at the end (expected).

Is there a setting I am missing?

[Kaouthia]

You're not getting two flashes (well, sort of), you're getting the TTL pre-flashes before the shutter opens, then the flash at the end just before it closes.

The TTL pre-flash sequence basically allows the camera to determine how much power it needs to apply to the flash to get an adequately exposed shot. It has to figure this out before it opens the shutter so that the light from the pre-flashes doesn't contribute to the image.

You can get around it by popping your flash on manual mode, and setting the power level yourself. Then it doesn't need to work anything out, and just fires the regular flash before the second curtain closes.

[ecniv]

Thanks :)

Was a little irritating as the first flash was being recorded :)

[Jeff.B]

Recently acquired d300s. How is it best to upload from 2 cards. I have cf set to raw and sd set to jpeg. Want to import to LR3. Do you upload one card at a time, either direct from the camera or via a card reader.

Any advise appreciated.

jeff

[desantnik]

Get a dual slot card reader (I use a Lexar Pro - not as expensive as the name might suggest, it was 20 quid!), plug in both cards and Lightroom will hoover both up.

[Jeff.B]

Thanks Kyder, will it work the same just to connect the camera direct to the computer and import straight into LR.

jeff

[desantnik]

I don't know comrade, I've never plugged my camera into the computer like that... get a card reader, they make life so much easier!

[doublemint76]

Well after weeks of deciding which body to upgrade to over my trusty D40 i've plumped for the D300. Can't wait to get to grips with it along with the 50mm 1.8 i bought at the same time.

I'm off to a wedding in Cornwall on Sat and can't wait to try it out but the thing is i probably won't recieve the camera till Thursday so i'm not gonna have a chance to 'get to grips with it properly'
Any advice on settings to use? I'm mainly worried about the new 51 point auto focus system as i'm told it gets a bit of getting used too?

I have my 18-200 VRII which i'll slap on the end for this wedding too.

[gad-westy]

I think I'm about to upgrade to a D300 imminently as well. Can I just ask what compact flash cards everybody is using? I use 8gb sandisk extreme 20mb/s at the moment. Don't know how fast I need to go with the D300. Any guidance on where to purchase the cards more than welcome too.

[BazEP]

Dan - I made the same change about a year ago - such a step up, it will take you a while to get used to everything. Might be worth trying to put it in as easy a mode as possible to start with (depending on what you used the D40 in - but for me it was 9 point focus, A priority, centre weighted eval, C focus)

Graham - I get most of my cards from either 7dayshop or premier-ink. It depends how and what you shoot whether or not you really need the higher speed cards tbh. I run a 400x UDMA 16Gb card in mine if it makes any difference.

[gad-westy]

Thanks Chris. Think I'm sorted now thanks to classifieds.

[andy_fozzy]

Hi everyone.

I'd appreciate your advice on my new thread please, if you would:

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=353193

(Of course, D300 related!!)

[ian-83]

Well I have just the group of D300 owners. Just brought a second hand one off ebay local to me. Need to pay for it and pick it up first once the seller gets back to me. But it seems good so far only 7500 actuations. Now i need to find a good guide on how to use it and also some decent lenses to benefit most from it.

Ideas please for landscape work and something with a bit more reach. My initial thoughts are Nikon 16-85 and a Nikon 70-300.

Also what speed cars are good the faster the better i presume?

[gad-westy]

Well I have just the group of D300 owners. Just brought a second hand one off ebay local to me. Need to pay for it and pick it up first once the seller gets back to me. But it seems good so far only 7500 actuations. Now i need to find a good guide on how to use it and also some decent lenses to benefit most from it.

Ideas please for landscape work and something with a bit more reach. My initial thoughts are Nikon 16-85 and a Nikon 70-300.

Also what speed cars are good the faster the better i presume?

Think we were bidding on the same one. Enjoy! I'm still hoping to grab one of the ones that are finishing later this week.

[ian-83]

Think we were bidding on the same one. Enjoy! I'm still hoping to grab one of the ones that are finishing later this week.

There is a few on there most seem to be good condition ones with low shutter counts too.

[Terrio]

D300 is a great camera - same feeling like F100 from film area. Backup is a D60.
However DX lenses are another story, e.g. 35/1.8 http://joergvetter.oyla.de/cgi-bin/hpm_homepage.cgidigitalcameralcdscreens (http://www.tmart.com/Camera-LCD-Screens/) BR Atomino

Thank you very much. Recently, I just want to buy a new digital camera, you can be a reference to the information.

[IanD60]

Recently using my D300 and i have lost the 57 point focus displayed on the screen.

Does anyone know how to get this back?

Example image of what i mean below when you focus on a subject.
http://www.paullesterphoto.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/d300viewfinder.jpg

[desantnik]

The setting "display active focus point" is somewhere there... can't remember where in the menu but look in the manual...

[gad-westy]

My D300 arrived in the post this morning. First impression, it's huge! I'm coming from a D5000 which all of a sudden feels very toy like. I'd played with a D300S before but always in isolation. In context next to the D5000, this thing is a proper sized camera and feels like it is built to survive a nuclear assault.

I've only had 5 minutes to play so far but it is very apparent that there is very little of the control system that is common to the D5000 other than the menu. Its going to take a while to get to grips with everything. It took me a couple of minutes just to open the memory card slot! I think I will buy a third party user guide to help things along.

The viewfinder and back screen are fantastic. The viewfinder in particular is so much brighter and larger.

I'm sure I will have a vast number of questions to ask about this but just for starters, would I be right in assuming that my IR remote (ML-L3) won't work with the D300? I have a wired timer on order so it's not a big issue if the wireless one doesn't work.

[arclight]

The setting "display active focus point" is somewhere there... can't remember where in the menu but look in the manual...

Customs settings menu a.6: AF point illumination

[ian-83]

Anyone recommend a good third party guide worth reading? I am still quite lost after upgrading from my D3000!
Love the camera though the few pics I have taken so far look amazing compared to what my D3000 could take.

[essexash]

I brought the D300 Digital Field Guide J. Dennis Thomas very good read and explained every button menu bell and whistle you can find on it :)

And no the remote trigger wont work, youll need a cabled one unless there's an adaptor you can plug in?

[gad-westy]

Another question now that I've had a chance to play. On the image above all of the focus points are shown at once. No matter what setting I seem to select, mine only seems to show one focus point at once. Is that right?