Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/01/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I finally had a chance to put my new D300 to work last Sunday and my initial impressions are very positive. For someone who's a fan of small cameras, it's a bit of a brute, though. My arm noticed the weight even with just a 28mm 2.8 Nikkor on it. But, the results are impressive. Really low-noise ISO 1600 shots and terrific color right out of the camera. Auto white balance seems excellent. My initial attempts to use the camera in a simple mode, one I understand (aperture priority, center weighted metering and center spot exposure), gave me very mixed results - lots of overexposed shots in bright light and sometimes out of focus shots, too. I was shooting quickly in these cases and may have not been careful enough with a camera I wasn't used to, but still the results were surprising. Next time out, as a trial, I'm going to put the camera in 51-point autofocus, matrix metering mode and just let it do its thing. In dim light with the focus assist lamp off (I hate those lamps), even with careful attention to focus point, only one shot of four of a friend after dinner in a dark restaurant was really tack sharp. Whether this was due to impatience on my part in not giving the camera time to focus properly or something else, I'm not sure at this point. Those focus assist lamps are put in for a purpose and maybe the camera really needs the extra light to focus properly when photons are scarce. I really like the ergonomics of the thing. ISO, WB, Image Quality, EV adjustment, metering choice and focus mode are all immediately accessible on buttons. Everything I want to know about the camera when shooting is on the top screen, though in dim light some of the tiny type is illegible to my aging eyes. The back screen is bright and beautiful. Battery life is excellent. The camera was on continuously for three hours last Sunday and on and off intermittently all week and I didn't see any need to recharge until last night. One thing I do wish is that Nikon would make a focusing screen with a split-image/microprism rangefinder disk available. There are third- party screens around, at least for the D40 - and I'm thinking of buying one for that camera, but have been holding off because of warranty concerns. If Nikon made them available I'd put one in without a second thought. In any case, I'll figure out how to make the D300 do what I want in short order and I'm very pleased I bought it. I'll try to post some of my first shots with it later today. Dick On Jan 20, 2008, at 11:56 PM, Christopher Williams wrote: > Holy crap! As a long time Nikon user I can finally shoot above > 800iso with no noise! Even 3200iso looks great. I've seen good > 6400iso images from the D3 so I'm going to assume this is also > possible with the D300 though I have not tried it. > > The D300 is miles above the D200, faster focusing,faster response > time when shooting(always thought the D200 was sluggish), extreme > improvement in high iso's, easier menu readout, etc. Still trying to > figure out this 51 point AF thing but so far I like it! And this new > LCD 3" screen, it's almost down right accurate! Big thanks to Nikon > for including a new zoom feature when viewing images. And file > information is easier to read on the screen. > > Now why Nikon used the same stupid too easy to bump C-S-M control > switch on the side of the lens mount is beyond me but I have learned > to live with it on the D200. The D2h,D2x cameras have the switch > reversed so you do not accidentally bump it into Manual focus when > you're in Auto focus. > > I have not read the manual yet so I need to figure out this whole 12 > bit vs 14bit RAW/NEF recording. Does it really make the image any > better with 14bit? I've always shot compressed(D2h,D200,D2x) RAW/NEF > with Nikons so this may be a learning curve. > > Time to find a Red Dot to cover the Nikon logo! > > Chris > NOLA > www.zoeicaimages.net > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information