D300 Owners Thread - Anything related to the D300!

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
 
ocean336 said:
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.
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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.
 
Graham00 said:
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.
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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)
 
Back a page for this

Kaouthia said:
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.
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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.
 
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?
 
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
AndWhyNot said:
Cheers for the 1:1 here :)
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np :)

AndWhyNot said:
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.
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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).
 
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?
 
ocean336 said:
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.
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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?
 
There is no difference between uncompressed and lossless, other than the amount of space it consumes on your storage device, hence the name "lossless".
 
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
 
razor777 said:
Which leads me to the conclusion that whoever made that video is just making it up as they go along. :D
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I came to a similar conclusion. ;)
 
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?
 
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. :)
 
Kaouthia said:
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. :)
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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:
 
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. :)
 
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?
 
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?
 
wibbly said:
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?
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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
 
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!!!
 
wibbly said:
Thread Bumpie...
For all you D300/D300s users, what lens are you using with your body?
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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.)
 
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wibbly said:
For all you D300/D300s users, what lens are you using with your body?
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70-200mm f/2.8 VR mostly, but also a bunch of old M42 lenses. Sigma 10-20mm sometimes.
 
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.
 
Barry said:
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.
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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.
 
arclight said:
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.
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Excellent. Many thanks for the pointer, I'll give them a try. :thumbs:
 
arclight said:
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.
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Turns out that the item I needed is a DK-20C. 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:
 
Barry said:
Turns out that the item I needed is a DK-20C. 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:
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Good - glad you got sorted out.
 
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!!!
 
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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 ???
 
fernface said:
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!!
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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.
 
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