NIKON D700 do you own one?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ditchdigger
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ditchdigger

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lucky arent we,what a great camera...:love:

any settings you would recommend or say not to use?
my biggest headache is focusing movement at night a lot are soft.

i still havent gotten through my manual a lot of settings i dont really know what they are for [only ever had 2 dslr]

today i applied myself [ish] and went fully through ken rockwells guide

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d700/users-guide/d700.pdf

fantastic he explains things quite simple and i can understand most of it :thinking:
i havent set everything as he has but changed a lot to help in poor light at rock concerts.

so many great things i didnt know so ive

assigned fn and preview buttons [live view and spot]
set the commander dial to zoom on playback so i can see whats in focus
set the c focus to shoot only in focus
set the focus point to wrap
set it so it wont shoot without memory cards [whats the point?]
worked out how to put a message and other data on exif [as ken says it also means if your camera or photos stolen you can prove its yours]
set files to optimum
others i cant remember :eek:
i think i will send him a donation as he puts a lot into these things

just wondering what settings/system others use i consider myself constantly learning
 
I don't use any of Ken's settings.

I tend to use the Landscape Picture control, and Portrait for people. That its really. AF-On for shutter release, and I've got MyMenu setup with AutoISO Control + Virtual Horizon (which I though would be a huge gimmick but is actually useful!)

I use Fn for a bracketing burst - why would you assign Fn to Liveview when you have a dedicated dial to do that?
 
i cant see the live view switch at night eysights to poor in low light now i just press the button
 
what i ment was whats the point of having so you could shoot without it except to demo in a shop the default setting
 
ditchdigger said:
what i ment was whats the point of having so you could shoot without it except to demo in a shop the default setting
Click to expand...

Shooting tethered and saving images straight to hard disk on computer.
 
Haven't read Ken's settings myself, but will be having a look shortly, for further inspiration :naughty:.

I've created a few different Profiles (A-D) for myself in the Shooting Menu of my D700 and have assigned one of the front Function buttons to take me straight to the menu to choose between them (for fast changes). I too set up Live View access using the DOF preview button, as I find that particular function next to usless due to the screen going sooooo dark when you're stopped down a bit :|. Frankly, I just snap off a test shot or two and zoom in on the playback, to check my DOF ;).

I must admit, I would like to assign the Zoom function to the control wheel, if possible, as my Olympus E420 works that way and I much prefer it to jabbing away at a little button :razz:.

Biggest problem that I have with my settings is getting the 3D tracking to work :|. Of course, it's user error ;) and not the camera's fault, but if you start shooting in Ch (Continous High Speed) mode without first getting your subject in focus, it stays out of focus for virtually every frame :(. So, when shooting flying birds in a forest, for instance, if the autofocus locks onto a foreground tree, instead of your moving target, you won't get a single usable shot!

It probably works well when you can get a lock the object first, but with wildlife you often have to try and get focus once the animal/bird is already in motion. This would be the case whether or not you use the 3D tracking, I suppose, but the function doesn't seem to help much, in my experience.

The only other non-standard thing I tend to do is to set the ISO limiter to 3200. Previously, I had it set to 800 (IIRC) and I wondered why I was still getting blurry pictures in low light, despite having manually selected an ISO value of, say, 1600 :thinking:. Obviously, the limiter was kicking in and decreasing my shutter speeds accordingly. As the main reason I bought the camera was for it's amazing low-light performance, it seems a shame not to exploit it. For my (non-professional) purposes, the tiny, tiny amounts of noise at all ISO levels up to and including 3,200 are no problem at all, as the D700's "noise" is more like "music" :D, compared to other digital cameras I've had.

You're right though, ditchdigger, the D700 is a pretty awesone bit of kit! A wise purchase, which I hope will make you happy for years to come :).
 
As of this morning, I too am a proud owner of a D700. :clap:

Now to get on with the battery charging and working out what I'm going to shoot first... :)
 
I want one, anybody got a spare one? :)
 
Hmm, interesting question. I've set the camera up how I like it in terms of metering, focusing, etc. The only custom function that I use is to change to spot meter. this way I can work out the stop difference for landscapes and apply the right grads.
 
sdb123 said:
As of this morning, I too am a proud owner of a D700. :clap:

Now to get on with the battery charging and working out what I'm going to shoot first... :)
Click to expand...

You won't touch your D90 again :lol:
 
Much prefer the D90 for LiveView, smaller and of course the home video of my family is only possible with it!

Love my D700 too ***

:p
 
I use KR's guide for settings until I learn it well enough to experiment with my own. I've set up 3 profiles in the memory banks, one for portraits, landscapes, products/things. The last memory bank, I use to play about with.

Unlike KR, I prefer to shoot in RAW 14-bit.

I love this camera. I spend much much less time doing PP than I used to. It just gets things right.
 
puddleduck said:
You won't touch your D90 again :lol:
Click to expand...

I still use my D70 despite having a D700. I keep longer lenses on it (if I'm out with both bodies) while the wides stay on the D700. If I had to keep just one of them, of course it would be the D700 but the D70 still gets its buttons pressed from time o time! The D200 got a quick clean, was reboxed and flogged on (which reminds me, the warranty I gave on it runs out soon!) along with the only DX lens I had - the 18-70 kit lens.
 
I generally just use Manual and auto iso, switch between matrix and spot metering depending on subject being shot
 
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