Just Got My D300

[doug anderson]

I'm working my way through the menus and shooting lots of RAW. Everything seems to work so far, and the pictures are great. As soon as I can do something other than test shots, I'll send some here. Any D300 owners out there?

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Doug,

How about making this a diary of how you and the D300 are doing together. First, tell us how you got to choose this above other cameras and what it will be used for. Are you already stocked with Nikon lenses?

It's so important for us to increase the profile for non-Canon lenses as the popularity of one band can swamp knowledge of every other choice? That's why we celebrate each other-than-Canon report even though a lot of us are simply in love eth our Canon geat.

Frankly when I tried out the Nikon D2H last year I was jaw-struck by the focus and perfect flash in with a macro lens. I then thought about my earlier days with Nikon cameras. So we appreciate the rising Nikon star and having photographers using this fine equipment. I also feel the same way about Leica, Pentax Olympus and may other fine brands.

Asher

 

[Jim Bulkowski]

I heard good things about the D300

 

[doug anderson]

Okay: I chose the D300 because I have a bunch of Nikon lenses and it would be impractical to get, say, a Canon, although I've always been curious about EOS technology. The analogue for the EOS in the Nikon is the 51 focus points and dynamic auto focus.

I love my F5, and so I figured a D300 was the way to go. A lot of the controls are the same or similar, so that speeds up the learning process.

I have also been impressed by the quality of photos I've seen that were taken with the D300.

The 300 is weatherproofed and fairly rugged, although the could have done better with the doors to various orifices. I love the LCD, and the viewfinder is the best I've ever looked through.

So far I have shot my dogs and other peoples dogs, but am still a neophyte with digital, and it will be a few days before I submit anything for critique.

I like to street shoot in urban areas and the D300 seems to be very graceful and responsive in capturing moments.

I've obviously got a lot to learn about photo software, and am struggling with Capture NX and the software suite that comes with the camera. I'm thinking about adding Photoshop Elements in a week or two.

I'll keep you informed as I go.

Cheers,

D

 

[doug anderson]

Just shot a few with the built in flash. Pretty good for a pop up. Doesn't wash out the color, doesn't make my wife look like she's wearing clown makeup.

 

[leonardobarreto.com]

I got my D300 today and I'm very impressed by the way it behaves, but it is dark, rained all day, so no time to even take photos of the dogs.

I have my very old 85mm AF Nikon 1:1.8 -and a DX not so good, but modern lens-- and a long wish list of lenses.

I can tell this is going to be a good camera to have, super responsive and smart. I must confess that I'm a bit suspicious of the display size arms race in consumer and pro model, when you think about it. What did we have in the film era?? but I am getting addicted to this "feature film size screen" of the D300.

There is going to be a pleasant learning curve with this. This is the fun system, let the Mamiya/P25 do the studio work...

It would be nice to have a Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4, or a 35mm? what is the normal lens for DX anyway and why Nikon does not make a 1:1.8 DX "normal"?? I want to go back to basics and have a fast sharp non-zoom lens. (as opposed to 18-200)

 

[Mike Bailey]

How clean is the camera when it arrives, specifically the sensor? It has long been an aggravation that Canon _always_ ships cameras that are dirty inside, and the sensor always has something on it, gunk or otherwise. My experience does not include the series 1 cameras, but does include D30, D60, 20D, 5D.

Also doing the standard sensor test, stopped down to at least F/16, shootiing a monotone surface, then bringing the levels in from both sides (like an auto-level) on the histogram to the edge of the data always shows stuff on the sensor that can not be cleaned by any method, so there is stuff trapped between sensor and AA filter, whatever. Most of this of course does not show up when shootinig F/8 or wider, but for landscape photography, F/11 , F/13, etc. are the norm, so sometimes depending on where the defect is, cloning has to be done.

Mike

 

[Serge Berrut]

Hi, happy D300 owners,
Mine is coming, should be with me in 10 days.
I am trying to estimate the max size a of picture that can be printed, please tell me if I am wrong:
Sensor size is 4288x2848 pix for an area of ~1in x ~0.75in
Printing is traditionally made with a resolution of 300 ppi
Max size of print should be: 4288/300 and 2848/300= ~14in x 9.5in (35 x 24 cm)
Not that big!

 

[doug anderson]

Mine was squeeky clean. I'll use your method for testing.

 

[nicolas claris]

Hi, future happy D300 owner!

300 dpi is a standard but can be easily matched with good RIP…

When I send a file at the lab for big enlargement using a Durst Lambda machine, I may go down to 125 DPI with stunning results.

RIPs does often do better enlargement that we do in PS. So I rarely do more than 250% enlargement and send the file between 125 to 300 DPI depending of the output size.

I guess Bart will have some good advice on it!

 

[doug anderson]

Thanks for the info, Nicolas.

 

[leonardobarreto.com]

Software (D300)

Ok, honey moon is over and facing the down side...

Software. I installed Nikon programs that came with the D300 and don't like them at all, they remind me of the really bad things that Fujifilm sold for the S2. Is there a problem in Japan with software designers? and guess what? Photoshop CS 3 doesn't open the files...

Since the D300 is not my main camera, I don't want to learn a new interface, so probably what I will do is to use C1 for the digital back AND the D300, but the problem is that I am using the free C1 DB version that opens only Phase One files. That means an extra $500 ! or just use the non-pro version of C1, don't know.

The other possibility is Apples Aperture...

What do you use??

 

[Joel Schochet]

Software for D300 NEF's

Leonardo,

I use Lightroom regularly, and CS3 only occasionally for tasks LR doesn't do. If you go to the Adobe web site, you can get the newest version of ACR which will open D300 NEF's.

I find Nikon Capture NX a bear to use. It seems very unintuitive to me. However, the "U Point" technolgy, which lets you adjust brightness, contrast, saturation for an area which size you choose is very helpful at times. I just wish that it had LR's interface.

Try the trial version of LR and see if that doesn't change your mind about digital conversion. It uses ACR for conversion, but you can also use it for TIFF's and JPEG's, just like CS3.

Joel

 

[doug anderson]

I'm inclined to agree with you about NX etc. Clumsy to use, slow, and it hangs up my computer. I've just installed Photoshop Elements and things are going much better.

 

[Asher Kelman]

How clean is the camera when it arrives, specifically the sensor? It has long been an aggravation that Canon _always_ ships cameras that are dirty inside, and the sensor always has something on it, gunk or otherwise. My experience does not include the series 1 cameras, but does include D30, D60, 20D, 5D.

Also doing the standard sensor test, stopped down to at least F/16, shootiing a monotone surface, then bringing the levels in from both sides (like an auto-level) on the histogram to the edge of the data always shows stuff on the sensor that can not be cleaned by any method, so there is stuff trapped between sensor and AA filter, whatever. Most of this of course does not show up when shootinig F/8 or wider, but for landscape photography, F/11 , F/13, etc. are the norm, so sometimes depending on where the defect is, cloning has to be done.

Have you tried Canon service, especially for a brand new camera!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Leonardo,

I use Lightroom regularly, and CS3 only occasionally for tasks LR doesn't do. If you go to the Adobe web site, you can get the newest version of ACR which will open D300 NEF's.

I find Nikon Capture NX a bear to use. It seems very unintuitive to me. However, the "U Point" technolgy, which lets you adjust brightness, contrast, saturation for an area which size you choose is very helpful at times. I just wish that it had LR's interface.

Try the trial version of LR and see if that doesn't change your mind about digital conversion. It uses ACR for conversion, but you can also use it for TIFF's and JPEG's, just like CS3.

Joel,

Have you tried Nikon Capture NX with a Nikon lens which you know has some Chromatic Aberration or distortion and find out whether or not there are built in algorithms to correct these like the M8 or the Hasselblad H3 have?

Asher

 

[Joel Schochet]

No, I haven't, Asher. I have this tremendous aversion to NX now. However, my lack of a really good full-frame zoom lens (such as the Nikon 24-70) has put my 24-120 VR on the D3. I expect to shoot it more than I have and I'll see what NX can do with the 24-120's faults.

I have to say, however, that the joy of using the D300, especially with the new 16-85mm VR lens, has made me pass on the D3 for all but low-light work, when I will now use my new Voigtlander 58mm 1.4. It's a beauty! And on the D300 it's an even better (limited to the center area) approximate 85mm 1.4. I just wish I had more time. But don't we all.

Joel

 

[Mike Bailey]

Have you tried Canon service, especially for a brand new camera!

Asher

Not to intrude on the D300 thread, but a quick answer is that Canon service was absolutely abysmmal in cleaning a sensor. Whether using the wet method (Sensor Swab/Eclipse) or dry method (VisibleDust Sensor Brush) or bulb blower for the giant dust balls, I found that I can do a much better job.

I tried the route of having Canon service clean a D30, years ago, and it came back worse than when it went in. My D30 story was a nightmare... there were defects that could not be cleaned and were visible even at F/8 and it took several trips back and forth before Canon finally admitted as much and finally replaced the camera, BUT there still were defects the were perceptible when shooting stopped down. I learned to live with that in my last D30 and every Canon camera I have owned since.

My test of the sensor is definitely somewhat extreme, but it tells you when and where there might be problems. People who normally shoot at F/8 or wider probably believe they have very clean sensors... and for all practical purposes they do.

Mostly it's how many and where, which tells you how likely it is to consistently show up in a blue sky or something like that.

Which prompted my question as to the state of the sensor of the D300, wondering if Nikon does any better than Canon initially.

Mike

 

[doug anderson]

Day 3 of my D300. Didn't do much shooting today (photographed some students who came by my office), but I did get Photoshop eEements up and running. I like it that it has a built-in CD burner. I'm thinking about getting a peripheral memory device: I don't want to overload my laptop.

I love this camera. I have an F5, which gives me a leg up with the Nikon controls, and I am beginning to be intuitive with the D300.

I used the black and white option for the first time today. Pretty good, but not as good as film. I'm still going to shoot black and white on film.

To get in the mood, I've been looking at photos by Saul Leiter, Robert Frank, William Eggleston, Dianne Arbus, Cartier Bresson, Sally Mann, and others I've always drawn inspiration from. I love photography. It takes me blessedly away from thought.

I don't know how many of the D300 programs I wil actually use, but it's good to know they're there. I use a motor drive, sparingly, principally when I'm doing close ups. I like to catch people by surprise the minute they drop their pose. I don't shoot a lot of sports, but I can see myself using the dynamic focus together with the motor drive if I every shoot dance or performance of any kind.

The 18-200 lens is great for street shooting and my 17-35 gold ring left over from F5 days really performs well with the camera. I've got the heavier version of that lens, but the camera seems to tolerate it really well.

I'm wondering if I should sell my 16mm 2.8 lens to somebody who shoots mainly film, because it's not really a fish eye anymore.

More later.

Cheers,

Doug

 

[leonardobarreto.com]

I don't want to be redundant, but I am having a really bad time with my D300 because lack of software. I don't have money to buy a raw convertor !

*** NX tells me when oppening that there is an upgrade, fine, get it... 5 minutes doing as if it is upgrading ... then: "there was a problem, try later" !!

*** My wife just got some nice flowers and wants me to shoot them: NX -- first of all I don't know how to make the tools come out, you know like in PS by just >TAB> , but thats ok. The file of the image comes and after few seconds it becomes possessed by spirits and disappears in black ... almost, because there are block of of the image of the flowers visible ... I have no time for this...

I think I said this before, but here it is again. This reminds me of Fujifilm sorry software, but NIKON??

We will call it the Beauty and the Beast (D300 & NX) NX= Nix
X in Japanese is BATSU. This is a big BATSU no good, I mean, really bad, and nobody is talking about it, the reviewers say that the D300 is "the best", but how are we going to develop the images??

If nobody complains Nikon live in impunity. This is as bad as Vista (I have not really tried that, but for what I hear, and nobody is upgrading etc)

Asher, this is sooo bad. How is it for Canon, why don't you make a comparison, or what about finding which camera maker makes the worst raw converter....


UGHHHHHHHH

leonardo
ps, sorry i'm just frustrated

 

[Serge Berrut]

Leonardo,
I have never installed the Nikon softwares. I copy the RAW or JPG files from the Card to the computer and open them with Photoshop (Nikon Raw plugin).
Serge

 

[doug anderson]

Question: is it possible to upgrade Elements so that it will process RAW?

 

[Ron Morse]

I have the canon 40D. My cousin has the D300. While he was away for three weeks I had his D300 to play with.

The LCD on the 300D blows my 40d right out of the water. I like the flash setup om the D300 better. Their was something about the ISO that I liked better on the D300 but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. I think it was the auto ISO.

In the end the final image was about the same.

If I didn't have so much tied up in canon lenses I would go for the D300. Don't get me wrong, the 40D is a fine camera and I really enjoy it.

 

[leonardobarreto.com]

Ok, finaly more or less I managed to make something with the Beauty & The Beast.

Don't you love to test cameras? ...

I pushed like a maniac the MENUs until somehow the camera cooked a multi exposure out of a series of individual exposures ... cool, but can I do it again? ... also the tripod moved ...

 

[leonardobarreto.com]

This is at 100%, you can see how the camera "mounts" one exposure on the next. If you secure your tripod they will unnoticed.

You find it in: SHOOTING MENU >Multiple exposure > OK

then you can choose from up to 10 exposures and to have the Auto Gain ON / OFF

Auto Gain is to compensate for the "gain" in exposure for the multi exposing, you know.. in this case it is OFF since I am doing multi exposures moving the small flash from position.

This is not a bad feature, it makes you "paint" with the light of a small flash...

 

[leonardobarreto.com]

Serge, What do you mean by Nikon Raw Plugin? How come my PS CS 3 is not oppening the NEFs?

That would be a good solution, just open them in Photoshop.

Thanks Serge

Leonardo,
I have never installed the Nikon softwares. I copy the RAW or JPG files from the Card to the computer and open them with Photoshop (Nikon Raw plugin).
Serge

 

[doug anderson]

Ok, finaly more or less I managed to make something with the Beauty & The Beast.

Don't you love to test cameras? ...

I pushed like a maniac the MENUs until somehow the camera cooked a multi exposure out of a series of individual exposures ... cool, but can I do it again? ... also the tripod moved ...

This may be an example of unrepeatable synchronicity. Very nice.

 

[Serge Berrut]

Serge, What do you mean by Nikon Raw Plugin? How come my PS CS 3 is not oppening the NEFs?

That would be a good solution, just open them in Photoshop.

Thanks Serge

Camera Raw 4.4.1 (for Mac in my case) is freely downloadable from Adobe and yes, you just open the NEF in PS, in a window that allows image adjustment. Sometimes, I use a card reader.
The adjustments relate to: Basic (temperature, tint, exposure, recovery, fill light, blacks, brightness, etc..), Tone curve, Detail, HSL/Grayscale, Split toning, Lens correction and Camera Calibration.
Serge.

 

[leonardobarreto.com]

Thank you, thank you, I don't have to buy a raw processor, I got one free ! thanks to the advice of posters of this forum that know all.

It looks like a complete RAW processor and feels much more intuitive than the Nikon "thing". The best for me would be probably to use C1 PRO 4 when it comes out, -If I can afford it--, but on the other side I could have one for the back and Photoshop for the Nikon, why not...

Thanks !

 

[Edward Bussa]

It looks like a complete RAW processor and feels much more intuitive than the Nikon "thing".

The Nikon "thing" does have an odd interface, I agree.

However, I've opened up a few of the D300 NEF files in NX, Bibble, and LR, and I can immediately see quality differences, with the best being in that order...

I just upgraded my machine because my old machine would not run NX at any usable speed. NX has some pretty advanced features as well and is "cutting edge" except for speed and clunky interface.

Just an FYI - RawTherapee is a FREE raw processor and it has done an excellent job for me in the past - on some images it is able to produce sharpness that the other convertors can't match!