What drives you nuts about the D300?

<p>There's really not anything that quite drives me nuts about the D300, it is an uncannily satisfying camera. One thing I wish were a bit different was how the two sets of settings banks work. Sure it is great to be able to have the four different choices. But the way it works is when you change something in the selected banks that setting change is permanent. I would much rather we would be able to select from one of the preconfigured banks into a "working bank" and the changes affect the working bank, but the preconfigured banks stay to a known good set of choices. If you would want to change the preconfigured banks then the saving would need to be a deliberate choice. If it is an issue of firmware memory, I'd much rather give up one bank to allow implementation of this feature. I am aware that you can load the banks again from a CF card, and that does work, but it is not very convenient.</p>

<p>The Price</p>

<p>D300; $1,699 new<br>

D200; $750 (or less) new</p>

<p>Now, if I was doing this for a living, price wouldn't be as much of an objection. But at $1,000 less, getting a D200 leaves a lot of room for more glass/flash/tripod etc.</p>

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<p>What "drives me nuts" is that Nikon is now selling a camera in the mid $1000 range that is clearly superior to the D2X that was sold at $5000 merely 4 years ago.'</p>

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<p>Shun, totally agree. It seems that camera prices almost conform to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law">Moore's Law</a> as computers have.</p>

 

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<p>In 1991, Kodak released the first commercially available digital SLR, the <a title="Kodak DCS-100" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_DCS-100" title="Kodak DCS-100" >Kodak DCS-100</a> . It consisted of a modified <a title="Nikon F3" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_F3" title="Nikon F3">Nikon F3</a> SLR body, modified drive unit, and an external storage unit connected via cable. The 1.3 <a title="Megapixel" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megapixel" title="Megapixel" >megapixel</a> camera cost approximately <a title="United States dollar" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar" title="United States dollar">US$</a> 30,000<br>

-Wikipedia</p>

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<p>If you like reading geeky tech stuff, also check out the wiki articles on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCD_sensor">CCD Sensors</a> (includes stuff on CMOS) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory">Flash Memory</a> . These might be tech articles, but the information does provide insight on why camera prices work the way they do.</p>

<p>Sanford, perhaps this is an issue with your particular D300, but I never have that problem with my D300 as well as D100, D200, D700, D2X, F100, F5 ..., all of which have a similar S/C/M switch although the design has changed a bit over the years. Your D80 is slightly different since it only has 2 settings instead of 3.</p>

<p>Again, if you hold the camera correctly, you should not have any finger near that S/C/M switch while you are holding the camera horizontally or vertically. Instead, the center of your left palm should be bracing the bottom of the camera, and I simply don't see how you palm can accidentally knock that switch out of position. Even though you try, it should be very difficult to move that switch with your palm, especially when there is a lens on the camera.</p>

<p>I think left handed people tend to also be left eyed! For verticals some of us hold a camera with the right hand on the bottom and and the left hand on top which seems to be the opposite of most people from what I see and puts the fingers of the left hand near the switch. You are correct about the two position switch of the D50/D80 being more positive and not as closely spaced between detents as the three position of the D300. I'm too old to change my habits now but part of the problem is that I rarely use the D300 except for special events. I have to form the habit of constantly checking myself. Ah, what left handed people have to endure in a right handed world - we are the forgotten minority. Actually we have had many left handed presidents in the US lately.</p>

<p>I guess I'm alone on this one and it's kinda niggly but I wish the two button reset either left the file format setting alone or reset to RAW, or even JPG fine instead of JPG normal. All the other settings that it resets, for me, make sense and are perfect except I always have to remember the extra step to reset format after the reset- which kind of defeats the purpose. I'd like to see statistics of D300 shooters on how often they use RAW, vs jpg fine, jpg normal etc. my guess is with the low cost of storage, the advanced image quality capabilities of the D300, that jpg normal is "not so normal"</p>

<p>I am in love with my D300, I have had it for about 3 weeks. Only thing I have had is the playback mode has inadvertinly turned off on me, and sometimes it does not play back when I hit the play button.. Maybe it has something to do with the MB-D10 grip. Thinking about the grip, I think the selector swith is a bit out of position, small, and hard to find while using the camera.<br>

It was a HUGE improvment, I went from a D1x to this. Wow!!!!</p>

<p>My number 1 gripe: Cannot lock up the mirror in LIVE VIEW mode.</p>

<p>I use Live-view for taking low-angle close-ups. The current set up requires you to switch back and forth between Live-view and Mirror-lock-up modes for every shot. Pain in the neck!</p>

<p>Shun, this is nothing new. I remember buying my first digital SLR (the canon D60) for close to $3000 and then just 4 months later, Canon announced a newer & improved replacement for half the price! If only I had waited.....but you can play that game for ever!</p>

<p>I love my D300. I haven't had any AF switch issues. The only very small gripe would be the rubber door over where the USB cable plugs in is sometimes awkward to close. My only other small gripe is that the D700 was released about 7 months after I bought my D300:-).</p>

<p>What drives you nuts about the D300?<br />Not having one myself!</p>

<p>I am surprised no one has mentioned this but I live in NYC (The Bronx) and what bothers me is the neckstrap telling everyone which camera I have. I wouldnt mind if it said NIKON but do you have to the theives which one!</p>

<p>I wouldn't mind if it said NIKON but do you have to Tell the theives which one!</p>

<p>I know that the D300 and D700 have a lot of similarities. In regard to having a dedicated Bracketing button, I know that on the D700, you can assign the AE lock button to control Bracketing using the front Command Dial. Maybe you can with the D300 as well, I did this on my D700 and that eliminates the need for a dedicated button for this.</p>

<p>The only thing that bothers me about the D300 is that the battery grip costs ~$270.00.</p>

<p>Nathan, yes, you can program one of the function buttons to be the bracketing button on the D300, just as you can on the D700, but I still prefer to have a dedicated BKT button on both.</p>

<p>I loved the ability on the D200 to press the ? button while powering up to create a new photo directory on the CF card. This was great when changing locations so that all new photos ended up in their own directory. Of course you can do this by clicking through the menu system, but nothing as easy as powering on with the ? button pressed. Why would they remove an existing feature when developing a new product? They could easily bring this back in a firmware update for the D300 and D700.</p>

<p>After using a Nikon F, a Nikon 6006, a D70 I feel that the D300 is the first camera that does not get in the way. I miss the simplicity of the F (I think the manual was about 25 pages) but I am more than happy to accept a little bit of complexity for flexibility.</p>

<p>I'm curious about those that wish that there was a dedicated Bkt button for bracketing exposures. The Fn button does this by default. What are you setting your Fn button to instead? I've looked at the list of the things that the Fn button can do but for me I could not figure out when I would need that or that there were other ways to achieve the same goal.<br>

Again I'm curious not critical of your choice of your setting(s) of Fn button.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Paul - my function button is set for DOF preview and the DOF preview button is set for selecting manual focus lenses.</p>

<p>What drives me nuts about the D300? Not owning one!</p>

<p>What drives me nuts about the D300?: Absolutely nothing! I am extremely grateful that I own one!</p>

<p>Love my D300 as well!</p>

<p> Been using a 2X for a couple years and am grateful for the smaller size of the 300 as the 2X got pretty heavy for an all day event shoot and a monster with the 80/400 lenz.... Something odd though, Some of my best shots have come from the little "Cool-Pix" I picked up for about $150.00 awhile back and keep it in my shirt pocket where-ever I go.. 8-MPX and it fits in your pocket...things sure have changed over the years...</p>

<p>I am very grateful over the past year and a half to have owned maybe 5 or more D300s and swear by them. With the D200 and the D300 there is one common fault for those of us who carry around our necks more than one camera and lens which bump against each other.<br>

The lens or camera may bump against the matrix, spot, counterweight button, which is not firm enough and knock it out of kilter, and if it moves into the 'spot' mode, all shots will be terribly off in exposure especially until you discover it.<br>

This has happened a number of times, and the first time I was completely baffled why my exposures were all over the place and supposed it some sort of camera fault: it wasn't . . . exactly. But the small button next to the viewfinder could have been designed for more 'positive' force and maybe to be 'pulled out' or 'pushed in' or with a combined center button to confirm that one really wanted to change it, as in other Nikon cameras I've owned . . . and that's basically my only minor peeve.<br>

And I shoot 'fast' -- real fast - often seeing, composing (framing) and shooting in one to five seconds, and that may include multiple shots.<br>

If my exposures are off with a 'C' series, that shows me for sure that button has been turned and I am in the wrong exposure mode. I seldom find that any other exposure mode than matrix metering suits my needs, although for studio work, the camera doubles as a handy spot meter if you want to use it in 'spot' mode, and for back lighting center-weight may produce better results sometimes, especially since you can vary (in menus) the size of the center that is metered. <br>

The camera is 'brilliant' or at least superior. If this were the last camera Nikon made, it would be good enough, although I would prefer better quality at high ISOs as shown by the D3 and D700s which are next on my pauper's list. <br>

I would keep a D300 in my shooter's bag just for the crop factor on telephoto, no matter what.<br>

John (Crosley)<br>

(I am not saying that I currently 'own' five or six D300s ;~)) )<br>

jc</p>

<p>I agree with Manuel. It irked the heck out of me when I had to purchase two extra grips for my F6's<br>

a number of years ago, and I feel the same about the extra $265 I paid for a vertical release on<br>

my two D300's. BTW, Shun, I often inadvertantly move the autofocus switch on my D300's when I'm<br>

shooting weddings, and it has nothing to do with the way I hold my cameras. Sometimes in the heat<br>

of the moment the switch gets bumped, although I do think it was far more prevalent on my F6's.<br>

Other than that, the two D300's I purchased last spring were my first digital cameras, and I must say<br>

they have been outstanding performers.<br>

Thanks, John Mirra</p>