What I hate about my D300

<p>Mike<br>

I believe that the default is for auto ISO to be disabled in manual mode. I use it when shooting equestrian events in one particular covered arena, it has a roof and three open sides. Tight changes drastically as the horse moves around the arena. I find it much easer to set my f/ stop and shutter speed and let the camera ride the ISO. Granted I am playing with compensation as I see what color each horse is as they come in to do there test.</p>

<p>Sounds familiar Michael!, +1/3 for Blacks, -2/3 for Greys & Pie/Skewbalds.... the others are recoverable from RAW. It's always easier to lighten blacks than darken whites.</p>

<p>I do wish they wouldn't wash greys in 'brightener'! It's murder on a sunny day......... ;-)</p>

<p>What *I* hate about my D300 is that the base is all brassed off. The rubber is peeling away from the body and needs rubber cement on a regular basis to keep me from having a metal camera. The rubber door on the USB side will no longer stay closed. All the little white letters on several control surfaces has been worn away. </p>

<p>And it keeps working as well as the day I took delivery. It has been dragged over Yukon mountains and through equatorial jungles, balanced on an ocean kayak and sat on sandy beaches, and produces the same fine files.</p>

<p>Maybe that's what I LIKE about my D300!</p>

<p>This is such an old problem it's beyond belief. Everyone has been complaining about it at least since 2004. Nikon is just ignoring it. Thom Hogan has been collecting user design suggestions and this is one of the popular ones: http://bythom.com/usersuggestions.htm</p>

 

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<p>Fix the SCM (AF mode) focus switch so that it can't easily be jarred to a different position (many)</p>

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<p>Interestingly, the D80 didn't have the problem, since AF-S/C was switchable elsewhere.</p>

<p>Yes, it's a real flaw. It's happened to me several times that the switch switched itself somehow and I lost a shot while figuring out why my lens doesn't focus. But since I use all three modes, I can't just glue the switch.</p>

<p>Auto ISO in manual mode rocks! Overall the D300 ergonomics are excellent, but for what it's worth I would say:</p>

<p>- The active focus point should be indicated on the top LCD! Other Nikons do this, and it's much more useful than the 'number of available points' icon we have now. You can set most of the other key controls without raising the camera to your eye or switching on the rear LCD - why not the focus point?</p>

<p>- 'Qual' is hardly the most obvious and useful function to get one of the limited number of dedicated buttons (am I the only one who rarely changes this?). Why not (e.g.) 'Bkt'?</p>

<p>- Yes, the C/S/M switch placement is awkward. I don't really see the sense in rotating it by 90 degrees relative to the old position used in (e.g.) the F100 (a camera where they got nearly everything right).</p>

<p>- The flat Nintendo control without a button in the centre isn't ideal (fixed in the 300s). It should also wake up the camera by default (there's an obscure custom function that allows this behaviour).</p>

<p>- The menu layout is really pretty unintuitive. Luckily 'My Menu' tames this (though that doesn't help with a borrowed camera).</p>

<p>I love my D300 but I agree the menus are atrocious...and about as badly laid out as possible.</p>

<p>Canon's are much better.</p>

<p>Someone suggested if you hold the camera properly moving the focus mode switch won't happen. I hold my D300 essentially the same way I held my Nikon F, Nikon F2, Nikon F3Hp, Nikon F4, Nikon F100, Nikon FE, Nikon Fm, Nikkormat, Nikkormat FT3 Nikon F4, Nikon D100 and Nikon D50. The D300 is the only one where I have to keep checking to see if the focus mode switch has moved.</p>

<p>Define "properly"</p>

<p>Well Wayne, I guess from the Nikon designers POV, you're holding it improperly........;-)</p>

<p>Does it matter which lens you're holding? I can guess a Pancake lens needs holding pretty close, but not much else.</p>

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<p>Define "properly"</p>

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<p>Your left palm should be facing up, supporting the bottom of the camera and the thumb, index and middle fingers of your left hand should be controlling the focus ring and/or zoom ring from the bottom. It does not matter whether the camera is in the vertical or horizontal orientation. In the vertical orientation, the "bottom" of the camera is the left side (where the 35mm film cannister used to be during the film era).</p>

<p>If you are using a longer telephoto lens, such as a 200mm or longer, your left palm may need to support the lens barrel from the bottom instead of supporting the bottom of the camera.</p>

<p>It does not matter whether your are right/left eyed or right/left handed, when you hand hold, supporting your camera properly is critical to minimize camera shake. To me, that is the more important issue than accidentally touching the C/S/M switch.</p>

<p>That is total B.S.! Shooting the camera with the right side down is the far superior way to hold a camera for vertical support. That way BOTH elbows can be tucked in to the sides to offer total support instead of having one elbow flapping in the breeze. Any time this many people complain about a problem, one they never experienced with any other other camera or any other Nikon - it is POOR DESIGN of the switch. </p>

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<p>That is total B.S.! Shooting the camera with the right side down is the far superior way to hold a camera for vertical support. That way BOTH elbows can be tucked in to the sides to offer total support instead of having one elbow flapping in the breeze. Any time this many people complain about a problem, one they never experienced with any other other camera or any other Nikon - it is POOR DESIGN of the switch.</p>

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<p>Sanford, please check out how all Nikon vertical grips are built, such as the MB-D10, as well as all Nikon SLRs with a permanent, built-in vertical grip, such as the F5, D2 and D3 families. Nikon makes it very clear that in the vertical orientation, the right side of the camera (where the command and sub-command dials are) should be up.<br>

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<P>

Keep yelling BS does not make you right.</p>

<p>Nor does denying the fact that even Nikon is capable of making a mistake make you right. I don't use a vertical grip so I don't care. Can you at least admit that the switch could have been designed with a little more resistant for the quite substantial percentage of people who hold it the"wrong" way? Anyway, why is it a problem on just this one particular model camera. I think I'm going to remove this thread for my 'reminder" list so if you reply you will have the last word.</p>

 

<p>Sanford, sure, the C/S/M switch may need to be designed differently if people tend to touch it unintentionally when they change lenses. However, how to hold a camera properly is what they teach in beginner classes. I learned that when I was a teenager, and that was several decades ago. There was no auto focus back then and certainly no C/S/M switches. Holding a camera properly gives you better images.</p>

<p>If you have a bad habit that you find difficult to change, I think most of us can understand that. I have my share of them. However, blaming your errors on someone else is not going to fix any problems.</p>