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Inexperienced - Can I jump into D300?


ramon_pons1

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I've never used a digital camera (I'm not that keen on computers). I've been using

Nikon's manual FM3A and Nikon manual lenses. Now I want to buy a digital

camera and reading reviews looks like the D300 is the way to go. I'm just

concerned that the complexity for someone with no experience will be too much.

 

Question 1: Should I go for the D300 or it's too complex?

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Ramon... It might be complex but it is so much easier to learn than a film camera. Don't be afraid to try it. Remember you can try anything you want and you will see the result right away therefore you can keep adjusting and trying away right in the spot. That makes it so easy. On film you try something, go home, wait for the film, when you see the results you have already forgotten what you did.

 

Also one important thing is to read the manual and if you can get a users guide like Thom Hagan's and that will help you a lot. Once you get the basic settings done in your camera all you gotta do is play with aperture, ISO and lighting. You will overcome it fast enough. My advice is just to go for it. But try to get a good lens to go with it but maybe you already have some since you are a Nikon shooter. Good luck, Rene'

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IF $$ not an issue for your, it would be a great choice. Don't worry about

inexperience, you'll learn. And the D300 has Program Mode, Auto flash mode, and so

forth, so that you can start taking great pictures even if you have never used a DSLR

before. Then you can grow into it. Read the manual, experiment, take a digital

photography class, hang out on photo.net, etc., etc.

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If you can afford a D300 then I recommend getting it. As long as you know about camera's then you will be able to start using the D300. You will just be learning about it as you go. I have a D200 and just shot jpeg's for a long time. If you have a decent computer just do some research on post processing software and trial download the software that looks good to you. You will be able to correct many things from a RAW file.
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You'll love it, and get many years of use from it. A couple weeks of digesting it, and you'll be in great shape. It's no more complex than many seemingly simpler cameras... it just allows you to work with many of its settings via controls on the exterior of the body (rather than pawing through menus).
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It's not hard. The hardest part isn't the camera, but learning how to process the images in Photoshop etc. Even that isn't all that hard if you get a good book and work at it, just like everything else. You pretty much do need to budget for some computer stuff such as at least Photoshop Elements 6.0 and make sure you computer has enough memory to handle the files (1-2 gigs SDRAM or whatever.) Also don't forget your lenses will no longer perform the way they did on your film camera--they are subject to the 1.5x crop. For example, if you have a 20mm, it is now going to seem like a 30mm. If your widest lens is a 28mm, no will no longer have a wide angle lens. When I switched from digital to film I budgeted an extra $800 to cover all this "hidden" stuff. Most of that was lenses, of course. I ended up replacing all but one of my "film" lenses because I was getting some CA etc. on the digital, but I did that over time and sold off the old lenses as I went. All in all the switch was certainly worth it.

 

 

Kent in SD

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I went from many years with film to a tryout point and shoot. Then a Nikon D200. The P&S was not a good bridge builder as they are no where near a DSLR which is like a real camera. Go for the real thing. The D300 can be worked in totally manual modes, aperture priority, shutter priority, or program. Turn it to one of these modes like you use with the other film cameras and just do it.

 

I would not hurt as a confidence builder to have a roll of film digitized (put on a cd) and learn to work Photoshop Elements. That gets you over the computer hump cheaply. Elements sells for $100. GIMP is free. So is Picasa.

 

With both things to learn, there will be a period where you constantly need to pick up new skills, but they are not that difficult. And you can always revert back to just take the picture, and let someone else finish it.

 

The DSLR cameras are really not made to manual focus easily. I have no trouble. Others do. If you can focus using a plain matt area on your currrent camera, you will have no trouble. Autofocus is wonderful for many things, so consider a 16/85 Zoom.

 

Ai lenses will work in manual mode and aperture priority.

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Quote "...(I'm not that keen on computers)..."

If this is really the case, you will need to think seriously about the move from film to digital.

 

With digital all that magical/mystical stuff between sending off your film to a lab and getting the photos back you will have to do yourself on a computer! (That is if you want to get the best out of the camera and shoot in RAW)

 

Before you make the jump - and the D300 is a fantastic camera by the way - take into account the whole process from pressing the button to producing the print.

 

Who knows, you may begin to enjoy using a computer!

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Ramon, I don't know that you will really learn to use the camera fully in a couple weeks but you will learn enough to get by. This is a pretty complex camera so it will take time to learn the many setting options.

There are also quite a few sources out there now for help.....

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Nikon+D300+books&x=11&y=11

 

http://www.shortcourses.com/store/nikon-d300.html

 

http://www.bythom.com/nikond300guide.htm

 

The only one I have used is Thom Hogan's eBook, which I found to be pretty good but expensive. Nevertheless, you seem to have a good background with gear so the transition may be easier than you think.

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Sure... get the camera you will really enjoy learning and it does all start to come together the more you keep at it. The D300 is a great camera; it just takes some time to gain understanding about how the camera and the lenses acquire light and handle light. After the learning curve, you won't regret buying the camera at all. Adobe Lightroom will import raw files and it is probably a good idea to shoot in raw to enable working with the pictures to get 'em right. The CF card should be at least 4 gB preferably bigger for shooting raw.

 

The photographers on this site are a great resource and super supportive so it's not like being totally on your own.

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I'm all for getting the more complicated camera - gives you something to grow into. If

you're not that keen on computers, you should look into something like Aperture or

Lightroom - you can get pretty good postprocessing with fewer clicks (and learning

fewer concepts) than jumping into photoshop directly.

 

Or shoot jpeg for awhile - that will force you to get exposure right in the camera. And

then when you feel the need to do more elaborate post-processing, then you can move

to raw processing after having some experience in digital under your belt.

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<I>Question 1: Should I go for the D300 or it's too complex?</I>

<P>

The only question is whether you, as a D300 owner, are willing to learn and have the patience to do so. There are aids out there such as the book by Thom Hogan as mentioned. It is going to take a lot more than a couple of hours to read it and understand the important stuffs.

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Thanks a lot for your answers, I'm surprised how many useful tips. It has been really rewarding (particularly today that my boss is away).

 

I have bought an iMac because they are supposed to be easier to use. I have limited interest in postprocessing. Thus, based on Mark's comment I assume I should shoot jpeg instead of RAW. Would everybody agree?

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I went from an OM4 to a D300. It is complex, but you don't need to understand all its

features straight away to get good pictures out of it. I'd set it up to work as far as

possible like your film camera, and then learn additional features as you need them.

 

Lower-end DSLRs are superficially easier to use for people who don't understand

photography, but for an experienced film user the ease of accessing manual modes

makes the D300 the ideal camera to start with.

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If you shoot RAW + JPEG FINE you have the ease of use of JPEG, plus the option of

manipulating your RAW images if you need to later.

 

D300s come bundled with Capture NX, Nikon's own RAW processing software (though

the interface is a bit scary - personally I'm sticking to Aperture which is easier to

understand).

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If you shoot JPEG only, you are throwing away a lot of useful information at the time you capture the image. Whatever you throw away can never be recovered.

 

A better alternative is to shoot RAW (NEF) + JPEG fine, and you have the best of both worlds at a slight expense of more memory space usage, but flash memory and disk space are dirty cheap in these days.

 

You'll have the JPEG for immediate viewing, and should you get better with post-processing later on, you'll still have RAW files to playing around with in the future.

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Ramon,

 

JPGs from the D300 are gorgeous. Unless you are shooting in difficult lighting conditions (white balance, high contrast, etc) JPGs should be just fine. I've gone all day shooting JPGs and never had any issues from this camera. It's a real gem and the best from Nikon to date in my opinion.

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Even though it adds steps I think you will be better off starting in RAW. You will have all the captured information available even if you just start with a batch converision to jpeg for simple viewing. I like Lightroom but decided to use Bibble lite instead. I downloaded a trial version of each.
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I agree with Kevan. If you aren't "keen" on computers any move to digital is going to be tough. And jumping directly to the D300--when you have absolutely no digital background, may not work. I would start out with a D40 or low end DSLR from any of the other makers, or even a point and shoot, learn the digital basics and then decide what yoy want to do and what kind of equipment you need.

 

I know ex film photographers who have made the jump to digital, love it and have never looked back. But I also know some who absolutely hate anything to do with computers. And spending more money for a more sophisticated camera may very well make the transition more difficult rather than easier.

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Well if you have the iMac, it was delivered with iPhoto which is an organizing and EDITING program. All the way on the right on the bottom is and edit icon. Click on it and a fairly complete panel of options opens, exposure, contrast, noise reduction, sharpness.

 

Don`t buy another thing until you exhaust this resource.

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If you were competent with the manual camera, the D300 won't be all that difficult. You would already be familiar with aperture, shutter speed, iso/sensitivity and flash, etc. The big difference is moving to a camera that allows you to control those things or you can allow it to do so. And focus too! What's not to like?

 

To some extent, it's like driving a car. When you learn to drive, you stick with simple thing first. No one tells you get a stick shift stripper with an AM radio and no air conditioning because a good sound system and climate control has too many features for a beginner to learn. You may not start driving on the freeways but you don't usually start with a car that can't handle the freeways. And when you rent a car or get a new one, it does take some time to find all the different buttons and controls over again.

 

RAW versus jpg isn't the mystery it used to be. The camera does the conversion or you download the files and then import to a conversion program. Either way, you need to know how to tell the camera to do the initial adjustments, or you do them in the converter. Once you get past that, anything like cropping, cloning, straightening, etc., is something you'd do either way. It was a bigger deal when memory was expensive and file sizes were harder to deal with. Cameras and computers are faster so the differences are less significant.

 

Just take it in small chunks and don't try to master everything at once.

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What kind of pictures will you be taking?

How often will you use your camera?

What purpose will you use your camera for? Nature, landscapes, people??

 

If you haven't used a digital camera and you're not comfortable with computers, you need to think real hard about the jump from a older film camera to a semi-professional digital camera like a D300.

 

I have a tiny Casio point and shoot camera that takes excellent pictures. I have a larger Canon A700 digital point and shoot camera that takes excellent pictures also. Either of these is enough for my needs..........pictures of friends, family and vacations.

 

In December I bought a Nikon D40X. It's a super camera and has the ability to take excellent pictures but it takes skill to pry out the best photo's.

There is a STEEP learning curve for these good digital cameras and I think you need to be prepared to invest a lot of time to get to learn how to use them.

Initially I was extremely frustrated with my D40X because it required more work to get the same kind of shots I was getting out of my point and shoots.

I'm beginning to feel more comfortable with it and am happy with the output but it took a while to get to that point.

 

So what did I do??????????

I went out and compounded my potential for frustration by getting a D300 last month :-)

 

I love the D300!!!! (still have and love the D40X)

It is far more complex than the D40X but it allows me so much more flexibility to grow into.

 

So, finally, in conclusion, If you have the money to afford a D300 and if you have the time to devote to learn how to properly use it and you have the passion to explore its capabilities, then, by all means go for it.

 

If not, get a good point and shoot and don't look back.

 

Mel

 

P.S. - Keep in mind that you'll also need to spend a multiple of the $cost for the camera body in lenses and accoutrement's to wrestle all the benefits out of a modern digital SLR.

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If you know enough about photography to use a manual film SLR effectively you will

work out pretty soon how to use a D300, and you will find a lower-end DSLR

frustrating and limiting.

 

It's not hard to apply knowledge from film to the D300. I didn't try to read the 400

page manual all at once - instead I looked up how to set up the camera to work as

near as possible to my old film cameras: aperture priority, single point autofocus,

spot metering, half press on the shutter button locks exposure and focus. Once I

was happy with that I started experimenting with other features and modes.

 

Finally, I strongly agree with Ronald's point about iPhoto: it may be all you need, and

it's much more user-friendly than Photoshop.

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