Why do the D200, and now the D300, challenge your technique?

[alastairmoore]

I think the main challenge for me is there are a gazillion more buttons and options on the D300 compared with my old D70.

The challenge is to work out what they all do and put them to good use!

 

I wouldn't say the D300 challenges me directly but it gives me the option of doing things my D70 were perhaps not capable

of doing (high FPS multi-shots, multiple exposure shots, lower light photography with more useable higher ISO settings) but

overall that I spent best part of $1900 on my new camera body and so I've been challenged to get the most out of it for my

money!

[pankaj purohit]

Photography still relies on combination of Lens, Aperture and shutter speed to capture best light. A better photograph only can be made by the better composition, nothing else affect the photography.

[steve_lajoie]

I grew up shooting with and FE, then moved to an FM3a when my pair of FEs passed on. I had never shot with a programmed, autofocus camera and was skeptical of shooting digital SLR because of all the preprogrammed features. I loved the feel and control of the FE/FM3a systems and wasn't sure that a preprogrammed camera would let ME take the shots.

 

I purchased a D300 about 2 months ago and do not find my D300 a challenge. I have found the controls quite natural (although little things like having shot-to-shot control over ISO and being able to immediately review a photo and it's histogram takes a bit to get used to).

 

I generally shoot in Aperture priority mode with spot metering and AF set to single point focus. I have also been using my fixed focal length, manual focus lenses more than the two AF zooms I purchased shortly after buying the camera.

 

In general, I find this camera to be very easy to fit into my old habits. I could see it being a challenge to someone who came into photography relying on cameras with programmed modes such as "night", "portrait" and "landscape", but I don't see that as a show stopper if the person is willing to put the work into learning how to use traditional photographic controls.

 

Steve

[steve_lajoie]

To respond to the further questions in your post:

 

1. Post processing RAW files has challenged me the most to date. Having never worked in the "Digital Darkroom", I have found myself back at school so to speak. In some ways, mixing chemicals and timing development/temperature settings was easier than keeping track of the number of development controls that are available with digital software.

 

2. Being aware of the dynamic range of the camera is also a challenge and can lead to alot of inital mistakes. I find shooting the D300 more like shooting slide film. It is easy to overexpose an area of a photo trying to capture the shadows of a scene. If you study your photographs, studying mistakes that blew out the highlights of a photo will make you more aware of lighting conditions and how to control them. The nice thing is that you have the histogram available to immediately review the photo, see problems and (perhaps) reshoot before you leave the field.

 

3. This camera provides many technological variations that can be accessed quickly and easily (as mentioned in my prior post, I find the controls very natural). This means that you can take the same shot multiple times varying the control options, then review them to see the results. This will expand your knowlege of what these controls do and how they affect the resulting photograph. This can expand your range of creative options in various shooting conditions.

 

Keep in mind that (as earlier posts mention) the camera is a tool. It will not make one a better photographer, but it will provide the tools to allow a creative photographer to capture exceptional images. The best thing I can say about this camera is true of any digital camera...It will allow you to shoot lots of photos and review them quickly which can lead to a faster learning curve.

 

4. You can set the camera to Program mode, Multi point metering, Multi point focusing, Auto white balance, ISO 400 using the 18-200mm VR lens and get technically proficiant photos under most conditions without ever rising to the challenge of learning anything else about the camera system.

 

Steve

[tachion]

<i>Photography still relies on combination of Lens, Aperture and shutter speed to capture best light. A better photograph

only can be made by the better composition, nothing else affect the photography.</i>

<p>

You keep hearing this. Not to deny the central role the photographer takes, but the statement above is really not quite a

complete statement. <p>

First and foremost, you forgot to mention <b>film</b>. With out the film in your camera you won't

be taking any pictures. And if you look at film and how it has improved over the last 100 years, you see that an

incredible amount of technology went into this. Color film got more and more vivid and would render color more natural,

film got better grain characteristics and finer grain, special films like velvia or portra appeared, etc. <p>

So in the DSLR world, there are different sensors with different characteristics, which require different techniques to get

the most out of them. As was mentioned already, the sensor of the D300 behaves a little different from previous

sensors. All the different camera settings which interpret the result from the sensor, <b>do</b> make a difference in

how the final result looks. Just change the "sharpening" and you can change the resulting photo in a subtle (and

sometimes not quite subtle) way. Some people have complained that their images look noisy, which seems usually to

have been errors in the technical use of the camera. <p>

So where with film you could not really tell the difference between different camera bodies, but you could certainly tell

the difference between different films. With digital you often can tell the difference between different camera bodies,

certainly in what was possible (though not always at web resolutions, but then, web resolution is not enough to always

tell different films apart either.)

[pankaj purohit]

Yes Tachion, I forgot to mention the capture storage medium like film or chip...! Thanks to remember.

[commtrd]

The biggest challenge for me was figuring out how to get the WB correct and then migrating more into full manual control of the camera. What helped me most was learning from the post-processing work in LR many repetitions of what I had to do to get the WB correct along with the other aspects of "developing" the shots and then taking that experience into the field to apply those same adjustments to the WB while shooting a few test pictures to get the adjustments correct. Now I am finding a dramatic reduction in post work time as a result and much more satisfying photographic results overall. So it has been a challenge to learn all this and very enjoyable as well.

[rarmstrong]

My D300 is my first DSLR, having used Canon SLRs with film prior to acquiring the Nikon 7 months ago. The challenge has been discovering all of the absolutely great stuff this camera can do and the fact that you can recover some images with exposure and white balance corrections in post processing when you shoot RAW. As far as composing shots, the D300 is easier to use than any film camera I have owned. The viewfinder is very bright and the LCD is wonderful for an immediate check to decide to repeat the shot or accept what you have. I like to use the single point focus and metering for most situations but the 51 point AF with 3D tracking has been exceptional for moving subjects like flying birds and airplanes...even dragonflies in flight. The active D lighting feature works fairly well but is not a substitute for intelligent judgements about back-lit subjects and adding fill flash or recomposing the shot.

The greatest challenge for me is that I have to put the camera down and do other stuff...my wife is constantly reminding me:-)!