Renting a D300s

[tholte]

<p>I am renting a D300s to back up my D300 for a wedding I am shooting in a few weeks. I could download a Nikon D300s manual and read it but I haven't read my D300 manual in three years so I am not fond of that idea. What I would really like is for those of you that have used both to tell me if I can seamlessly use both and not have to worry about some little doohinky that could mess me up. I will be using both cameras with different lenses and two SB-800's. I am picking the rental up the day of the shoot so I won't have much time to check it out. The wedding is for a Navy Seal so it behooves me to get the job done without any hiccups. I am not interested in any sarcasm or negative nebobism. I don't ask many questions so humor me with some solid information. Thanks!!</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>There are only a few differences between the two. The D300S has video capture so that there is a dedicated lever to engage live view, making that easier to use. If you have plans to shoot video, you definitely need to read about that beforehand.</p>

<p>Additionally, the D300S can take one CF card and one SD card. Therefore, there are additional options to save two copies of every image file into different cards, etc. And you have a choice of which card slot as primary (an option not available on the D3 family and D7000 since the two card types are the same on those cameras). The D300S cannot take Type 2 CF cards, namely micro hard drives, but I kind of doubt that you are using those now in 2011.</p>

<p>Moreover, the D300S has the silent shutter mode; that can be handy during the wedding ceremony.</p>

<p>I highly recommend that you do some quick tests on the rental D300S as soon as you pick it up to make sure that it is working fine. For the most part, it is very similar to the D300. I would download the D300S manual in PDF and read about the features I mentioned above prior to that day.</p>

<p>See photo.net's D300S review for more details: <a href="../equipment/nikon/D300s/review/">http://www.photo.net/equipment/nikon/D300s/review/</a></p>

[owen_omeara]

<p>Tim;<br>

I would echo everything Shun said, especially the comments about the Type 2 CF cards. The silent shutter feature is nice but not a deal maker or breaker.</p>

<p>-O</p>

[tholte]

<p>So far so good Shun and Owen! I don't care about video and I have about fifteen 4GB CF cards that will do me. The silent shutter mode doesn't matter because I know the minister. Shun, thanks again for figuring out I had a bad battery charger instead of bad batteries.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>I only had a loander D300S for about a month and half, although I used that extensively during my Antarcitc trip. Some members here have owned both, such as Eric Arnold. Perhaps they have some additional suggestions.</p>

<p>For weddings, if you have access to SD memory cards, you can capture ceremony images and write them onto both cards so that you have a second copy just in case you run into any card failures.</p>

[curt wiler]

<p>I would echo what the others have said - but for me the annoyance is that there are enough differences that Nikon Camera Control Pro does not let you transfer custom settings from one to the other. So one word of warning would be to double check the critical settings on the rental camera. Also one major difference for me, and my style of shooting, is that the D300s has the Virtual Horizon function (which I have at the top of "My Menu") and the D300 does not, so I sometimes find myself fumbling around looking for it when I forget that I am using the older body.</p>

[holger]

<p>I own both, D300 as main camera, D300s as backup (and my wifes' main camera). As Shun Cheung says, no differences other than the mentioned bells and whistles you wan't need.</p>

<p>However, take care and some 15 min. before starting to shoot and check the settings: I messed up some of my backup shots because settings where not identical (ISO Auto, fn-button, AL-AE button behabviour, AF-settings etc.). Don't know if there is a way to transfer settings from a D300 to a D300s, it would be useful.</p>

<p>Another thing to check are the cameras time settings: get them as identical as possibile, it will be much easier sorting pictures later in your digital darkroom.</p>

<p>Other than that, and the fact that the CF card slot cover opens differently on these cameras, I use both side by side without even noticing any difference. The basic user interface is identical, as far as real life is concerned.</p>

[tholte]

<p>Thanks Curt and Holger! Thirty nine years of experience between Shun, Owen, Curt and Holger which is pretty impressive and amazing. </p>