barryhaugen

<p>Kelly,<br>

Your two lens are of the same quality and function. I own both lenses myself as well. One of the things that I re-read in your original post is that you are using the automatic camera settings, these too can all frustration to your shooting. The modern cameras are pretty good at guessing what to make the settings but if you want quality shots every time I do recommend switching to Manual or at least Aperture Priority on your camera and leave the auto focus to the camera. As Wouter said pick up Understanding Exposure by Brian Peterson. He doesn't complicate photography. I have taken several of his online courses as well. I learned a lot from him.</p>

<p>Kelly,<br>

It could be as simple as motion blur. What was your shutter speeds? At 300mm you need to be using a shutter speed of 1/500s at least, you may get away with 1/250s with VR if its hand held. If you are using a tripod it is highly recommended that you dont use VR. That will introduce some motion blur. VR shakes the lens to counter act the movements of handheld, its is on a tripod it will have nothing to counter act thus creating shake in the images. The technology has come along way but is still far from perfect.</p>

<p>India,<br>

Its nice that all these people, who obviously have NAS (Nikon Acquisition Syndrome) are spending all your hard earned money. As you said you are a beginner photographer the best investment is books. Read, Read and read some more. The more you read the more you will understand that it is not the equipment that makes the picture its the photographer. http://www.amherstmedia.com has tons of great books on Photography. <br>

Professional photographers don't run out and buy the latest equipment every time there is a new camera body released. They use their trusty stead that they know intimately. They will upgrade every couple of generations of bodies.<br>

Read your manual for your D3000 over and over again until you know where ever button is and what they do from memory. As you run into limitations with your current equipment start to upgrade.<br>

Some cheap things to pick up are a couple 5in1 reflectors. You can do some wonderful things with natural light and bouncing it back in as fill light. Maybe a diffuser dome for your pop up flash to help soften the light.</p>

<p>Kyle,<br>

If your doing primarily landscape, you should pick up a graduated ND filter. It will give a lot of different options when it comes to landscapes. If you stack a few of them you can do some neat cityscape stuff because you can remove people or traffic. It looks like you have a pretty well rounded equipment list. Instead of getting caught up in the N.A.S., try using the equipment you have in ways you never have before. Change your shooting angles like laying on your back and shooting upside down for a landscape. Just by looking at the world from a different angle you can get thousands and thousands of images out of the equipment you have. I have always been a firm believer that the equipment doesn't make the image, it just allows us to put what we see in our mind's eye to a medium that we can share with other people. </p>

<p>So back to the O.P., Steven you wont see much or any difference of image quality at 10"x15". This size is well with in both camera's capabilities. The D300s and D600 are only 1 generation apart in technology. Is that ability to print at 10"x15" worth the extra $800-$900, absolutely not. But if you want the ability to use a full frame camera and a few other upgrades in the video side that't totally up to you and your budget.</p>

<p>As in typical Photo.net fashion my comments are taken out of context. My point has nothing to do with your personal opinion of a particular author or photographer. MegaPixels are Length X Width nothing more nothing less. A bigger area does not equate to better quality, it just allows for bigger prints. You do not get better dynamic range or higher ISO from area. You get better dynamic range and higher ISO from better sensors and processers. A modern 2MP camera with the latest CMOS has a better quality and more dynamic range then a 2MP camera from 10 years ago. The image size is still the same length & width. Dpi on the other hand does effect image quality. The higher the dpi the better the image looks at close view distance. What most people forget is dpi is limited to the MP of the image they are trying to print. For instance the D300s is a 12.3MP camera, it only has 12.3 million pixels of information and the dpi is how tight those pixels are grouped or distributed. If you plan on viewing an image at 8-10 ft you can use less dpi but if you plan on only being 8-10 inches you need higher dpi resulting in a much smaller print. </p>

<p>Steven,<br>

Do a quick search for the MegaPixel Myth by Ken Rockwell. He is a respected writer and professional photographer. Granted the myth paper is a few years old now but the jist still applies. Food for thought with the D600 shooting in DX your image area is 3936x2624 the equates to an image at 200dpi of 19.75"x13" and with the D300s at an image area of 4288x2848 @ 200dpi is 21.5"x14.25". Unless your doing gallery sized prints I couldn't justify doubling the cost of the D300s just for a the difference in megapixels. Granted the D600 has other features that make it worth the money.</p>

What I meant by photography is art and not math is that what makes a good image is composition, i.e., lines, shape,

form, texture,etc., and its not the math. People don't walk into photography gallery and look at a photo and say wow

look at that f4@1/2000's. They say wow that's a beautiful horse. Yes more you understand the technical side of

photography the more consistent your are. The original post was the intent of going to an event with a preconceived

set of shutter speeds by doing that you limit what images you can take.what if the light is not there? Do Quit and go

home? For example a documentary photographer shooting in the slums of India does not deside on the plane ride over

decide that he/she is going to shoot at1/300s. They think about what stories they want to tell and how best to

communicate that story not their camera settings. There are lot of "technical" photographers who contribute here on a

regular basis who have all the best and latest equipment and know all the technical specs of every piece of camera

equipment ever made but look at there photo galleries and their images are less than average. All though the images

are technically correct they lack basic composition and emotion. Not that mine are award winning photos but I try to

focus on composition and story telling. The numbers are what I look at after to learn from and improve.

<p>Joe,<br>

Dont be so focused on the numbers of photography. 1/2000 or 1/4000 is fine if your in super bright sun but what happens if its dark and overcast? Are you not going to take any pictures? At speeds that fast you can freeze a top fuel dragster going 300MPH, I dont know of any horse that will go that fast. Lighting conditions dictate your camera settings as you well know, but you can manipulate alot of things to make brilliant photos. For freeze action shots perpendicular to your focal plan you need very fast shutter speeds and if lighting conditions dont allow that high speeds change your angle slightly. 45degrees requires a much slower shutter speed to freeze action. Head on is even slower. The D300s is very capable of crystal clear shots at high shutter speed but if you increase ISO to get those high shutter speed you will sacrifice quality. Dont forget Photography is Art not mathematics. There is nothing wrong with motion blur, it implies motion. A race car going 100MPH shot at a super high shutter speed looks no different than a car that is parked at a low shutter speed. A race horse at full race speed looks very little different than a horse trotting at fast shutter speeds. My main point is dont let the numbers dictate your photos let creativity dictate the numbers.</p>

<p>Your exposure concerns sounds to me like a metering issue. Are you shooting in full manual mode or a auto program mode? Are using the exposure metering set to Matrix, Center or Spot? Matrix will give you more variance in exposure depending on shade or sunlight. In 30sec the sun is moving a long distance and can be creating darker shadows or brighter highlights depending on direction.<br>

Your software concerns look like they have been answered by a few people. Just be aware that there is 2 versions of "NX2" View and Capture, View is free and Capture is about $245. For basic RAW edits and transfers View is just fine. Lightroom and Capture are comparable with the advantage going to Lightroom with more bells and whistles.<br>

The best suggestion I can give is spend sometime with your user manual and learn your camera backward and frontward and you will be glad you decided to go with Nikon.</p>

<p>My point being that doing blame the equipment for being faulty or slightly unsharp images. I misread the OP about the distance. At 30ft yes the DOF is around 12-13ft but if the focal plane is near the near limit or far limit of the DOF area the subject will not as sharp. Yes I agree Shun that the use a single focus point will tell the camera exactly were the photographer wants the focal plane to be. By taking 3 or 4 strides closer to the subject and using f8 or f11 would have resulted in a sharper image at a shorter focal length and still filled the frame with the subject. </p>

<p>Guys, your get way to complicated with this. This just boils down to basic photography. It has nothing to do with "Pro" grade, focus points or calibration. The reality is this shot was done at f5.6 @max zoom creating a very shallow depth of field. With this camera/lens combo at 85mm@ f5.6 the DOF is about 2.5ft at 16ft. At f11 that distance becomes 5ft. Most lens are at their sharpest at f8 or f11. </p>

<p>A little weekend Pond Hockey<br>

<strong> </strong><br /><img src="http://members.shaw.ca/amadour/DSC_3770pn.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="464" /><br>

<strong>Nikon D300s 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G f22 1/80s</strong></p>