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D300 in Carmel - my week 1 thoughts

Terry

New member
My D300 is now just over a week old and has been getting a workout in Carmel. Part of the workout is me coming to grips of how I want to use it versus Leica and coming up with a sensible lens strategy. The first morning I was a bit extreme shooting M8 plus CV12 and the 70-300 lens :rolleyes:.

I've found you either buy the f2.8's with lots of bulk or you are just plain SLOW (completely ignores the prime strategy). But for outdoors where I wanted the zoom range I am fine. For now and for how I shoot, I have no reason to go out an buy the 2.8s on the wide side because I have such wonderful Leica fast glass that is so much more compact. When in NYC, my home, I usually pick a "focal length of the day" and that is all I take out (28 cron and 50 lux win most of the time).

Logically, I should be using the 70-200mm f2.8 but wanted to see if I could cope with the 70-300 and get good results with less bulk.

Except when on a tripod, I've been using the Auto ISO feature which I really like. I have it set to 200 and let it bump up whenever I hit a minimum shutter speed and I have the max ISO set to 3200 for convenience. Depending on conditions, I change the minimum shutter. For instance outdoor hand held on the 70-300 I bump up the minimum shutter (before ISO bump) to 1/100th to minimize camera shake problems. Inside on a 50mm prime I dropped it way down to 1/30.

As a small note that might be useful, I have the camera set up with both a hand grip and a neck strap. While out shooting I find the handgrip very comfortable to use and much less tiring than having it around the neck. The neck strap comes into play when I am trying to shoot the M8. Nikon makes a handstrap that mounts in the tripod socket. Guy has modified it for me so that it attaches to my RRS quick release plate.

This was a printing workshop and I wanted to do at least one big print from the D300 to see how it looked. I printed this shot on an Epson 3800 at 16x24 on Harmon Gloss and it simply looks stunning. Great sharp detail in far rocks and houses.

50mm f.18 lens shot at f8 for 6 seconds ISO 200
View attachment 2940
 

TRSmith

Subscriber Member
That's a wonderful shot Terry. And an interesting peek into your camera/lens choice evolution.

My own Nikon/Leica decision tree is similar. Although, the D2Xs does not have the clean files at higher ISO that the D300 allows, so I'm unable to take advantage of the auto ISO feature. Which is a pretty darn cool feature.

Tim
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Great shot , really like the mood of this one . Although I processed this a little different to get more pop at first. Jack and Terry changed it to get more mood and it did turn out very nice indeed. I shot a lot one morning with the 28 and 85 Zeiss glass just need to process some stuff and post but I did not go through with a purchase of the D3 for now, I got a MF camera instead that just made more sense for me so I will keep shooting the D300 which I find a very nice camera indeed. This was a 100 dollar lens Terry shot this with, pretty darn good I would say.
 

Terry

New member
That is what the color looked in the pre-dawn hours. Sitting here with Jack and his comment from working with me on the processing is "if you aren't seeing this as a crystal blue you may need to re-profile your monitor". This is very slightly cooler than daylight and the white house trim, purple flowers and street light are dead on. Remember this is a long exposure
 

Joan

New member
Hi Terry,

Beautiful shot, hope I'll get to see this printed. :) Very impressed with all of your work out there in Carmel.

(Yes,, I finally decided to stop just lurking here and registered! LOL)

Talk to you soon,
Joan
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
Great to hear all these good results from D300 and you all seem to like the camera.

I am currently in Las Vegas at NAB show, heading for Mojave desert with my wife and my new D3 - with all the 2.8's on wednesday. Will send you an update on that. :cool:

One thing I can say so far about my D3 is - I really like it and coming from a D2X it is a great step ahead, but an easy one if you know how to play the Nikons. :)
 

harmsr

Workshop Member
Terry,

Glad to see that you are getting accustomed to the D300. This is a nice shot. Enjoy the 70-300, as it really is a nice travel lens. The 2.8's are better but also MUCH bigger.

Best,

Ray
 

kdemas

New member
Enjoy your D300, great camera. Crumpler makes an incredibly comfortable neck strap if you end up deciding you'd like to use one (I use it for all my racing work).

The 24-70/2.8 is absolute magic on that body, I use it a great deal.
 

jonoslack

Active member
Enjoy your D300, great camera. Crumpler makes an incredibly comfortable neck strap if you end up deciding you'd like to use one (I use it for all my racing work).

The 24-70/2.8 is absolute magic on that body, I use it a great deal.
:ROTFL:
I don't know how long ago Terry sold her D300, but it must be at least a year ago . .. or how many cameras she's had since.

These days it's a Phase MF kit + m4/3 (nothing to do with Nikon though!).
 

Terry

New member
OMG !!!! How funny or embarrassing.

D300 became a D700 which became an A900. A900 has been around about 1.5 years. Medium Format is only a week old.
 
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Steen

Senior Subscriber Member
my week 1 thoughts

Hey, you are a moderator, Terry, you have the power to rename the thread and simply make it: "my week 1 thoughts" :)
 
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