Thats a great deal. I've been looking to upgrade my D40 for a while now, and $1k is a steal for that camera. If you don't like it, sell it for a profit!
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Nikon D300 for $1000 Am I crazy not to buy?
- Thread starter devincco
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Indeed. I wasn't trying to convince or argue about the build quality of the D1. It was seriously a step backward from the F5 which they got it from. Not to strike at Nikon though.
Much of the ones I have seen, used, damaged myself all have issues with the port covers, the battery hatch, and the LCD screen.
Right now, since I know it will be a while before the D3 comes down in price, and a while yet before I see the need to really replace my DX pro body with an FX pro body and buy at least three more pieces of glass. I can see myself just waiting for the D3hs or D4 before upgrading.
I have always been that guy that waits for the update, then buys the previous model at greatly reduced prices. For example, I got my D2xs for $1600 four months before the D3 and D300 came out.
I may just keep doing so, or actually buy a brand new, released yesterday body.
I never did much film work allthough I did have an F4 for a few years and ok the build of that is awesome.
As for waiting for a new model then updating to an old one that is what I did for a while untill the D300 came out. it just fit my needs so i got 2 perfect for me but everyone is different.
BTW Your fotos anywhere on the net id love to see some.
OK... I jumped. I bought it....
And to tell you the truth. After playing with it for a couple of days. I really do think it's too much camera for me. My wife has played with it a little and she really, really, really doesn't like it. She is definitely more of a point and shoot type person and just want things to work. Well the D300 doesn't really have that "auto" function. I'm gonna play with it more and see if I can get it setup to please her some (Cause as many married men will attest, the wife is usually "the boss"). If not, might have to sell it. I can't really justify having 2 DSLR cameras, D50 for her and D300 for me. I do have to admit, the pictures straight from the camera do look better than my D50, and the speed, OH the speed.... I have already captured a couple of moments of my son doing stuff that I think I would have probably missed with the D50 unless my timing was "just right".
And to tell you the truth. After playing with it for a couple of days. I really do think it's too much camera for me. My wife has played with it a little and she really, really, really doesn't like it. She is definitely more of a point and shoot type person and just want things to work. Well the D300 doesn't really have that "auto" function. I'm gonna play with it more and see if I can get it setup to please her some (Cause as many married men will attest, the wife is usually "the boss"). If not, might have to sell it. I can't really justify having 2 DSLR cameras, D50 for her and D300 for me. I do have to admit, the pictures straight from the camera do look better than my D50, and the speed, OH the speed.... I have already captured a couple of moments of my son doing stuff that I think I would have probably missed with the D50 unless my timing was "just right".
P mode man, it just doesn't say AUTO in big green letters.
You can even go crazy and move the wheel (P* appears) for creative control. It's all computed by the camera.
P mode is Auto, buddy. The only thing it won't do is automatically pop the flash, which you should do yourself anyways.
Now now now, dont just go and sell it, take time to learn and enjoy it. Give it time man.
Now here is a suggestion for your wife, play with the shutter more often and then occasionally play with the aperture (its easier to understand how shutter speed works then aperture). For now, just try get the exposure meter in the middle. Then when your wife get more comfortable, introduce her to the more advance stuffs. Oh yeah and P mode will be perfect for newbies cause it will automatically select the best aperture and shutter. Set the ISO to 400 and it will be fine to most occasion. (Your wife will be using the D50 right? The D300 is like you say, too much especially on the hands of a person who rarely use DSLR)
And for the D300, well give it a week (but you must spend time with it often). Soon, you will enjoy it features.
Now here is a suggestion for your wife, play with the shutter more often and then occasionally play with the aperture (its easier to understand how shutter speed works then aperture). For now, just try get the exposure meter in the middle. Then when your wife get more comfortable, introduce her to the more advance stuffs. Oh yeah and P mode will be perfect for newbies cause it will automatically select the best aperture and shutter. Set the ISO to 400 and it will be fine to most occasion. (Your wife will be using the D50 right? The D300 is like you say, too much especially on the hands of a person who rarely use DSLR)
And for the D300, well give it a week (but you must spend time with it often). Soon, you will enjoy it features.
I'm starting to get the hang of it. Still a lot of stuff in the menus that I'm learning. For example, we went to a party on Sat. night. I took the camera and snapped some pics. They came out horrible. Exposure and all that looked fine, but the red's we so saturated and blown way out that it looked like my brother-in-law had permanent sun spots. I played with it the next morning and found that it was set to Vivd and the Saturation was maxed. I adjusted it and a few test shots I took looked better. haven't
My wife won't be using the D50. I'll need to sell it to re-coupe some of the cost of the D300. I can't really justify having 2 dslr cameras. I wish I could...
I'm trying it out with her. So far, she's pretty hesitant. She also complained about the weight of the camera. So right now I'm striking out with her...
I'll give it another week or 2. If I can't get it where she'll be happy, then I might have to sell it and look into the D90. I did go to the camera store at lunch today and looked at the D90. I must say... I LIKE A LOT. And it would definitely suit my wife's needs more than the 300.
Then maybe the D90's the way to go. Hey, you might even be able to convince her that you should buy some better glass.
The D90 is almost the D300's equal in terms of processing ability, and may be superior in some ways.
But, I much prefer the size and weight of the D300. I'd be fine with a D3 too. Some people like smaller cameras and others like myself prefer the heftiness of larger ones.
But, I much prefer the size and weight of the D300. I'd be fine with a D3 too. Some people like smaller cameras and others like myself prefer the heftiness of larger ones.
Dude, as you are discovering the D300 is a very complicated tool. It's really overwhelming initially, but you'll pick it up fairly quickly. There is a lot of good information available out there on how to get excellent pics with minimal work from the D300. It isn't a camera that a newbie can pick up and start shooting perfect pics. It requires some initial fine tuning to get it set up. Once you're there the learning curve gets a little less steep.
I think you need to keep the D300. The D90 is a great camera. I had one for few weeks and it takes excellent photos. As you already figured out the D90 is more of a bridge camera between a D4x/D5x/D6x, and D300. While it does have an Auto mode and some presets it still can give you fits just like a D300. You hit on one point earlier in that you got a few shots of your son with the D300 that you wouldn't have with your D50. That right there is worth the price of admission.
Here's a couple of tips:
1. Shoot RAW. If you have to have JPGs shoot RAW + JPG. If you had taken the party photos in RAW you could have opened the files in Capture NX and changed the Picture Control from Vivid to something else with a single button click. It's that easy.
Shooting RAW allows you to make changes to the picture after exposure without degrading the picture. If you edit a JPG you're laying changes on top of the original image. Here's how RAW works. When you snap a photo of your BiL the raw unadulterated sensor data is saved to a RAW (.NEF for Nikons) file. It really isn't a picture just a file with the readings from each of the camera's 12 million pixels. Say you have the camera set to the Vivid Picture Control setting...the camera makes an annotation inside the RAW file that the Vivid Picture Control setting was selected. When you open the RAW file in CNX it sees the flag for the Vivid Picture Control and applies that setting, but it does this without changing the raw data. That way if you find the saturation is too high you can select Normal or Portrait or make changes to the individual levels all without changing the raw data. Once your finished processing the image you can save it as a JPG or TIFF for printing or whatever. If you are shooting JPG the camera manipulates the sensor data applying the Vivid Picture Control (adjusts the saturatation, contrast, sharpness, etc) then it saves the data as a compressed JPG. The JPG is a self contained file that can be manipulated, but at the cost of loss in quality. Have you ever shot a photo and realized later the white balance was way off? If you shoot RAW that isn't a problem since you can change the white balance set point in post processing.
2. You didn't mention what type of book the camera came with. I would recommend picking up a D300 Magic Lantern book. It explains all of the functions of the camera much better than the manual from Nikon. It also gives you real world tips on how to set up the different functions.
3. Go to forums at dpreview.com and nikonians.org and look around. You'll meet many other people learning new and helpful techiques about their cameras. I'm sure the questions will really be flowing in the next few days due to the arrival of Santa at many people's homes.
4. Read up on the basics of photography. If you get a good base on how the shutter, ISO, aperture, etc. tie into one another it would go a long way to demistify the M, A, S, and P modes. For the interim I would recommend staying away from full manual (M). Keep it in one of the other three modes for a safety crutch. It really is pretty simple if you stay away from manual.
My wife won't be using the D50. I'll need to sell it to re-coupe some of the cost of the D300. I can't really justify having 2 dslr cameras. I wish I could...
I'm trying it out with her. So far, she's pretty hesitant. She also complained about the weight of the camera. So right now I'm striking out with her...
I did go to the camera store at lunch today and looked at the D90. I must say... I LIKE A LOT. And it would definitely suit my wife's needs more than the 300.
I will go with something simple: The camera that you actually use is infinitely better than the camera you do not use because <insert reason>.
As much as the D300 can be a great camera, if your wife doesn't enjoy using it then she is less likely to actually be taking any photos and at that point the D300 is of no use to you.
Its sold...
My wife pretty much refused to use the D300. Since she takes half the pictures, I had to use my best judgment. So I put it up on craigslist and sold it. I just couldn't justify keeping the camera if my wife wouldn't use it. So I might start looking at a D90... At least I made a little bit of money on it. With the profit I ordered a 50mm 1.8 lens.
My wife pretty much refused to use the D300. Since she takes half the pictures, I had to use my best judgment. So I put it up on craigslist and sold it. I just couldn't justify keeping the camera if my wife wouldn't use it. So I might start looking at a D90... At least I made a little bit of money on it.
With the profit I ordered a 50mm 1.8 lens.