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D300 User's Guide:
August 2008 Top of D300 Users Guide D300 Review More Nikon Reviews
NEW: Nikon D300 User's Guide for iPhone and iPod. 12 December 2009
Want free live phone support? In the USA, call (800) NIKON-UX, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. d1 - d11 Shooting/display How to Get Here Press MENU, go to the left and select up and down to the pencil icon. You'll then see CUSTOM SETTING MENU on the color LCD. Click down to d SHOOTING/DISPLAY and click to the right. What it Does This menu is a random jumble. These ideally belong in other menus. What I Change I change d1 and leave the rest alone. I'm sorry that Nikon put a menu called Shooting inside a menu called Custom Setting, since it has nothing to do with the larger Shooting Menu. This is something else that needs to be reorganized. Sorry. d1 Beep top This is the idiotic and annoying focus confirmation beep. The D300 is an amateur camera, so therefore this defaults to ON. For God and man's sake, please set this to OFF. Otherwise you annoy everyone and sound like a moron with your camera beeping for no good reason. d2 Viewfinder grid display top This activates hairlines in the finder. Set them ON to help keep everything straight and level, or OFF to clean up the finder. d3 Viewfinder warning display top This sets whether or not the low battery icon shows in the finder when needed. I have no idea why you'd want to turn this off. d4 CL mode shooting speed top This selects the maximum frame rate of the CL (continuous low) frame advance setting. I leave mine on 3 FPS. d5 Max continuous release top This selects the maximum number of continuous shots you can make in the CL or CH continuous release modes. It defaults at 100, and I have no reason to set it to be less. If I want fewer shots, I take my finger off the shutter release. d6 File number sequence top This ensures your file numbers keep counting up. Leave this at its default of ON. If you change it to OFF, you'll start from DSC_0001 every time you reformat. Over time you'll have hundreds of photos on your computer all called DSC_0001. It will drive you crazy and it will be too late to do anything about it. If you ever do want to reset to DSC_0001, use the Reset option. d7 Shooting info display top Auto lets the D300 light up the 3" rear LCD with your shooting data in black on light cyan in daylight, or gray on dark blue at night. Manual lets you fix it at either kind of display. d8 LCD illumination top At default, the top LCD only lights up when you spin the light button located with the power switch. I leave this setting this way. If you choose ON, the top LCD lights up even in daylight. d9 Exposure delay mode top This makes the D90 wait 4/10s of a second to release the shutter after you press it. It flips up the mirror first. Try this if you're using a long lens on a tripod with exposures of between 1/60 and 1/2 second, where mirror shake is the biggest problem. The Mirror Up mode is better for this. d10 MB-D10 battery type top Forget this if you use the usual gray rechargeable EN-EL3e battery packs in the grip. If you use AA batteries, set this and you'll get more accurate battery level readings. Leave this alone if you're using throw-away AA alkaline batteries or the EN-EL3e. Change it if you're using throw-away AA lithium, Ni-MH AA, or crappy throw-away "heavy duty" AA cells, which Nikon graciously calls ZR6 (AA Ni-Mn). d11 Battery order top If you change this and you're using the grip, this lets you run down the battery in the camera first, so you have to remove the grip to change it. Leave this setting alone, so it runs down the battery in the grip first, and only then uses the battery in the camera. This makes much more sense, since it's a lot easier to change the battery in the grip, and when you pull the grip, the battery in the camera is going to have a lot more charge. My D300 User's Guide continues below. I support my growing family through this website. This guide is free to read online, but copyrighted and formally registered. If you haven't helped yet and would like to save or make a printed copy of this article for your camera bag, please send me $5.00 for each complete or partial copy that you print or save, for personal use only. Others charge $29.99 for crappier information, and with your honesty I can continue to offer these guides online for less. If you bought your D300 by clicking through my links, then you've saved money and also helped me write this guide. Thank you and please enjoy it. It's great people like you, and those who help me otherwise, who allow me to keep adding to this site for everyone's benefit. The biggest help is to use these links to Adorama, Amazon, B&H, Ritz and J&R when you get your goodies. It saves you money and is a huge help to me. These places have the best prices and service, which is why I've used them since before this website existed. I recommend them all personally. Thanks for reading!
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