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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. How to Get Here Press MENU, scrolling to the left and selecting the bottom option which has an icon resembling another menu with a check. You'll see MY MENU on the color LCD. What it Does My Menu lets you put all the menu items you actually use in one place. What I Do with It This feature helps immensely, since Nikon hides so many important menu items in weird locations. I have my My Menu menu programmed to: top ISO sensitivity auto control I turn ISO AUTO on and off here as I go between auto and manual exposure. I'll be able to remove this whenever Nikon patches the firmware defect that leaves AUTO ISO active in manual exposure mode. ISO sensitivity settings In this menu I set the lowest shutter speed depending on what I'm shooting. I set 1/100 if shooting people, 1/250 if shooting a long tele, and 1/8 if shooting wide landscapes. Set Picture Control My top item, to which I can get by assigning the FUNC button, lets me select among the various picture controls. I use my VIVID setting with +3 saturation for photos of things, and NEUTRAL with +1 saturation for photos of people. Active folder I use this to create a new folder for each subject I shoot. Image review Sometimes I want to see each shot when shooting slowly, some times when shooting bursts I don't want the monitor popping in by itself. Here is where I set this. Ideally Nikon needs a firmware improvement whereby we can switch between these by holding the Play button for several seconds, but Nikon hasn't gotten there yet. Non-CPU lens data Here is where I set and select among my various manual focus lenses. You can skip this if you only shoot AF lenses, or just one manual lens. The D300 recalls the last setting whenever you pop on a manual lens, so if you only have one, set it and the D300 recognizes it by magic. If you use two or more (or use a manual-focus zoom), this lets you select which lens or focal length. Battery info If you're the sort of person like me who watches your digital clocks to be sure they count up properly, this menu lets you read your battery power to the nearest single percent. It also tells you how many shots you've already made on this charge, which can help you predict how many shots are left. You'll need Algebra to calculate remaining shots; the D300 doesn't do it for you. To calculate, remaining shots = (pic meter) / (1-(bat. meter/100)) Charging life is the health of your battery. I've made many tens of thousands of shots on my many Nikons, and have never seen it read anything other than 0 (new). See How to Keep Your Batteries Healthy. 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!
Ken Back to Top of D300 User's Guide or Top of Nikon D300 Review KNOBS and BUTTONS MENUS MY MENU MENU You're done! Return to Top of D300 Guide. |
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