Share your D300 tips and tricks

[Mark Allen]

As I upgraded from a D80 I had never seen the Shooting Bank before. Folk who have upgraded from a D200 and D2Xs ;-) will be aware of it. Basically it allows you to have four shooting profiles. This is now I set up mine.
Shooting Bank A, I called it RAW 14, set it to 14 bit raw, ISO Auto off, Adobe RGB, Picture Control Standard,
Shooting Bank B, I called it RAW 12, same as above, only set to 12 bit raw.
Shooting Bank C, I called it JPG, set it jpg fine, Auto ISO on, SRGB, etc.

I think this is a most useful feature.

[Mark Allen]

Here's another one, again my D80 didn't have a 'My Menu', I set it up to include 'Shooting Bank', Battery Info, ISO Sensitivity.

[Mark Allen]

After using my D300 for a few weeks I have found that if I don't need high speed bursts, I can leave Active D-Lighting ON at Normal. As I shoot in RAW (14bit) and use Capture NX, I can always remove Active D-Lighting in NX if I wish. You cannot of course add it after the event, only change it or remove it.

[Mark Allen]

Also, unless you have a really good reason why you shouldn't - I suggest shooting in RAW at 14 bit. and using Capture NX for adjustments. (If you haven't had a go with Capture NX you should give it a go as I find it to be the best raw convertor/ adjuster available for Nikon.

[Dave Taylor]

Hello Mark, Since you shouldn't be the only one wanting to contribute to the Tips and tricks Discussion, so I thought I would put in my two cents, (much more now due to inflation). I don't even have my D300 yet, but I do have a D200 and I thought my camera was defective. At first the shots seemed extremely soft after shooting with the 18-200 VR, so I sent it back for refund. Then I broke out my old and extremely sharp 55 micro-nikkor and the shoots still were soft. So after many days of trying and testing, I turned off the noise reduction feature in the shooting menu, and behold! Shot as they were meant to be seen.

I have seen D300 owners complain of this also, so I thought maybe this would be a good TIP or even a TRICK.

Thanks for your ear......Dave

[SallyT]

I'm using NX capture but I find it frustratingly slow and no where near as good as the Adobe Raw Converter for Photoshop. Unfortunately I only have PhotoshopCS2 and the Adobe Raw Converter update that includes the D300 is only compatible with PScs3. Once I up grade PS I'll probably ditch NX Capture.

[Mark Allen]

You should have got a free serail for NX when you bought your d300. NX is miles, miles better than ACR in PS. Yes, it needs a decent new computer, but the features are superb. You would need a PhD in Photosdhop layers and masking to do just the painting on/off effects that NX offers.

please have another go with it, I find I only use CS3 for minor edits and do all my adjustments in NX. - although I have also found I don't need to do much with my d300 nef's - I did with my D80 nef's

[SallyT]

It's just too slow. I have all the system requirement the program need but it still takes ages. In ACR I can select a group of thumbnails and apply changes to them as a batch and see the preview of what will happen instantly. I can then work on the other thumbnails in the batch and go through them all either individually or in batches and I don't have to save anything until I'm finished with the whole batch. Then I can save them as tiffs or jpegs all together. This is the only bit in the process that takes any time. As for using layers in PS. I'm very adept with that so find the changes I make in PS much more controllable and far better quality. NX noise reduction or D lighting destroys so much image quality even on really low levels I simply won't touch it any more. The only feature in NX that is quite good is the colour control points. But even these are not as good as they make out in the manual.