General Settings help for d300

Taking the camera for it's second outting this saturday to cozumel. Do any of you start with certain settings for WA and for Macro. Would appreciate any and all info. Scott

1) Macro - Assume manual strobe control only

ISO200

Aperture f/22

Shutter Speed 1/125

Strobes mid-power range

Adjust Apeture to get proper exposure. If you have to open aperture past f/16, increase strobe power. If you have to close down past f/25, ease back strobe power. Optionally, rather than physically changing strobe power settings you can shove them closer or further away.

2) Macro - Assume TTL Strobe control

Same as above, but strobes on TTL. Fire away. If you continually get underexposure, it means your strobes aren't powerful enough or close enough. Shove them closer to the subject or open aperture to f/16 - f/19.

3) Wide angle

ISO 200

Aperture f/8

Shutter Speed 1/125

Strobes mid- to mid-high power range on manual.

Adjust aperture for ambient adjustment. Adjust strobe power for foreground exposure adjustment.

That's all there is to it.

wow, thanks, I would not have known to have an f22??? wow.. thanks

I found that on Macro when shooting the 105mm, setting "a2: AF-S priority selection" to "Release" (rather than Focus) worked a lot better for me... Something to try....

Good luck, and have a great trip!

Mike

thanks guys, we will and you'll see the results when we get back. Hoping the weather gods are good to us.

I debate between F22 and F16. The D300 is diffraction limited. The F16 setting will give you a sharper image than the F22. The F22 gives you greater depth of field. Depending upon your shot, the greater depth of field may make the overall image sharper.

I set the Af on C and use the back button to focus. This way the camera shoots when I push the shutter button and not when it thinks the shot is in focus.

ISO 200. I use center weighted metering and shoot Macro in manual. I have used iTTL for macro. You have to adjust the EF to get your shot. I think manual is usually easier.

Found this page Googling D300 Settings. Thought it might be useful for us new D300 users.

http://www.nikonians.org/forums/dcboard.ph...13811&page=

Looks like they now require you to log in to view.

Its a comprehensive spreadsheet will all menu options that makes it easy to record your settings.

I tend to set the shutter release on Focus since the camera can usually see better than I can. Set on Release it will take the pic with or without actually being in focus.

AF-C is much faster than on my old D70, so I generally use that setting. This is helpful for fish shots.

As a general exposure rule, shutter speed controls ambient (background) lighting and aperture controls what the flash is lighting. If the light is too much increase the setting number (eg: F8 -> F11 or 1/80 -> 1/125) of the relevant control, if it is too dark decrease the number (eg: F16 -> F11 or 1/160 -> 1/125), keeping in mind that aperture also control depth of field (how much of your picture will be in focus, higher the number the more of the picture that will be in focus) and the shutter speed reduce movement (higher the shutter speed less motion blur).

The spreadsheet mentioned above, is a worth a look at.

thanks to both of you and I downloaded the spread sheet also. Only practice will show but thanks for the heads up. I will try several and see what works, hopefully. Leaving on Saturday.