I know I was a bit shocked to discover that the Ml-L3 which worked flawlessly with my Nikon D70 is useless for triggering the D300 since there is no IR (infrared) sensor on the D300.

So, for the D300, the remote control solution that I first used was the affordable Phottix N1, which I then subsequently upgraded to a Phottix Cleon N8.

As opposed to the ML-L3 which works via IR, I much prefer the RF (radio frequency) remotes from Phottix - they don’t require line of sight between the remote trigger and the camera / receiver.

There are other benefits to using RF remotes - check out my reviews for the Phottix N1 and Phottix Cleon N8.

William proclaims the Nikon 14-24mm lens to be the sharpest of any Nikon wide-angle zoom lens he’s owned.

One loses 2mm at the wide end, but the 14-24mm produces less distortion than the Nikon 12-24mm lens so he spends less time correcting perspectives and parallels.

The second outdoor photo was shot with a Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8D lens.

View more of William’s work.

How to calculate the equivalent ISO - On the D300, ISO values above 3200 are represented in the EXIF as a specific number of stops above ISO3200. The formula to use in calculating the equivalent ISO for say, 0.3 over 3200 is given by the formula 3200 * 2^0.3 = 3939.66212 (thanks to Andrew DB’s post), which is approximately ISO 4000. You can always use Google Calculator to help you with the calculation - to find out what the equivalent ISO for 1 EV above 3200 is, just enter 3200*2^1= in the Google search box, like this, and the answer is ISO 6400.

Want to know whether your old Nikon / Nikkor lens is compatible with the D300? - This post by LilKnytt has a link that points to a Nikon Lens Serial Numbers site where you can determine the year of manufacture and type of your lens by serial number, and other lens construction details and features. Basically, if your lens is an AI Nikkor lens or a lens type manufactured after the AI series, you can use it on your D300 (but check your manual first). AI Nikkor lenses (see this Nikon Camera and Lens Compatibility Chart for details) were manufactured in 1977 to mid 80’s. In conclusion, it’s reasonably safe to assume that any lens manufactured by Nikon on (as long as it’s an AI lens - designated as Type Ai lens at the Nikon Lens Serial Numbers site) or after 1977 is compatible with your D300. Of course, this summary is still subject to speculation, because if you look carefully at the Compatibility Chart, you’ll notice that pre-AI lenses CAN be mounted on the D40 / D40x, so who knows?

Nikon D300 Camera Settings Spreadsheet - Because the Nikon D300 is such a complex camera to setup, DWM at Nikoninans.org has created a spreadsheet that lists all the available settings. You can record the value that you’ve specified for each setting for future reference.

UDMA CF Cards? - The Nikon D300 is able to take advantage of the blazingly fast write speeds of UDMA CompactFlash cards such as the SanDisk Extreme IV which utilizes Mode 3 to achieve I/O speed of 40 MB/s. Pradipta shares a link to a a site explaining the specs behind UDMA cards.

What’s special about this series is that it was captured with the Nikon D300 firing at its full 8 frames-per-second (fps) continuous burst mode.

To view the series starting from the first photo, just click here, and click on the next link.

From the EXIF, the aperture seems to have been fixed at f/5, ISO at 250 and focal length at 400mm.

Lens used is the amazing Nikon 200-400mm f/4G AF-S VR Nikkor lens.

Please realize that settings essentially tailor the camera to produce output that you prefer, so my settings won’t necessarily work for you.

Picture Control

I use the Vivid Picture Control, modified as follows:

• Sharpening: Auto
• Contrast: Auto
• Brightness: Negative (-)
• Saturation: Auto

Click the photo to view a larger version.

(Image was taken with my Canon XSi / 450D)

Examples of photos using this modified Vivid settings are here, here and here.

Tamrac N-27 Boomerang Strap

TestEng says that the Tamrac N-27 Boomerang Quick Release Strap feels much more comfortable than the stock strap.

UPStrap

To me, these are the ultimate camera straps.

(Photo snapped with my Olympus SP570 camera)

They have a strict policy of only shipping the straps in the US and to certain countries.

Malaysia wasn’t on the list of supported countries, so I had to ask a friend to bring it in for me.

These straps are worth every penny as they really keep the camera on your shoulder and won’t slip no matter how you twist and turn.

Some will not like these straps as they’re almost all pure rubber, are not padded with shock-absorbing material and are not stretchable.

But I tend to hang the camera on my right shoulder rather than around my neck, hence my preference for this strap.

Read the UPStrap review at Luminous Landscape for more information.

Tamrac 5627 Pro 7 Digital Zoom Camera Bag

The Tamrac TA5627B 5627 Pro Digital Zoom 7 Holster can accommodate a Nikon D200 with a Nikon 18-200mm VR lens, or a D300 with a Nikon 16-85mm lens, and was recommended by TestEng.

Tamrac 5534 Adventure Messenger 4 DSLR Camera Bag

bgD300 says that the Tamrac 5534 can accommodate the following pieces of equipment:

1. Nikon 70-300mm VR on the body in the center position.
2. A Nikon 24-85mm lens and a Nikon SB-400 flash on the left side
3. A Nikon 105mm f/2.8G VR on the right side.

The Tamrac 5534 looks like it can carry much more equipment than my Lowepro Fastpack 250 can.

When I attach the Nikon 70-300mm VR to the D300 and put it in the Lowepro, I can pretty much forget about carrying any other normal zoom lenses, for instance my Nikon 18-200mm VR, let alone the relatively gigantic Nikon 105mm VR macro lens.

(Click to view a larger image. Photo taken with my Canon EOS XSi / 450D)

I chanced on this DPReview thread where the Canon folks wished the EOS 40D digital SLR camera could match the Nikon D300 in terms of memory card write speeds.

The comments were made in the context of Rob Galbraith’s extensive Nikon D300 Write Speed (Firmware A:1.02 B:1.00) test.

The results show that the D300 gave the fastest write times (in excess of 20 MB/sec to 30 MB/sec) with SanDisk Extreme Ducati, SanDisk Extreme IV and Lexar Professional UDMA 300x cards.

There are actually two blog posts, the original review, and an update where Lou Schmidt, VP of Marketing over at Hoodman Corporation explained why Hoodman RAW cards cost more than the equivalent SanDisk and Lexar cards.

Basically, it boiled down to the fact that you get what you pay for. For the higher price tag, you get a memory card that has absolutely zero failure rate, backed by US-built reliability (that’s right, it’s the only card that’s made in the USA, and not in Asia).

One thing to take note of is that the Hoodman RAW cards won’t match the UDMA cards on offer by Sandisk and Lexar in terms of write speed.

Amazon has the Hoodman RAW cards at 2, 4, 8 and 16 GB capacities.

Read the DPReview forum thread to view a large version of the pics.

Conrad also revealed the setup for the “Camera Shy” pic.

You’ll also want to click through each thumbnail in this Flickr set and read the description for each photo to learn the lighting setup for each image.