New Camera
 

My old Nikon D70S finally gave up the ghost. No surprise, considering all that it had been through; hot deserts, cold mountains, ocean damp and salt, sand from dust storms, and the nasty heat and humidity of Miami and Tokyo. Age and wear did what frequent drops and other abuse couldn't.

So, yesterday I traveled to Bic Camera at Yurakucho and bought a new Nikon D300. I also picked up an MB-D10 battery grip, and a new bag. I plan on taking a lot of pictures this summer, and spending big bucks for a camera is one of those things that helps motivate me to get out enjoy the country.

I'm still figuring out all of the features (the owners manual is 444 pages long...), but I took a couple of pics while walking around outside just to see how the camera handled...

Yes, it is cherry blossom season,



I heard this crow flying by, so I snapped a quick shot of it,

Very good prerformance!

I hope that contrast is from post editing as if this an untouched set of pictures I would say it is very contrast poor and does not have to much depth in the black range although the light range is very good.
Is the CMOS 1:1 ?
And what lenses are you using?

I am running a high end Kodak with a range of Nikkor AF Lenses but my cam is more of a studio beast and I have to dial the ISO down to 80 most times to reduce noise.

Good luck with your cam and I hope you can resolve the contrast by reading the manual.

Marc.

My point and shoot Casio just gave out so I am in the market for another one. Any recommendations? I would like to get something that is good underwater to a few meters also.

Great photos! Congrats on the new machine!

The images were blown up significantly (the crow was only a spot in the original) and then cropped before posting them, but not altered otherwise. Conditions yesterday were not good, the air was very hazy, which seemed to dim the color of everything I looked at.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice (and warmer) day, I'll go out and try to get some better shots.

Nice! I'm also planning to get a Nikon, but I have no money for the D300 so the D90 will do it for me. I currently have a Nikon FM10, which is just an SLR. I use various films from ISO 100 to ISO 400 films.

The crow piccy is a hard one to do with the sky as a back light and the crow's natural 0 contrast outfit. Mabey was not a good example to post for dynamic range, but a good action shot none the less.

I take it you are using the full MP the camera has. What program setting were you on as it looks like P with an Auto white balance. I find the DSLR's need to be shoved into the correct WB for the situation.

What lenses do you use?

You are correct, the shots were made with the out-of-the-box settings at full size. I took a few more today after making a couple of adjustments.

For these shots I used a 18~70 Nikkor DX zoom. Most of my lenses are the older AIS manual focus types. My main reason for getting the D300 was because it has a mechanical interface for the old auto-indexing lenses, as well as carrying additional software to allow correct metering when using them.

I took these photos at the nearby park this morning on my way to work.