D300 Live View question

I know it's extremely early to be asking questions. But everyone else is doing it. And, just in case someone who's had a hands-on with the camera knows, here goes.

I'm pretty much a Nikon guy with lots of Nikon glass. And I've used a Fuji S2 & S3, D70, D2x, and D200. Still, I respect any good photo gear and am certainly not a 'fanboy'. I've even bought and used a 20D and a couple of nice Canon lenses. Very nice camera, though I'm using a D200 mostly right now.

Anyway, I'm pretty ga-ga over the new D300 specs. But there's one things about the 40D specs that really interested me. It's the silent shutter mode in Live View. Being able to take shots with a DSLR that are as unobtrusive as shots taken with a digicam would be of real big use to me.

So, I was wondering, does anyone know if the D300's Live View offers the same option, and, if so, how it works? Of course, it remains to be seen if the Canon's silent shooting mode works out well in real-life use, but, still, this is an area I'd really like to explore.

Frankly, I hope it works and that the D300 has the same option.

Thanks and Kind Regards,

Mike

Bump,

I'm interested too, and someone might be able to answer now!
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Marcus

Im no expert on the D300, just got mine on friday... but I have been playing with it a lot.

I am not familiar with canon's silent mode, but I can tall you this, in LV handheld mode on the D300, the mirror must come down for it to focus, al least using AF that is what it does.

So its not really that silent at all... but then again I might be missing something...or doing something wrong.

Z.
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I do not suffer insanity...I enjoy It

Thanks for the response, I did find another thread on this subject, I won't link to it as it was 8 pages of bickering.

On page 4 I think I found the answer, even in live view -tripod mode; the mirror returns after the shot is taken. If there is noway to disable this and permit constant live view then I guess there's no 'quite mode'. Which is a shame, I'd have thought this was possable with firmware, Nikon??
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Marcus

No, I don't believe it does. In fact it's worse than in non-live-view mode.

In handheld mode, it actually raises/lowers the mirror at least twice for every shot! Once to initiate live view mode, once for every time you press AF-ON to focus, and once for the shot. It cannot focus while the mirror is raised. This all is actually very obnoxious, because when you press the shutter to take the shot, you hear the sound of the mirror, which can be confused for the shutter! You have to keep the button pressed until the shutter actually opens, which can be "never" if you are in focus-priority mode. There is a high risk of missing the shot! And there is no other confirmation that the shot was made! The manual even warns about this.

In tripod mode (which would not be useful for candid shots of events, anyway), it also raises the mirror once when you enter live view (pressing the shutter the first time). Then you press the shutter a second time; it lowers the mirror, closes the shutter (to clear electric charge), then opens the mirror and shutter a 2nd time to take the picture.

So,

(1) both live view modes are louder, with > 2x the amount of mirror raising/lowering

(2) handheld mode has some serious usability problems, though it may still be better than Canon's version

mike_botelho wrote:
[snip]

mike_botelho said:

things about the 40D specs that really interested me. It's the
silent shutter mode in Live View. Being able to take shots with a
DSLR that are as unobtrusive as shots taken with a digicam would be
of real big use to me.

So, I was wondering, does anyone know if the D300's Live View offers
the same option, and, if so, how it works? Of course, it remains to
be seen if the Canon's silent shooting mode works out well in
real-life use, but, still, this is an area I'd really like to explore.

Frankly, I hope it works and that the D300 has the same option.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, there is nothing silent about the D300's two Live View modes. I was hoping for the same thing as you but was disappointed that the camera cycles the mirror going into Live View mode, and after every shot.

There might not be a firmware fix for this, either. It all depends on how tightly coupled the shutter/mirror assemblies are, and if the firmware manages that, or if it's some non-reprogrammable hardware.

larsbc

I did a fair amount of LV testing this last weekend.

It's loud enough to empty a forest of wildlife. Don't get me wrong; I love the feature for macro shots (except I had to by a remote shutter release, as Nikon put the self timer on the same dial!), but the camera makes a racket when it locks the mirror in position - louder than taking a non-LV shot.

Hi,

Which remote did you choose, and how do you like it? And do you know if the D300 has the "shutter delay feature the some of the other nikon DSLR's have?

Thanks

Tony