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Fuzzy Focus On D300 - Auto Focus - Noise - Image Quality

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kantucky said:
I see Phil's review here..he seems gloss right over any
increased AF on the camera in his review. Thom Hogan really zeroes in
on it. Then...owners who are posting on different threads makes one
wonder whether some copies are so much better than other ones even
they're so different. Some say it might be slower than their D200 and
then others say they're leaving their D2x at home in favor of the
D300 now. Strange stuff...very mixed opinions
Click to expand...
not so strange - the D300 has a lot of options for autofocus and people shoot in a lot of different situations

depending upon which combination you pick will make a difference in how well focus performs

you have your area focus - your dynamic 9,21,51 as well as 3d, single point

single or continuous

also focus lock has four options

not to mention the AF-ON button

is there reason not to expect that there will be some variation on people's experience?

and the same can be said for the number of other options for the camera - it is a very complex piece of equipment with a myriad of options for shooting and producing images

for example sharpness - there are only 10 settings for that - etc.

just my opinion ;)

David
 
kantucky said:
Thanks for the heads up on the 18-200 lens jeminijoseph and the
others too. I know that there's been a lot written about the 18 - 200
in the past but I've not paid any attention to it as it's never been
something that personally interested me. I also really never paid
much attention to the release of the D300 until a couple weeks ago
when a photographer friend of mine mentioned how people were liking
the improved ISO performance.

I was afraid I'd get totally flamed for starting this thread to begin
with but...I'm still so mystified about the mixed comments on the
camera. I see Phil's review here..he seems gloss right over any
increased AF on the camera in his review. Thom Hogan really zeroes in
on it. Then...owners who are posting on different threads makes one
wonder whether some copies are so much better than other ones even
they're so different. Some say it might be slower than their D200 and
then others say they're leaving their D2x at home in favor of the
D300 now. Strange stuff...very mixed opinions
Click to expand...
About the 18-200VR and D300:
http://bonusphotography.wordpress.com/hands-on-nikkor-18-200vr/nikkor-18-200vr/

About the AF: I use AF-C 51 point dynamic and it seems to deal with anything I throw at it. I dont shot birds but here are other samples:
(with 70-200VR):



(with the simple 55-200VR, I shot long sequences with almost all in focus):



Soccer with 70-200VR:



Last weekend I got the MD10 battery grip. The D300 with the 8 fps grip and the 70-200VR feels like a sports monster. I shot kids soccer in the morning and the Stockholm Marathon in the afternoon. The D300/8 fps grip and 70-200 delivered as expected.





However, I also tried the TC17 on the 70-200VR, trying to get close headshots of the runners, testing if the AF could keep up.







--
http://bonusphotography.wordpress.com/

 
The autofocus is much better. However not in the speed department. I don't see where it achieves focus any faster than my D200. I was rather disappointed in that metric.

Where it shines is the many different ways you can set it up for different situations. The AF system is adaptable to most any kind of situation. I am especially amazed at how well it locks onto a moving target. The D200 doesn't come close in that respect.

--
Scott A.
 
As I mentioned above the AF speed is much depends on the lens than the camera with new AF-S mechanism. So I would be surprised if we see any significance difference in speed.

I went to D2X from D70. To be frank with I didn't see any speed difference with my Sigma 500mm HSM and Nikon 300/4 AF-S. As you mentioned the difference was in how fast it locks on the subject and how often it changes focus on a moving target. Same with D300. D300 has what ever D2X had and more. I didn't feel any speed difference between these two. At least to my eyes. But when I went from 300mm f/4 AF-S to 500mm f/4 AF-S I saw the difference. This was very obvious with tele converter. I had very few luck with D2X and 300/4 with TC-14E. I almost shot lens only all the time because the AF was too slow for action shots. But once I got D300 the story was different. All these shots are with TC on it
http://www.wildbirdimages.com/eagles2008/

Even when the AF was slow, it locks on the subject easily and stays with it. The AF speed is not very important as the slowest lens is faster than most of flying birds. Tracking is...
S.A. said:
The autofocus is much better. However not in the speed department. I
don't see where it achieves focus any faster than my D200. I was
rather disappointed in that metric.

Where it shines is the many different ways you can set it up for
different situations. The AF system is adaptable to most any kind of
situation. I am especially amazed at how well it locks onto a moving
target. The D200 doesn't come close in that respect.

--
Scott A.
Click to expand...
--
Thanks
Jemini Joseph

http://www.wildbirdimages.com

 
kantucky said:
I put a D300, grip, extra battery and another CF Card into my online
shopping cart but then decided to read a few more opinions on the
D300 before I punch the submit button and 2 hours later, it's still
waiting as I'm so confused.
Click to expand...
Bad move. NEVER leave the cart waiting. grin
kantucky said:
I have never seen so many different and mixed opinions on a camera as
I have this one!
Click to expand...
You haven't looked a lot then. I see it with ever model that comes out.
kantucky said:
Especially puzzling to me is the mixed opinions on
the Auto Focus of the camera. I read Thom Hogan's (and other
professionals) review and I'm thinking this is just too good to be
true that Nikon has put a focus system on a camera on a D300 that
seems to rival the D2 series and exceed it in some regards.
Click to expand...
While I think even the professionals should be taken with a grain of salt, you do have to give thier opinions a little more weight than the average piker on an internet forum. They should know of what they speak.
kantucky said:
Then, I read a lot of the comments on here and it seems that some
feel that there is no or very little improvement whatsoever between
it and my D100 and D200. Some claim it's slower than the D200
although in certain conditions it might be a wee bit better. Why the
wildy different opinions on this?
Click to expand...
Human nature. And the fact that the people encountering problems are much more likely to post about that than the people who completely happy with thier cameras.

Personally, I think a lot of the "problems" stem from people not being confortable with a much more advanced focusing system and it's not doing what they think it should. I admit when I first started using the D300 it pointed out some problems with my technique that the D70 hid rather well. With practice, I find the D300 to be fast and accurate when I do what I'm supposed to be doing. No more sloppy shooting. Add to that the AF adjustment system and I am happier with some of my lenses than I ever was before. It's like magic!

So you should take a few grains of salt with ANY information you find in a forum. Particulary when the opinions being given are at the extremes.
kantucky said:
One individual seems heckbent ...
Click to expand...
There's one in every crowd. Sometimes several. You are doing well to ignore these people.

--
Chefziggy
http://www.pbase.com/chefziggy/lecream

 
First, I bit the bullet and purchased one. It arrived today and while I've only had a few hours to play with it. I think I'm going to like it far better than I would have ever imagined.

I do believe I was mislead about the ISO performance of the camera. So far it's shown me that it's far better than I was led to believe. I have shot several at 3200 and one even at 6400 and each I wouldn't hesitate to use for a print. The noise at lower ISO's even is more attractive

Secondly, I'm puzzled as to why the camera is overexposing so many shots. I thought about starting a thread and asking but after doing a search, I saw where someone got flamed for even asking about it. I'm very puzzled about it. Even setting the exposure down .3 I still got overexposed shots. How, without me being flamed, do you all deal with it?

I think I'm going to be just fine with the AF on the camera. Even this evening as the light was so dim it still found focus quickly.

Now..something that I've noticed and have yet to read a comment on is that the Bokeh on my 80-200 looks far nicer than it did on any camera I've had it on and more on keel with the 70-200 VR. Why that is so, I can't say but it looks much smoother, more attractive. Anyone else notice that as well?

Lastly, thanks for everyone who took the time to answer my questions and post photos for me to look at, I appreciated it very much.
 
I had the issue couple of times when I got the camera. I didn't have the issue for last 5 months at least.

I may be wrong... but I think it's something to do with the Auto WB. Are you using Auto WB? I'm a day time shooter and shoot RAW+JPG all the time. So I don't care much about the WB. So I always have it Daylight. I can say around 8000 images, only first 4-5 images had the issue and they were all Auto WB.

I don't know if actually WB has something to do with the exposure. Now I can say D300's exposure is better than any other camera I owned.

I'm sure you will be happy...
kantucky said:
First, I bit the bullet and purchased one. It arrived today and while
I've only had a few hours to play with it. I think I'm going to like
it far better than I would have ever imagined.

I do believe I was mislead about the ISO performance of the camera.
So far it's shown me that it's far better than I was led to believe.
I have shot several at 3200 and one even at 6400 and each I wouldn't
hesitate to use for a print. The noise at lower ISO's even is more
attractive

Secondly, I'm puzzled as to why the camera is overexposing so many
shots. I thought about starting a thread and asking but after doing a
search, I saw where someone got flamed for even asking about it. I'm
very puzzled about it. Even setting the exposure down .3 I still got
overexposed shots. How, without me being flamed, do you all deal with
it?

I think I'm going to be just fine with the AF on the camera. Even
this evening as the light was so dim it still found focus quickly.

Now..something that I've noticed and have yet to read a comment on is
that the Bokeh on my 80-200 looks far nicer than it did on any camera
I've had it on and more on keel with the 70-200 VR. Why that is so, I
can't say but it looks much smoother, more attractive. Anyone else
notice that as well?

Lastly, thanks for everyone who took the time to answer my questions
and post photos for me to look at, I appreciated it very much.
Click to expand...
--
Thanks
Jemini Joseph

http://www.wildbirdimages.com

 
I did use Auto White Balance. Want to see how good it is.

I'm still going through the shots I took today. I'm continuing to be impressed more and more with the high ISO performance
 
The only real time that I notice a large amount of overexposure is if I use center or spot metering. On matrix metering, I haven't seen a lot of flashing white...

That being said, in tricky lighting, I dial in -0.7 and sometimes -1.0 compensation to prevent overexposure. One nice thing about the D300 is that you can use M-mode with auto ISO on. Thus, if you dial in compensation with the AUTO ISO on, you'll shoot at a lower ISO and change the camera settings...did that for dance recital the other day and it worked well.
 
(just a repost of another thread of mine)

1- Portraits -> nice skins and Group shooting w/ Nikon 85mm f1.4 (I really think that the color cast/contrast of every lens is an important issue to get it right, but w/ minor fine-tuning, I think these settings will work w/ other GOOD lenses too):

NEUTRAL
RAW 14 bits processed in NX Adobe RGB
AutoWB to B1 (if necessary go to Raw adjustments/WB in NX to fine tune it)

Sharpening +6 (its enough for RAW-> NX -> JPEG images so plz dont use USM- unsharp mask, unless you rezise them)
Hue -1
High iso NR Low
ADL to Low (its really important; IT WILL HLP A LOT w/ your over exposure)
Auto ISO up to 3200

2- Landscapes/Snaps to "pop" (not too much) your colors,w/ Nikon 17-55mm f2.8 or even the 85mm f1.4 :

VIVID
RAW 14 bits
Adobe RGB
Sharpening +6
Saturation -1
Hue -1
AutoWB to B1
High iso NR low
ADL to Low

I also did some tests w/ JPEG and these settings worked pretty well, although I prefer the higher flexibility of RAW.
I tried also D2x modes: they are ok but not for my taste.





Regards

--
Ray Soares

See my pictures at http://www.pbase.com/raysoares
 
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