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Nikon
D3 & 600mm f4.
The
Nikon D3 dSLR fitted with the Nikkor 600mm f4 VR prime lens. Its
not light but the quality is superb. The aluminium case shown
here is provided with the lens and is a lovely piece of kit.
Size comparison.
The Nikon D3 fitted with the 600mm f4 VR lens is on the left
and the Nikon D300 with 300mm f2.8 VR lens fitted is on the
right. I can highly recommend both of these setups, fantastic
:-)
Lowepro Super Trekker.
The Lowepro Super Trekker AW11 is a fantastic backpack for
carrying a lot of gear. Its well built and has plenty of storage
space for near enough everything.
BushHawk 320-D Mount.
The BushHawk 320-D shoulder support with a Nikon D300 and
Nikkor 300mm f2.8 VR attached. I always use this mount when
using this camera combo, great for panning.
Benro GH-2 Gimbal Head.
The Benro GH2 Gimbal head with a Nikon D300 and Nikkor 600mm
f4 VR lens attached. Makes life so much easier when using the
larger lens.
Canon XHA1 HD Camera.
The Canon XHA1 HD camcorder fitted onto the Varizoom Media
Rig Pro. The camera is operated by a VZ-Rock lanc which is
attached to the rig.
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Some of my custom settings for both the Nikon D3 & D300
can be found below.
The settings below are what I've found work best for
aviation and sport photography. Although they work well
for me they may not be to everybody's taste so please
experiment before going out and trying them for real.
The main settings that I'll be going through will be
Autofocus, Metering, FPS and RAW recording.
Although some of the buttons on the back of the camera
are different on the D3 and D300 all the custom settings
I mention below are the same and perform exactly the
same on both bodies.
Please note.
All other features that are not mentioned below are left
to their factory default setting.
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Autofocus.
Continuous servo AF (AF-C)
This is set to the C
position on the switch found
on the front of the camera.
The camera will focus
continuously while the
shutter release button is
half pressed, if the subject
moves the focus will adjust to compensate.
Release Mode.
Defines if the camera must
have focus lock before
shutter release. There are
three options to choose in
the CSM menu, I use the
'Release + Focus' option.
This allows a nice blend of
performance and speed. The
'Focus' option doesn't work,
its slow and the results are
very disappointing.
- Press the Menu button on
the back of the camera.
- Choose the pencil icon on
the left hand side to enter
the CSM (image 1. below)
- Choose option 'a'
Autofocus.
- Now choose option 'a1'
AF-C Release Priority (image
2. below)
- Select the 'Release +
focus' option and press ok
(image 3).
Press menu to exit. |
Autofocus.
Dynamic Area AF.
Allows you to manually select one of the fifty-one focus
points, however the camera will use information from
multiple focus areas to determine focus. The other two
options are 'Single point AF' and 'Auto Area AF'. I've
used the single point AF many times, it works well but
you need to track your subject very well as its easy for
the set focus point to move off the subject and focus on
something else. The 'Auto Area AF' mode is hopeless as
your allowing the camera to choose your subject which is
never a good idea.
Set the AF-Area mode selector on the back of the camera
to the middle position. CSM a3 in the main menu allows
you to choose between 9 points, 21 points, 51 points or
51 points with 3D tracking. I use 21 points and have
found it to perform much better than both the 9 and 51
point.
- Press the Menu button on
the back of the camera.
- Choose the pencil icon on
the left hand side to enter
the CSM (image 1. below)
- Now choose option 'a3'
Dynamic AF area (image
2. below)
- Select the '21 points' option and press ok
(image 3).
Press Menu to exit. |
Autofocus.
Focus Tracking With Lock-On.
This option controls how autofocus adjusts to sudden
large changes in the distance to the subject.
There are six options in the main menu 4 options on the
D300), 'AF Long', 'AF Normal' (default), 'AF Short' and
'Off'. I use the Off position so the camera immediately
adjusts focus when the distance to the subject changes.
- Press the Menu button on
the back of the camera.
- Choose the pencil icon on
the left hand side to enter
the CSM
- Now choose option 'a4'
Focus tracking with lock-on.
- Select the Off option at
the bottom of the screen. Press Menu to exit.
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Autofocus.
AF Activation.
This option controls whether both the shutter release
button and the AF-ON button can be used to initiate
autofocus, or whether autofocus is only initiated when
the AF-ON button is pressed. I have both my D3 and D300
set to 'AF-ON only'. Don't ask me why but I've noticed
that the autofocus performs better using the AF-ON
button than it does when using the shutter release. You
must be very careful if you choose this option as its
very easy to press the shutter release expecting the
camera to focus only to find nothing happens. Lens VR
does not get activated when using the AF-ON button, so
if you require VR its probably best not to use this
option as it gets way too complicated. To activate
'AF-ON only'......
- Press the Menu button on
the back of the camera.
- Choose the pencil icon on
the left hand side to enter
the CSM (image 1. below)
- Now choose option 'a5' AF
activation (image 2. below)
- Select the 'AF-ON only' option and press ok (image 3).
Press Menu to exit. |
NEF (RAW) recording.
No matter what I photograph I always shoot in RAW. The
D3 and D300 offer a few options for shooting NEF's. I
shoot as 12bit uncompressed RAW files. File sizes are
around 18Mb each compared to 12Mb's of a compressed RAW.
14bit images are roughly 1.3 times larger again to that
of 12bit so its an option I never use. To set your
camera to shoot uncompressed 12bit RAW files......
- Press the Menu button on
the back of the camera.
- Choose the green camera icon on
the left hand side and
scroll down to 'NEF (RAW) recording' (image 1)
- Select the 'OFF' option and press ok (image 2).
- Select the 'Uncompressed' option and press ok (image 3
below). Press menu to exit. |
Release Mode dial (Image 1 below).
The D3 and D300 have quite a few release modes (found on
the main dial) including Single Frame (S), Continuous
Low (CL), Continuous High (CH), Live View (Lv), Self
Timer and Mirror Up (Mup). The D3 supports a maximum
frame rate off 11fps whereas the D300 supports up to
6fps. I have both my D3 and D300 set to the CL position
which is set to 5fps as I feel the CH position frame
rate is simply too high.
The CL frame rate can be altered in the CSM (Custom
Settings Menu) by following these steps....
- Press the Menu button on the back of the camera.
- Choose the pencil icon on
the left hand side to enter
the CSM
- Select option 'd' Shooting/Display and press OK.
- Select option 'd2' Shooting Speed.
- Choose the Continuous low-speed option and press ok.
- Choose the desired frame rate (from 1 to 9) and press
ok. Press Menu to exit. |
1.
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2.
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Metering Mode (Image 2 above).
The D3 and D300 have three metering options. These
include '3D colour matrix 11', 'Centre-weighted' and
'Spot'. I use the '3D colour matrix 11' option which is
the middle setting on the metering switch on the cameras
body. I have left all metering options in the Main Menu
to their default setting and find it works well in all
lighting conditions. I do however have -0.3ev exposure
compensation dialled in for most things which can be set
using the +/- exposure compensation button on top of the
camera. |
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Exposure Mode.
Exposure mode determines how the camera sets shutter
speed and aperture when adjusting exposure. Four modes
are available : programmed auto (P), shutter priority
(S), aperture priority (A) and manual (M) I always use
shutter priority (S), I try to use a shutter speed of
1/1000th for Jets and 1/200th for prop aircraft. I use
ISO200 for 95% of my shots and never use the 'Low'
settings (L 0.3 etc) as these hamper image quality. |
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Lens settings.
When using either the Nikkor 300mm f2.8 VR or 600mm f4
VR I always have the VR function set to the Off
position. I've never been a fan of VR, I find it effects
AF performance and whenever I have used it my keep rate
has never improved (not that I've noticed), so it stays
off. All other features are left to their default
settings. |
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