2 days with my D300, this is my findings...

1. It is not easy when you are used to non-Digital SLR (SLR) and Compact Digital Camera (DC), and make a move up to DSLR. You will have Déjà vu, at some point you know WHAT you want and you know HOW to get it but you dont know WHERE is it???

Example: In SLR, if I want a photo to be artisticly grainy, I will chose a high ISO film like 400 to 800, and I will be stuck with this film until I finished the roll, and all my pix will appear grainy and I can easily shoot in low light with not much worry throughout the film. Infact, most of the time I shoot with high ISO film I used Black & White film, which mean, again, I will be stuck with the B&W film throughout the shooting until I finished the film.

But...... here in DSLR, the links are all broken, I can have a photo 001 shoot in full color with ISO 200, then the next one in B&W with ISO 800, and with Nikon D300, even if you shoot in ISO1600, the pix WILL NOT appear grainy, even if you turn off the Noise Reduction (NR) I will not get that kinda grain I used to get. Sad...

2. A semi-Pro DSLR is heavy. The body alone for D300 is already heavier than my previous entry-level SLR Body plus a lens. The lens for my D300 (16-85mm) is alone weights 500g+, so that's quite a handful.. :-( However, I still love the VR on my Nikor Lens, VR stands for Vibration Reduction.

3. White Balance (WB) setting is a key factor for a good photo in DSLR, so as in SLR, however it is not set-able on the camera body like in an DSLR. Let me explain, when using a SLR and you know you are going to shoot in-door under a fluorescent light, you will automatically carry a 'tungstan film' so that the white light will not come out greenish, and normally films available in the shop those days are 'daylight film', whihc means, literally, for shooting in daylight...

4. As a summary, when using 'daylight film' under a fluorescent lighting, you get a greenish color on your photo, you should use a 'tungsten film' to get the correct color. In the other way, if you use 'tungsten film' to shoot daylight photo, you will get a blue-ish color across your photo. This is used by photographer to get 'effects' in the past, when effects like this is not easy to come by.

5. A Joystick and a LCD Screen. I have NOT seen these on a SLR, except my DC, but my DC is a gadget, not a Real Camera, but now I am using a Real Camera, and it comes with a LCD and a Joystick.. wait a minute, isn't that confused??


6. All these Déjà vu is depressing my creativity, it will take me sometimes to get used to it, then I can let the creativity flow again.. haha...