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Nikon D300 Live View: Perhaps triggered by Olympus and Panasonic in the consumer SLR space, “Live View” on DSLRs seems to be becoming a more common feature. With the advent of Nikon’s CMOS sensor, the Nikon D300 now feature Live View modes of its own. Here again though, Nikon D300 has gone the competition one better, by providing what is to our eyes the most useful and usable DSLR Live View mode yet.

What makes Nikon’s Live View mode so uniquely effective are the two options it provides for autofocus operation. The first mode is the one used by everyone else. Because the traditional AF sensors are blocked when you flip up the mirror for Live View mode, you have to drop the mirror to focus, then flip it back for Live View. Canon, Nikon, and Olympus all have this mode.

Their second mode is the real charm, one we’ve been waiting for since the Olympus E-330: Called Live View (Tripood mode), this mode uses contrast detect autofocus, driven from the imaging sensor. Instead of flipping mechanical switches, the Nikon D300 and D3 simply read data off the CMOS image sensor and evaluate how abruptly light to dark (or dark to light) transitions happen on the image plane. Contrast-detect AF isn’t nearly as fast as phase-detect (which is why the shutter response of most digicams is so much slower than most digital SLRs), but at least these new Nikons can focus without interrupting the Live View display. As an added benefit, because it’s working with data coming from the main image sensor, you can move the AF point anywhere you want within the frame area, right out to the extreme edges. We’re very interested in testing this feature. Apparently they really mean that the camera must be mounted on a tripod for it to work well, because the sensor isn’t quite fast enough to handle the camera or subject moving while the AF operation is under way.

The D300 provides up to a 10x zoom in Live View mode, providing excellent focus discrimination when focusing manually. This is pretty key, less than 10x magnification really doesn’t do the trick for getting the focus set right, but at 10x we felt we could pretty well nail the focus every time.

The new Nikons  include the ability to control the camera from a computer remotely, and that includes receiving a Live View image from the camera. You can focus, adjust settings, and fire, all from a computer. What’s more, you can do it via cable or WiFi connection, with the optional WiFi adapters. It’s a feature Olympus cameras do not yet have.
 

Relative links about Nikon D300

Viewfinder for Nikon D300

 Nikon D300 Digital Camera is a Right Choice for You

Nikon D300 sets a new standard for professionals

無敵手Nikon D300

A poor young man came to New York to make his fortune. He dreamed, in the American way, of becoming a millionaire. He tried his luck on Wall Street. He was diligent and shrewd  and, when he had to be, devious. He put together a business deal, which succeeded beyond his wildest dreams: he made twelve million dollars.

At first he thought everything was going well. “Isn’t it grand?” He said to his wife, once it was apparent that he had made twelve million dollars.

“No, it isn’t,” his wife said. “Nobody knows you.”

“But that’s impossible,” the young man said. “I’m a rich person. Rich people are shown in the newspapers in the company of movie stars and famous novelists and distinguished dress designers. Pictures of the rich can be found on the front covers of newspapers and magazines.”

“Yours won’t,” his wife said. “You’re a nobody.”

“But I have twelve million dollars,” the young man said.

“So do a lot of people,” his wife said. “They are nobodies, too.” 

“But I own a co-op apartment on Fifth Avenue  that’s worth two million dollars,” the young man said.

“Two million-dollar co-ops are a dime a dozen ,” his wife said. “So to speak.”

“I have a stretch limousine,” the young man said. “It’s twenty-one and a half feet long.”

“Nobody famous has ever ridden in it,” his wife said. “Henry Kissinger and Calvin Klein have never heard of you. You’re nobody.”

The young man was silent for a while. “Are you disappointed in me?” he finally said to his wife.

“Of course I’m disappointed in you,” she said. “When you asked me to marry you, you said you would be rich and famous. How was I to know that you’d turn out to be a nobody?”

For a moment the young man looked defeated. Then he said, “I’ll make them pay attention,” he said. “I’ll buy a professional football team. Important people will join me to watch games from the owner’s private viewing room.”

“You can’t buy a professional football team for twelve million dollars,” his wife said. “Professional football teams cost a lot of money.”

“Then I’ll buy a magazine and appoint myself chief columnist ,” the young man said. “A small but handsome picture of me will be placed against my article each week. The owners of professional football teams will invite me to watch big games from the owner’s box.”

“You might be able to buy a small, cheap magazine, but not a real magazine,” his wife said. “You can’t buy a well known magazine with such a small amount of money.”

“Is that what you call what we have?” the young man asked. “Are twelve million dollars chicken feed ?”

“It’s not big bucks,” his wife said. “What can I tell you?”

“But that’s not fair,” the young man said.  “I’m a young man of humble origins who made twelve million dollars. I succeeded even beyond my dream.”

“Some of those things you did with the electronics acquisition probably weren’t fair either,” his wife said. “ Nobody cares about unfair business dealings, just how much money you can make.”

“Then I’ll get more money,” the young man said. “I’m going to go back to Wall Street and make fifty million dollars.”

But before the young man could make fifty million dollars a man from the Securities and Exchange Commission came and arrested him for having committed insider-trading violations in the electronics acquisition.

The young man was taken away from his office in handcuffs. A picture on the front page of the afternoon paper showed him leaving his arraignment, trying to hide his face behind an $850 Italian overcoat. A long article in the morning newspaper used him as an example to show what the young, new Wall Street traders who make quick money illegally, probably because of their humble origins are like. His friends and associates avoided him.

Only his wife stuck by him. She tried to see the bright side. “For someone with only twelve million dollars,” she said to the young man, “You’re getting to be pretty well known.”  

The Second Day

    The next day-the second day of sight, I should arise with the dawn and see the thrilling miracle by which night is transformed into day. I should behold with awe the magnificent panorama of light with which the sun awakens the sleeping earth.    This day I should devote to a hasty glimpse of the world, past and present. I should want to see the pageant of man’s progress, the kaleidoscope of the ages. How can so much be compressed into one day? Through the museums, of course. Often I have visited the New York Museum of Natural History to touch with my hands many of the objects there exhibited, but I have longed to see with my eyes the condensed history of the earth and its inhabitants displayed there-animals and the races of men pictured in their native environment; gigantic carcasses of dinosaurs and mastodons which roamed the earth long before man appeared, with his tiny stature and powerful brain, to conquer the animal kingdom; realistic presentations of the processes of development in animals, in man, and in the implements which man has used to fashion and one other aspects of natural history.    I wonder how many readers of this article have viewed this panorama of the face of living things as pictured in that inspiring museum. Many, of course, have not had the opportunity, but I am sure that many who have had the opportunity have not made use of it. There, indeed, is a place to use your eyes. You who see can spend many fruitful days there, but I with my imaginary three days of sight, could only take a hasty glimpse, and pass on.    My next stop would be the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for just as the

    My hands have lingered upon the living marble of roman sculpture as well as that of later generations I have passed my hands over a plaster cast of Michelangelo’s inspiring and heroic Moses; I have sensed the power of Rodin; I have been awed by the devoted spirit of Gothic wood carving. These arts which can be touched have meaning for me, and I can only guess at the beauty remains hidden from me. I can admire the simple lines of Greek vase, but its figured decorations are lost to me.    So on this, my second day of sight, I should try to probe into the soul of man through this art. The things I knew through touch I should now wee. More splendid still, the whole magnificent world of painting would be opened to me, from the Italian Primitives, with their serene religious devotion, to the Moderns, with their feverish visions. I should look deep into the canvases of Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Rembrandt. I should want to feast my eyes upon the warm colors of Veronese, study the mysteries of E1 Greco, catch a new vision of Nature from Corot. Oh, there is so much rich meaning and beauty in the art of the ages for you who have eyes to see!    Upon my short visit to this temple of art I should not be able to review a fraction of that great world of art which is open to you. I should be able to get only a superficial impression. Artists tell me that for deep and true appreciation of art one much educated the eye. One must learn through experience to weight the merits of line, of composition, of form and color. If I had eyes, How happily would I embark upon so fascinating a study! Yet I am told that, to may of you who have eyes to see, the world of art is a dark night, unexplored and unilluminated.    It would be with extreme reluctance that I should leave the