Greetings fellow Nikonians. I just purchased a used D700 and usually shoot with a D90. I'm guessing there will be a learning curve. I'm anticipating that it will arrive a day or two before our football championship game on Friday and I'd really like to use it for that game. I love my D90, don't get me wrong, but when I purchased it, I was just playing. Now I am selling my photos and want to do the best I can. Any suggestions or quick tips will be greatly appreciated.

There is not that much of a learning curve assuming you don't use the scene modes since the D700 does not have them. Might take some time to learn the new button placements. The wider view of the FX sensor will take a little adjustment. Since you are not getting a megapixel upgrade, the resolution change will not highlight any problems in you holding techniques.

The D700's higher and cleaner ISOs are great. Love the dedicated af-on button.

Lots of good info here in this forum. If you need to adjust the date range of messages you can see, goto the "my user menu" (top right), "preferences" tab.

The spreadsheet pinning at the top of the forum is great for organizing your shooting banks. The example settings it shows are great starting points for experimenting.

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Joseph K
Seattle, WA, USA

D700, D200, D70S, 24-70mm f/2.8, VR 70-200mm f/2.8 II,
50mm f/1.4 D, 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR, 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 DX

Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely check that out in the coming days.

My advice:
1) Take some time to learn the camera and the menus.
2) Read this thread on Picture Control.
3) Read JRP's article on D700 Picture Control.
4) If you don't have one already, go to eBay and buy a GGSIII rear LCD screen...so much better than the plastic LCD screen the camera comes with.
5) Lenses, lesnes, lenses. To get the most out of the D700, you'll want good lenses, preferably FX. Shoot them and get to know the angle of view of the lenses especially if you don't have a 35mm film background.
6) Have fun!


Anthony

The Moderator Page and My Gallery
The important things in life are simple; the simple things are hard.

Cool! Thanks. I think I'm good with lenses, but I will go and get that rear screen LCD. The ISO is definitely a huge reason for the upgrade and I definitely will be having fun with it!

Congratulations on the new camers. I love mine. Dont forget a copy of the Nikonians Mastering the D700. You can get it on Amazon and in the back there are pages and pages going through each menu option for settings although the standard default setup is pretty good all by itself.

If your camera already has a custom setup take a few shots and see if you like it then refer to the book on how to change them or if you really dont like the resutls theres an option to reset to factory defaults.

Good luck and happy shooting your are going to absolutely love the auto focus on this great camera.

Karen

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Hello Jennifer!

First of all: LEARN VERY WELL THE CAMERA PARAMETERS (ISO, noise correction etc.) AND THE MENUS!
The rest are like for D90 ... ... or almost ...

The good pictures will come quickly!

Wishing you all the best,
Stelian

The major concepts of how to get and expose a photo will be similar. The main thing is to shoot with it and get a good feel for it. That allows you to make quick adjustments when needing to make quick decisions in the field. When you have to react, you don't want to be fumbling around because some of the buttons are slightly different.

Dan L.
http://www.danlarussophotography.com/

Hi Jennifer,

Congratulations on your new D700.
When you get the camera, open the D700 Menu Items and Settings Spreadsheet thread pinned at the top of the D700 page and go through the settings one by one.
Keep in mind the D700 has 4 shooting banks and 4 custom settings banks which allow you to quickly reconfigure the camera settings for different subjects and conditions.

Since you are buying a used camera make sure to change the Copyright info and the Image Comments before shooting your first image.

Once you have the camera set up go out and shoot.
There is no substitute for experience.
Good Luck and Enjoy your Nikons!

Best Regards,
Marty