[mel]

I'm at my sister's right now and my Brother in law is an university professor and scientist in Entomology. He needed a camera for shooting bugs so he went to his local Inkly's and told them so. He came away with a D300, a couple lenses, extention tubes and a flash. They showed him to use it and he promptly forgot and then lost the manual. So now I need to figure out how to shoot this to reteach him. I suppose I could download a manual, and I may still, but are there any shooters of the D300 and Pentax both that can give me a quick and dirty disambiguation primer of what some of this stuff means. I have the quick guide but that's not too helpful in terms of figuring out modes and stuff. Or are there modes.

Any quick pointers would be awesome.

But I probably need to download the manual huh.

[Samsungian]

He should return to the salesman that assembled this used kit for him to explain it all again.

I'll guess Nikon USA site should have a D300 manual available for download.
I've never lost a camera instructions manual so its just a guess:

http://www.nikonusa.com/Service-And-Support/Download-Center.page


Nikon, like Pentax never made fully automatic extension tubes.

Why the salesman didn't sell him a 200mm Nikon macro?
200mm Macro is exactly the one lens the Professor should have bought:

Nikon | Telephoto AF Micro Nikkor 200mm f/4.0D ED-IF | 1989

And bonus for him for choosing Nikon over Pentax camera,
Nikon 200mm macro is right at half the cost a discontinued & used Pentax FA 200mm Macro would have run him


Had he chosen Canon camera instead the 200mm macro costs $300 less than Nikon:

Canon | Telephoto EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM Autofocus | 2539A007

& had he picked Canon, they alone offer this additional lens he would have surely enjoyed using/owning:

Canon | Macro Photo MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Manual Focus | 2540A002

[mel]

He didn't choose. He knows absolutely nothing about photography and told the salesguy he needs to shoot bugs. The salesguy put together this kit. And it's not used either, it's all new, paid for by the university.

However, since this original post, I have gotten basic functionality figured out.

The extension tubes are Kenko and they say automatic, for Nikon AF. I haven't gotten tha far yet to see how they work and metering and stuff.

[Samsungian]

Bummer, I worried about that

Reminds me of me.

I paid for a week long class on macro photography and right before it started I wandered into a camera shop.

Salesguy talked me into $1500 worth of gear.
During class I found I had been sold a bunch of foolish~ness.
Luckily for me the shop had a cash back return policy and I returned it all.
The good ol' days of money back & no store credits only for my shopping mistake.

Salesguy simply sold me whatever he had instock that met my price target, not the best of what actually I needed.
Its been 20+ years since my shopping mishap and I have yet to wander into that shop again.

The best macro solution is not extension tubes or close up lenses, its "macro" lens (es).

[Blue]

I find it odd that an entomologist that decides to get into a macro rig doesn't know more than the salesman regarding what's needed to shoot macro. Tell him to look up the guy with the Pentax at the ESA National meeting in San Diego in December and get schooled.

[mel]

Well he needed something quick for a tsetse fly study in Africa (two trips ago) and isn't real good with technical stuff anyway (but something of a scientific genius in his own field). We can't all be photographers (good thing!). I got the basics figured out then the manual turned up the day before I left. I made sure when I left he had a good grasp of shutter/f-stop/iso and the basic controls of the camera, then took him shooting and made him shoot different ways for different effects.

I have to say though I was expecting to be blown away by the AF and really, I wasn't. I did suggest that perhaps he ought to put in the paperwork next time they want him to go there, the need for a photographer to do that part, and suggested someone perfect for the job .

[Blue]

Some of the biggest camera people that I know are entomologists and biologists. Sounds more like peer pressure than trying to take pictures of tsetse fly which is one insect you don't want feeding on you! I can't imagine what else he would want to take pics of . . .

[mel]

He said they blast them with a bit of CO2 first and that knocks them out pretty well.

[jct us101]

Wait, so you want to know what the basics of the D300 are compared to other Nikon cameras basically? When using a macro lens theres not much different that you do on it, as far as I know, but I've only used the D50. I guess I'm not understanding the point of this thread, I've read it a few times though and it's not helping I suppose. Sorry, I'm tired!

[mel]

It's over now. I had in my hands a Nikon D300 with no manual. I had never used, nor even handled a Nikon DSLR and the controls made no sense to me. I was trying to figure out the basics like adjusting the shutter, f-stop and such (there's a separate ISO button so I figured that one out). However, I eventually got it, was able to teach Mr. Professer how to shoot it, then the manual turned up.

The Pentax mode dial thingy is rather obvious as to what mode you are shooting in. The Nikon is not so obvious and you have to basically decipher their codes. I was having trouble with the deciphering not having a reference to work from. Experimentation cured that. All done now. Thanks.