[Steinar1]

Some of you may have followed my soul searching deciding what new equipment to get to replace my 20 year old film SLR and lenses with up to date gear. Many of you gave me valuable advice and I finally got all my new toys last week. Without any doubt great equipment.

Now I have to learn how to take good pictures with it. So far, I am about one third through the manual for a Nikon D300S; I cannot loose any more hairbut my head is full of scratch marks. <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> I love the way my camera feels, but nobody told me that Nikon has 50 different guys writing software for the cameras and nobody to coordinate it at the end. Maybe it's me, but I have not found the thread <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

It was so simple before. You selected a film, decided on your exposure mode and off you went!

I can do that now as well I think, but there are a thousand different ways of doing almost the same thing and so many adjustment that can be made, that you never seem to know when to stop.

I am sure I am not the only person feeling this way, so I have decided to open a topic for the process of how to get accustomed to the new systems. With your permission, I will ask for advice as I go along. Maybe the first one is; What are those things that you do every day when you pick up your camera and go out to shoot. Not the extraspecial adjustments that you may or may not do, but those things that you do every day, come hell or high water, before you are ready to push the shutter button. There may be 5 things that you always do. What are they? I am going out to buy some band aids and look forward to your good thoughts! <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />