The Nikon D300 can do Continuous High Speed at 6fps, and with the MB-D10 Battery Grip, the Nikon D300 can achieve top speed of 8fps.  Most D300/D700 user knows this.

But do you know that your D300/D700 can achieve 8fps with just some simple setting and WITHOUT using the MB-D10 too? Here is how, all you need is to do the settings and steps as below
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Present economy is really bad, people do anything even all the hassle and trouble just to cheat you for an old worthless handphone as the story is posted in http://www.photomalaysia.com/forums/showthread.php?p=941920 and http://davidgkt88.blogspot.com/2009/05/blog-post.html

The lesson learnt and applied to buy or sell your used camera equipments.  DSLR cameras and lenses are far more valuable than any items you can think of.  A good condition of used camera equpment can easily fetch 70-90% of the current market value, and it has great demand.  Unlike other gadgets such as compact camera, notebook, handphone, PDA, etc… usually it has low demand and unlikely you can fetch over 50% of the current market value.  So be extra, extra, extra careful with your camera equipment.

Lesson learnt from the post above and can be applied for Buy/Sell in camera equipment:

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The Eneloop vs Imedion experiment I wrote earlier received a few good feedbacks.  Numbers of sites when talked about Eneloop and Imedion eventually some pointed to my experiment like in Lowyat.net.

It is rather surprisingly difficult to locate retail shops in Malaysia that stock either Eneloop or Imedion.  There is one online battery specialist shop called JJ Sales & Service Shop located in Penang that specially carrying these specialised battery to fulfil photographer’s lust.  They found my experiment and linked to me.

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Imagine what could have happened if one day you are enjoying yourself on a photography trip, you slipped and dropped your camera on the ground, and happened that you did not put on a filter on the lens.
 
So you decided to get a protective filter for your precious lens. You have absolutely no idea how to choose and asked the shop owner for recommendation. You are given a choice of filter range from RM20 all the way to RM200.  You asked the shop owner what are the differences, and he give you the ultimate answer to all questions you can possibly throw to him “Better Quality lor”.

But what exactly is the quality difference?  Are all filters made with equal quality?  Is the filter worth the investment? Does it affect the photo taken? I will show you a simple experiment with a few tricks and tips to choose the right protective filter for your lens.

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The myth of Battle of the LSD NiMH Battery. Eneloop vs Imedion is busted. So did my faithful Nikon Speedlight SB-800 due to the stress test in my experiment.  The damage is found after the second round of test on Imedion.   As when does it happened, I am seriously have no idea, but I suspect it happens on the second round due to the large amount of heat trapped inside the diffuser dome. 

Look at how beautiful the bubble formed in the plastic plate.

The good news is, everything else is ok, including the speedlight and unit body.  The plastic plate to be replaced with a very minimum cost I am sure.

Lesson learnt, you should remove the diffuser dome before conduct the experiment.

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What is the most critical thing you should check in your camera gear bag before you go into event photography?  Failure to do so may result unthinkable consequences.

Picture this; you are so excited when you reach Auto City for the grand event of the year - GT Roadshow with GT Girls lining up waiting to be photographed.  You approached one of the charming Sweet Young Things in a tight fit bikini with an umbrella standing next to a not-so-important GT race car, and she responses to you with a killer pose and a sexy smile.  You aim at her with your new and shiny Nikon D90 but you just noticed that your one and only battery is completely flat out.

 NiMH Battery is well known for bad self-discharge, in another word, it leaks very fast. It will lose 5-10% power on the first day, and 0.5-1% per day. In another word, the battery will dried up completely in about 3 to 6 months time even it is unused, which makes it a poor choice for ad-hoc devices such as camera, torch light, flash, remote controls, wireless devices, electronic gadgets or toys, etc. Ironically due to the high capacity, it is also ideal choice for heavy power consumption device such as digital camera, flash gun, RC toys, which are unlikely used on daily basis.

A new breed of NiMH Battery is introduced in recent years which claim to be Low Self-Discharge (LSD). It will remain 90% of the capacity after stored for 6 months, and remains 85% of the capacity after stored for 12 months. It is the ideal choice for high power consumption devices that you may not use it on a regular basis.

Two companies made good reputable LSD NiMH Battery are Imedion by PowerEx / Maha and Eneloop by Sanyo. Both of the respective company claims that their LSD NiMH battery capacity will remain 90% after stored for 6 months, and remains 85% of the capacity after stored for 12 months.

If you google the Internet and Forums, you will find mixed result, some people claims Eneloop performs better, and some claims otherwise. There isn’t many convincing information therefore I decided to do an experiment on both of these batteries Mythbusters style! Since both are advertised has the same LSD rate, no problem with that, and I am not interested to prove that either.  Why would you buy a battery to keep it 12 months on shelves anyway?  This is plain stupid way of advertising with some useless facts.  I am sure you are more interested to know the performance within short period of shelf life 1-3 months rather than 6-12 months.   

This experiment is to find out which one performs better and worth the investment.  This review does cost hard earn money, time, lots of hours to conduct the experiment, and write this review, I hope this will benefit you as the consumers especially if you are a photographer.

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Some important lesson you should know about photography that got nothing to do with taking pictures is evaluating used lenses (second-hand, pre-owned, worn or whatever fancy names) that you are buying from friends, online portals (eBay, lelong.com.my, Free Trade Zone, etc), camera shops, or even antique shops. Buying a great lens is not a big deal but buying with a bargained price is. One good thing about getting used lenses is you get the same thing but paid much lesser. However, there are risk involve, but with proper precaution you should be able to minimize the it.

Used lens has one great irresistible advantage over a new unit. New unit - You paid for a new unit. But you sell as a used unit. Used unit - You paid for a used unit, but you still sell as a used unit. You won’t lose a lot compared to buy new one. It is very different from buying a used car. It is far greater deal than buying a used car. You will see better and clearer example at the end of this post.

Besides checking the no-brainer fungus, scratches, cosmetic defects, there are a little bit more than that and also more important things to look for. Here is some guide and tips what you should do and what you should look for:

1. Meet up with the seller, always. One of the many sources for used lenses are online auction site, and photography site. Test it yourself to ensure the lens condition. Buy the lens without meeting up is rather risky especially on the premium quality lenses. I would not buy a lens without first checking the condition out. Photos via email is unlikely accurate.

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Auto Show is always interesting to photograph, they always combine the two elements the guys like most - Cars and Chicks. If you have an SLR camera, you are half way there; if you are not, get one soon. Here are some tips for you that hopefully you can benefit from my experience and sharing, this also applies to many open events especially outdoors. Here are the ten crucial tips:

1. Fully charge your battery
Your photography gears play an important role. As a matter of fact, everything relies on your gears. Make sure whatever electronic gadgets you are bringing with are fully charged, including the Body, Flashgun, and Notebook (if you are bringing one). Ensure all spare battery are fully charged and in working condition. There is nothing worse than all well equipped gears are standing by but without battery. Situation is like a Ferrari without gas, and everything stood still.

I always have extra sets of battery for me gears: Three sets of batteries for my SLR Body, three sets of spare AA batteries (total of 12 pcs) for my Flashgun, and my notebooks normally has three sets of batteries (one Primary, one Extended Primary, and one Modular). Yes, I have three sets of Body batteries as it is the most critical battery. Sometimes I do run out of battery even with three sets especially if you are covering full day event, three batteries can be easily dried up if you have big lenses which requires more power to operate.  I don’t like to tag along bricks and cables.
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“I’ve been asked to represent a fashion website as their photographer at a fashion show next month in Australia and while I’ve done a lot of portrait style photography I’ve never covered an event like this. Do you or your readers have any advice for this aspiring fashion photographer?” - Alex

What advice would you give Alex? Alex tells me that she shoots with a single camera body - a Canon EOS 5D and has three lenses that she can choose from - a 24-105mm f/4 L, a 70-200mm f/2.8L IS and a Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L.

Which lens/lenses should she take?
How would you recommend she use them?
What shots should be go after?
What other fashion photography advice or tips would you give?

I came to this question in Digital Photography School, I replied the question and I decided to keep an extended version over here.

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