V1.02
Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D300
Page 431
Despite the names, you can use the
Hand-held
method on a
tripod and vice versa. Nikon selected those names because
the focus performance for the
Tripod
method is slower, and
not as suited to handheld shots in fast moving situations. That
doesn’t mean you can’t use either as you wish. The primary
difference is in how the focus is accomplished (and the
resulting button pressing that goes with that).
Live View has implications on a number of other aspects of
the camera:
• Battery
life
. Obviously, since the color LCD is on
constantly during Live View, you get a hit on battery
performance. As I noted in the sections on power earlier
in the eBook, the color LCD is a large consumer of power;
the more it is on, the higher the drain on the battery.
• Exposure
. You must cover the viewfinder if you’re using
any automatic exposure mode (Program, Aperture-priority,
or Shutter-priority). That’s because the metering sensor is
just behind the eyepiece, and can detect light coming
from behind the camera if nothing is blocking the
eyepiece (usually your eye is there!).
• Noise
. Running the sensor and associated electronics for
long periods of time generates heat, and as I pointed out
earlier, heat tends to increase electron migration. In
general, Live View use measured in a few minutes at a
time at normal temperatures isn’t likely to make any visual
change to noise in your images. My simple tests at room
temperatures showed it took very long periods of Live
View use to invoke any additional noise that I could see.
But don’t be too casual about this: give the camera some
cool-down rests if you’re using Live View for long periods
of time. The camera actually monitors its internal
temperature and will automatically shut down if it detects
too much heat while using Live View; you get a 30-
second countdown prior to this happening, displayed in
the upper left corner of the Live View display.
