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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gentoo" data-source="post: 1336601" data-attributes="member: 35131">I get you. Some of those features can give you better image quality. If by D Lighting, you're referring to Active D Lighting (they are two very different things and the D80 had the former), that's unfortunate. Active D Lighting is Nikons crazy language for Adaptive Dynamic Range. Perhaps this is why many don't use it. Using this helps takes pictures closer to the way our eyes see and image. When you are looking at high contrast areas, the shadows don't appear as black holes to your eyes (at least I hope they don't), you can see a good deal of the detail in there. Many cameras have trouble pulling details out of these areas without blowing out the highlights in the well lit areas. ADL helps the camera see things closer to the way our eyes do. It boggles my mind when people tell me they don't use that. I can only reason that they are not really sure what it is which again is understandable considering the name that Nikon gave it.Notice the detail and no black areas in the shadowed underside of this hawk:<a href="http://www.pbase.com/shonn/image/104404268" target="_blank">http://www.pbase.com/shonn/image/104404268</a>To pull the detail out of this crows feathers in the shadows, I cranked up ADL to high, I usually have it at normal:<a href="http://upload.pbase.com/image/103714295/original" target="_blank">http://upload.pbase.com/image/103714295/original</a>unfortunately, I discarded the first image I took with it on normal. Didn't know I'd ever need a comparison. IMO, Active D Lighting is a critical feature and one that sets Gen 2 Nikons apart from all Gen 1 Nikons except the D60. You can also get better colors out of the D300. Live view I agree is not something I'd ever use. Mirror lock up isn't either and that's mainly for cleaning. Now I've worked on and fixed electronics before but I am not touching my sensor! LOL</blockquote>

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