Nikon D300 Complete Manual page 430

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You set the shooting method to Live View via the Shooting

Method dial on the top of the camera.

You choose the Live view mode via the Live view

option on the SHOOTING menu. The camera allows both

Hand-held and Tripod settings, which I'll get to in detail

Since you can't set the Shooting Method dial to anything

else when you're using Live View, you set the Release

mode via the Live view option on the SHOOTING

menu. This restores the ability to set Single frame (S),

Continuous low-speed (CL), and Continuous high-

speed (CH), but not Self Timer or M

I mentioned two primary Live View "modes," so let's examine

them for a moment:

Hand-held. The camera uses its usual phase detection

autofocus system. This presents a problem. Since the

autofocus system requires that the mirror be down to

focus and Live View requires the mirror to be up to get

light to the sensor so that you can see a preview image,

Nikon has used a trick to resolve this difference. I call this

mode the three-press method: press the shutter release

once to raise the mirror and start the Live View, partially

press the shutter release a second time to lower the mirror

for a focus and exposure test, press it again to take your

picture (there's much more to it than that, but we'll get to

that in the in-use descriptions that come later in this

Tripod. The camera uses a contrast detection autofocus

system similar to what Coolpix and other compact

cameras use. While this doesn't require the mirror to drop

to acquire focus, using the main imaging sensor for focus

is slower than phase detection. This can be a two-button

process: press the shutter release to invoke the Live View

mode, and press it a second time to take a picture (again,

there's more to it than that, but we'll get to the details in a

Thom Hogan's Complete Guide to the Nikon D300

Troubleshooting