How to Use a Nikon D3

Charge the lithium-ion battery fully before using. This allows enough power for the full range of camera functions. Insert the battery into the Nikon battery charger and allow it to charge until the indicator light on the charger stops flashing and glows steadily. Insert this freshly charged battery into your D3. A fully charged D3 will be capable of about 3,000 shots per charge.

Insert a memory card into the memory card slot located on the right hand side of the camera. The D3 takes Compact Flash memory and has two memory card slots, allowing you to take advantage of the large picture sizes without having to stop to swap cards.

Remove the cover on the lens mount and attach your lens. The D3 uses Nikon's F mount lens mount system, allowing you to use almost any Nikon or Nikkor lens ever made. Align the white dot on the lens with the white dot on the D3 body, insert the lens, and twist until the lens is attached and there is an audible click. If there is an adjustable aperture ring on the lens, set it to the smallest aperture or the D3 will give you an error message.

Turn the camera on and select your shooting mode. The power switch is located at the upper right-hand corner of the D3 body. Press and hold the "Mode" button while using the dial on the left side of the top of the camera body to choose a shooting mode. The D3 offers several semi-automatic modes, such as aperture priority, shutter priority and program mode in addition to fully manual mode.

For manual modes, select your aperture and shutter speed. You can use the in-camera metering system on the D3 by composing your image and looking through the viewfinder to view the meter. To adjust the shutter speed, use the command dial on the upper-right side of the camera body. Use the sub-command dial on the front of the camera body to choose the aperture setting.

Set the dial on the upper left side of the camera to "S" for single frame release mode. If you wish to take more than one photo at a time, select a continuous mode ("Cl" for low speed and "Ch" for high-speed continuous modes).

Look through the viewfinder to compose your image, or use the mode dial on the left side of the camera body to select "Live View" mode, which allows you to compose your image using the LCD screen. Press the shutter activation button halfway to activate the autofocus features on the D3. When the image is suitably composed and focused, take your picture.

Import the images to a computer for processing when you're finished shooting. This can be done by removing the Compact Flash cards from the D3 and using them in an external card reader, or by connecting the D3 directly to your computer using the USB cable provided by Nikon.