NOT so disappointed with the D30

Well.... a couple of weeks on and a few hundred shots later... progress.
I have followed lots of the advice you have all given me - thanks so much - and found the following has worked very well:

Lens - the cheap 50mm f1.4 lens is outstanding. Also the Tokina 70-210 gives very good results as does the 70-300 Canon.

Autofocus - if you have to use autofocus set the camera to the centre spot only. If using manual I discovered that the focus indicator comes on even when manually focussing and the image in the centre spot is in focus!

Metering - setting to centre weighted gives much better results than average though it still under-exposes by 1 to 1 1/2 stops.

JPEG vs. Raw - being honest at this stage I see little difference for printed images to 8x10 and for web pages although Raw does have the edge - just!

Software - I hate the Canon supplied software! Breezebrowser is much better and more practical.

All in all and thanks to all your help - I have decided to persevere and keep the camera as the results are definitely worthwhile.

Thanks.

Apologies all...that should be the Canon 50mm f1.8 lens not the f1.4.

Still happy with it!

I just got my replacement D30...my first one had some hot pixels on the LCD (I know that is being picky but heck I paid $2600 for this baby). The new one is clear of hot pixels on the LCD though it isn't as sharp as the old one in the menu selection ...a bit blurry. I think they just use low quality LCDs to tell you the truth or have some bad quality control.

At any rate it's time to start firing off tons of shots. I love the 50mm 1.8

I should have my 100mm MACRO next week.

The only other lens I have is the 28-105mm 3.5 which isn't the best.

I have my eyes open for a 70-200L 2.8

Post some shots when you get some. I am really happy with this camera even though it does has some really annoying problems.