OK - call me stupid - I just got back from Sulawesi (both Bunaken and Lembeh Straights) - I will now give kudos to everybody who has ever taken a good picture of a pygmy seahorse - anyway - even though I was using the Aquavue viewfinder with my Aquatica D300 - I was thinking that the liveview might make it easier to capture the little darlings. However - three of us D300 users - even with the users manual - couldn't figure out how to focus the camera in liveview. What's the simple idiotproof trick?
Thanks.
Andy

Not sure if the D300 is the same as the D700 ... but on the D700 (in "handheld" live-view mode), you can either hold the AF button or do a 1/2 press on the shutter-release ... the screen will go blank and the camera will focus.

Let me start off by saying I have not used liveview underwater (yet).
But on my desk it works like this...set left hand dial to Lv then press and release the shutter, an image should appear on the back screen, then frame your subject (it will probably be out of focus), then press and hold the af-on button until it focusses (the sreen goes black while you depress this button), in the office, focus is confirmed by a couple of quiet beeps, most likely impossible to hear u/w so I figure count to 3 (!) and assume it has focussed. Then release the af-on button and the image will return to the back screen, hopefully in focus. Recompose if needed, but not so much as to compromise focus then press and release shutter again (seems to need a count of 2 here) and that's it! Messy huh?
I figure it may be handy for small things that don't move (like your pesky pygmies) when you have time and stability on your side, but for anything moving (including you) a complete waste of time.
I guess for those of us who spent years dragging Nikonos cameras around and had to advance the film manually between shots and look into the lens face to read focus distance, this may seem less of a drama than it might to photographers who have used autofocus auto advance cameras from day 1. Mind you I am not defending the D300 Liveview, there has to be a better way..
Eric

Using the live view on the D300 is just plain annoying. It is very difficult to tell when you're activating the live view, when you're focusing, and when you're actually taking the picture. I stopped using live view entirely and much prefer the viewfinder. Even when you follow the instructions step-by-step the camera does not respond the way the book says it is supposed to.

The D300 is an amazing camera for the price, but live view is not one of its strongest features.