Nikon D300

Nikon D300

When Nikon released the D200 I was a very happy camper. It was a well-made body that could be used day in, day out without falling to pieces. It had all of the most commonly used commands at your finger tips as apposed to going through menu upon menu. It took fantastic shots, was very responsive and for what it offered, was a very fair price - it was the camera I had wanted since moving to digital in short.

When Nikon announced they were going to be releasing a D300, I have to admit that I was a little surprised as I thought it would be another 6 months at least before they'd get around to updating it as the D200 wasn't that old a body and was still brimming with state of the art technology that led its competitors. Working with Nikon for years and years though, I almost had to buy the new D300 to keep current. That's the thing when you're a working photographer, when Nikon announces a new product that fits into what you shoot, you almost have to buy it so there was really never any question as to if I'd buy the D300.

As above, I didn't think Nikon could realistically add all that much to the new camera as the D200 was already so very good. After using it for a while now, I have to say that I'm surprised by how much they managed to change and add to the replacement. It is better in every way, in ways I wouldn't of thought they could have improved.

The first thing that jumps out at you is the new LCD screen on the back. It is larger of course, as they just keep growing and growing, but what really sets this one apart is the resolution. Good gracious, its amazing to see. You can zoom and zoom and the image you've taken remains crisp which makes checking sharpness a reality now on the LCD screen, as before the resolution just didn't lend itself to permitting this. Its not just that though, even going through the menu's is much better as the text is razor sharp. If you'd of asked me last year if a new LCD screen could make that much difference I would of been a little indifferent as it wasn't something that bothered me before, but I am amazed at just how much better this screen is. Since we're on the LCD screen I will add that Nikon has added the feature of the moment - live view. This enables you to focus and take your shot in a similar way to a digital compact. I can't really see ever using this though, and don't quite understand what it is doing on a body aimed at this market. I'm guessing there are many other people that will find it benefitical however, so its there if you ever need it.

Viewfinder, its 100% now which is something you can see I did mention in the D200 review that could be improved. They did it and a 100% viewfinder does make a difference, you now know you are seeing everything in the viewfinder that will end up in the shot and its befitting a professional level camera body. The new auto-focus technology is science fiction good. Holy cow, this camera can track just about anything at lightning speed. The AF on the D200 was good, but this D300 AF is beyond great, beyond excellent, it is simply remarkable. We now have 51 AF zones with 15 that are cross type sensitive with lenses having an aperture larger than f/5.6 and then just to show how good they are, Nikon added scene info so that the camera can often times figure out what is a person/animal so it can track it and no get confused with background detail. Remarkable, there is no other word for it.

To go with the fancy new auto-focus, we get a faster drive with 6 frames per second out of the box. You can even get 8 frames per second if you add the new grip with the D2Xs/D3 battery or AA's, and I've tried it with AA's and it does indeed work. I have to admit here, that for work I don't need this capability but there are many others that I'm sure are thrilled with this upgrade.

There is a resolution bump of course, in all honesty the change is not something that is worth buying a camear for as its just not big enough of a difference. What is a big enough of a difference though, is that Nikon is now using CMOS sensors in the D300 and its either that or more likely a combination of CMOS (as apposed to CCD) along with Nikon technological expertise that gets us remarkably low noise. It is a noticeable difference from the D200, whereas I'd go to ISO 800 and most often be happy with the D200 and even ISO 1600 if absolutely necessary, ISO 1600 on the D300 is very, very good. Comparing the two I'd say ISO 1600 is a little better than ISO 800 was on the D200, and that is a very useful change.

We still get the fantastic built-in speedlight commander which just once again proves Nikon's speedlight technology is at least a generation or two ahead of the competition and is so very useful that I take advantage of it almost daily. They have re-arranged the menu's on the D300 and it's for the better. I can get to what I want in the menu's faster now which I like a great deal as I hate having to wade through pages upon pages of menu's on a dSLR. They have a 'My Menu' section that you can add different menu command's to, which is really the only menu tab I go into now that I've set it up, a great idea and one of those - oh, why didn't we think of this sooner kind of things.

Nikon have also given us 14bit RAW files now which allows the files to contain a lot more information than a 12bit image. I don’t want to say too much about this aspect though as I’m still figuring out if the benefits are worth it in the end result. I currently have the camera set to shoot 14bit RAW as well as large/fine JPEG’s. Do keep in mind though if you are a sports shooter, you don’t get the 6 frames per second with 14bit RAW, it drops it down significantly to about 2.5 frames per second I think so it may be something to consider if shooting at fast frame rates is important to you - like I said above though that is not something I need, to me its more about the files and sizes I care about and I’m still deciding which I prefer.

As normal, I’ll add the negatives to the last paragraph but I’m struggling to come up with something here. It really is that good of a camera, that I’m pushing myself to add anything. Lower noise is always a good thing, so if they can manage to work the magic from the D3 full frame noise performance onto a crop sensor that would be great for the next update. I would still like the metering button to be moved, but in reality that doesn’t bother me as much now as I’ve been using it for a few years and have become used to it. The biggest gripe I have about the D300 has nothing to do with Nikon in fact. Its about the lack of D300 NEF support in OS X, but that will be added in the next OS X update I’m sure so it won’t drive me crazy in a few weeks.

It is simply a remarkable camera, it is very responsive, easy to work with, has genuinely useful state of the art technology like the new auto-focus, metering and LCD, is built exceptionally well and gives fantastic images. What’s not to like, it is phenomenal what you get for the money in this camera. It may cost slightly more, but what you get in return is more than worth it. Recommended highly if you are in this price bracket and have need for the best DX camera ever made

©2008 All Rights reserved Mark Dickson Dickson Photography

Wedding & Portrait Photographer

Consett, Durham DH8

UK