Thursday, February 26, 2009

Nikon D300 - DSLR Camera Review

So I've had the D300 for about 8 months now and I thought I'd share with you guys a few of the things I like about it. I seriously love the camera. the highlights...

- great great color. when i've properly exposed an image, the color is really quite fabulous, even in RAW
- the automatic white balance feature is almost always right on. i very very rarely have to tweak it and if so, it's just a taste issue and not a real issue with the WB.
- with the battery grip and second battery, it seems like the battery lasts forever. i can go days and days and days without charging the batteries. and because of this, i often have to remind myself to do so. definitely better battery life than my old d70.
- i like that it doesn't have all the preset modes (portrait, action, landscape, etc). since i purchased the camera, i have only shot in manual. however, because of this, i wouldn't recommend this camera to a casual user. i actually need to start working with the P and A modes more so i can become more comfortable with them.
- the LCD screen is huge and well illuminated. (though sometimes it's a bit brighter than the actual RAW image so i end up under exposing if i'm not careful)
- i love the histograph features that allow me to immediately see the hot spots and tweak my exposure. the d70's histograph is really limited and while it does have the highlight display, it doesn't have all of the color channels so some blowouts don't show up until post processing.
- i'm in love with nikon's off camera flash system. it is so freakin easy with the in camera control. yes, the d70 and some of the other lower end models have it as well, but i didn't use it until i started working with the d300. love it.
- not the d300 (and kim will argue with me on this) but i love nikon glass. just love it. once you get to the higher end lenses, they are just so freakin sharp. but even my little $100 50 mm is tack sharp.

like i said, i love this camera. and i think i'll probably write another review in a few more months after i've become even more familiar with all the features. and there are seriously way too many! i do wish that it was full frame. but you can't have everything and it's not like nikon doesn't offer full frame, it just costs more than my current budget. other than this, the rare annoyance i have with the d300 is almost always user error.... and no expensive camera is going fix that!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

The D300 isn't good at very long exposures in very low light (longer than 5 minutes). It generates a lot of noise via hot pixels. Nikon knows that this happens, so they implemented a Long exposure noise reduction (NR) which basically takes a second frame withoutt letting any light hit the sensor (This is called a black frame). This black frame will only contain pure black + electronic noise.

r4i

Unknown said...

Before the D300 (and, sooner rather than later, the D3) I'd been giving serious thought to switching to Canon gear. I'd seen what the Canon 5D could do with sharpness and color--results I just couldn't get out of my Nikon D200. When Nikon announced the D300 and D3, I was skeptical. The D3 looked great, but is out of my price range for now. And the D300 seemed, at best, an evolutionary improvement over the D200.

r4 dsi