nikon d300 review

we're major procrastinators when it comes to purchasing big-dollar toys camera equipment. but when the nikon d-300 was announced in november of 2007, we were expected a something good was on the horizon. after plunking down the dough a few weeks back and shooting a few weddings with the nikon d-300 digital slr, we can safely say it kicks the former nikon d-200 and $5,000 D2Xs square in the pants.

is it worthy of being named the 2007 camera of the year?

yes, and here's why:

- 12.3MP is about all we will ever need, unless nike wants us to shoot a billboard
- greater dynamic range helps retain important highlight and shadow detail
- faster auto focus (51 points)
- much better weatherproofing
- higher ISO performance (ISO 1600 looks like 400 on the d-200)
- bigger & badder LCD monitor... we're talking star wars movie theater screen huge!
- better battery performance (shoot all day & night)
- 100% view finder coverage which means we now get what we see and not 95%
- 8 frames per second responds like a v-8 ford mustang
- the self-cleaning sensor cleans up after us :)
- batteries included.... the d-80, d-200, and d-300 batteries and chargers play nicely together.
- the rubber pc-sync leash prevents loss to the little screw cover, which has always been annoying on our d-200

the list price of $1,799 (or a tad over $2,000 w/ vertical grip and extra battery) isn't cheap, but for the cost of ONE $5,000 d-3, you could can have TWO d-300s and an extra $1,000 for a decent vacation for two anywhere southwest flies (vegas, baby!).

the 1.52x digital crop factor on the d-300 may be a negative consideration to some, especially when using a 50 f/1.4 or a 85 f/1.4 where you may want a tad wider angle of view, say, with the nikon d-3. however, we embrace the digital crop :)

get this: some of our favorite lenses actually work better on the d-300 than either the d-3 or the d-200. call it better reverse engineering or luck, but the nikon 10.5mm fisheye f/2.8 has less chromatic aberrations, the 12-24mm f/4 holds superior sharpness and color for those scenics, and the 70-200mm f/2.8 becomes a 300mm monster, a perfect weapon tool for shooting in stealthy ninja mode (a.k.a. wedding photojournalism).

the handy pop-up flash comes in handy to trigger those nikon's wireless i-ttl flashes, which means we don't need to have an sb-800 on camera to trigger another off-camera, which the d-3 requires. our mini-flash will get used far more once we receive our radio poppers, which production shipping starts today :)

sexy accessories for the nikon d-300 include the mb-d10 power grip, which now has one battery in the grip and a second battery in the camera. sa-weet. no longer do we have to remove the camera's battery compartment cover to add the grip.  as an added bonus, the vertical grip can be added or removed from the camera quickly, which is great for traveling incognito. 

with grip, the d-300 exudes confidence that it won't slip out of my hands (knock on wood), which is important since i hate shooting with a neck strap. in fact, the neck strap hasn't made it out of the box yet... and won't.  the vertical grip does add some nice weight and bulk to the camera, which helps to balance out monster lenses, but is also good for pulling off slow(er) shutter speeds 100% hand-held. 

an extra bonus: it comes with a battery clip holding AA batteries which serves as an extra battery back-up and boosts the frame-rate to rip 8/second.

for a more thorough write-up of all the nitty, gritty details, sleuth out the nikon d-300 review by our favorite ken rockwell.