Seeing as we’ve started off with my brand of choice, Nikon, we might as well take a look at smaller sibling of the Nikon D3 that was released at the same time, the Nikon D300. As an F5 user I personally favor cameras such as the Nikon D3 in the digital world because of build quality and speed of operation. However, my main digital camera, the Nikon D200, is no slouch either, is built well and more than appropriate for a vast number of tasks.

My main grip with it, however, is the lack of a 100 percent viewfinder and that’s where the Nikon D300 interests me. Yes, I know it has the same 51-point autofocus of the D3, but I’m still more than happy with less focus points. I also wish the Nikon MB-D200 battery pack was built to higher standards like the Nikon MB-D10, but there’s not much more in the Nikon D300 that makes me consider it that much of an upgrade to the D200.

Even the ISO noise performance doesn’t appear to be that much of an improvement or maybe I was just hoping for D3-like performance, although don’t get me wrong. Now that I’ve made the move solely to the world of digital, I will be getting a second body and it will be the more expensive D300 rather than a second D200. It isn’t the jump that the D200 was over the D100, but it is a tasty camera and certainly worth moving to for D40, D70, D80 D100 owners. If you’re going to upgrade, basically, you might as well do it in style.

With all that in mind, it’s therefore interesting to read first impressions of the Nikon D300 on Terry White’s Tech Blog. White moved up to the D300 from a D80 and so it’s no wonder he’s so impressed with the camera. However, even as a D200 user not so excited about the D300 as I am about the D3, I can still see that many improvements have been made over the model it will eventually replace.

White agrees about my comments on not viewing the camera as one to replace a Nikon D200 for. Basically, it’s a model that’s an improvement over the D200 and one that is better to have than not.

[...] I’m coming into this new camera body from a Nikon D80 and my main motivation for upgrading (the D80 is great camera) was to be able to shoot at higher ISO settings with less visible noise. In brief, the new Nikon D300 does just that. Now for those of you who currently have D200′s there’s probably not as much of a need to upgrade to the D300 although the slightly lower noise in images over 800 ISO would be welcomed.

The first thing I noticed was how smooth the camera operated and especially the 51 point focus system is killer. This camera also has several more ways to customize it compared to my D80. [...]

White also posts some samples of images shot at 1600 and they’re pretty good. I rarely go above 1250 ISO on my D200 unless I really have no choice. However, from what I’ve seen so far, I don’t think I’d have any concerns about shooting at 1600 ISO on a D300. Not as much a professional workhorse as the D3, but quite a beast in a smaller package for sure. Not so much a major upgrade to the D200, but certainly the camera of choice if you’re considering either.

Photo © uncrate

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