DSLR Review: Nikon D300

The impressive D300 is the amatuers professional camera.
As an amatuer photographer let me just say that this is a brilliant camera and I feel like a pro every time I shoot with it.

For the past 4 years I’ve been using Nikon’s predecessor, the D200.It’s a brilliant camera and will be a good comparison to the Nikon D300.

First and foremost the D300 produces amazing image quality.Compared with the D200 the shadows, colours and highlights are all considerably better. The sensor is now 12M pixels and the auto focus system boasts an almost over the top 51 points compared with the D200s 11.

The Nikon D300 body is manufactured of Magnesium alloy which makes it very tough.It amasses an impressive 825 grams. Add a decent lens and you’ve over 1kg.  It sounds heavy but it’s not that bad.My favourite D300 lens is the Nikkor 18-200mm VRand even my wife will shoot all day without any hassle.

The Nikon D300 battery lasts 3 times longer that the Nikon D200, even though the battery is the same.I don’t know how they do it but it’s a significant improvement.

The other noticable difference is the LCD monitor is now 3″ compared with the D200s 2.5″. Interestingly you would think that this would diminish battery life. Photo playback and menu functionality are significantly quicker.

The only drawback I’ve discovered is that the continous advance shooting mode does not work with the built-in flash.Therefore when you’re shooting in continous mode (Ch or Cl) and using the built-in flash the Nikon D300 will only produce one image.  If you use a speedlight then this is not a problem.

The D300 is currently $1800 on Amazon.  Please note that this is for the D300 body only.

The D300 review suggests that the Nikon D300 is a great camera for the budding professional and is highly recommended.