D300 users....Tell us your exaltations and woes

[kundalini]

I'm very, very close to the upgrade but I have heard of some issues with the new release. Many have had to swap bodies out (from forums elsewhere) due to defects (or is it operator error). Please give me your honest opinion if the hype veils any dissapointment you've experienced or is it the bees knees. Hopefully, I will be test driving one this weekend.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

the only problems i've ever heard of are the CA reducing agorithms sometimes going a little nuts, but it's not biggie.

Just do it, if you have problems, return it.

 

[Trenton Romulox]

Problems with a D300? Hell no, man. I upgraded from the D80, and yeah, there have been moments where I've wondered if it was worth it...and then I opened the box and saw the D300 and was like, 'okay, that was worth it.' Seriously Kundalini, do it.

But, since I like ya, I'll get more in depth here for you.

I'll do it in a comparison basis with the D80, because I believe that is what you have? And if not, well, hopefully this is still helpful for you...

The D300's body is absolutely, hands down, a big upgrade over the D80. The D80 has a good body, but the D300 just blows it out of the water. The D300 is rugged, very well-sealed, and it's simply more comfortable to hold. And it also balances better with longer or heavier lenses, by a lot. The body also has better gripping material, and my hands down sweat as much when I hold the D300 as when I hold the D80.

The screen on the D300 is actually worth the upgrade alone, to be completely honest. I don't use live-view a lot, but it is definitely a really nice feature, and I'm sure I'll use it more when I start getting heavy into portraiture that isn't self-portraiture. But the screen, just when reviewing images, is amazing. Crystal clear, bright, vivid, beautiful, seriously, if you haven't seen the D300's screen in person, you haven't seen its greatness, it's the best screen I've ever seen on a camera. By far.

If you do any shooting with sports, the D300 will be a big, big, big step up from the D80. Throw on an MB-D10 battery grip, which I highly recommend, and you're golden. But without it, you're golden. The FPS on the D300 without the grip is 6fps, and with it, 8fps, and that is huge when shooting sports. Pump up the ISO to 1250, which results in a basically low-ISO image, and I can shoot at 1/640 in a hockey arena, shooting TIFF, Active D-Lighting on High, Noise reduction on, I can still get six shots in the time it takes a player to take a slap shot. If I took the shot with JPEG Fine, Active D-Lighting Off, and noise reduction off, I'd probably be able to shoot eight or nine. It's a very fast camera.

More about that ISO stuff, since that's pretty important...the D300 blows the D80 out of the water. Completely out of the water. You could shoot at ISO 1250, or 1600 with the D300 all day and not have images that were overwhelmed with noise, you could shoot at ISO 3200 if you felt like it, and the noise is certainly manageable. And if you felt like it, pump it up to ISO Hi.1.0 (6400 equiv.) and you'd be able to save the shot in post-processing. The ISO performance is at least, at least, twice as good as the D80's in my opinion, and for some shooters, that alone would justify the upgrade.

Let's see, what else is there to touch on? Commander mode is in there, but I think that's in the D80 too, that's a great feature. The D300 works with some lenses the D80 doesn't it, but they're really old ones, so that might not be much of a difference. Oh, the button layout is better on the D300, it's way faster to change just about every option on the D300, so if you switch WB, or ISO on the go, the D300 will be about one to three steps faster in that regard, which might not seem like a big deal, but once you go to the D300, you'll feel like any less of a camera is simply holding you back HAHA.

So, to sum it all up, the D300 is absolutely, hands-down, in my honest opinion, completely, 100%, worth the upgrade. You will not look back, unless you get a defect. But if you get a good one on the first try, like I did, you will not regret it, at all. Seriously, go for it. It's totally worth it.

If you have any more specific questions on the D300, please feel free to ask me, I'll answer anything you want to know the best I can. And will certainly look something up in manual if for some reason I don't know. Hope this helped.

 

[adolan20]

Wow good review

 

[Trenton Romulox]

Wow good review

New Hampshire, you're from New Hampshire?! EWW. UNH beat UMaine last night...that's where I was shooting for the slapshot testing...gross.

 

[adolan20]

Hahaa I go to UNH! But I'm not interested in hockey, I know a sin at my school.

 

[Trenton Romulox]

Hahaa I go to UNH! But I'm not interested in hockey, I know a sin at my school.

I'd go somewhere with this HAHA, but I don't want to hijack our friend Kundalini's thread.

Kundalini, if you can get to a Best Buy, they should have the D300 in stock, or at least the one up here in Maine did, and that'd be a good place to try it out. I mean, it's not the best way to try it out or whatnot, but it would give you a good idea for the body, and let you try at some ISO performance. But, they usually put kit glass on the bodies, so it doesn't always do it justice, not that kit lenses are bad, but you know what I mean. I have a feeling once you lay hands on a D300 and check out its screen, and feel its speed, you'll fall in love man. It's really a gorgeous body.

 

[SpeedTrap]

Go for it, I have been shooting in low light without a flash at ISO 1250 and it is very usacble, I have even pushed 1600 with good results, that and the screen alone are reasons to upgrade.
I also added the grip on mine and love it even more now!

 

[jstuedle]

My wife got a D300 for Christmas and loves it. When I've been able to pry it out of Cathy's hands I've been very impressed as well. It's not a D3 replacement, but I would not mind havening my own as a backup. It shoots very well in low light, the screen is the same as the D3 and just as clear and bright. It's small, light, relatively durable and the IQ is great. For the price for me it's hard to beat. If you already are into the Nikon system it's a no-brainer in my opinion.

 

[kundalini]

Well I went and put one in my hands today. Immediate impression - fits like a glove, the weight, the size and control locations were a match. I asked if it was okay to take it for a test run. Fortunately, the sales person and I have had several conversation prior to today and he knew who I was, however his boss walked in as we were talking and he had some slight hesitancy when I asked to walk outside with the camera (with my lens on it). That's when I suggested to put my 70-200mm VR behind the counter as collateral ( I had thought of that one ahead of time).

I downloaded the users manual last night but was too dru....uhmmmm....I didn't get a chance to have a read through it. And stupid me, forgot to ask the sales person on a few basic features such as AF and metering settings. So whadda you do? Wing it!

Here's a few shots taken. I only took about fifteen minutes and not much is around the place....well I take that back...it's not a bad area, but I didn't pre-programme my shot selections. These are SOOC and only resized except fot the last set. BTW, for some reason unbeknowngst to me, I left it in shutter priority.

1. 24-70mm @ 48mm - f/5 - 1/2500 - ISO200

2. 24-70mm @ 62mm - f/11 - 1/250 - ISO400

3. 24-70mm @ 70mm - f/9 - 1/160 - ISO400

4. 85mm - f/13 - 1/80 - ISO200 (This may not look impressive, but the 6 fps is freakin' awesome. I had 6 exposures from the car to the left of the BMW and to the right of the BMW..... -s-w-e-e-t) [EDIT: The BMW is the blue car lower left. This was a pan of the SUV (which I'm not too good at), but I am impressed at the clarity of this pan.]

5. SOOC 24-70mm @ 70mm - f/11 - 1/30 - ISO200---------------------levels,curves,crop,saturation applied

As an added bonus, while I was walking around with the camera, a fellow approached me about photography. Apparently he has a local business with taking mid-grade and high school athletics, primarily basketball. The purpose being setting up portfolios for the potential athletes to promote themselves for college bound scholarships. Sounded interesting and positive.

 

[sabbath999]

No time for a full review from me, I am rushed. I have had mine since a week after they were released, I love it.

 

[jstuedle]

So kundalini, did you buy it?

 

[kundalini]

^^ As a general rule I have given myself a 24 hour "cooling off" period before purchasing major expenses on the grounds of desire. The limit was $100 back then, but with the adjustments of inflation and the cost of living, that denomition has increased. I went to a little cafe and had a couple glasses of wine, a nice Aussie cabernet. I drove past the camera shop once more and decided to take a few more shots with my lowly D80 instead.











They are open tomorrow!

Tell me, if you please, if you think the photos I put up are okay SOOC. I have played with a few and I think they are quite good on a number of levels. I'm not talking about composition, subject, blah, blah, blah. I see things that the D80 can't do now and am highly impressed with the D300.

 

[DSLR noob]

Yeah, the D300 looks like a lot of camera. I hear moving from a D80 to a D300 is a lot like moving from a Rebel to a xxD camera, which I did (XT to 20D) and I love it for the grip, the fps, the btton layout, and the exapnded ISO range, very much the same reasons you'll love that D300. I'd go for it!(If I were in your case and shot Nikon)

 

[kundalini]

Anybody else have some input? Much appreciated.