Excerpts from Popular Photography's D300 article:
"Nikon could have played it safe. By just tweaking its highly rated D200, the company could have come out with a camera priced closer to Canon's new 10.1MP EOS 40D ($1,300, street, body only). Instead, the engineers went wild, revamping everything from the viewfinder to the sensor, adding live view, and taking such pro-level features as the 51-zone AF system from the new Nikon D3 ($5,000, body only). The result: the new 12.3MP D300 ($1,800, body only). Now, after our Lab and field tests, it's clear that Nikon made the right decision. We're so convinced of it that the editors of Pop Photo named the D300 The Camera of the Year 2007..."
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"From the outside, the D300 looks a lot like the D200. But what's on the inside pushed the D300 to new performance records in the Pop Photo Lab:
"• It's the first DSLR to earn an Excellent image quality rating from ISO 200 all the way up to ISO 3200.
"• It sports the fastest (and most sophisticated) AF we've tested so far.
"A major factor in the D300's stellar image quality is the new Sony-made 12.3MP (effective) CMOS sensor that captures RAW data with up to 14 bits of color per red, green, and blue channels. Most other DSLRs in this class only provide 12 bits per channel. This gives the D300 an advantage in reproducing fine color gradations, shadow details, and wider dynamic range. But it also increases the file size of images recorded in the 14-bit mode (selectable over normal 12-bit RAW)."
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"The only reason the D300 didn't earn an Excellent image quality rating at ISO 6400 was the higher noise levels in shadows."
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"NX now ships with Nikon's D300 and D3, allowing advanced exposure, white balance, and lens-distortion correction, D-lighting and sharpening tools, and the powerful U-Point technology (with an assortment of filters) inherited from Nik Software, Inc."
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"If you're a sports photographer and photojournalist, then you might want to stick with the amazing low-light image quality and burst capacity of Fine-quality JPEGs, and leave RAW (or RAW + JPEG) to those who can accept the hit to burst capacity and have time to process the files later. After all, the D300 captures up to 100 Fine-quality JPEGs at 6 frames per second..."
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"The EXPEED image processor also cuts startup time (Nikon claims 0.13 sec), enables true HDTV video output (via an HDMI connector), and serves up dynamic-range enhancements in the Active D-Lighting controls. When turned on, Active D-Lighting manages high-contrast scenes by preventing blown-out highlights without blocking up shadow details, much like Sony's Dynamic Range Enhancement. For NEF RAW files, Capture NX software must be used to apply D-lighting adjustments."
Read the complete review here.
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