Equipment Review: Nikon D300

March 2008

I originally purchased the Nikon D300 to act as a backup to my Nikon D2x for an upcoming assignment in Patagonia. I used to have a Nikon D200 as a back up but sold that camera because it just didn’t quite measure up to my D2x. I have to say the D300 in my brief experience far surpasses my D2x in pretty much every aspect. As I haven’t had enough time with the camera to write up a complete review this is just an article relaying my first impressions of this sweet new offering from Nikon. I'll add a more detailed update at some point here after my Spring 2008 newsletter comes out.

First off, I have to say I am very happy that Nikon did not increase the number of megapixels with the D300 (or D3). 12 MP for my work is more than enough and there have been several areas of improvement that I thought were much more important than an increase in resolution as I outlined in my “Where do we go from here?” article in the Fall 2007 Newsletter. The Nikon D300 incorporates many of the advancements I covered in that article including faster framing rates at 12 MP, more accurate and reliable autofocus, lower noise at high ISOs, higher bit depth and it is also a lighter camera than the previous equivalent (the D2x).

Now I can hear many of you asking why I didn’t just buy a Nikon D3 instead of the D300. At the moment the D3s are pretty hard to find - the demand is very high. Plus, with a major assignment coming up I wanted to take a camera with a proven track record of reliability - and one I know extremely well - my D2x. I haven’t heard any horror stories about the D3, in fact just the opposite, it seems to be the best camera Nikon has ever produced. And it is turning quite a few heads even from diehard Canon aficionados that have been bashing Nikon for years. I will be picking up a D3 here at some point for sure but I am also waiting to see what the D3x is. I have heard many rumors of a 24 MP camera that might be a great compliment to the D300.

Back to the D300. At 12+ megapixels and with a framing rate of 8 frames per second (with the MBD10 grip), the D300 gets us back to the film standard set by my old trusty F5. It is very nice to have 8 fps again, especially for mountain biking and kayaking photography where the 5 fps of my D2x (for full res images) seemed a little lacking. And with incredibly low noise up to 3200 ISO on this new camera it opens up whole new world of photography that we Nikonians have not really had access to before. The autofocus also seems to be much faster and quite a bit more accurate than any other Nikon I have used. It is also much more complex than my D2x so it will take me some time to get used to it and figure out which settings work best for which types of shooting. I’ll keep you posted on my experiences with the aforementioned update.

One major gripe I have against the D300 is that in 14-bit mode, the framing rate slows to a pathetic 2.5 fps. Nowhere in the Nikon advertisements or specs is this pointed out - only deep in the owners manual does it tell you this little known fact. And while many may not think much of the 14-bit processing option it is one of the huge reasons to upgrade in my opinion. Shooting in 14-bit gives one a lot more flexibility when processing images - especially if the image was accidentally underexposed or needs some radical processing. More bits equals less noise in the shadows and much better color transitions, especially in the highlights. You can bet I’ll be shooting in 14-bit mode all the time save for those moments when I really need 8 fps.

Out of curiosity I ran a test to see just how good the D300 performs at high ISO and I have to say that I am shocked how good it is! I found that all the way up to ISO 3200 the D300 is very usable. Even on HI 1, at 6400 ISO, the D300 is not that bad. Compared to my D2x the D300 at 3200 ISO is the equivalent of my D2x at 800 ISO. See the comparisons below in Figure 1 to see what I am talking about. Basically I have no hesitation now setting the ISO as high as I need to go - at least up to 3200 ISO. And if this camera is that good with a DX sensor I can’t wait to try out the D3 with its full-frame FX sensor. Another great new feature on the D300 (and D3) is the Auto ISO feature which lets the camera control the ISO just like the aperture or shutter speed which is great for fast shooting where light conditions are changing quickly and you want to make sure your shutter speed stays where you set it.

In terms of the noise reduction settings, I have done a test with those settings all the way up to 6400 ISO and find that I prefer the noise reduction in the off or low setting. In general, I leave the noise reduction off completely because I only shoot raw (or very rarely raw + jpeg) and I have more control - and better results - by using a program like Noise Ninja in post processing to reduce any unwanted noise in the image.

The white balance in the D300 seems much better than in my D2x as well. I still use preset custom white balances so the white balance is pretty much dialed in on location but for those occasions where I don’t have time to set a custom white balance the auto WB seems vastly superior than any Nikon before it.

The LCD on the back of the camera is also a vast improvement and better than any LCD I have seen on any other DSLR. You can actually check to see if an image is sharp and tell on the back of the camera if your autofocus is off. That is a first. And the D300’s LCD is so big and detailed that looking at my D2x’s rear LCD is like looking at a postage stamp in comparison. Once you go big it is hard to go back. And I really love the new one click zoom feature Nikon has built into the D300. With this custom function turned on I can just push on the focus selector (in the middle) once and the image on the LCD zooms to 100% and to the spot where I had the focus point selected.

In fact, in general I find myself reaching for the D300 instead of my D2x these days. It looks like the D2x’s days are numbered - at least in my camera bag. And I must say that I really like having a smaller lighter camera body with a removable vertical grip. As an outdoor shooter, this allows me the option to go with a smaller, more compact and portable set up which is always a bonus. The MBD10 battery grip mounts on the D300 very securely and pretty much feels a lot like my D2x once mounted. And luckily, the Nikon engineers were savvy enough to allow the use of the same EN-EL4 batteries that my D2x uses (and the D3). This is a great feature that allows one to take just one set of batteries for all of our pro caliber cameras.

Ergonomics on the D300 are improved, ever so slightly from the already excellent D2x. I feel that Nikon continues to lead the pack in this category. The focus selector has come into it’s own with the new 51 point autofocus system of the D300 and D3. With that may points to work with it is still quite easy to navigate just where you want the camera to focus. And speaking of the autofocus - it is quite a bit faster and more accurate than my trusty D2x - which was no slouch to begin with. The array of options for autofocus with the D300 is dizzying. We have 9-point, 21-point, 51-point, 51-point 3D and many more options to choose from - of which the 51-Point 3D uses the fantastic Nikon color metering system to track objects based on color! I haven’t fully tested the 3D focusing just yet but I will soon here in Patagonia on this next assignment. It sounds fantastical and like some science fiction technology of the future - and from what I have read online by Dave Black and others works extremely well.

At the moment I have the D300 primed to use the 21-point set up in dynamic mode. With this set up you choose the focus point and the camera uses the 20 points around that focus point to achieve the optimum focus. On the few shoots I have done since purchasing the camera this mode has been super reliable. I still find the AF-S lenses to provide the most accurate and fastest autofocus as compared to the non AF-S gear driven lenses but in every respect the D300 (and D3) has a superior autofocus system to the D2x. In fact, it may even rival or beat the long heralded Canon autofocus - which of late has had some severe issues, especially in the Canon 1D Mark III. Again, I’ll report back on my findings once I have had a chance to thoroughly put the D300’s autofocus to the test.

And of course the Nikon speedlights work seamlessly with the D300 just as they did with the D2x. Just like the D200, the D300 has a pop-up flash that can be used on it’s own or act as a commander for two groups of SB-800 or SB-600 speedlights. I have found the D300 to perform even better than the D200 in commander mode. I have tested the commander mode with an SB-800 at up to 10 meters and even with the flash out of line-of-sight behind a metal grate and it still triggered the flash just fine. The Nikon lighting system truly is amazing and I need to take advantage of it more often with my outdoor and adventure work. I normally just leave the D300 set to rear curtain synch, which works perfect at 1/250th of a second and allows me to automatically go into motion blurs with the rear synch set up. I tend to do a lot of motion blurs with athletes at around 1/10th to 1/25th of a second with the SB-800s.

I have to say again the LCD on the D300, which is the same as that on the D3, is nothing short of astounding. It rivals the amazing LCD on my Epson P2000 for sharpness and as I already said, it is the first LCD on the back of a camera that actually allows one to definitively see if an image is sharp or not. I’m not one to “chimp” a lot but with the new larger LCD it is hard not to. Besides the gorgeous image previews, the menus are also much improved and easier to read with the higher resolution LCD. I really like the new “My Settings” panel that allows you to sequester those features you change often so you don’t have to go hunting all over the place to find them. This replaces the “Recent Settings” menus on the D200 and D2x.The menus are otherwise pretty similar to the D2x.

There are a few notable new features like a built in sensor cleaning function, more choices and control of color settings, and a new lossless compression for raw images. The built in sensor cleaning custom function can be set to vibrate the senor at high frequencies when you turn the camera on and off. When the sensor is being cleaned it makes a faint squeaking noise that had me wondering if I was hearing things when I first heard it. The jury is still out on whether the sensor cleaning mode works or not - so far I am dubious and still use Visible Dust brushes to get the sensor clean. The color choices also seem interesting - I have already seen that the vivid setting, while creating Velvia-like colors, is most of the time a little too saturated for my taste and I shot a ton of Velvia back in the day. No matter what setting you choose for the color, if you shoot raw this can be modified in the post-processing. The new lossless compression mode is excellent - it reduces the file size by about 40% which is slightly less than the lossy raw compression used in the D200 and D2x. Coupled with the fact that the D300 shoots in 14-bit, file sizes are quite a bit larger - close to 16 MB per NEF file. It was a shock to put in my 2 GB CompactFlash card and see that it would only hold approximately 100 images, so I have upgraded to 4 GB cards for the D300. Onward and upward as they say - they have us going and coming in this digital age!

Overall, there are very few things I can find fault with the D300 so far. I’ll give a more in-depth review after I have put the D300 through it’s paces in some harsh conditions. I am very interested to see how well it stands up to some rough handling and bad weather. Until next time, adios!

Part 2 - A more detailed Review

May 2008

Above, I laid out my first impressions of the Nikon D300. As promised in that review I would like to relay here a little more about this superb camera now that I have had four months to use and abuse it. As I wrote in the last newsletter I bought the D300 to act as a backup to my Nikon D2X for an assignment in Patagonia. All told, I spent a month in Patagonia covering the two-week Patagonia Expedition Race (see the article in the Spring 2008 newsletter) and also backpacking in Torres del Paine National Park. It was raining for at least half of my time in Patagonia and snowing a few days as well at the higher elevations. I found that the D300 quickly became my go to camera for a number of reasons including less noise at high ISOs, it’s lighter body, faster framing rates (6 or 8 fps), and a more versatile autofocus setup.

On the topic of durability, any doubts I had about the D300’s robust build were forgotten after it survived some extreme abuse in Patagonia. I though that a camera with a pop-up flash would be a liability in rainy, wet conditions but the D300 proved me wrong. In many cases there just wasn’t time to cover it up and get the shot - so I just kept shooting in sideways rain and the D300 never let me down. The camera also got smacked around a bit and came away with just a few scratches. Hence, I have full confidence in this baby’s durability. It isn’t a whole lot different than my D2X for robust build as far as I can tell. At the moment it does have a huge crack in the top LCD display but that was caused by my own fumbling when a chunk of metal (in the form of a Kirk lens adapter plate) fell out of my camera pack and cracked the top LCD. The camera still works fine as does the top LCD, I’ll just have to get it into Nikon Professional Services to have that replaced - not a big deal. Just normal wear and tear for a pro camera.

So the camera is tough - check. And it is fast - check. And it is well sealed from moisture, dust and rain - check. Let’s get down to the nitty gritty here and talk about the new auto-focus system. At first I have to say that the new auto-focus set up in the D300 (and also the D3) is so complex that it is a bit tough to figure out how to set it. I initially set the camera up to use the Dynamic-Area AF autofocus as I had with my D2x - and I set it to use the 21 point option with the focus selector on the back of the camera set in the middle position (i.e. Dynamic AF). This would allow the camera to use the 21 points around the focus point I chose to help dial in the focus. Using this setup I quickly realized I was getting a lot of focus jump and sometimes even completely out of focus images with stationary objects. The focus was helped out a little too much one could say. With the D2x this mode worked perfectly but the D300 isn’t a D2x. So I switched to single point autofocus on the D300 and this eliminated the problems -- at least for stationary objects.

With moving subjects I resorted to the Dynamic-Area AF mode with the custom settings (CSM a3) set to use 9 points around the point I chose. And while at first getting used to this setup seemed daunting I have figured out when to use the Dynamic Area AF and when to just go with the single point AF. I have tried the 3D Tracking AF and 51 point Dynamic Area AF as well and they work very well in certain circumstances but for my work they are a bit unpredictable. The 3D tracking AF seems to need a good separation in color on the subject from the background for best results - but it can work incredibly well in the right conditions. I have found the 9 point Dynamic Area AF to work extremely well for most of my work so I haven’t really explored 51 point Dynamic Area AF as much as I should. Overall, I’d say the autofocus is better and more accurate than the AF in my older D2x. But, I would also say that it has a much longer learning curve. And one has to switch modes more often depending on the situation which is fine - you just have to learn which AF mode works best for each shooting scenario.

I recently shot some whitewater kayaking on the Rio Grande and I have found this to be the toughest AF test of anything I normally photograph. The kayakers are moving in completely random directions and so fast that I can barely keep the camera on them much less worry about the autofocus. My tactics were to select a focus point that was based on composition and then try to follow the kayaker with that point pasted on or near their head. I used the 9 point Dynamic Area AF and it worked extremely well. I also had the MB-D10 grip attached to the D300 so I could shot at 8 frames per second (fps). The extra battery power of the MB-D10 grip seemed to help the autofocus speed as would be expected and in general the camera performed perfectly when I used lenses with built-in Silent Wave Motor (i.e. AF-S lenses). With my non AF-S lenses, like my older Nikkor 300mm f/4 I noticed a larger percentage of soft images compared to those shot with my 70-200 mm f/2.8 AF-S lens. This is nothing new as I found the same result with my Nikon F5 back it the day and with my D2x to some degree. Hence, I can only recommend the AF-S lenses for sports photography. It’s time to upgrade the older 300mm to an AF-S version.

One of the other interesting features of this new autofocus system that I didn’t realize until using it these past few months is that how I compose an image has now changed a lot - and for the better. Let me explain, with the D2x, when I was working with fast moving athletes I would have to plant one of the focus points on the athlete if I wanted a series of images to all be in focus. With the D2x it was nice (and better than what we had previously) because the points were spread out across the viewfinder evenly. But this did on occasion force you into compositions that you may or may not have liked. Now, with the 51 points of the D300 which pretty much span the entire viewfinder I can compose the image first then select a focusing point that matches my composition. This may sound strange but in practice it really gives me a lot more freedom to craft the image. Notably, with the D3 the 51 points are grouped much closer to the center of the viewfinder than with the D300 and are not as useful in this respect.

The MB-D10 battery grip adds quite a bit of performance features to the D300, not the least of which is the vertical grip and a nice heft. The feel of the camera with the vertical grip attached isn’t quite as nice as the D2x or the D3 with their integrated vertical grips but it is much more versatile since I can remove it if I need to go light and fast. The focus point selector on the grip works well but it is not nearly as nice as the selector on the camera. All in all though the D300 + MB-D10 grip is a great combo.

Another factor with the D300 is the buffer size. When you snap on the MB-D10 and start blasting away at 8 fps as I did on this last kayaking shoot you’ll quickly hit the buffer (shooting RAW images) -- in just two seconds! That is approximately 17 shots but it is a surprise when the camera basically just stops firing. If you are shooting at 6 fps without the grip you can shoot 28 frames before the D300 will stop. Of course these numbers are highly dependant on what type of memory card you have in the camera. I’d advise buying the fastest cards you can find which right now are the SanDisk Extreme Ducati 4 GB cards. I would like to have a larger buffer on the D300 but I think we are at the limits of the hardware as it is. Even the D3 can only last two seconds (18 images) at full blast in 9 fps mode. Also, when you rip off 17 frames on the D300 clearing the buffer can be an issue - depending on your memory card it can take from 7 to 20 seconds for the buffer to clear which can seem like an eternity if the action continues. Hence, buy fast memory cards and have another camera body handy!

As I said in the last review, overall the D300 is a fantastic camera. I suppose the best way to quantify the D300 is to tell you that I sold my D2x last month since I never seemed to use it anymore. Now I just have to decide if I am going to add a D3 or another D300 to replace my D2x. With all of the nikon rumors flying around right now I'll probably wait to see what the new camera are when they are announced in a few weeks -- if the rumors are correct. I'd love to have a D300 with an 18 MP FX (Full Frame) sensor.