Top 5 Reasons I Love the D300

With four weeks of good usage under my belt with the Nikon D300 I think I can make a few conclusions about why I think this is an incredibly good camera.

So, in the tradition of countdowns throughout history, here is my top five reasons I've grown to love the D300.

5. Construction
The camera feels incredibly solid in the hand. Its confidence-inspiring that an accidental knock or bit of moisture won't kill it outright. All the dials and buttons have a firm and purposeful feel. But the solid construction doesn't mean the camera is a big burden to carry. It's not dramatically heavier than my old D70 and it's the choice of lens that adds the most weight.

4. Color & Light
From the very first frames I made with the D300 I was impressed by how well it rendered color and shades of light. Colors aren't just natural and rich, their gradations in tone are also gorgeously smooth. Take this image for example of some colorful kayaks reflected in still water.


3. Noise and ISO
A lot of hard-core camera geeks have been going on at length about the low noise characteristics of the two new Nikons, the D3 and D300. Yes, the D300 does have very low noise, and shots I've made at ISO3200 look amazingly clean. You can really only traces of noise at higher ISO settings when zoomed in 100% on an image. I think if you're spending a lot of time examining your images at 100% then you're literally losing sight of the big picture.

The bottom line is that higher usable ISO settings means more opportunities to make pictures.

2. Speed
Faster than a speeding bullet sums up the D300. From the instant-on to the incredibly responsive shutter the camera is all about speed. Reviewing and flipping through images is also super-fast and thanks to the ability to configure four 'banks' of settings you can very rapidly change how the camera behaves. I have one present bank set for RAW shooting, another for JPEG and one for long exposures and each one has a few tweaks to optimize the camera for just that situation.

The speed continues in front of the computer too. As the camera performs so well and captures scenes very close to how I saw them, any post work needed to create final images that please me or a client is greatly reduced.

1. Inspiration
What these highlights and all the D300's other strengths add up to is a camera that inspires you to pick it up and use it. Like some high-performance sports car it begs you to see what it can do and also to see how far your own skills go. That means I'll be making more and better images and that's what it's all about in the end.