The mother of all DX cameras

In the DSLR world, you are either a Canon guy or a Nikon guy. My apologies to the fans of Pentax and Minolta cameras. Pentax has a decent following, but they simply haven't got the clout that Canon and Nikon do. And Minolta's SLR division has been swallowed by a mammoth marketing machine called Sony.

I am a Nikon guy. And have been one for a long time. For what has seemed an eternity in the camera world, Nikon insisted that its DSLRs will only be offered with a single sensor size: 24mmx16mm. These sensors are much smaller than the recording surface of 35mm film which measures 36mmx24mm. There are significant complexities in building large sensors, and sensor cost rises rapidly with size. So it seemed to make sense that Nikon would standardize on something smaller than the full 35mm frame. However, there are some significant optical disadvantages to having a smaller sensor. Over on the Canon side, users have had a variety of sensor choices. Three different ones to be exact: 22mmx15mm, 29mmx19mm, and 36mmx24mm. The larger sensors came with a bigger price tag, but at least if someone had deep pockets they could buy a camera with phenomenal image quality.

All of this changed for Nikon fans on August 23, 2007. Nikon announced two cameras and five lenses. Lets start with the cameras. It was decreed that there was to be two formats going forward: DX and FX. DX would have a sensor size of 24mmx16mm, and FX would have a sensor size of 36mmx24mm. Finally Nikonians everywhere would have a choice. FX would still be out of reach for mere mortals like me, but those National Geographic types would now have access to a full 35mm frame. The first camera, Nikon D300, would be DX format, and the second camera, Nikon D3, would be FX format.

This was all well and good up until you go to the part that dealt with light sensitivity. The D300 was to have a sensitivity up to ISO 6400, and the D3 was to have a sensitivity up to ISO 25600!! My old D50 only went to ISO 1600, and even that was barely usable. The D300 was to go a good two stops above the D50, and the D3 was to go another two above the the D300. Bloody amazing. In addition to the two cameras, five lenses were announced. The lenses are engineering marvels in their own right, but one particular lens stands out among the five. It is a 14-24 f/2.8! That is right ... 14mm perspective corrected lens. They make fisheye lenses around 15mm, but Nikon is going to give us a zoom starting at 14mm that will have nice straight lines at the edges. Oh, and it looks absolutely gorgeous with its curved hunk of glass protruding through the front hood.

So what does it feel like to shoot with a D300? Well I didn't think I was going to find out until at least a year had passed from the announcement. There are usually waiting lists associated with most of Nikon's popular products, and I didn't think the D300 was going to be an exception. However, a benevolent patron of the arts was able to track down one for me and thanks to her efforts, I was holding a D300 at christmas. This is a beautiful machine that is built to last: solid magnesium alloy not plastic and sealed against the elements. It just feels right in my hand. Every aspect of the camera's exposure is right at your finger tips. No more twiddling with the menu as I did back in the D50 days. And after about 2000 exposures (~400 during christmas and ~1600 during a recent trip) I am confident in the cameras ability to properly expose most shots. Of course there will be times you will need to dial in a bit of compensation, but most of the time the camera nails the shot without any input from me. This happens far more often that it did with my D50. I am absolutely in love with the viewfinder in the D300. It is MASSIVE compared to my D50, and it has 100% coverage. So no more worries about that little bird or branch that somehow manages to find its way into the edges of my frame. The high ISO sensitivity is just a blast to use. I can get some truly interesting available light shots without using flash --- even in situations where my eye has trouble focusing.

Here is a sampler of some shots I took with the D300. All of these images are taken directly from the camera and have not been edited or adjusted in any way.