Nikon D300

The new Nikon D300 seems to live up to all its hype and even exceeds it in a couple of cases, especially high ISO shooting.

I say seems because I have only had the camera for 10 days and because of deadlines, have not been able to work with the camera as much as I would prefer. So please consider this as a quick report with more details to follow in the February issue when we will also review the full-frame Nikon D3.

The D300 is a major upgrade from the D200. A new 12.3 megapixel DX format CMOS sensor coupled with the Nikon ESPEED image process and 14-bit A/D conversion add up to great images.

Also new is the Multi-CAM3500DX Auto-focus sensor with 51 points (15 of them cross-type sensitive) and Auto-focus tracking by color that uses information from the 1005-pixel AE sensor.

Its really quick start-up, 13 ms, shutter lag of only 45ms, mirror blackout of 100ms coupled with a six-frames-a-second continuous shooting (up to eight a second if you add the optional improved battery pack) is pretty impressive.

Chick Harrity

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