My D300...

pressld2 · #1 (**permalink**) 03-02-2008, 06:05 PM

...is sitting in Initial City-Link's Beckenham depot with a scheduled delivery date of tomorrow.

I'm like a kid on Christmas eve - I want to go to bed early so tomorrow comes quicker!

Dave P.

big bill · #2 (**permalink**) 03-02-2008, 06:41 PM

Good night Dave pleasant dreams

just heard of postal strike down your way tomorrow

pressld2 · #3 (**permalink**) 03-02-2008, 07:08 PM

Aaaaaaaarghhhhhh!

Not even slightly funny Bill!

matt_xyz · #4 (**permalink**) 03-02-2008, 07:37 PM

the D300 does sound like a very nice camera. I read yet another glowing review in Outdoor Photography the other day. I can understand your excitement Dave

Matt

John D · #5 (**permalink**) 03-02-2008, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pressld2

...is sitting in Initial City-Link's Beckenham depot with a scheduled delivery date of tomorrow.

I'm like a kid on Christmas eve - I want to go to bed early so tomorrow comes quicker!

Dave P.

Take a sleeping pill, have a good nights sleep and tomorrow will soon arrive.
All the best with your new camera, have fun.
Look forward to seeing some new pics.
John D

RichBrew · #6 (**permalink**) 03-02-2008, 09:07 PM

Post your impressions and results, Dave, once you've got to grips with it. I'm reluctant to get one for myself at the moment, as I've only had my D200 for 18 months, but could get a D300 if persuaded, and keep the other as a second body. Are you getting the grip as well?

RichBrew

pressld2 · #7 (**permalink**) 03-02-2008, 09:59 PM

I keep trying to remind myself that it's the photographer that makes the picture, not the camera. I mean it won't improve my composition or make me more creative and original, nor will it do a thing for my field craft. But I can't help thinking that the higher resolution (double my current camera), the higher burst rate (about 4x current) and the vastly superior high ISO performance will all make a difference. I think I'm pretty much working at the limits of my existing kit and would like to be working at the limits of a higher spec set up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichBrew

Are you getting the grip as well?

Promise you won't laugh? I've already got it! It came last Monday and I've spent the past week taking it out of the box and trying to imagine what it will be like with the D300 attached. Sad isn't it?

I'll certainly post my thoughts and lots of pics once I've had a chance to play with it properly. That might not be for a few weeks though, as there's a lot going on here the next couple of weekends and it doesn't look like I'll get much time for photography.

Okay it's 10.00pm - time to turn in!

Dave P.

RichBrew · #8 (**permalink**) 03-02-2008, 10:17 PM

Since you've turned in, Dave, you won't read this until the arrival of your D300 is imminent, but the camera is capable of producing better results irrespective of its user. The auto focus module is the same as the D3, and it sports 51 AF points (the D200 has only 11), so will be able to lock-on to moving objects and keep focus more successfully. Then there's the 8 frames per second capability, which can be useful under the right conditions. There's also the 100% coverage of the viewfinder...the high ISO performance...the 14 bit colour depth option...I could go on.

RichBrew

P.S. Ha, Ha!

Seajay · #9 (**permalink**) 04-02-2008, 10:11 AM

Dave, it will make a tremendous difference to your photography and I can't wait to hear how you get on with it! What lenses have you got to use with it?
Lots of pics please.

You could review it? (If you have time of course- you'll probably be too busy playing)

Colin

big bill · #10 (**permalink**) 04-02-2008, 10:39 AM

Hello Dave wakey waket your D300 arrives today and you dont want to miss it or has it arrived hope its as good as you hope according to the reviews it should be enjoy it and look forward to the new pics from it enjoy and all the best.

pressld2 · #11 (**permalink**) 04-02-2008, 10:11 PM

No postal strikes (phew!), it arrived just after 9.00am. Of course I was at work by then and didn't get home til just after 5.00pm. Been playing with it ever since but thought I'd take 5 mins out to let you know it's here.

It's going to take some learning. The user's manual is over 400 pages and it's not until page 36 that you finally see the magic words "Turn the camera on"!

So far all I've done with it is some basic configuration (set the time and date, etc.) and check out that everything is working as it should. I did do one quick test of the continuous shooting mode. I only have the normal EN-EL3e batteries so the top speed is 6 frames per second (you need the EN-EL4a to get 8 fps) but I was interested to see how many consecutive 12 bit RAW shots could be taken at that speed before the buffer fills up. The answer is 25!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seajay

What lenses have you got to use with it?

I have a Nikon 80-400 VR lens for birds and a Sigma 150mm macro for insects, flowers, fungi etc. I also have the 18-70 kit lens that came with my D70 and that's what I'm using for testing the camera out at the moment. I plan to buy another standard zoom fairly soon though as I want to pass my D70 down to my son and he'll need the 18-70 with it. The new 16-85 could be a good bet but I want to wait a couple of months to a) see some reviews and b) give my bank balance a chance to recover slightly!

Dave P.

stephen p · #12 (**permalink**) 04-02-2008, 10:27 PM

Brilliant stuff Dave, very Jealous, now get out there and show us what it can do.......i mean you can do

I have to D200 and love it but after reading nothing but brilliant reviews i am going to have to upgrade this year!

Glad you like your new toy mate

Stephen

rlchew · #13 (**permalink**) 05-02-2008, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by matt_xyz

the D300 does sound like a very nice camera. I read yet another glowing review in Outdoor Photography the other day. I can understand your excitement Dave

Matt

I read that too .... it sounds like the D300 is a winner all round. And there is me stuck with my D80!

I expect it is totally pointless Dave to ask you if you are enjoying your new camera .... unless you have still yet to reach page 36 and turn it on

.

Please do let us know how you get on and make sure you post the evidence in the gallery.

Richard

peterjclarke · #14 (**permalink**) 06-02-2008, 12:16 AM

Richard, My dad got one a couple of months back and I'm getting one soon. Hipee!

pressld2 · #15 (**permalink**) 07-02-2008, 04:55 PM

Had my first proper play with my new toy yesterday and have to say I'm a little bit concerned.

First the good news - metering is spot on. With my D70 I always started off at +2/3 exposure compensation by default to get a reasonably centred and balanced histogram. If I moved away from that setting it was almost always to increase the exposure compensation, very rarely to decrease it. The D300 is giving me pretty good exposures under "normal" shooting conditions (whatever they are

) without any compensation.

As mentioned before the burst mode is fantastic! Although my advice would be to stay in single shot mode unless you really need burst, otherwise you'll fill your memory card in no time at all and have the headache of having to edit down dozens of virtually identical shots.

Speaking of memory cards, when I put in a 4Gb card and formatted it the camera suggested there was room for 197 shots. However, in use I got just over 350 shots before the card was full. I remember that the D70 used to underestimate in this way too but it was fixed with a firmware upgrade. Maybe there'll be a similar fix for this soon but it's no big deal!

What is a big deal, and is the reason for my concern, is the high ISO performance. This was a significant factor (although certainly not the only one) in my decision to upgrade and every review I ever read of this camera expressed total amazement at the low noise level when using high ISOs. Unfortunately that hasn't been my experience at all. Here's a couple of 100% crops from images shot at ISO 1600, the first from my D70...

...and the second from the D300...

Both used the camera's and Lightroom's default noise reduction settings. I know which one I think has the lowest noise!

Perhaps I'm being a little unfair as the D300 image has a darker background and is a little under-exposed, both of which will increase noise levels. However, other images I took at 1600 yesterday (correctly exposed and with lighter backgrounds) also showed similar noise levels to my D70. I shall do some controlled tests/comparisons this weekend and also check out the "High" setting for ISO noise reduction to see if it improves matters without wiping out image detail. But at the moment I'm less than impressed and am wondering if there is a fault with the camera.

Dave P.

Seajay · #16 (**permalink**) 07-02-2008, 06:52 PM

Can't help you Dave - haven't got mine yet. Have a look on the Nikonians website they 'll put you right. Remember your not familiar with the camera yet and if your anything like me you'll be running before you can wak

Colin

GerryNick2 · #17 (**permalink**) 07-02-2008, 07:36 PM

As you say Dave the level of noise in these two shots does not compare favourably with the review findings.
Its early days yet and you probably need to play with the four high ISO noise reduction settings that impact on 800 ISO and above, I assume that these were taken with the default setting 'normal'.

Gerry

Heart-shaped World · #18 (**permalink**) 07-02-2008, 10:28 PM

Thanks for sharing this and please keep us updated. This was the main reason I had been considering an upgrade, the purchase was imminent!

pressld2 · #19 (**permalink**) 07-02-2008, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seajay

Remember your not familiar with the camera yet and if your anything like me you'll be running before you can wak

Colin

Quote:

Originally Posted by GerryNick2

Its early days yet and you probably need to play with the four high ISO noise reduction settings that impact on 800 ISO and above, I assume that these were taken with the default setting 'normal'.

Gerry

You are both quite right gents, I shouldn't be too quick to whinge! I have a busy weekend coming up but will make time somewhere to play some more and also to check out the Nikonians site. And yes, Gerry, I did have the High ISO Noise Reduction set to 'normal' so I'll experiment with setting it to 'high' too.

I guess my main concern is that I thought the low noise at high ISOs was down to improvements in the sensor itself so that it didn't generate as much noise in the first place, rather than improvements in the in-camera processing to reduce the noise. If I get 10 mins spare tomorrow I'll see if I can contact someone at Nikon technical support and check that out.

Some more good news though - I was also checking out the continuous servo focusing yesterday by chasing black-headed gulls in flight. Of course there were still misses but the percentage of keepers was higher than I've ever managed before, including these three...

And there's nothing wrong with the ISO 200 performance. How's this for clarity and detail...?

Dave P.

glsammy · #20 (**permalink**) 07-02-2008, 11:10 PM

One important point to bare in mind with high ISO images is to get the exposure spot on. Your Robin shot was just about the worst possible test, with a bright upper background and a very dark lower.
I think you'll find it completely different where the light levels are more even.

matt_xyz · #21 (**permalink**) 08-02-2008, 07:45 AM

Dave did you shoot that Robin image in RAW or JPEG? One thing I have noticed is that all of the high ISO images that I've seen for the D300 (and 1DmkIII) have been taken in JPEG. Like you say, I think its high ISO capability is as much down to sophisticated in-camera noise reduction as it is down to the improved sensor.

I'd be interested to see some high ISO shots taken in JPEG to see how they look.

Matt

pressld2 · #22 (**permalink**) 08-02-2008, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glsammy

One important point to bare in mind with high ISO images is to get the exposure spot on. Your Robin shot was just about the worst possible test, with a bright upper background and a very dark lower.
I think you'll find it completely different where the light levels are more even.

Quite right Graham and I shall see what happens with more even lighting conditions. I did take a few at 1600 ISO that were not slightly underesposed like the robin shot is and they still had very noticeable noise levels. But they also had the same high contrast mix of very dark areas and very bright areas in the same image.

Quote:

Originally Posted by matt_xyz

Dave did you shoot that Robin image in RAW or JPEG? One thing I have noticed is that all of the high ISO images that I've seen for the D300 (and 1DmkIII) have been taken in JPEG. Like you say, I think its high ISO capability is as much down to sophisticated in-camera noise reduction as it is down to the improved sensor.

I'd be interested to see some high ISO shots taken in JPEG to see how they look.

Matt

Now that's an excellent point Matt. I was shooting in RAW as I always do and it could very easily mean that the camera is simply recording what the settings for things like sharpening and noise reduction are but is not actually applying them, leaving that to the RAW conversion software. In which case I was effectively shooting with high ISO noise reduction set to 'Off'!

I shall definitely do some tests shooting in fine jpeg mode and will also see if Nikon's own CaptureNX software makes a better job of the RAW conversion than Lightroom does. (Oh goody, yet another piece of image processing software to get to grips with

)

Thanks to everyone for you comments, suggestions and general interest in this thread!

Dave P.

matt_xyz · #23 (**permalink**) 08-02-2008, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pressld2

I was shooting in RAW as I always do and it could very easily mean that the camera is simply recording what the settings for things like sharpening and noise reduction are but is not actually applying them, leaving that to the RAW conversion software. In which case I was effectively shooting with high ISO noise reduction set to 'Off'!

I think that is almost certainly the case Dave, it will be interesting to see if there is a major improvement when you shoot a few high ISO JPEGs.

Matt