The D300’s advantage lies in its battery life and memory card compatibility. With a battery life of 1000 shots, it surpasses the D90’s 850 shots. Additionally, the D300 accepts Compact Flash (Type I or II) memory cards, providing more options for users. Thank God for this. These focusing and composition improvements alone would be enough reason to buy a D300. Spot: Meters approx. 3 mm dia. circle (about 2.0% of frame) centered on selected focus point (on center focus point when non-CPU lens is used)

There are some differences, though, and Nikon has decided to update the ergonomics of the basic D300 chassis to incorporate some of the changes introduced in other recent Nikon DSLRs. To this end, the D300s has a dedicated ‘LV’ button to initiate Live View, and the all-important multi-controller on the rear of the camera has a separate (unlabelled) ‘OK’ button at its centre. The D300's numerous internal tweaks and far more processing power have made huge strides forward in real image quality. These improvements are so significant than even a blind artist can see them. These may not be as immediately obvious to people less than fluent in creating images on a daily basis, since these innovations deal with subtle but crucial issues of color and value. Color and value are the critical foundations of every image, as every artist knows. If you already have a D200 and are on a budget, don't try the D300, because you're going to want one. Images from the D300, as I shoot it anyway, have significantly more vibrant color and far better control of highlights and shadows.Better, there are so many AF areas that I can compose-in-place. No longer do I have to focus and recompose, or be lazy and compose based on the location of the AF areas.

Contrast detection AF is available in Live View and video modes, and although it is slightly more responsive than the ‘first-generation’ D300 and D3, it is still no match for phase-detection AF of the type described above. There is a temptation amongst those of us that shoot with and test DSLRs for a living to be more than a little dismissive about entry-level cameras like the Nikon D3000. However, first-time DSLR buyers are enormously important to camera manufacturers, and the competition amongst them for a share of the entry-level market is intense. The D60, which is replaced by the D3000, was Nikon's best-selling DLSR, and it is the success of products like this that drives the development of everything from low-end Coolpix models to the recently announced professional level D3s. But the success of entry-level DSLRs isn't just good news for camera manufacturers - today's 'low end' offerings are highly specified, powerful tools, which - had they been released a few years ago - would have commanded much higher prices than they do today.Like the D90 and D5000 before it, the D300s’s movie mode also suffers from motion artefacts often referred to as wobble, skew or jello. This is a well-known issue with CMOS sensors with rolling shutters which record each frame from top to bottom before returning to the top again for the next one. Should the camera or subject move during this process, the image can appear to tear, skew or wobble. Now many video cameras, both amateur and professional, employ CMOS sensors, but some suffer more from this effect than others. ISO 200–3200, selectable in 1/3, 1/2 or 1 stop increments. Additionally ISO 100 and ISO 6400 are available with ISO Boost. Selectable in-camera ISO noise reduction, applied in post-processing.

Center-weighted: Weight of 75% given to 6, 8, 10, or 13 mm dia. circle in center of frame or weighting based on average of entire frame (8 mm circle when non-CPU lens is used)

Latest Reviews

Now for the bad news. Hollywood and the pro movie industry may be used to manually focusing their lenses while filming, but most consumers aren’t. It takes some practice to get it right, and ideally requires a lens with a very smooth focusing ring and distance markings. It’s best-suited to rehearsed sequences with marked focus distances than spontaneous situations. Manual lens data now only can be entered though deep menus. Once entered (only 9 lenses maximum, and each setting on a zoom takes one memory) you might be able to select among them with the Fn button, but forget easy, instant direct adjustment as you change lenses as you can on the D200. The D300 is similar to the F6 (10 memories), but the F6 makes better use of the Fn button.