If you compare this with various 10MP DSLRs you’ll see there isn’t a a huge advantage to 12 megapixels. However a more telling comparison is to the Sony Alpha A700. Nik Capture NX software was included for free when the camera was originally on sale. It is worth looking out for this, although all third-party raw-editing software should now be able to edit the D300’s NEF raw files. However, where other cameras might have struggled, the D300s managed an almost 100% success rate without any intervention. Autofocus These days, 12 million pixels may not seem like a lot – in fact, the closest current model in Nikon’s line-up, the D7100, has twice that pixel count on its sensor – but I have found this to be more than enough for my needs. I’ve printed images up to A3+ in size, and I have even printed quite a few A2 images. Having used the 36.3-million-pixel Nikon D800, I know what cameras like this are capable of in terms of resolved detail, but for making a nice print or two for a wall, the D300 does the job. The Imatest chart shows good colour accuracy with the blues a little cool and the reds slightly saturated.

There is a new scene recognition system utilising both the AE and AF sensors. Picture control image parameter presets replace the older colour modes 1 2 and 3. Custom image controls now support brightness as well as contrast. Nikon Introduces the New D300 Professional Digital SLR Camera" (Press release). Nikon . Retrieved 2008-03-23.The D300s didn’t present me with any surprises during my shooting for this test. For most purposes, and certainly in daylight, AWB is perfectly capable of providing a natural-looking colour balance. The availability of a Virtual Horizon is one of the few improvements the Nikon D300s boasts over its predecessor. It is a levelling tool that debuted in the manufacturer's FX cameras – the D300s is the first DX body to offer it. The Virtual Horizon is a useful aid to avoid slanted horizons and bevelled verticals, although given that it only indicates left/right tilt, it is ultimately less sophisticated than the dual-axis electronic level gauge found on the Olympus E-30 and E-P1 cameras.

The out-of-camera JPEGs are in fact quite sharp at the default settings if you use a sharp lens to begin with, but shots taken at maximum aperture often benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. Alternatively you can change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes. Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some extra sharpening applied. My Nikon D300 has been through a few scrapes. On returning from Vancouver one year, I opened my hand luggage to find that the directional control on the rear of the camera had snapped off, no doubt after someone had crammed a bag against mine. A repair from Nikon sorted this out, but there were two repairs I made myself.DCRP Review: Nikon D300". Digital Camera Resource. Archived from the original on 2007-12-16 . Retrieved 2007-12-17. I always had to carry a spare or two for a day's shooting with the D200. With the D300, one is all I need.

Large, bright viewfinder with approximately 100% frame coverage and approximately 0.94 magnification All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6.5Mb. 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.Built-in Speedlight, SB-900, SB-800, SB-600 or SB-400: i-TTL balanced fill-flash and standard i-TTL flash The dummy auto AF-area selector mode (white rectangle on the selector) works. It lets me compose and press the button to take a picture, skipping the old focus and recompose step of the past 75 years of hand-held photography! Add to that the ability to process 14-bit signals, an auto/manual dust removal system and the ability to shoot .Tiff images in the camera and you will find the jump from D200 to D300 is as big as it was from the D100 to the D200! If the D300 is your first recent Nikon camera, I wouldn't buy a spare battery unless you find that you really need one. If you own other recent mid-line cameras like the D80 and D200, the batteries are interchangeable. The D40, D40x and older cameras use a different battery.