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Visibly best photo quality and somewhat improved performance make the Nikon D300 a significant upgrade over the D200 and an first-class all-around choice.

When you build up the follow-up to a hot camera, how do you turn up the heat? When Nikon shipped the D200 a few years ago, it’s combination of speed and photo quality blew away the limited competition, and provided a powerful, relatively cheap alternative to Nikon’s then top-of-the-line D2X. The D300 faces a far more crowded field. Not only does it take on its venerable and now lower-priced predecessor, but also a cluster of far-from-shabby dSLRs just at or below its price: the Canon EOS 40D, the Sony Alpha DSLR-A700, the Olympus E-3, and the Pentax K20D.

Nikon’s offering up a body-only box of the D300 as well as two kits: one with a DX 18mm-135mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF lens (27mm-202.5mm equivalent with the camera’s 1.5x crop factor) and one with a DX 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens (27mm-300mm equivalent). We tested the latter kit, and also practised the camera with two non-DX lenses: a preproduction version of the 14-24mm 2.8G ED and the 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF.

For the most part, Nikon sticks with the tried-and-true body design and interface of the D200, with its intelligently laid out controls. The dust- and weatherproof body weighs a hair over 2 pounds, and feels as solid as a bit tank. The viewfinder is bigger and brighter, with 100 percent coverage. There are a few behaviors I’m not fond of, like the hard to manipulate metering dial (discussed in my more-detailed analysis of the design) and occasionally problematic AF-mode navigation (discussed below), but find the camera’s operation comfortable and fluid. Nikon carries over the ultraflexible user-settings menus, which consists of two banks–shooting settings and custom settings–with four nameable slots each.

Based on the description , the 3D tracking mode seems like an optimal solution for shooting well-defined subjects–those with strong color contrast relative to the background and which occupy a large percentage of the scene–that remain within the frame. And in shoots at a local dog run, it worked best for portrait-type situations, where it tracked the dogs’ wildly moving heads while they themselves remained relatively stationary within the frame. Nevertheless, for shots where the subject moves too quickly to keep in the viewfinder–as happens with most of the other dog-run shots–Nikon advises using the 51-point dynamic AF without the 3D tracking. That works relatively well. However, we miss the AF-group visual feedback provided by the D200.

Like Canon, Nikon has a lot invested in lens-based optical-image stabilization technology, so the D300 lacks the in-body sensor-shift stabilization that Sony, Pentax, Olympus, and Panasonic offer. That’s not a big deal if you already have an investment in Nikon’s VR lenses or don’t really use/care about stabilization. But if you do care about it and making your first dSLR purchase, or contemplating shifting from another brand, then do not discount its importance; the fact that the two kits require a choice between VR and non-VR lenses foreshadows future lens choices you will have to make.

You can read more about this product here:  Nikon D300 DX 12.3MP Digital SLR Camera

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