When the D300 hit the market, I thought, “Well, this is a nice camera, but with my D200 and D2X, I probably don’t need one”. With the help of Nikonians.org contacts and the support of Nikon’s USA press relations organization, I was given the opportunity to field-test a D300. I used this experience to write some of the detailed “menu” sections of this book. It seemed like a desirable camera, although a bit complex, as it sat there next to my computer as a reference device for chapter creation.
In fact, the D300 was so complex that I didn’t have enough time with it to write a detailed book. So, I figured I’d just go ahead and buy one to complete the book. After the book was done, I could always give the D300 to my wife as a present, right? It didn’t quite work out that way!
In April, I decided to take a little trip with my family to Hunting Island, South Carolina, a beautiful coastal island with a 5-mile white sand beach bathed in Atlantic Ocean sunrises. I fully intended to use my Nikon D2X to shoot a lot of great travel stock images, and maybe grab a few frames with the D300.
The first day out, I was on the beach at 6:30 a.m. with the D2X on a tripod waiting for the sunrise. I carried the D300 over my shoulder just in case I wanted to take some handheld shots. The sun came up in all its orange glory and I shot some great images with my D2X. Since it was on a tripod, and had an 80-400 mm lens on it, I couldn’t use it for much more, so I started shooting with the D300.
I took a few pictures and noticed how smooth the shutter sounded. The images on that 3-inch monitor looked like actual pictures. I was shooting some really beautiful shots, and enjoying it. I can’t explain how exactly, but the D300 “felt different” from my D200. Something about it just felt more professional, smoother, and faster. I hate to admit it, but by the end of a couple of hours of walking around with the D300, I was head over heels in love with the camera. Why? Look at the image in Figure 1-1, for instance.
I was taking pictures that curled my eyelashes! I was walking around with this camera taking images that were so captivating I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I was using Nikon’s latest technology and my eyes to create some of the best images of my life.
That 3-inch 920,000-dot LCD monitor was simply amazing. I could see my images in great detail by zooming all the way in past the 100% pixel-peeping level.
The sensor, at 12.3 megapixels, captures twice the resolution of the D100 I started with back in 2002. In printing, I’ve found that the D300 meets or exceeds anything I’ve done with my film-based medium-format cameras. Way better than 35mm film!
It makes me kind of sad to admit this to you, but my D2X became a backup camera body for my D300. I barely used the D2X for the rest of that trip, and I came back with over 1,500 absolutely premium images of the island. Since then, the camera has literally gone everywhere I go. People have become accustomed to “Darrell with his Nikon”. I just smile, and take their picture.
The D300 is absolutely a stock shooter’s dream machine. The body size is neither too small nor too large. It feels well-balanced in my hand and shoots with a smoothness that has lit a new fire in my blood for imaging.
In fact, the image in Figure 1-2 expresses a certain emotion that a picture can say better than words. Have you ever felt this way?