I was hesitant to take the plunge. I actually gave up my turn when I was up for a D300 back in November. We had just had a costly vacation and I wanted to make sure that the camera would be a notable upgrade over my D200. I waited it out a bit and read some reviews and it seemed that the D300 is, in fact, a substantial upgrade. I can confirm that it is, quite substantial.

The D200 is a great camera and I still haven’t decided whether to keep mine or to sell it. Given the quality of the D300, I can’t see myself reaching for the older body unless my D300 is unavailable for some reason, such as a repair. However, the D200 is too good a camera to sit on a shelf. I think I will feel better with someone using it, and I can use the cash towards an 80-400 lens.

I have only shot about 75 frames with the D300, so I am not ready to write a substantive review of it. However, as these initial photos show, the D300 takes sharp, well-saturated photos. The D200 did a nice job, but it always needed some boost in saturation and sharpening. The photos below are minimally processed from RAW to sRGB JPEGs in Lightroom with a little cropping and sharpening, but no Photoshop work.

Before getting to the photos, however, I will note a few things about the camera’s performance that really impress me.

• The LCD screen is amazing. It is the first screen I have been able to use to judge focus and sharpness.
• The viewfinder is equally clear. It is the best I have ever used on a DSLR and it makes it easy to use manual focus.
• The camera focuses instantly and with 51 focus areas, there is always one available to the area of your subject you wish to focus upon.

Here is the first photo taken with my new camera. It is an ISO 1600 capture of a whistle on my desk.

As you can see, the ISO 1600 performance is actually quite good.

Here are some early February blossoms from the Denver Botanic Gardens

This ice was melting on one of the decorative ponds at the gardens.

There are 21 other photos in the set on flickr.

tags: camera | d300 | nikon | photos