"Nikon D300 Digital SRL Camera"

Nikon D300 Digital SRL Camera

This has been rumored quite a while. After the release of Nikon D80 more than a year ago, I’ve been hearing of a camera on the way that would soon replace the already pro-level Nikon D200. The rumors and speculations eventually grew stronger and before we know it, Nikon has revealed last August 2007 the all new D300.

Packed with features, almost everything from the Nikon D200 was upgraded. This comes to no surprise, however, since the Nikon D200 was first announced on November 2005 and over the past two years new technologies have already replaced the foundations that built digital SLR systems a few years back.

The upgrades in the D300, as was mentioned, were considerable. The new DSL now has 12.3 effective megapixel compared to the 10.2 million effective pixel CCD of its predecessor. It is also equipped with Nikon’s Expeed Image Processing System giving emphasis to the speed and processing power that most digital cameras deed today.

A new auto focus system is fitted to the new D300 which has options for Single area AF mode and Dynamic AF modes using groups of either nine, 21 or all 51 focus points. And with Nikon’s 3D Focus Tracking feature has grown into a superb upgrade from the older D200. Plus the new LiveView shooting modes has bridged the gap between shooting experience of a DSLR and a compact point and shoot digital camera. The LiveView feature allows users to frame a shot using the camera’s LCD monitor.

Accuracy of the auto focus system, the auto exposure and the auto white balance is due to the Scene Recognition System that can also be found in the Professional level Nikon D3. Fast, accurate and intelligent calculations are features of the new D300. This new system claims to have a 1,005-segment sensor that is able to recognize a wider range of colors and light patterns.

Powering-up has been measured to a mere 0.13 seconds. Shooting at a 45 millisecond shutter release lag time which allows the D300 to shoot six frames per second. Equip the camera with the MB-D10 Multi-Power Battery pack and it can go as fast as eight frames per second.

And its seems Nikon has joined other DSLR camera manufacturers in providing self-cleaning sensors on their camera units. Although, if you ask me, such features are overrated. The sensor would eventually need some "old-swab style" sensor cleaning regardless of the vibrating filters. Nevertheless, to keep up with the Canon, Sony, Olympus and Pentax releases, the D300 has been equipped with four different resonance frequencies that vibrate the optical low pass filter in front of the image sensor. This vibration is designed to shake particles free and reduce the appearance of dust.

The camera also has a viewfinder that provides 100 percent coverage, a 920,000 dot VGA LCD screen, a 170-degree wide viewing angle, the usual rugged magnesium alloy body, and a shutter mechanism that has been rated to reach up to 150,000 cycles.

November 2007 is the scheduled consumer release of the D300. It has been given a price tag of around $1,799.95. The price is still an estimate since things can still change in the next two months but that is basically the price estimate that most experts are expecting. The current Nikon digital SLR line up that is still in production is now D3, D2XS, D300, D200, D80, D40x and D40.