Review Of The Nikon D300 Camera with 18-200mm lens Digicam

Sum ‘n’ Substance:

Thumbs up: Excellent performance for the class it is placed in; awesome picture quality; rugged in construction; custom settings; dual card slots; onboard wireless flash controller; video capture.

Thumbs down:
No noticeable upgrades in the ISO noise; not very user-friendly.

Inside the trunk:
3.0 inch TFT LCD; 920,000 pixels (VGA; 640 x 480 x 3 colors); 170° viewing angle; Type I Compact Flash memory cards (UDMA compliant); SD memory cards, SDHC compliant;

Sensor specifications:
23.6 x 15.8 mm CMOS sensor; DX format; RGB Color Filter Array; Built-in fixed low-pass filter (with self-cleaning unit); 13.1 million total pixels; 12.3 million effective pixels; 3:2 aspect ratio; inbuilt lithium-ion battery packed along with a charger.

The Whiz- kid speaks: The follow up to the DS300 which was in production from 18months is the DS300s, which Nikon say, has improved all faults and performance and thrown in a few added features. Well, let’s find out if they managed to achieve that.

Razzle- dazzle:
Let’s face it, Nikon really don’t care much about the looks of the camera, although it is pretty decent for its class. It is covered in a smart matte black and wears a red batch just like the DS300. The Nikon logo is embossed just above the lens too. The construction is rugged and the weight has increased because of the dust and weather – proof resistance. Its ergonomics have improved slightly making it more comfortable to grip while taking a shot. The viewfinder is amazing; it is big and bright with a full hundred percent coverage.

Inside dope:
The DS300s features two banks of user setting menus one is the shooting settings and the other is the custom settings with four nameable slots each. This ultra-flexible user setting is not easily accessible and over time, can really get on your nerves. Something like the mode-dial which is present on the canon would have been perfect.

One of the quickest ways to access the customs settings is through the information display which still requires no less than four presses. The multi-selector was sloppy and inaccurate. One of it outstanding features though, has to be the dual storage media standards; compact flash (CF) and storage digital (SD). The user can choose which cards stores the images and which one stores the movie clips.

The DS300s carries most of the features the D300 has like the Scene Recognition System with 1005 pixel RGB colour metering, and the brilliant 51-Point Multi-CAM3500 auto-focus system, auto white balance control and auto exposure. The image processing system EXPEED, lives up to Nikon’s much praised image quality of accurate, well saturated and natural-looking colours, smooth skin gradations, all with minimum amount of noise. To this pack the DS300 adds an astounding image capture of seven frames per second without the additional battery. The performance of the DS300s has been pumped up, and is pretty noticeable when you’re running through the menus of clicking moving shots. The boot – up however is more or less the same e like the DS300. The AF system is also incorporated straight from the DS300. The single shot modes were responsive and the camera did it in 0.3 seconds, right from switch on and shoots. However in low light conditions it took 0.7 seconds, which is still good, mind you. There is a live view/movie mode that toggles the function of the playback button to handle volume and display brightness. The DS300s is fitted with an in built lithium-ion battery, which allows you to click around 950 images on a full single charge, so the efficiency of this cam is pretty good too.

Nitty-gritty:
Honestly this is a great camera; it has everything that you need for a professional shoot. It is very efficient, has a 3inch LCD screen, an awesome viewfinder and is also provides resistance to dust and weather, superb quality pictures and an overall brilliant performance. But if you aren’t going to shoot any videos, you might as well same some bucks and get yourself the DS300; else, the DS300s is the one to behold.