Nikon D300

What a camera! I picked it up last Saturday when in Sydney, and have been playing with it at every opportunity. I've got a lot to learn, that's for sure. I've found the menu system to be a bit confusing, mainly because there's just so much stuff in there and sometimes it's hard to find where a particular setting is. For example, to turn off the focusing beep required me to RTFM! Obviously, it's just something you need to learn, and coming from a point-and-shoot Canon S3, the menuing system is sooo different.

Some of my favorite things on the D300:

• 51 point autofocus - amazing... and the 3D tracking mode works well too :)
• The viewfinder is clear and very nice to use
• So far the buttons all seem to be very logically placed - my only gripe is that clicking the centre of the navigation button can be a little tricky. If you click it just to the side then it will register a click in that direction rather than the middle. Maybe a separate button in the middle would be better.
• The back LCD screen is beautiful
• The camera feels very solid and well built, but is quite heavy - I suppose I'll get used to it.
• When you press the shutter button, it takes pictures instantly.
• The continuous shooting is fast too... 6fps takes a bit of getting used to!
• The Active D-Lighting really does help get more dynamic range, and has 4 settings to choose from.
  

And the bad stuff:

• I wish that when in P mode with Auto ISO turned on it would allow me to select any aperture or shutterspeed and adjust everything else to get a perfect exposure. It seems to hit a point and then not let me go further. Maybe there's a setting for it....
• As I mentioned before, the OK functionality for the navigation button (clicking the centre) is tricky to get right.
• The manual is long and a bit dry :)
  

Anyway, I'm really enjoying this camera and really glad I bought it. I bought it from Discount Digital Photographics in Sydney. They have very good prices and their service is excellent and they have heaps of stock on hand. I choose to pick it up from their shopfront instead of getting it delivered, mainly because I didn't want to wait for the courier :)

So, now some quite notes on the lens. I bought the Nikkor 18-200mm VR, mainly because I wanted a zoom lens that covered wide angle too so that I can carry around just one lens instead of two or more. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't enjoy the lens swapping ritual. So, because of the 1.5x crop factor on the DX format sensor, this gives a 27-300mm range. Not bad at all. As much as I'd like a really wide angle lens (eg. 12 or 14mm), it's just not going to happen with a good zoom range. I think this lens is a great compromise. I wish it wasn't quite so (physically) long, as it's a bit of a squeeze to fit in my Lowepro backpack/laptop/camerabag (called the CompuDaypack). Just a quick sidenote, the CompuDaypack fits my MacBook Pro 17" perfectly :)

Anyway, the lens focuses quickly, feels solidly built and the VR (Vibration Reduction) really works. I was playing with this yesterday, zoomed to maximum (200mm), and looking through the viewfinder it's very difficult to hold the camera perfectly still - there's always a bit of a jiggle. Hold down the shutter release button half way and everything goes perfectly still. Panning feels fine too, much different (and nicer) to how the IS works on the Canon S3.

I've just received an imitation MC-36 (remote shutter cable release with timer) called the Phottix N1 off eBay for $40. So - gotta go and play with it... cheers!