Jeffrey’s Blog

There’s a lot to discuss with the new Nikon D300 Digital Camera, so let’s get started.

Look and Feel. Much like the Canon 40D Digital Camera announced earlier this week, the D300 is an evolution of a popular and proven SLR design. Instead of radical changes, we see a moderate tuning of design elements, with softer corners; but overall the camera will remain familiar to current owners.

From the front we can see the slightly more organic curves and a restyled red accent on the grip. The Nikon logo looks slightly bolder, and the D300 Digital Camera logo has been moved up and left a bit to make room for the new tethered Remote Terminal cover (top right).

The back has the same number of components in familiar places, but the purpose and name of a few have changed. Starting at the upper left, what was once the Bracket button has been replaced with the Playback button, and the five buttons left of the LCD have been moved around a bit. Menu moves up one button to make room for more clearly marked zoom buttons, and the Enter button has changed to OK. On the right, the AF-area mode switch no longer includes the Group dynamic-AF option, and the memory card latch has a new design. Finally, the 3-inch LCD takes up more real estate on the back. A plastic screen cover is still available for the D300 Digital Camera, but is not shown here. The LCD itself is reinforced with tempered glass.

On top we have only minor style changes, with a trend toward oval and round buttons on the D300  in place of the oblong buttons on the D200 . The left strap lug has been moved from its far-forward position on the D200  to a spot more near the center of the body. There are also minor changes to the Status LCD.

Body. The D300  has a strong magnesium alloy body for a rock-solid feel. It is sealed to keep dust and moisture out, and the optional battery grip is built of the same material. The substantial grip looks similar to the D200, which was an excellent fit for most hands.

LCD. The first major aspect that the D300 Digital Camera shares with the D3 is its high-resolution LCD. At 920,000 pixels, the D300’s LCD resolution is higher than any SLR currently on the market. As LCDs get bigger, the value of higher resolution becomes clear. You can more easily check focus, sometimes even without zooming in; but when you do zoom in, you can really check focus. The actual resolution in more familiar dimensional terms is 640×480, because they count each color in their calculation (RGB). But even if you count three horizontal pixels as one, that’s still 266 pixels per inch, which is a lot finer resolution than your computer screen. The result is a remarkably smooth, crisp, and sharp view of your images. Menus look like they’re printed on photographic paper.

The new LCD has a 170 degree viewing angle, and offers a 100% view, whether you’re looking at captured images or framing in Live View mode. We’ll test that when we get a sample, but in general we find that to be true.

Relative Link about Nikon D300

Nikon D300挑戰市場

Nikon New Introduce D300 Digital Camera

Fierce Competitor Nikon D300

D300 is a Dream to Use and Hold

Nikon D300 Aggressively Competing in Market

Nikon D300 Exceed High ISO Shooting

Nikon D300’s Day Has Come

This entry was posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 1:49 pm and is filed under Digital Camera, Make My Day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.