Photography Thailand Forum

[Markus]

  Just bought the Nikon D300 at Niks Thailand on 166 Silom Road. I gave them a call 2 days ago asking for it and they mentioned its on backorder, so I put my name on the list. But today I went there, after my neighbour informed me that they have them in stock and offered to buy it immediately even though I am at the end of the list and I got it. The first buyers even get a free license for Capture NX.

[Gus]

Will eagerly await your report on it Mark

Its amazing as you say. I remember when I was looking for my Nikkor 18-200 lens I rang Denchai here in Chiang Mai as Photobug had none in stock and they told me they would have to order it, but didn't know how long the order would take.

Just happened to be in there for a different reason and noticed they had one sitting in the display case, and them my Mrs asked them if they had another one still in the box and had not been sitting in the dispaly case and they had a look and sure enough they did have another one.

All because who ever took the phone call was too lazy to look they could have missed out on a 30,000 baht sale.. makes you wonder how some of these companies actually survive in business.

[Markus]

Gus, my report is somewhat limited to my knowledge, experience and interests with Photography. So my judgements may be wrong. But for all it seems the D300 is not just a small step forward from the D200. For me the noise sensitivity was the main reason to sell my D200 and bet on the D300, since I am travelling to conferences and make pics of speakers and side events I often have to deal with bad light and still high requirements in the level of detail of the photos as I mostly make portraits.

With the D200 at ISO 800 on the 18-200 VR and a SB-800 was the limit. It seems for now that I can crank up the ISO on the D300 to 2000 till 2500 with the same equipment and get the same quality. Thus it reduces the urgency for me to purchase the 80-200mm VR 2.8 lens. Also, before I always had to make about 10 - 20 pics then go to my laptop, edit the pictures (light and crop) and then upload them onto the Internet. Now with all the editing features of the D300 I can adjust the light and crop in the camera while I am waiting for the speakers to finish and make a photo of the next one and save the edit as jpeg copy (It even allows you to add filter effects). That saves me 2 hours on a busy day.

What I also really like is the multiple exposure function where you can bracket a shot and then the camera generates a single image (sort of like HDR) from up to 10 exposures. The results were quite good and save me a lot of retouching time. The viewfinder is 100% size and the new LCD screen with 900.000 somthing pixels is cool as well. I like the Liveview goody, but I cant really see the use for it yet. It also allows you to record TIFF images which is quite nice if you need to pass on the pics right off the cam cross platform. Though the TIFFs are 32 MB!

With an 8GB CF card I can make about 400 NEFs, so you can toss your smaller cards if you would purchase a D300. I still have to figure out the Active D-Lighting and the Passive D-Lighting on the cam otherwise it feels just like the D200.

And the Focus system seems to be better, it has 51 focus points (the D200 had 9 I think) and seems to be more accurate, though that needs to verified, also its supposed to have 3d focussing whatever that means. I usually choose the focus points myself.


Cheers,

Markus

[Gus]

Thanks Marcus

Will need to same some money first before I can upgrage

[epixx]

Thanks for the report. The D300 seems to be the way to go, at least until I can get my hand on enough cash to buy the D3. It may even be good enough for me to skip the D3 altogether.

How much did you pay  for it? 

[CW Lawrence]

asked the guys at photo thailand (3rd floor MBK) who have D300 on display, they said something around 64,000... though admittedly, I forget exactly what. I do remember being quite impressed by how reasonable the price sounded. Said it should be in stock in two weeks.

[epixx]

Price seems ok, but Nikon really doesn't have a choice. The Olympus E-3 seems to go below 60,000 at launch, and the Canon 40D is already getting close to 40,000 for body only.

[Markus]

The price of the D200 is 54000 and the D300 costs 65000 (Though I get the VAT back :) ) I have been shooting everyday now and the cam is worth the higher price.

[Gus]

Yeah sounds about right, I think I paid around 62,000 for my D200 when they were new on the market.  64000 is a good price.

[danny88]

yeah I agree

[PaulCypert]

Ok price, but I'd take a used 5d from the US right now.  Mint ones are going for less than the price of a D300 which is a no brainer to me.  Crazy that a 2-3 year old camera still has better or at least as good noise (depending on who you talk to) handling, better color, and full frame.  Maybe not the best focusing camera, but what an amazing file.  I paid 99,000 for mine a while back and was happy...would be ecstatic to pick one up for the price they're going at now, but am holding for 5dmkII. 

Nikon is a nice system, but lacking way too much in areas I need (modern primes, t&s lenses, affordable full frame, etc).

Paul

[BorisD]

so how many photos did you take with the d300 that you can judge it?  and how many TS lenses does Nikon have? and one more: why do you need the fullframe of the 5D if the Dynamic Range of the 5D is lower then the D300?

[tibervince]

Hi everyone!
I am the very happy owner of a D300 for a couple of months right now and I got to say... wow... I was using D200 before which is an excellent camera. The D300 is better on many aspects: Colors/contrast/saturation are amazing, custom settings are easier to set up, noise at 1600 ISO is almost non existent, AF system is stunningly efficient, LCD is a beauty... I have'nt have the time to go out and shoot a lot yet... it will come and I'll post some pics.
In my opinion, the D300 is not even an "upgrade" of the D200... it is a brand new toy, putting the D2XS to the store room... Superb!
Cheers from the frenchy,
Vince

[olibkk]

Hi Vince

I didn't test yet the D300 to see how it handle, I'm sure it's a top SLR but I don't agree on putting the D2Xs out its class...yet. I'm using my D2Xs mostly for Motorsports photography, performances and handling experience make that camera my best choice for the job at moment.

[epixx]

Hi Vince

I didn't test yet the D300 to see how it handle, I'm sure it's a top SLR but I don't agree on putting the D2Xs out its class...yet. I'm using my D2Xs mostly for Motorsports photography, performances and handling experience make that camera my best choice for the job at moment.

Maybe you shouldn't try the D300 then. It might cost you   

Its better, faster autofocus and better high ISO makes it a perfect camera for motorsport. In addition, you get 8fps with battery-grip, but without any crop-mode.