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Gear / Technical Help => Photo / Video Recording => Topic started by: Frank in JC on August 23, 2007, 03:02:14 PM
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They obviously waited until I bought a D200 to make the announcement. It's an incremental upgrade, so I'm not feeling a whole lot of buyer's remorse. It will be interesting to see how the increased bit-depth of the new A/D converter affects dynamic range... something digital cameras usually suck at. The other promising upgrade is increased ISO... the [D300] reaches ISO3200 in its normal mode and ISO6400 in high-gain mode (I'm not impressed the D200's high gain mode, but we'll see).
The other [D300] upgrades...
12 megapixels: no big deal
Faster frame rate: no big deal
Larger LCD: no big deal
[Live view: could be a big deal]
The new flagship D3:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0708/07082312nikond3.asp
The new D300:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0708/07082313nikond300.asp
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Yea I just bought my D200 like a month ago. Nikon is at least claiming in the press release that the image processing is totally redesigned on both so it should be a major step forward. We will of course have to see. I'm also psyched about the D3. The full frame sensor has the potential to really knock high ISO noise down. I 'll be watching closely to see how noise and dynamic range are in these new bodies. I'm hoping Nikon is finally going to make the Canon guys jealous. If not I may have to start entertaining a switch to Canon. I'm the crack whore of photography gear sluts. ;)
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Yea I just bought my D200 like a month ago. Nikon is at least claiming in the press release that the image processing is totally redesigned on both so it should be a major step forward. We will of course have to see. I'm also psyched about the D3. The full frame sensor has the potential to really knock high ISO noise down. I 'll be watching closely to see how noise and dynamic range are in these new bodies. I'm hoping Nikon is finally going to make the Canon guys jealous. If not I may have to start entertaining a switch to Canon. I'm the crack whore of photography gear sluts. ;)
Dude, if you worked or lived here in NYC you'd be in serious trouble! Over the past couple months, I've been walking to B&H every other Friday at lunchtime... a day that strangely coincides with pay day. I L-O-V-E B&H. It's the Jerusalem of photo equipment... and not too shabby a collection of audio recording equipment as well. They have everything and they couldn't be more friendly, helpful, or fast.
The problem with the D3 is that it's prohibitively expensive for most amateurs. If I could look forward to it being my "go to" camera for the next 10-15 years maybe I could justify it, but something that'll be obsolete in just a few?? Jeez, a guy could buy his lady a nice engagement ring for that money... wait... what am I talking about... GIVE ME THE CAMERA!
This will also be a good opportunity for people to snatch up used D200s at low prices.
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Yea I just bought my D200 like a month ago. Nikon is at least claiming in the press release that the image processing is totally redesigned on both so it should be a major step forward. We will of course have to see. I'm also psyched about the D3. The full frame sensor has the potential to really knock high ISO noise down. I 'll be watching closely to see how noise and dynamic range are in these new bodies. I'm hoping Nikon is finally going to make the Canon guys jealous. If not I may have to start entertaining a switch to Canon. I'm the crack whore of photography gear sluts. ;)
Dude, if you worked or lived here in NYC you'd be in serious trouble! Over the past couple months, I've been walking to B&H every other Friday at lunchtime... a day that strangely coincides with pay day. I L-O-V-E B&H. It's the Jerusalem of photo equipment... and not too shabby a collection of audio recording equipment as well. They have everything and they couldn't be more friendly, helpful, or fast.
The problem with the D3 is that it's prohibitively expensive for most amateurs. If I could look forward to it being my "go to" camera for the next 10-15 years maybe I could justify it, but something that'll be obsolete in just a few?? Jeez, a guy could buy his lady a nice engagement ring for that money... wait... what am I talking about... GIVE ME THE CAMERA!
This will also be a good opportunity for people to snatch up used D200s at low prices.
anyone want a D100 with vertical grip? ;D
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Frank - let me know when you are going to sell your camera :-X
The problem with the D3 is that it's prohibitively expensive for most amateurs. If I could look forward to it being my "go to" camera for the next 10-15 years maybe I could justify it, but something that'll be obsolete in just a few?? Jeez, a guy could buy his lady a nice engagement ring for that money... wait... what am I talking about... GIVE ME THE CAMERA!
This will also be a good opportunity for people to snatch up used D200s at low prices.
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Frank - let me know when you are going to sell your camera :-X
I will definitely keep you in mind, but I might be giving it to my father. He'll shit.
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Frank...Frank...I am your father...Give your camera to me
Frank - let me know when you are going to sell your camera :-X
I will definitely keep you in mind, but I might be giving it to my father. He'll shit.
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Frank...Frank...I am your father...Give your camera to me
Frank - let me know when you are going to sell your camera :-X
I will definitely keep you in mind, but I might be giving it to my father. He'll shit.
Jedi Mind Tricks?
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Frank...Frank...I am your father...Give your camera to me
Frank - let me know when you are going to sell your camera :-X
I will definitely keep you in mind, but I might be giving it to my father. He'll shit.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :clapping:
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Reading my original post, I was skeptical about the new D300. Well, I'm eating crow now because it's much more than an "incremental" upgrade. No doubt some of you are considering the new camera, so here's what I've noticed so far:
Executive summary: It appears to be better than the D200 in every way.
I wasn't expecting to be impressed by the AF system, but it's in another league. My D200's focus was always off using the 85mm f/1.4 wide-open, but the D300 is dead-on, even without fine-tuning. 51 AF points ain't to shabby, either. (The D300 has an AF fine-tune function that remembers which lenses require how much tweaking, if any.)
3D tracking is pretty slick. The AF point actually moves across the frame to follow the subject. I have very little "action photography" experience but I got to try it at an RC airfield this weekend, and while the 80-200 f/2.8 I was using has the older and slower screw-drive AF, 3D tracking appears to be more than a gimmick. I hope it rocks with the 70-200 AF-S VR.
It uses something called "Active D-Lighting" which seems to be a dynamic range compressor that helps with high contrast scenes. Since digital doesn't have the same latitude as film, it's easy to underexpose when you're trying to keep the highlights from blowing-out. Active D-Lighting corrects that to some extent and helps to bring out the shadows.
It's faster. The first time you press the shutter you can hear and feel the difference. I have no need to shoot 8 fps, but I like knowing the camera can do it.
The new vertical grip is based on a flattened metal tube. Because of that, unlike the grip for the D200, it feels completely solid. It also has its own cursor button which is mandatory considering the 51 AF points. Some complain that it only holds one battery (the other stays in the camera), but I feel that it balances much better this way. It may even dampen vibration better since the camera body is effectively denser.
The information on the top LCD display can now be shown on the rear LCD screen. Excellent for tripod shooting. The 3" LCD also has room for 922,000 pixels so it's a lot sharper.
High ISO performance is a one-stop improvement over the D200, and it seems to preserve more detail. I haven't taken it to a concert yet, but it should be nicer. (Do yourself a favor and NEVER look at the high ISO images from the D3, they're too amazing.)
Auto white-balance actually works. I didn't notice if the D200 did this, but the D300 has sub-settings under "fluorescent" that include sodium vapor, metal halide, and different varieties of fluorescent (warm white, cool white, etc). I found these settings right away, so I don't THINK the D200 has them. It's not just about color temperature, these kinds of light sources have very irregular spectral distribution plots.
The remote shutter release connector has a captive cover instead of one of those tiny threaded caps that I eventually lose.
There's more, but these are the things that have jumped out at me so far. If anybody has specific questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them. Basically though... just get one, it's good :)
(And yeah, Dad got a hand-me-up D200.)
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Glad you got your D300, it does a fantastic job at concerts. I love mine.
Some examples are here: http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,95801.0.html
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Frank/Sanjay. You are both evil bastards that are going to cost me $1800.
That is all.
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Glad you got your D300, it does a fantastic job at concerts. I love mine.
Some examples are here: http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,95801.0.html
Very nice!
I wouldn't even have considering buying one if I didn't commit to giving the D200 away, but I'm glad I did. I gotta say, the D3 was tempting, but the "extra" money can just about cover a 70-200 f/2.8, a 17-55 f/2.8, and two more SB-800s. No brainer, right?
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Frank/Sanjay. You are both evil bastards that are going to cost me $1800.
That is all.
I was thinking about you when I wrote that summary ;)
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I think it is well worth the upgrade, of course all I had left was my D50 since my D200 got destroyed, so the choice is easier.
But seriously this thing is worth it's weight.
I took these yesterday, so happy with this camera.
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2099/2139177655_a56e454b03.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2100/2139718898_c251bb3c37.jpg)
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I took these yesterday, so happy with this camera.
Sanjay, where do you live? (assuming that's where you took the photos)
The first one might be begging for perspective correction, but even better, some really grainy and contrasty B+W treatment. Spooky with that sky.
Sunsets are still hard with digital but that's really nice. It's amazing that the silos aren't underexposed! I wonder if a handheld DSLR will ever get close to color slide film for sunsets--wouldn't that be amazing? I got ugly posterization effects when I tried it with the D200.
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both those photos are from the Buffalo area
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Thanks Frank, Godwin was right they're both Buffalo places although I no longer live here.
The first is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.H._Richardson_Complex
I can't find a history of the grain elevator but it is one of several on the buffalo waterfront.
I corrected the perspective a bit and converted it to B&W, let me know what you think.
(http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/9291/richardson4auh7.jpg)
here are some others from that day including an alternate view.
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2163/2139177631_239a50c802.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2084/2139177649_fb00676279.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2147/2138968945_32dfd3d123.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2219/2139177643_581c9f54d9.jpg)
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Thanks Frank, Godwin was right they're both Buffalo places although I no longer live here.
The first is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.H._Richardson_Complex
I can't find a history of the grain elevator but it is one of several on the buffalo waterfront.
I corrected the perspective a bit and converted it to B&W, let me know what you think.
I actually tried it myself and found it's not possible to correct the perspective because the right side of the tower gets cropped! B&W almost makes it look ageless, though. If you get the urge I recommended picking up the Imagenomic suite of plug-ins. RealGrain gives you a lot of tweakability in converting to B&W, for example. Fred Miranda's "BW Workflow Pro" Photoshop action is also pretty good (and cheap) and gives you enough to fiddle with, but no grain effects.
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My office is on the 10th floor, a few blocks southeast of the Empire State Building, so I finally took a snapshot this morning for the heck of it. In-camera sharpening was set very low, and I didn't zero post-processing other than resizing, so these aren't nearly as sharp as they could be. Still, I'm surprised at the level of detail in the 100% crop! Maybe the extra 2MP isn't just a marketing trick.
The lens is the cheap, all-plastic 55-200 f/4-5.6 VR, but it obviously gives amazing performance for the price.
[Edit: This was hand held at 200mm, 1/80 second @ f/16, which is probably responsible for some of the fuzziness, even with VR]
(http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x76/JCFRANK/esb.jpg)
(http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x76/JCFRANK/esb_crop.jpg)
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I am curious if anyone has gone with the D3? My wife is a pro and she is considering making the switch to Nikon because she says the ISO and WB out of the D3 is absolutely SICK!