Thoughts on the D300s and other Nikon Announcements
Posted on 30. Jul, 2009 by Thomas in Blog, Gear, Photography
When it comes to launching products, Nikon is something of a leaky sponge. The d300s, which was launched today, is probably one of the worst kept corporate secrets this year. Nikon Rumors even knew the time the websites would go live. Still, despite this, it was worth the wait. The D300s looks like it will be a worthy successor to the D300, giving it a makeover, while retaining one of Nikon’s most popular models. That wasn’t the only thing Nikon launched today either. They also brought out the D3000, a new entry level DSLR, and they revised two of their most popular lenses, the 18-200VR and the 70-200 f2.8 VR, now both gaining the VR II moniker. But the real meat of today’s announcements was of course the D300s.
The D300s
The biggest new feature of the D300s is of course video. Sales of the D300 were undoubtedly hurt by the D90, which has a similar sensor to the older D300, but also has 720p (albeit seriously flawed) video. There has been numerous discussions online as to which camera to buy and often people would recommend the D90 over the D300. The d300s should change that however, as it also gives the D300 Video, and presumably the other sensor related improvements (such as lower noise) that the D90 had over the D300. What is interesting though is that Nikon did not choose to get into a megapixel pissing contest with Canon and their 15. megapixel 50D. The addition of a second (SD) card slot is interesting too, and further marks the industry’s slow departure from compact flash.
I think this is going to be a great little camera, and probably the best non full frame camera around for some time. It has a professional weather sealed body, Nikon’s excellent high end metering and autofocus system and all for a fairly reasonable price. I’m also glad they chose to keep the video at 24fps 720p which is useful rather than go for a hobbled 20fps 1080p mode like Canon’s Rebel T1i (which isn’t). It remains to be seen though if they’ve improved on some of the less than useful aspects of the D90′s video, namely the severe rolling shutter and the horrible aliasing. They have a couple of videos on their site which do seem to feature alot of fine detail and motion and don’t seem to show as severely compromised video as the D90 does. In fact they look pretty damn good. Oh, and I almost forgot. The d300s can auto focus while filming, something only one other video capable DSLR can do, namely the Panasonic GH1. This is certainly a boon. I really do hope they’ve improved it because having video on your camera is really handy at times and opens up a lot of possibilities. The d90′s video just isn’t quite good enough, but judging by the samples they’ve shown the D300s might just be the ticket. Oh, and one other thing, it also has a stereo microphone socket, so you’re no longer limited to mono sound.
I can’t wait to see the reviews of this camera once they start trickling into the hands of the usual reviewers, but I suspect it will be highly rated. I will certainly seriously consider looking at this camera once it hits the store shelves here.
Lenses
Nikon also chose to revised two of their stalwart lenses, the 70-200mm f2.8 VR and the 18-200 VR. The 70-200 get’s improved optics and the new VRII vibration reduction system. The Improved optics are clearly aimed at full frame cameras, and if this brings the already good lens into the same class as the 24-70 and the 14-24 then this will be an amazing, although expensive lens. The 18-200 also gets the new improved VRII (I didn’t think you could make it much better to be honest) sharper optics, and a zoom lock button to prevent the lens barrel from extending when walking around. (I”ve never noticed this problem with mine). I love the 18-200. It’s a fantastic lens and hopefully the improved optics will compensate for one of it’s few failings, namely sharpness (or lack thereof) at 200mm.
The D3000
The D3000 is a new entry level camera, basically replacing the D60. It looks like a solid option for those wanting a basic DSLR. They have given it an interesting new “Guide” mode which talks you through taking a photograph, and I guess that could be useful for novices, but it also looks like something of a gimmick. Of course I’m not really the target market, so I will reserve judgement.
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