nikon d300 – test shots and first thoughts

Got my D300 yesterday and had an opportunity to go and take some shots with it. Let me say from the first that I am rather impressed. I wasn’t sure how much of a step it would be over the D200, but results so far are rather impressive.

High noise levels are, so far, fairly impressive. One shot taken yesterday:

This image was taken @ ISO 1600, F11, 1/250. Here is a 1:1 crop:

Obviously, noise levels are fairly well controlled.

An example @ ISO 3200:

This sample is particularly interesting as it contains both deep shadows and strong highlights. Even in the transition and highlight->shadow gradients, the results are very impressive.

A third example, this time from 6400:

These results from 6400 are likewise encouraging, but my initial tests containing deep shadows on 6400 aren’t quite so nice. There does seem to be a good bit of chroma noise in the darkest of shadows, but I’m going to hold off on making a definite statement on that until I’ve had a chance to shoot with it some more.

At the end of the day, though, the D300 seems to do very well in the noise department, though we’ll see how that stacks up in general use.

Some more general shots from the day, as well as a full gallery:


2 Replies to “nikon d300 – test shots and first thoughts”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *