D300

I had the D200, and upgraded to the D7000, but was not happy with the autofocus and smaller size. I returned it and got the D300S. Incredible!

Finally unleashed on 600VR; even with Tamron 200-500 excellent for bird shots, provided you push the ISO for fast shutter speeds (which you can do, of course). You get what you pay for, as usual with all things optical.

I use the D300 having upgraded from the D200 and the D100 before that. I find it sharp and fast, an all round winner.

Outperforms my D2xs that cost 4 times as much.

Bought my1st-dslr-a d40 but after two-three weeks in possession of it I bought this beautiful camera. I wanted a really good one and new I'd have to pay big as this was fairly new on the market. Price was well worth it! I love it! Still learning lots about what it can do.

One of a few that will meter with non CPU lenses.(Nikon F801 & F90 also did this)

The only thing I wished for in my D200 was less noise at high ISO. So I changed from D200 to D300 , and now I am more than happy with my upgrade.

Thanks Nikon.

I upgraded to this jewel of a camera from a D40 in July of this year. I have taken it with me almost everyday I've had it so I could get to know it in time for the winter bird season.

First thing I liked was the feel of it in the hand. Actually this is when I decided to buy it. I went into a camera store and held it. I didn't buy from that store but ordered from amazon right when I got home.

There are some controls in there that a lot of birders don't take advantage of. This defeats the purpose of this camera. Active D Lighting tames shadows AND highlights which on a birds body shape and the places than hang out, is an indispensable feature that really brings out details. The second is auto ISO can be set in third stop increments. This means that if an exposure needs just a bit more than 400, it will auto adjust to perhaps 550 rather than 800. it just does this intuitively and correctly so you can spend your time taking great shots rather than fussing with controls. Even if those controls are aesy to get to. It takes one second to manually change ISO but only a split second to miss a shot!

The pictures controls, typical of a generation 2 Nikon allow the photographer to give the look to the color of his/her shots that we desire.

I personally use 21 focal points. It fills the center are nicely with a sharp focus, just the area us birders want it. It's almost as if Nikon designed this camera for birders.

If you're thinking about getting it, just do what I did and just buy it. I have not regretted that decision yet and neither will you.

Just an update to report that the "Dead battery sysndrome" where the camera eroneously reported a dead battery or then locked up when some long lens and or teleconverters were used (such as the Kenko Pro 300), has now been fixed by a firmware update.

It has been a long time coming, but now makes the camera a ten rating.

Great camera body and works well with good lenses.

This is an upgrade from the D200 I recently owned and my third D-SLR.

One of the strongest points is the autofocus system. It is fast and accurate. However: it takes some time to get used to the camera and all the settings. It is not easy and one should really take the time to learn about this camera, because it is otherwise almost no point buying it.

I can imagine that first users are 'disappointed' by the camera when they want to shoot straight from the box. Almost impossible in my opinion: you really need to change settings and get to know the different options. Straight from the box it could even happen that one will end up with soft, not sharp images or even images out of focus.

For birders it is a great camera.

Highly recommended, easy to use in the field. The automatic sensor cleaning is a good addition to the D200 especially after changing lenses in the field or even worse.. in the car!

great cam. LV and iq superb

I have come a long way with my digital cameras having initially started with Sony's DSC-S85 > Nikon D50 (still my back-up camera > and now... the Nikon D300. The D300 is in a league of it's own. It is a blazingly fast camera capable of taking up to 8 shots per second. This makes it ideal for fast-action wildlife! Focus accuracy is absolutely terrific and though it can make use of up to 51 focus points (and predictive focusing when panning), I generally have it set at 11 points. Why, because it uses less processing power and is therefore even more responsive...
All in all, Nikon's best DX camera todate!

Sold my D200 for a good price and got this baby...FANTASTIC!!!! Camera. List of positives are to long to mention, read the expert reviews on-line.

This was the first DSLR i bought and was quite dissapinted so i gave it to a freind of mine who takes landscapes.After that i moved to a Eos 400d and liked it a lot more.

As an upgrade from my Nikon D70, this camera is an absolute marvel. I've only had it a couple of weeks but already I'm getting far more usable shots than I did before.

Took several shots from the Bunting Hide at Pennington on a dull, rainy day, today (something I just couldn't have done with my D70), and I upped the ISO to 3200 just to see what the camera was cabable of. Yes, there was some noise, but only as much as I was used to at 400 ISO with my D70. On it's own, this is worth the upgrade, but the camera offers so much more.

6 frames per second is ample for most situations, and with the battery pack that goes up to 8!

Build quality is exceptional, and rubber seals are use throughout - the camera isn't waterproof, but it'll keep the rain and dust out.

I am still getting used to the camera - the manual is over 400 pages - and that's just the one language! I love the way you can focus using the AF-ON button instead of the shutter release button - makes it so easy to go from manual to single to continous focussing without having to use any switches.
I have used it mainly with the Sigma 500mm f4.5 HSM, and it's a cracking combo - photos are so much more sharp than what I was getting before.

So far I've only got two gripes - the first is the price is still a little high, but it is falling somewhat - I just couldn't wait any longer!

The second "proplem" is that when I use the Kenko 1.4x converter with the Sigma 500, if the light isn't great, the low battery warning light comes on and the camera freezes, - switching off and on unfreezes the camera. This isn't a major problem - I always used to have to focus the Sigma and converter combo manually on the D70 anyway as it used to hunt too much.

This last issue is the only reason i haven't given a score of 10.

I won't go into the multitude of other things this camera can do - there are far too many for here, and I haven't even tried most of them (live view, 51 point focussing, etc). And it has got a fantastic monitor on the back too.

Last words - this is a great camera!