The Imatest chart shows good colour accuracy with the blues a little cool and the reds slightly saturated. Compared to the Canon EOS 7D, the Nikon D300s offers an AF system that will be hard to beat, but cannot compete with the 7D’s 18-million-pixel resolution. The totally intuitive 8-directional multi-area selector makes selecting any of the 51-Point autofocus settings simplicity itself. The file quality settings available on the D300s include Basic, Normal and Fine for JPEGs, plus you can also store your photos as TIFFs and in Nikon's proprietary raw format (NEF). NEFs can be either 12- or 14-bit. Don't expect to see much of a difference between these two unless you do lots of post-capture tweaking, in which case you may see a benefit to working with 14-bit originals. Do note that the maximum continuous shooting speed drops from 7fps to about 2.5 in this case. The D300 has not only a built-in autofocus motor for all Nikon autofocus- lenses, but includes CPU and metering for older Nikon F-mount AI/AI-S lenses and the new generation perspective control lenses ( PC-E). [3]

The Nikon D300s lets you dial in shutter speeds of up to 30 seconds and has a Bulb mode as well for exposure times of practically any length, which is very good news if you are seriously interested in night photography. There is an optional long-exposure noise reduction function that can be activated to filter out any hot pixels that may appear when extremely slow shutter speeds are used, though I found no need for this when taking the photograph below at a shutter speed of 30 seconds, aperture of f/11 at the L1.0 (ISO 100) sensitivity setting. We've included a 100% crop for you to see what the quality is like. The D300's picture quality is frankly awesome. The superb sharpness may be due in part to the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8, but the quality of the colour rendition must surely be down to the sensor alone. This is borne out by the fact we made the same remarks about the Sony Alpha 700 which we reviewed recently. The colours aren't just saturated and natural looking, they seem to have an extra clarity and purity about them too. File formats include JPEG, TIFF, NEF (Nikon's raw image format compressed and uncompressed), and JPEG+NEF (JPEG size/quality selectable) Add to that the ability to process 14-bit signals, an auto/manual dust removal system and the ability to shoot .Tiff images in the camera and you will find the jump from D200 to D300 is as big as it was from the D100 to the D200!

Specifications

The built-in speedlight caused no red-eye in this test, so there is no real difference between the two photos in this respect.

Everything that was right about the D300 remains right in the D300s, and core to its performance are AF, white balance and metering systems that are currently second to none. However, there are some things that the D300s cannot do. Its resolution of 12 million pixels might be enough, but it is starting to look rather low compared to some of the competition. Despite the lower score, the Nikon D90 offers a lighter and more compact option for photographers on a budget. It provides similar performance at a lower price point, making it a suitable choice for those prioritizing cost and portability.

Center-weighted: Weight of 75% given to 6, 8, 10, or 13 mm dia. circle in center of frame or weighting based on average of entire frame (8 mm circle when non-CPU lens is used) However, the viewfinder on the D300s shows 100% of the image captured. This is still relatively unusual in APS-C format DSLRs, and coupled with the 100% frame coverage in Live View mode it means that with the D300s what you see on or through the camera is – literally – what you will get in the final image. Nikon D300s Autofocus, metering and white balance

Like many of Nikon's film SLRs, the D300s allows you to record more than one exposure in a single photo. Up to ten exposures can be combined. The example below was taken using two exposures. Perhaps the most important new feature is the D300s' movie mode. Whilst the D300 was strictly a stills camera, the D300s can also shoot 720p high-definition video at 24 frames per second. Its movie mode is thus quite similar to that of the D90 and the D5000, with two notable differences. One is that apart from the built-in monaural microphone, the D300s also offers a stereo sound recording option via an all-new stereo mic input. The separately sold external microphone can be mounted to the flash hot-shoe – a sensible design solution given that you don't use flash while recording video anyway. The other difference versus the D90 and the D5000 is that you can use autofocus while filming, by way of pressing the AF-ON button. Don't get too excited about this option though – the contrast-detect autofocus method employed is so slow that there is no way it can keep up with anything that moves; which makes it completely useless for video. Really, it seems as if Nikon took an “if-that's-what-you-want-you-can-have-it” approach to providing AF for movies, without doing anything to make it actually useful. If you already have a D200 and are on a budget, don't try the D300, because you're going to want one. Images from the D300, as I shoot it anyway, have significantly more vibrant color and far better control of highlights and shadows. Also, on paper the EOS 7D should be better in low light, offering an ISO 12,800 (equivalent) setting as well as a range of new and improved features. D-lighting is Nikon's dynamic range optimisation tool that attempts to squeeze the full dynamic range of the sensor into JPEGs. Active D-lighting works “on the fly”, before the in-camera processing engine converts the raw image data into JPEGs. The available settings are Off, Auto, Low, Medium, High and Extra High. The following examples demonstrate the difference between the two extremes, Off and Extra High. Note that if you are not satisfied with the results, you can also apply post-capture D-lighting from the Retouch menu.

Something else that has been made easier with the D300s compared to the D300 is getting a level horizon. The popular virtual horizon feature of the full-frame D3 and D700 is now included in the D300s.

For more advanced photographers, the other stand-out feature is the optional 14-bit image processing. This allows the use of 14-bit RAW files, offering greater colour depth and a wider latitude for post-processing exposure adjustment without image degradation. Other significant features include extendible ISO range from 100 to 6400, although the standard setting is 200 to 3200. Active D-lighting is very useful too, automatically adjusting shadow and highlight exposure in high-contrast shots, providing additional dynamic range. Other manufacturers do have similar systems, such as Sony’s Dynamic Range Optimiser, but possibly thanks to more advanced on-chip image processing the Nikon system appears to be particularly effective, preserving shadow and highlight detail in extremely high contrast situations. I’d have to compare it side-by-side with the A700 to determine which is better, but it certainly out-performed the DRO system on the Sony A200, which I was testing at the same time as the D300. be used if maximum aperture is f/5.6 or faster; Color Matrix Metering and aperture value display supported if user provides lens data The Nikon D300 is one terrific camera, but it faces a couple of problems which are nothing to do with its design. The problems are more to do with the market that it finds itself in. If Nikon made only DX-format cameras then the D300 would be a must-have model. Fantastic image quality, superb build and all the features you could hope for.The D300 has an amazing automatic ability to fix lateral color fringes. The D300 actually makes lenses look better than they are! This gives better, sharper results. There's no need to activate this, it just works, with AF and even old manual focus and fisheye lenses.