Nikon D300 camera features and specification details are available here. This camera is compatible with today’s type of photography and many photographers use it in India.
Nikon D300 price is Rs. 18,900/- in India (body only) and there are more kits available including lens with extra charge according to it.
Nikon D300 is still widely used by many photographers in India and across the world specially for wedding events. In this post we will get to know about guide and more features of this camera. First of all let’s talk about when it was launched.
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Nikon D300 Release Date
Nikon D300 was initially released in August 2007 as an icons flagship DX format camp.
It’s an oldie but it’s still a relevant digital camera by today’s standards.
You’re gonna get some great life out of this model, so let’s jump to it.
Nikon D300 Features
Nikon D300 has a 12.3 megapixel CMOS sensor, it is capable of making great high resolution images for print and web use.
You have got your standard shooting modes of course but also a lively you should have on they let you use the three interested LCD screen as a viewfinder.
Another good thing about the Nikon D300 is these 6 frames per second continue to shooting speed you are gonna catch a great deal of action.
If you are shooting in India for sports or chasing your children or butterflies in motion lastly a key feature that will appeal to autocracy.
I want to make their post production digital workflow easier is the picture control system.
They have presets available that will adjust your photos and camera are customized with yourself.
The camera defaults to standard picture control but you can adjust that by going into your picture control mode.
You can set it to neutral vivid monochrome, you can make the images Shopper in camera and this will save your time and post production.
There are other features of the Nikon D300 but these are the key punch that you should know about before buying it in low price.
It is still a very capable camera, the reason for this is when it launched it carried a lot of professional features into this.
I have the Nikon D300 which is available at very low price in India with the mbd battery grip and a lens.
I think at the time this is a combination that you would have seen a lot is the VR version.
So the first version with VR that launched and it is a perfect combination with this camera.
The Nikon D300 brought to the party was great low light performance so the D300 really marked a huge change in nikon sensor technology and a lot of that did filter over.
It wasn’t as capable in low light, the 12.3 megapixel sensor here could manage ISO which was a very good range.
It also has low modes and high modes though personally, I would say well away of those because in today’s standards ISO is absolutely useless. that being said i felt confident taking photographs with this camera down to well up to rather ISO and sometimes even above.
Now before Nikon D300 I had a lot of Nikon’s other DSLRs with high price and I found them unusable.
Above by base ISO unless it was to just try and get that amazing shot that was a potential.
It just didn’t even factor in with this I suddenly had a little bit more range and capability.
Another reason why I decided to go for the Nikon D300, at the time was the fantastic frames per second rate this could manage with the optional battery grip and either the battery from the D300 or a set of AA batteries eight frames per second.
Now Nikon’s older versions could not get even close to that number and this even gave the Nikon D300 a run for its money and its price is very low in India.
So that was a really cool feature to have and today it means if you want a low budget entry point to nature photography, this is a good choice.
Another reason why it is a good choice is the amazing autofocus system.
This has a point autofocus system that was carried over from some of the professional cameras, it is truly phenomenal.
Another great thing about this is it felt great when you looked through in the viewfinder was fantastic and those auto focus points covered the majority of the screen.
So it really did go around the entire center of the screen up to.
It was within maybe of the edges that’s really good, this also had the Nikon pro level layout of buttons.
So rather than having a mode dial at the top of the camera, you actually had a quality white balance and ISO choices as well as a way to change from single shot to high continuous and you have the mode button activated on the nexus shutter button.
That is Nikon’s pro layout, it is not something that’s carried over to say the Z which is what i use now and it also means that this camera does not have a full auto mode.
It has program mode which is pretty close and you can switch on auto ISO and that kind of thing and you can create an auto mode but it doesn’t have an auto mode out of the box.
Nikon really showed its intentions with this was aimed at another feature of this being a pro level camera in affordable price in India, it uses compact flash cards.
Although the Nikon D300 at time had compact flash we did see the introduction of sd cards into the consumer cameras around that time so the fact this used high bandwidth compact flash cards did signal that this was a pro level camera.
It was also compatible with a variety of compact flash cards up to 32 gigabytes plus so that was really good as well it does have a single card slot which might put some of you off.
I know that everyone loves their dual card slots nowadays but i will be honest with you back then that was completely normal and in all honesty it never caused me a problem.
I would just say buy high quality compact flash cards because when I had Nikon D300, I had a couple that failed and since then I moved to sandisk extreme pro series and since then I haven’t had a problem.
The camera does have a built-in pop-up flash, now usually I tell you to avoid it and don’t use it.
As much as I will tell you don’t use it for photographs, this does have a very cool feature which you can use it as a commander mode.
A commander for Nikon’s external flashes say the SB and so forth it is very cool to have that option in your camera because the fact of the matter is that a commander mode is actually quite rare.
However you can take this you can put a infrared blocker on the front so essentially it goes across and you don’t see the flashlight, you just get the pulse of infrared light which will activate remotely.
In remote mode giving you some really creative options for flash photography with only one flash a nice touch of course you can also have multiple flashes and create really intricate setups and not need the SU commander module, instead the Nikon D300 tracking for the autofocus on.
This camera is phenomenal and for people that like to use it for instance to track birds and wildlife in India at cheap price.
It is very effective and works very well, I never used that it wasn’t something I liked but at least you have the option I am just going to take the battery grip off.
Now just to show you the size of the camera when it is off.
So it is a much more compact camera than say the D300 and it launched against but it says a chunky grip that feels good and even with the mounted.
It is still a very well balanced camera and lens combination and I think that kind of shows the intention of this being a pro level camera.
The camera weight was quite heavy because of all the technology crammed inside it and that great shutter which does mean it balances well.
The pro level glass just feels good on this, it is compatible with pretty much every F mount lens you can imagine so whether it is a manual focused lens, autofocus lens from today that will work fine with this.
The only exception is the designated lenses of the electronic diaphragms with best price.
I don’t believe the Nikon D300 can control those and I don’t believe AFP lenses will work with this either that being said if you buy this I suggest you buy a load of AFS glass and this just feels great it does have a screwdriver in it.
So if you want to use this of AF-D lenses it works perfectly fine other things that I really like and this is a very odd thing to point out but it has a beautifully rounded corner on the left hand side to rest the palm of your other hand on when you are taking photos and I feel that this is one of the most ergonomic cameras that you can find.
If we just add the grip back on again you do get a whole load of buttons controls and a good size screen on the back of this.
The screen is a good quality and it’s obviously no comparison to the screens we have on modern SLRs but for the time it was good and today it is acceptable.
The big thing is should you buy one are they still good value.
You can add the battery grip for a further to pounds and maybe an extra battery might get thrown in as well you can then buy a lens.
You have a great versatile combination if you want to do low light photography maybe you pass on this because in comparison to today’s cameras it simply can’t stand up but if you’re taking nature photography usuals of daylight.
This still looks great 12.3 megapixels is more than enough to get a good quality photo from and hopefully you have seen some of the examples popping up as we go that really give you an indication that the quality of the images you can get from this are great.
In fact I have shot weddings with this camera at the time and people were extremely happy with the results.
So definitely not an issue if you know doing massive billboards.
More Functions
You might want a bit more resolution but to be honest with you I don’t know where your Nikon D300 be looking.
So this camera is massively capable at very affordable price in India, it has features that are even impressive today 8 frames per second is still something that Nikon’s consumer level cameras are not capable of add to that.
The camera feels great in the hands it still has a sensor that’s capable of taking great photos and I think this is a really good buy even today if you are thinking about getting into SLR photography .
If you are thinking that you want something a bit more advanced that will challenge you a little bit, this camera is a good choice because you don’t have that sort of full auto mode.
You might be more tempted to use aperture priority or shutter priority or even use it in full manual where you learn the most and a camera like this will really allow you to do that quickly and easily with very quick access to all.
The other settings whether its ISO, white balance or you have the front and rear command dials to change the aperture and the shutter speed.
It just allows you to do things very quickly.
It allows you with to have the same level of control as you get from the camera itself.
So you have front and rear dials for aperture and shutter you have obviously a shutter button and you even have an AFL button and a selector for your focus point.
This is definitely worth keeping in mind it’s a great camera, I still love it.
This was all about Nikon D300 camera features, specifications and details about its price in India.
Check out other D series camera like Nikon D60.
