Nikon D300 sample from Spain
This Nikon D300 sample is from (Quesabesde) Spain. All these shots are taken with a general purpose Nikon 18-200mm VR lens; active D-lighting is off; high ISO NR is on for the ISO 800 and higher shots. The ISO 200 shots of the flower and Castle Bridge was with High ISO NR off. I think ISO 1600 images have Watercolor effects all over. They look clean but details are completely gone. ISO 200-800 is useable. ISO 1600 and 3200 look good, unless if compared to a Nikon D3. I think the D300 results look different to the D200 so far, but not necessarily “better”, less noise and less detail, chroma noise is well suppressed. Some folks like to see no noise, others don’t mind noise if the detail is there. It’s a tradeoff. I think exposures on some samples are all over the place in this series. ISO 3200 is the best of the three, probably because exposure was close to correct. If you can’t nail the exposure, ISO noise will suffer. A lot of sloppy shooters will run around claiming that the D300 is too noisy. We’re already hearing it on shots with poor exposure, and other settings that create noise. In order to get nice high ISO performance, set Nikon D300 on NR ON (Low) as opposed to Normal. Because from what samples have been floating around so far, NR On (Low) seems to offer the best balance between detail retention and chroma noise reduction.
The high ISO 800 x 600 crops of the D200 vs. D300 tells an excellent story of the difference in noise characteristics between the two cameras. To me, the end result from the D300 is simply many orders of magnitude more pleasing than the output from the D200. As some have pointed out, perhaps the “brighter” D300 pictures suggest that the D300 sensor is more sensitive or the tone curve in the D300 is optimized differently. These high ISO samples shows a lot less color noise than Canons usually do. As for the softness, they are hard to judge. We have to see some controlled tests before jumping to any conclusions. Anyone who’s serious about low light really needs to start saving for a D3. There’s no reason to buy a D300 if you’re main need is high ISO. The D3 is truly amazing. Just wait a bit for the D3 sensor to show up in a less expensive Nikon body, perhaps this will happening within 6 months to a year.
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Artwork Said,
October 23, 2007 @ 2:30 pm
The problem is that you have seen a beta version firmware made picture!!!
Did you see that the ISO low1 (ISO 100) is not to see as a detail in the exif data??? The version no. begins with 0.xxx! And you made a serious review! Or your camera did have the 1.xxx firmware? Because that could be interesting!
Please tell me if you have tested the D300 with the 0.xxx or with the 1.xxx firmware! Because I have seen almost the same as you did, but with the 0.xxx. And if it stays with the 1.xxx too, than …
xpherion Said,
October 23, 2007 @ 6:17 pm
Sorry to say that firmware on Nikon D300 is 0.xxx, that means pre-production version.