D300 thoughts so far!

well as promised a Nikon D300 update... OMG I love her, nuff said really.

Ok seriously, I got the camera wednesday last week so have had a great weekend of play time and a couple of days this week while I have been off work, in fairness I haven't given her the fairest of chances yet. While I have been out and about most of my shooting has been with the cheap Tamron 70-300ld not really a great performer, as you might well have heard me moan. But the results i posted before where from said lens and to be honest I'm rather pleased, focusing on the D300 is sharp and spot on, the metering is awesome under these conditions and and its quick. I have been playing with high ISO's of 1600 and am really pleased with its ability to keep noise under control, although viewable on flat detail-less areas its always manageable in the darkroom and of course I've been able to push the shutter up above the 1/4000 barrier of the last camera.

Weobley Castle, 10mm, processed using Topaz and CS5

Today I took the camera out to the Gower for my 365 challenge, Weobley Castle providing the opportunity for some wide angle fun. and I'm again very pleased, the ergonomics of the camera are great despite it being both 400g heavier and almost twice the size of the little D60. Its a pro end camera and it shows, its always comfy and ready to use, the extra control meaning its easy to make changes on the fly and not to forget something as I did on the D60 because it was always hidden away. Picture Quality is great, is it better? well if I'm honest to my eye I couldn't say, the D60 has and still does hold its own and with the digital darkroom working its magic on pictures its hard to distinguish. But thats doesn't mean I'm disappointed, i just think that after a while you start to count numbers when talking about 'quality' on digital instead of seeing real differences, certainly when I put Jens SP90 macro lens on I saw a huge difference in quality and the D300 rocked those pics, but that piece of glass cost 3x as much as my humble 70-300 so i would expect to see 'quality' results from it.

using the feared 70-300, and getting results at last!

Ok so here Begs the big Q... should I have spent the money on Glass instead? Hell yes glass will always provide a bigger step in Quality than a new camera, But thats to miss the point here, this was as much about lust as need and as much about access to control and ease of use as to simple quality gains. I am completely in love with this camera, in less than a week it fits in my hand like it belongs there and is sooo easy to learn to use that I haven't thought twice about its depths. and speaking of Depths the manuals size alone gives some idea to the Depths the menus will go on the beast, i have hardly touched the Menus other than to set up an alternative shooting menu for when i wanna play lensbaby B&W and let the camera take over correcting any minor metering bunnies for me, although I cant wait to really get  stuck in to the camera more.

so verdict.. the camera is great 100% what I wanted, Quality wise ill get the picture on this easier than the D60 and that equates to getting the picture, which is always better than not! I certainly want new glass to replace the tamron and possibly my little Zeiss lens, but at least I'm not tied to new expensive glass I have the world of old AF stuff available now to. all round its win-win

the RAW colour of the D300 and the Sigma 10-20 lens is just breathtaking, a few tweaks and some sharping and this is the result, i did try a few bracketed shots for a HDR image, but it just doesnt need it. oh and the metering is epic!