by on October 12, 2007 in Photography

Nikon D3 vs D300

The announcement of Nikon’s two new camera’s has really been forcing me to crystallize my thinking around buying a full frame digital camera.

For nearly 15 years I shot with a Nikon F801s (an 8008s for my American friends), it was a solid workhorse of a camera with a good reliable spot meter. About three years ago now I gave up film, sold the 801s and bought a D70. I haven’t looked back the D70 has been a great camera – but when I bought it I had my fingers crossed behind my back. I was secretly hoping that Nikon would produce a full frame DSLR for the pro-sumer market. I had such a strong belief in this that I kept my 20-40mm (a useless nearly useless lens on 1.5 crop sensor).

But now that D3 is arriving I forced to question my original desire for a full frame DSLR. I’ve come to really appreciate the extra reach that my 80-200mm has.

The quandry: If I will eventually buy a full frame DSLR then I shouldn’t invest in any DX lenses – but I will need a good midrange zoom (don’t have for historical reasons). If I’m going to stick with DX then its time to start thinking about a wide angle and the 18-200 DX/VR.

Key differences:

D3 (FX or Full Frame sensor) D300 (DX or 2/3′s sensor)
Telephoto lenses work at their original length. But to get the greater reach I have to spend real $$$. My 70-300, is an adequate 450mm. My 80-200 (with 2x teleconverter) makes a poor mans 600mm lens.
Wide Angle lenses I will have my wide angles back Hmm will have to part with some cash to get wider than 27mm.
Depth of Field (for equivalent Field of view) Shallower depth of field in any given situation Shallow depth of field harder.
High ISO Bigger sensor, less noise. Definitely great out ISO 1600 Apparently even 6400 is good. The few samples anyone has seen look pretty damn good.
Weight heavy – especially when you weigh all those full size lens.

Unless Nikon has a stunning announcement of a pro-sumer full frame camera in the next 18 mths I will probably just bite the bullet and admit that I’m shooting DX cameras for a long time to come.\

Caveat Emptor – There are a lot of previews out there that look reviews of these camera’s. Beware these are just reviews of the specs. Only Cliff Mautner (wedding photographer) has been allowed to play with a pre-production D3. Even his notes are based on JPEGS (nothing handles D3 RAW files yet).

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  • Gary Hjelm

    The Nikon seems to be a great camera with its full frame, dx, and 8×10 capability. But, the camera is designed to work in the photojournalism field. The camera shoots spectacular images and I am sure that photographer’s will find a way to make it work in other venues.

  • Haitham Ghareeb

    That is what made life easier (That Time) !!! when DSLR announce there first camera’s .

    These no’s which multiplied by the crop factor (1.5 Nikon and 1.6 Canon) is to find the angle of view NOT THE MAGNIFICATION OF VIEW ,, So the 80-200 lens will act as it’s in both APS cam. and full frame cam. however the angle of view will be changed accordingly ,, Does that sound better to get full frame :) !!! ,,

  • Ben

    Note that the buzz is that the D3 is an ‘H’ model (actually, this much is officially disclosed, as it’s marketed to sports and photojournalists) and that soon there will be an ‘X’ model (D3x). Best guess is annoncement in the spring ’08, release by fall (much sooner than your 18 month period). It will not be as fast as the D3, but it will have a > 24MP FX sensor. The pro field is pretty confident that it will be close this guess. The D300 is really the prosumer model–it has nearly all of the new features of the D3, new LCD, 51 point fast focus CAM3500, fast operation, and even about the same MP.