Click Thumbnails to Enlarge

• 
• 
• 

Nikon D300S enters the office.

By PA News Team

Product news

13 August 2009 17:19

Today a large box arrived in the DP/PP office…

Unpacking the bubble-wrapped box revealed one of Nikon’s latest D-SLRs – the D300S. Within seconds it was out of the box and passed around the DP and PP teams to get initial impressions on the camera’s design and appearance. Meanwhile, the battery was put onto charge under the desk…

First to get to grips with it was Paul Carroll, Technical Writer for Digital Photo. Feeling identical in the hand to the original D300, the first point Paul picked up on was the introduction of a new Live View button, found to the right of the 3in screen, just above the info button. On the original D300, Live View was controlled from the command dial on the top plate – rather dissimilar to other Nikon D-SLRs like the D90. Access to Live View is now much quicker with the D300S – faster than it was on the D300.

The DP team also picked up on the fact that Nikon has also changed the D-Pad, opting for a similar D-Pad to the one found on higher-end Nikon D-SLRs, such as the D700 and D3.

Digital Photo’s Paul Carroll rounded up his opinion with the comment, "The addition of HD video on the Nikon D300s is a welcome refresh of an already popular and successful D-SLR."

Another noticeable difference between the D300 and the D300S is the design of the memory card slots. "Being able to read and write SD media as well as Compactflash makes it a working improvement," said Phil Hall, Technical Editor for Digital Photo. The downside to it is that it now has to be manually opened by sliding the door, rather than using the dedicated button to open the memory card door, like on the D300.

Elsewhere, there’s a new microphone socket to accommodate an external microphone; this is found behind the rubber sealed flap on the left side of the body and is useful for controlling the sound around you when recording an HD video. The internal microphone is located at the front of the camera, hidden behind three pin-pricked holes below the D300S logo.

Be sure to look out for full reviews of the D300S, coming your way soon in future issues of Digital Photo and Practical Photography Magazines.