D300: one stop better than the D200

Jeff at the Dpreview forum got to play with the D300 for a few hours. He approves that the D300 is indeed 1 to 1.33 stops better in the noise department.

“I took identical shots with my D200 at ISO400 and the D300 at ISO800 and higher. I would estimate that the D300 is 1 to 1.33 stops better in the noise department. However, since the D300’s base ISO is 200, this is to be expected. Don’t expect a revolutionary change over the D200. However even one f-stop is nothing to complain about.”

He made a few further observations about auto-focus, 14-bit RAW mode and so on. Read the full text at Dpreview

Nikon 14-24 sample pictures, taken with a D200

Fredrik A. Rasmussen has done some sample pictures with the new 14-24/2.8…
Nikon 14-24/2.8

not only with the D3 (currently not shown on his site due to restrictions by Nikon) but also with the D200. He states:

“I did test the lens on the D3 and it’s simply amazing, this lens is wide! The lens is virtually free of distortions. On the D200 with the 1.5x crop the lens is 21-36mm, still wide, but compared to the D3 with it’s FX(full frame) sensor it’s just sad.”

Continue at his site

New D300 hands-on experiences

Here and here

D3 and 14-24mm sample images

There are some new D3 pictures, most interesting is that they are made with the new 14-24 Nikkor

Nikon D3 and Nikon D300 first impressions

Yet another photographer has written about his first impressions of the Nikon D3 and D300. Matjaž Intihar has tested both cameras for two weeks and this is his conclusion about the D3:

“I’m quite sure that if the competitors don’t introduce something major within a year, most reporters will replace their worn out Canon bodies with Nikons. So, regardless of image quality, the ball is back in Canon’s court, and Canon has to kick it hard or lose the game”