My DSLR Camera #2

In August 2007, less than 2 years after the D200, Nikon announced a successor / replacement, the Nikon D300 DSLR. I rushed to study the specifications and looked at comparative reviews — and found that Nikon had improved just about every aspect of its semi-pro model:

• 14-bit rather than 12-bit ADC (higher dynamic range)
• 12.3 MP rather than 10.2 MP sensor
• ISO 200 ..  3200 in lieu of 100 .. 1600
• improved autofocus
• self-cleaning sensor
• viewfinder with 100% coverage (up from 95%)
• 3" / 922000 pixel LCD, up from 2.5" / 230000 pixels
• (plus several other enhancements that weren't important to me)

Needless to say that it didn't take long for me to decide that I wanted to upgrade, especially after having seen the limitations in dynamic range with the D200 (see my previous blog entry). I received my new camera body in February 2008 — and I still use it to this day (OK, that's only 3.5 years — but at least it's about twice as long as I kept the D200). The price was virtually the same as for the D200 (CHF 2350 in lieu of CHF 2390). I added an 8 GB Lexar 300x UDMA CF card (CHF 320). For the time being, I kept the AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18 - 200 mm lens, and of course the Nikon SB-800 flash light.

The new camera body definitely improved my photography experience. Here are some examples of how I used it in 2008 / 2009 (apart from the usual family event / home / garden photos):

• 83 shots taken at the Basel Tattoo parade on 2008-07-19
• I had fun taking automatic serial shots to have a "film" of tree felling actions in our garden: one series with 101 pictures at 30" intervals; a second series with 103 pictures at 1' intervals; finally a third series with 42 pictures at 5' intervals (oops — here I lost the start of the "show": I forgot to double-check whether the series had really started, and when I checked after 1.5 hours, no picture had been taken yet ... )
• I documented 4 concerts of the SONUS ensemble in which Lea is participating (26, 52, 2, and 10 shots); pictures from the first concert can be found on Facebook.
• On 2009-07-30 we did a 1-day train excursion through Graubünden into the Ticino and back home - just 15 shots in Lugano — I didn't really feel like taking lots of pictures from the moving train —
• On 2009-08-06 we did another 1-day excursion, this time by train to the Lac Léman, by ship to Geneva, and back by train; the weather on the Lac Léman was gorgeous — 100 pictures
• On 2009-08-13 we did a third 1-day excursion: by train to Andermatt, and from there over the Oberalp-Pass to Chur, from there by bus to Juf and back home via Chur. The weather in Andermatt was excellent, Juf unfortunately didn't look very attractive, plus, it started raining (just 21 pictures).
• On November 13th, 2009 Lea and I attended Deborah's diploma ceremony in the Grossmünster in Zurich — this was a late evening event, flash lights were not permitted (nor desirable, I think). The 16 shots that I retained (out of 17) were all quite satisfactory, despite the limited light strength (f/3.5 - f/5.6) of the 18 - 200 mm zoom lens: the vibration reduction did a good job (I did not take a tripod along, nor did I use any other supporting means). Sure, some of the shots have noticeable color noise, but that was to be expected and is far from making the photos unusable.

After the first two years I felt pretty comfortable with the D300, it did a good job, the proportion of usable shots was very high, I liked the pictures that I got out of this gear — clearly the best camera that I have ever used so far. Sure, I also ran into a couple limitations with the camera body:

• I often wished there was a built-in GPS module, to save me from guessing where on a trip a particular shot was made.
• When taking pictures of birds I sometimes had to use excessive cropping, even at an equivalent (maximum) focal length of 300 mm — either a "longer" lens ($$$$) or a higher pixel count would have been nice.
• There are certainly limitations in low light conditions — some extra sensitivity in the sensor would be helpful.

Besides a body defect, other limitations were mostly with  the 18 - 200 mm zoom lens:

• Some pictures (especially taken towards the sun) showed an irritating artifact that I attributed to a light leak — I'll discuss this in a separate blog entry (Nikon fixed this within the warranty, at no cost).
• The lens clearly had limitations in resolution / sharpness, especially near the edges (see my separate blog entry on this and related topics).
• Worse than that, the lens creates serious distortions, especially at the wide angle end. At the very least, these distortions are time-consuming to correct — if they can be corrected at all (see again my separate blog entry).
• A larger aperture would sometimes have been helpful — though this was the least of the problems, thanks to the vibration reduction.

In 2010, I wanted to address at least some of these issues. The light leak issue was easy to address (thanks, Nikon!); in February 2010 I added an external GPS (AOKA Bluetooth GPS Adapter for Nikon DSLR, Holux M-1000 Wireless GPS Receiver) for CHF  236 — that's good value for money, even though a GPS receiver built into the camera body would be preferable, IMHO.

• AF-S Nikkor 70 - 200 mm f/2.8G ED VR II
• AF-S Nikkor 16 - 35 mm f/4G ED VR
• Nikon TC-20E III (2x Teleconverter)
• AF-S Micro-Nikkor 105 mm f/2.8G IF-ED VR
• AF-S Nikkor 24 - 120 mm f/3.5-4.5G ED VR

That looks and feels a bit overwhelming; I'll return to the lens discussion in separate blog entries. Briefly:

• these are all high contrast, low artifact lenses (using Nikon's Nano coating), and
• they are all full format lenses, i.e., I'll be able to use these lenses even if and when I upgrade to a full-frame camera body;
• all lenses feature VR (vibration reduction), which more than compensates limitations in the maximum aperture setting;
• with the addition of the teleconverter I now have the equivalent of a 140 - 400 mm zoom lens, equivalent to 210 - 600 mm with my current D300 body;
• the 70 - 200 has a minimum distance setting of 1.4 m — and at that distance the maximum focal length is actually only 140 mm, not 200 mm. This means that this lens is not rally as good at macro photography as my old 80 - 200 mm zoom lens that I used to have on my Nikon F3: at a minimum distance of 1.2 m, this offered a reproduction ratio of 1:6,  while at 1.4 m the new 70 - 200 (actually 70 - 140) only offers a reproduction ratio of 1:10 — hence the addition of a macro lens: this actually offers reproduction ratios of up to 1:1;
• the wide angle zoom offers a little more range at the wide angle end (equivalent to 24 mm rather than 27 mm with the previous 18 - 200 mm superzoom predecessor);
• last, but not least: the 16 - 35 / 70 - 200 mm zoom combination leaves a gap at focal lengths of 35 - 70 mm, equivalent to 50 - 105 mm with full frame sensors / 35 mm film — to cover this, a 24 - 120 mm zoom lens was added: this is not quite of the same professional standard as the other lenses (even though it features Nano-coating, internal focus, aspherical and ED lens elements), but it is an excellent all-round lens to keep on the camera most of the time (e.g., when traveling). With a full frame equivalent of 35 - 180 mm it covers more than the gap left by the other zoom lenses. Also, at a minimum distance of 45 cm it offers reproduction ratios of up to 1:4, i.e., it is better at macro photography than the 70 - 200 mm and my old 80 - 200 mm zoom lenses.

How to carry around all this gear is another story, of course ...

I have now started using the new set of lenses, the 18 - 200 super zoom went on sale last January — and I still got 43% of the original price, even though at that time the lens was 5 years old! As in other recent years, family circumstances did not allow for extended travel activities during vacations, but over the past 18 months I have now used the expanded set of lenses on my D300 body on the following occasions:

• 2010-08-09: a 1-day excursion by train, bus and gondola lift onto the Moléson near Fribourg (66 pictures, excellent weather condition, marvelous sight!)
• 2010-08-10: 1-day excursion by train and ship to Lausanne, the Lac Léman and the Château de Chillon (80 pictures, gorgeous weather again)
• 2011-04-23 - 2011-04-25: short trip to London, to visit Deborah (251 pictures, good conditions)
• 2011-06-25: Military Air Show (97 pictures, a learning experience with zooms and tripod; moderate weather & sight conditions)

So far (up to this writing) the D300 shutter has been actuated 2722 times — not really much, but more than with any of my previous digital cameras, and about as much as I did with my F3 over 20 years!

Moléson, FR/Switzerland: view onto Gruyère
Nikon D300, Zoom-Nikkor 70 - 200mm f/2.8
ISO 200, f/9, 1/320, 200mm (300mm equiv.)