I just received delivery of a brand new Nikon D300 this afternoon from our friendly UPS delivery man. I carefully opened the box and slowly took the camera out. I knew, and often live by, the old adage that a real man never reads directions. But this time that old adage went right out the window. The User’s Manual for my new D300 is exactly 421 pages long and I plan on reading many of those pages.
Of course, I could not wait too long to actually use my new camera, so I loaded a battery and inserted an empty flash card and went outside. It was 26 degrees Farenheit but that didn’t stop me from traipsing around the yard with my new camera! It didn’t take long for this camera to feel like an old friend in my cold hands. I just love the way Nikon places their controls on their cameras!
None of these first photos taken by my new D300 are going to win any prizes or even show up in my galleries, but almost immediately I could see why this camera has received such rave reviews. Compared to my old D70 the D300 has many more switches and controls to keep many options within easy reach, allowing the photographer to make many necessary changes on the fly without having to navigate through menus. It also boasts an impressive 6 frames per second, which should be very useful when I am shooting sports events.
I’ve only had the D300 for about 8 hours now, but it has quickly become my favorite camera that I’ve ever owned. Stay tuned to this blog to hear more about my impressions on the D300. I will also be posting photos from this camera, too. It truly is a sweet piece of photographic equipment!