I recently purchased the new Nikon D300 for an assignment in Patagonia covering an adventure race. I have read so many good things about the D300 that I figured it would soon supercede my Nikon D2x. And well, I was right. At the moment I am in Patagonia shooting in fierce weather conditions that are a test for any camera - sideways rain, snow, high winds, and pretty much the worst conditions you can imagine to be outside in, much less with a camera. I have brought a gore-tex jacket just for my camera so it doesn't get too wet! My laptop is safely tucked away back in a helicopter in it's pelican box and it is surely much more comfortable than I am. So far the D300 is performing like a champ. It isn't as tough as the D2x but it isn't far off from what I can tell and it is quite a bit lighter.

Before I left the States, I shot some test images to see just how good this new camera performs at high ISOs. I have to say I was pretty much blown away at how little noise this camera produces. All the way up to ISO 3200 on the D300 I found the noise to be very acceptable. In fact up to ISO 800 the images are incredibly noise free - if you don't underexpose - and even up to ISO 3200 with the in-camera noise reduction turned off I found them very acceptable. Heck, ISO 3200 on the D300 is cleaner than ISO 640 on my Nikon D2x. See the screenshots below for a few examples.

The test subject was a still life of my climbing rope and hardware as well as my Epson P-2000. The fine details of the climbing rope and the dark black straps of the climbing sling prove to be a good test for resolution and to se noise characteristics. The top image is the full-frame shot. The middle image was shot with the Nikon D300 at ISO 1600, 1/60th second at f/8 - and the bottom image was shot with the Nikon D300 at ISO 3200, 1/60th second at f/8. These images are slightly reduced in size but hopefully the quality comes through.

The noise even at higher ISOs is a lot like film grain. And even if it is visible at 100% in test prints (even at ISO 3200) the noise is barely noticeable. And even then it just gives the image some texture which is nice and looks like the image was shot on film.

Now with Lightroom noise reduction tools the nice new reality is I can take the noise out with Lightroom controls because it needs very little noise reduction if any. Below is a before and after example of an image shot at ISO 3200. The top image is the before sample and the bottom is after noise reduction and some extra sharpening has been applied. Lightroom did a very nice job reducing the color noise especially.

And of course if I want to really dial in the noise reduction I can open Noise Ninja and apply a more controlled noise reduction. But I save that for images that really need I these days. The D300 just seems to exhibit a bit of color noise and that is effectively removed with Lightroom no problem.

That's it for this session. See you next week.

Adios, Michael Clark