Nikon D300s

Earlier this week, Nikon announced two new camera bodies and two new lenses. Rumors have been floating for the last few months about the new Nikons, ranging from the ludicrous to the fairly accurate. Now the veil is off some of the new gear. Basically, Nikon introduced the D3000 (an updated D60, more than anything), the D300s (an enhanced D300) and a pair of new lenses, which aren’t new categories, but replacements for existing lenses. You can read the coverage at Digital Photography Review and Thom Hogan’s side. DPReview also has a brief hands on with the D300s.

So I pre-ordered a D300s. But I already have a D300. Why I did such a crazy thing is after the jump.

For me, the most interesting thing is the D300s body. It’s also useful to contrast Thom Hogan’s gentle criticisms of the D300s with the somewhat more enthusiastic hands-on preview by Richard Butler at DPReview. There’s some disagreement, for example, about the new control set. DPReview is a little more bullish, comparing the new D300 control layout to that on the D700. Hogan, on the other hand, seems to think that the layout is getting a little to complex:

Thom Hogan: “We’re up to 20 buttons on the D300s (haven’t counted the menu items yet, but I’m sure that’s up, too). Frankly, this is becoming a bit troublesome to me. The new dedicated buttons all make sense and open up shortcuts that are welcome, but as a designer it strikes me that we already have too many buttons haphazardly spread across the camera. I sincerely hope that Nikon will work with some pro photographers and rethink their current proliferation strategy and come up with a more direct, innovative way to control future cameras.”

Despite that, I pre-ordered a D300s body.

Why, you ask? After all, didn’t I go into a lengthy discussion about buying what you really want??

Yes, but I really want this. Let me rationalize my decision.

For the past several years, I’ve been shooting indoor volleyball. My older daughter played varsity at her high school, and last year, her team made it to the California State Championships.

A typical five game match averages 3-4 games (rarely going to five). That means about a 60-90 minute game, depending on how competitive the two teams are. One camera body worked fine for volleyball. I’d switch between the 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED and the 24-70mm f/2.8G ED as needed.

Last year, things changed. Elizabeth wrapped up her last year of high school. Meanwhile, my younger daughter, Emily, is now doing color guard (as part of the marching band) and Winter Guard. Winter Guard is a standalone sport, taking place inside gymnasiums with terrible light. Marching band performances either take place during football game half-time, or in standalone competitions. A band may be on the field for no more than 10-12 minutes. In Winter Guard, they’re on and off the floor in eight minutes.

In other words, switching lenses becomes problematic.

Last winter, I borrowed the D90 that Elizabeth uses, and was able to get some pretty good shots with that, but was somewhat frustrated by the control and autofocus limitations. Plus, I would have liked something better than four frames a second.

So the D300s will fill that second body gap nicely. I’ll probably put the 24-70mm f/2.8G ED on that body, because I may actually use it for video on occasion. (The D300s now does contrast autofocus — slow, but at least it’s not manual.) I’ll probably invest in an external microphone, though, like the Rode VideoMic.

Note that the D300s is a DX format sensor, not full frame like Nikon D700 or D3/D3x. This was actually a conscious choice on my part. I used a D700 for several weeks last year. I loved the low light performance, but I also discovered I needed the longer reach that the 1.5x crop factor of a DX format sensor gives me. That was useful in shooting volleyball, but it’s even more essential for marching band photography, which takes place in stadium sized venues.

Making rational choices for gear, whether it’s cars, cameras, computer components or home theater gear is always a tricky business. But the key word here is “rational.” And I think I made a rational choice.

But it’s going to be hard to wait for it to arrive nonetheless…

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