Nikon D300

Picture Quality / Size Options (9.25)
The Nikon D300 is built with a 13.1-total-megapixel DX-formatted CMOS image sensor. The sensor is manufactured by Sony and is very similar to the one included in the Sony A700, but the D300’s measures slightly larger at 23.6 x 15.8mm. The D300’s 12.3-effective resolution is a 2 megapixel upgrade from its predecessor; the D200 has only 10.2 megapixels on a CCD.

The D300 can record images in JPEG, TIFF (RGB), and RAW (NEF) format. The RAW files offer a wider color gamut than the D200 with 14-bit output, although the 12-bit output of the D200 is also selectable on the D300.

Nikon pairs the new CMOS sensor with a new Expeed image processor that promises increased speed over previous DSLRs. Indeed, the RAW file processing is faster than the D200. Although shooting in RAW does slow things down, the time penalty has been significantly reduced, with RAW images only taking slightly longer to shoot and save than JPEGs. JPEG images can be shot simultaneously with RAW shots or by themselves, of course. The image size can be selected to 4288 x 2848, 3216 x 2136, or 2144 x 1424 with compression options of fine, normal, and basic.

Overall, the Nikon D300’s image size and quality settings are exceptional; pretty much every variation you are ever likely to need is on offer here.

Picture Effects Mode (9.0)
The Nikon D300 comes with a surprising number of picture effects. The menu is revamped from what it was on the D200. There is a picture control setting that can be switched from standard to neutral, vivid, and monochrome. There is also a "manage picture control" setting in the Shooting menu with +/- 2 adjustments on each of those settings along with adjustments for sharpening, contrast, brightness, saturation, and hue. All of those adjustments have different scales. Sharpening moves on a 0-9 scale, while the contrast, saturation, and hue have +/- 3 scales. The brightness moves on a +/- 1 grid.

A firmware update was released in Feburary 2008 that adds a little more to this menu. There are three optional picture controls, one for each of the three Color mode settings on the D2X and D2Xs. These simulate the colors produced from earlier cameras if you're trying to match color from shots taken with these older models.

Also in the Shooting menu, the color space can be switched from sRGB to Adobe RGB. The sRGB is the default and is recommended for pictures that are being printed as-is. The Adobe RGB has a wider array of colors and is more flexible in editing software.

There are several picture effects available in the Playback mode, too, using the Retouch menu. There is a monochrome option that changes the color to black-and-white, sepia, or cyanotype. There is also a color balance feature that allows you to adjust the color on a grid with +/- 5 green/magenta and amber/blue axes.

Finally, there are skylight and warm filter effects in the Retouch menu. These don’t make any drastic changes that are visible on the LCD screen, and are inferior to editing features in most editing software.