It’s been almost a month since my new D300 has arrived. I’ve already registered 3000 shutter releases and still trying to wrap my mind around everything that this camera has to offer. It’s simply a stunning machine.

First couple of days I was comparing it to my D70, shotting both cameras side by side under various lighting conditions. I quite quickly realized that D300 is a LOT more capable camera than D70. Some of the things that immediately made me realize I can never go back to D70 were:

1) D300’s AF system - Continuous mode with focus release priority and 21 area dynamic focusing performed flawlessly during my half hour tests at go-karts racing track
2) D300’s matrix metering - produced images with spot on exposure. I no longer had to “tone curve” my pictures the way I did with D70 (no more “underexposure”). D300’s matrix metering pushes histogram very tightly to the right, producing excellent results.
3) D300’s LCD - incredibly clear, sharp and simply outstanding screen - I no longer need to download images to my laptop to evaluate their quality, it can finally be done on camera’s LCD!
4) High ISO performance - ISO 800 images look VERY clean! I’ve been very concerned if I had to shoot D70 at ISO 640 or above - the noise was becoming a factor. I’ve shot D300 at ISO 800 and noise was not an issue whatsoever! I’m yet to test it at 1000 and 1250, but even having useable ISO 800 means a lot to me!
5) AF finetuning, AE finetuning, RAW+Fine JPEG option, scrolling though images in playback mode while zoomed in, continuous shooting with SB-800 flash, 5-6 fps high speed shutter, etc,etc,etc

This camera REALLY deserves the “Best DSLR of the Year” award, and now I’m proud to own one! Stay tuned for more posting, image samples and thoughts.

When I first decided to upgrade to D300, I was pretty sure that I was going to keep my D70, primarily because I didn’t believe a used D70 was worth anything. To my surprise, after a little bit of digging on ebay, I realized I could recover almost $400 for it, considering that mine came with a lot of extras (two 1 gig CF cards, nikon remote, extra manual, extra LCD covers, extra battery, etc).

It was sad to see it go… I had it since the early 2005 - it was my first DSLR, and I learned so much about photography with this awesome camera… It traveled around the world with me, there isn’t a function on this camera I haven’t used… it has seen it all. But since I’ve got my new D300, D70 found itself just resting on my desk, collecting dust. I figured, since I can’t get anymore mileage from it, someone else might. That, and only that helped me to say good bye to this amazing piece of Nikon equipment… Good bye D70!