Hi!
Was accompanying Messrs. JapanCamera.NL at the DigiBeurs in Houten, The Netherlands this evening.
Had my First Contact/Hands On experience with a D300 and a D3
, but was one of the many, so no time to stroll through menu's or try some settings.
First Impressions:
why does everything turns the wrong way for a Canon man
Nice big screen, SUPERresolution, à la Epson200 or above... very responsive, very fast cameras... one downer: if you want the MB-10D ?? grip for the D300 AND the EN-EL4a battery (from the D3) to be able to boost FPS from 6 to 8: that will set you back approximately $/€250 for the grip, and another $/€200 for the battery...
AF is fast and 51 points are A LOT, especially on a 1.5x cropped body: practically covering the entire viewfinder... Viewfinder D300 is large, but not that much larger than 40D, another notch I would say.
On both demo-bodies the eyepiece adjustment of the viewfinder was way off, after I corrected this the experience became a lot more pleasant, and for as far as you can judge from LCD and viewfinder, the AF was spot-on...
...the feel in-hand is good, nice sticky rubber to your hands, let's hope it also sticks to the body...
Alas not the new lenses, we had hoped to see the new 12-24 and 24-70 F2.8's, but according to one of the employees, it could become December, January 2008 easily, before they show up in The Netherlands (through the official channels... greymarket might be earlier...)
Advised starting price D300 body-only (in the Netherlands): €1.950, so it will probably drop to ~€1.700/€1.800 after the first 3 to 4 months, €500/€600 more than 40D, and from what I have seen, the difference is justified.
Hope this is any use to someone, if not, only *my* €0.02 worth...
Kindest regards!
Max@Home
PS: both bodies were still PreProduction, so no entering cards/taking real images allowed either
... ...but I was allowed to take a few snaps OF them
