Many of you will know that I changed from my Canon system to use the amazing Nikon D3 and now have two of these plus a Nikon D700. It seemed obvious to me last year that Nikon had to bring out a high resolution DSLR and the forums have been alive these past few months with rumours and speculation. There will of course be a lot of negative comments about the Nikon D3x as it does not provide many new features to a gizmo obsessed audience. But the Nikon D3x is not targeted for the average photographer on the street; it is a high performance camera that is targeted squarely at professional photographers. More specifically I see that the Nikon D3x is targeted at the fields of nature, landscape, fashion, studio and social photography whilst the Nikon D3 will still reign supreme in sports. These photographers, with the small exception of nature that I will cover in a minute, need a bigger file size from their existing cameras. The Nikon D3x certainly provides that, in fact it is a 100% increase, and that alone is worth the price. Frame rate at 5fps is acceptable as these users are not generally needing to blast, and the new HDMI support will allow much better viewing options for clients present during the shoot. So for these target sectors the Nikon D3x provides market leading performance and will be a must have camera.
As a nature photographer I have mixed views about whether I can justify the Nikon D3x or not. I am not a fast action shooter and 5fps will be enough if the buffer clears quickly enough, interesting that there is no data on this and it will be the first thing that I test! Having a larger image is not as useful for me as others as I only need a 50MB image for my clients and agents; I do not produce large prints and those that I have from the Nikon D3 have been amazing. The Nikon D3x will allow me to crop my image though for the first time and still retain the default 50MB agency size without interpolation. This will be the same as using a 1.4x converter, except that I won't have to. Yes I know it will be the most expensive converter in history but it will be just be an additional advantage that I can use. The quality of the final image delivered by the new processor does interest me as I find myself more and more taking the kind of wide-angle images that need to have a more medium format feel. I have never jumped on the new camera bandwagon anyway and prefer to wait until I test the Nikon D3x rather than get excited about a load of facts and figures. Trust me I will be testing it hard!

So clearly the Nikon D3x will keep its target market happy and I think a lot of amateur photographers will want to own the flagship too. Do I have any general niggles about it, yes of course I do. Firstly I wish that Nikon had made some changes to the existing Nikon D3 shell; some D700 functions would have been nice too and boo hiss there is no auto sensor clean which means I still have to cart round all my cleaning gear. The reduced ISO is also a small concern too. Although I now shoot at ISO 1000 by default, I have had occasion in the past year to shoot much higher (which is why I love the Nikon D3 so much). Of course again for the target market this will be no issue and for me it is just a borderline niggle as I would have the Nikon D3x alongside the D3. One of each actually would suit my kit bag very well as I could use each for its strengths when the situation demanded.

What I add here is from a users point of view; mine. I have shot professionally for 30 years or so, from weddings to commercial stock.

After reading many reviews, I am forced to agree with the consensus; this is by far the best DX digital format currently on the market. For years Canon ruled the roost, especially in the arena of noise reduction. Now there’s a new kid on the block, and his name is the “Nikon D-300.”

When Nikon entered the digital world for photographers, it’s evolutionary steps were small; until the D-300 was unveiled. This camera jumped out in front of the competition and has not looked back.
My opinions of this camera are well justified by the technical tests conducted by people far more skilled in science and math than am I.

What we all want to know is how good is it from a photographers point of view.

I’ll cover what I consider the high points as well as what has impressed me.
Here we go.

Metering: The on board meter totally negates the need for a hand held meter. Rarely have I seen the meter fooled by odd lighting situations. Matrix, center weight & spot are right on the money 99% of the time. My post look at the histograms bare this out.

Focus: I have the Nikon D2xs. It has now been replaced with the D-300. Low light focusing is impressive. Continuous focus has little trouble once you understand (how) it works. There are no less than 51 active points to choose from, although if speed in focusing is paramount, I suggest you use 21. The “auto 3D” mode is a miracle as it essentially is able to pick out a person from the background and focus on them! This does away with the old way of shooting “Focus and recompose.” Dynamic tracking is faster than my D2xs thanks to a totally revamped cam focus system.

Color Accuracy: Bang on! Be it JPEG or RAW shooting, the software does it’s job well.
The tech specs show this to be oh so true.

Dynamic Range: In a word; WOW! I’ve read the tech specs but never tested it myself; that is beyond me. The end result though is nothing short of amazing for a digital. Shadow rendering with it’s noise suppression is fantastic. If that’s not enough, Nikon had a little ace up it’s sleeve. “D-Lighting” or “active dynamic range” No less than four settings , off-low, normal and high. Essentially it is used in high contrast situations. It allows for more headroom so whites are not easily blown out and dark areas are rendered readable. D-Lighting has been around for a while as a post process, The D-300 now adds this as a “in camera” process. It works. Nikon does not spell it out at all in the manual, there is more to it than just turning it on if you really want to see it strut it;'s stuff.

Picture Control: I can now custom tailor so many image parameters it staggers the mind. Color saturation, contrast, sharpening, hue, white balance. If that’s not enough, one can dial in any amount of change.
Color filters can be used in camera, including a wide array of B&W options with filters for red, blue, green, cyanotype, all fully adjustable in amount applied.

Summary: It shoots fast with the included battery, 6 FPS; 8 with the optional batter pack.
It’s durable and well sealed against moisture & dust. Feels great in the hand. I can shoot all day with little hand fatigue.
No more fumbling around for the controls I use most often, they are right there at my finger tips.

The “sensor” is new and improved with excellent noise suppression. I can now shoot at ISO 1,600 with no real concerns about noise. The only camera in this arena with better noise suppression would be the D-3, but at more than twice the cost, the choice was an easy one for me.
Write speeds to a good card are blistering fast.

Some call the D-300 a semi-pro camera. I disagree. Two years ago this would have earned the title of a pro camera all the way.