My Simple Nikon D300 review

Hi guys and gals,

Enough is enough. It's time to bring about some results from this monster. All that metal and electronics put together means absolutely nothing if it doesn't perform as mentioned in their brochures. Hey, we all know brochures are meant to glorify in a God-like manner the product that it advertises and sadly most of them end up too good to be true.

Suffice to say, I wasn't too disappointed with the D300. This review will not discuss much on the technicalities of the camera, rather more to the qualitative character of the camera. All the specs in a camera makes the camera, but the images are altogether a result of the communication between you and your tool. Yes yes, the photos are all about the photographer, but heck, the equipment helps a great deal LAH.

Most shots were taken with the all popular 50mm 1.8D, and it was no surprise that it was. I took some experimental shots using the Monochrome Mode, with Toning effects. The rest of the pics were under Standard mode. All this can be found under the Picture Control Menu. Very very comprehensive to the point that it shows your settings in a X vs Y axis of sharpness and contrast. Excellent. Simply put, you just have to know what you're doing when using this camera. Did I tell you that the manual was more than 400 pages? Yes, all those pages are in good english.
Pardon for most of the pics are made up of half naked men. What do you expect to shoot in a 'bujang' house at 9am in the morning! You're right, a heck load of other things. LOL. Well, this is just the beginning. Look out for more colourful pics coming up in my next few posts, especially of Scott's and Anne's wedding. I'm excited.

This is a picture of Stan. Say 'hi' to Stan the man. His story is that he lost approx 12kgs in a month. He improved his looks and most importantly, his self confidence. How did he do that? Well, ask him yourself, and good luck trying.

Nikkor 50mm, F2, 1/15 Sec, iso 320

My bro, Jon. Holding the all too familiar Nikon Fm. Reminds me of the days when cameras were made so finely despite using crude materials like steel and has the potential to save your life when a bullet hits you on your camera. Shot using a >20 year old Tamron 28mm F2.5, full metal jacket. When the lens was placed on the camera, it metered perfectly, but of course on manual focus and the camera weighed a tonne. Results? Speaks for itself. Shot at 28mm (duhh), 1/50 sec F2.5, iso 200.

No, he doesn't play the guitar, but at least you were tricked thinking that he does. Nikkor 50mm, 1/20, f2.2 iso 500.


Windows lit shot of Jon, waking up from sleep. He sleeps with his glasses on. He's myopic (shot sighted) even in his dreams. Nikkor 50mm 1/40, f3.2, iso 500
While my girlfriend was cooking in the kitchen, took the chance to grab a shot of this faucet. Notice how the tone is sooooo buttery and realistic and colours don't overblast themselves to death.

Sony Ericsson Cybershot K810i- Camera Wannabe Phone

Hey, to make the story short, I ditched Motorola Phones and Nokia was too expensive and slow, so I bought the sony ericsson.

It's so unlike me LAH to review camera phones. I cannot deny the fact that I was kinda amazed by it.

Shessshh, it IS a camera, and a pretty darn good phone too. Don't take my word for it.

I jumped boat again, bought a 5K camera, and it's a NIKON!! Call me nuts

Box Opening Ceremony

The electronic contacts looks untouched.

The first power up!!

Before calling me crazy, consider the following explanations,

It was a long and gruelling 4-5 months using Canon equipments. I realised that the canon eos 40D was far below my expectations. In fact, I wouldn't dare to say that, to avoid a drive-by shooting by Canon fans out there. In case someone took that seriously, that was meant to be a joke, *chuckle Chuckle*. Yes, I'd rather sell all equipments that I have if i figured that it didn't work with my style of shooting and start over if i had to, so i did exactly that. Let me explain.

The real story is that I just can't shoot with Canon cameras LAH. To those who understand some photography terms out there, there were a few mechanism/ paradigm that Canon digital Slrs have that I just could work with, namely the WB (White Balance), the light metering, Focusing. Just cannot LAH.

Yes, Canon cameras suck at choosing the correct white balance. To make is plain and simple, that simply pissed me off. Why? I started out shooting using a point and shoot, then a zoom/ Bridge camera, of which both had more White Balance accuracy. And what in the world is White Balance, Dan? Simple, it's how the camera perceives the colour white, in different light conditions. In other words, it about how the camera understands if it's looking at a Sunny day, or cloud day, or indoor of a house. Now, canon digital slrs, especially my late eos 40D, didn't even know if I was shooting on a cloudy day or if i was shooting a sunset. Let's just say that during sun rise or sunset, the picture was BLUEISSHHHHH. Yes yes yes, having an SLR means u have control over the WB settings, hence we must use the correct one according to the real scene. BUT, i'm shooting weddings and that's a crappy excuse if I'd missed a good moment. Sorry Steve, the pic of you kissing your wife had to be processed so it looks like the original lighting and moment, so I'll need forever to do that since I took 20 shots in a row. Cheap cheap excuse. Nikons, especially the D200 and the D300 that I now own, never had that issue. You see, it was so good, I barely pressed the WB(white Balance) settings button. I'm not over-stating this, it's just a fact.

Light metering? It's how your camera measures light, according to the sensor pattern, regardless if it's matrix, collective, spot or center weighted. In other words, how your camera understands what the correct exposure is. The Canon 40d is fine, but not good enough. If there was a slight hint of highlight, say lamp post or a bright window, the camera UNDEREXPOSES the photo mercilessly, without considering the entire scene. I'd have to measure the light on the subject, focus then recompose and then shoot. And normally you'll fail the first try. Nikons work based on a database of scenes, so I guess that's why it works so much better. I point to a subject, there's a bright window at the extreme corner and camera would normally decides that, hey, I know that dude is sitting there, let me balance out the brightness between them. Tadddaa, correct exposure at the first try. Oh, did I mentioned that I just keep shooting and not miss another moment? Thanks.

The Canon 40D supposedly came with all 9 Cross-type sensors. Wow, absolutely useless. Even when using one center focusing point, 40% (a rough estimate) the focusing was not tack sharp and with SEVERAL focusing and refocusing tries. The rather grainy viewfinder didn't help too and the camera's beeping Auto Focus confirmation sound keep lying to me. The 3inch LCD screen has inaccurate colours and not sufficiently sharp enough.

So, is this a bad camera, NO. It just makes it harder for me to do what I intended to do, possibly causing me to miss important moments. Suffice to say, if you shoot events and weddings alike, this is unacceptable LAH. Despite what I said, the camera had excellent detail and colour rendition among all the other manufacturers. But then again, Nikon progressed so much that I dare to say that Canon's aren't the top anymore in that measure.

Hey, so what happened was, I sold my lenses, flash, camera, battery packs all in 3 days and bought a Nikon d300. It came with a price, but at least I know that the depreciation rate is MUCH slower that of canons. HAHAHA. Buy a Canon now, and check out the price just after 5 months, in a split second, you'll notice yourself banging ur head on the wall. If you really need to buy a canon camera in the future, wait for a few months after lauching. It's not wrong to buy it early, but the way canon priced it so much lower just a few months after that is so so saddening la. In less than 6 months, the cash price to by a 40D was a good 600 ringgit cheaper. Go figure. You wanna sell it as a second hand? Think Proton cars. HAHAHAHA


Do have a look at my Fadalini.multiply.com account for my favorite shots with the canon 40D. Good riddens. I'm back on the dark side.