Droooool….

[SilverStag]

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0708/07082313nikond300.asp

[Analogy]

Wow, Canon’s going to have to pull some huge tricks out of their sleeves with the 40D to compete with this.

[Elsinore]

Actually, the 40D and 1Ds Mark III were announced a few days before Nikon’s D3 and D300 announcements.

40D: http://www.dcresource.com/news/newsitem.php?id=3587
1Ds Mark III: http://www.dcresource.com/news/newsitem.php?id=3586

Both the D300 and the 40D are sweet looking cameras on paper, though that D3 looks even more interesting. Still, it’s $5000 for full frame versus the <$3000 5D (which, admittedly is getting long in the tooth; I'd look for an upgrade announcement late this year or early next year). But it has a lot of nice toys on it. Both companies seem to place their prosumer and pro bodies in places that fall between each other's models. Does the D200/D300 really compete with the 30D/40D? What competes with the 1D Mark III? Is the new D3 aimed at the 5D or the 1 Ds Mark III? Price point wise it falls between the two. This is smart marketing on both Canon and Nikon's parts, and obviously they're both fiercely competing, which can only be good for us, eh? /drooling over all the new cameras from this past week

[Analogy]

Oooh I missed those announcements. 40D looks nice, it seems like they addressed just about every issue I’ve had with the 30D.

Auto ISO is huge, every time I shoot in variable light I’ve wanted to be able to tell the camera “in Av mode, set the ISO to keep the shutter speed faster than this.”

10.1 mp is okay, but I’m really not begging for more resolution than I already have. What I want more is cleaner high ISOs. The 1DMk3 has a clean 6400 ISO. If I could get an 8.2 mp sensor with 6400 ISO, doesn’t have to be as clean as the 1DMk3, I’d be a happy guy.

Improved LCD and live view is okay, but honestly even a 20D LCD would be fine for me. All I use LCD for is menus and checking sharpness. I don’t really need live view, especially if there’s no AF. A live view with AF I could imagine using when giving the camera to the non-photographers who are always telling me “How do I see the picture? You mean I have to look through a VIEWFINDER?!” What I want more is a better image review interface. I saw a sports photog reviewing images once and he was able to zoom in to 100% in less than a second using the top dial. I want that feature, having to hold down the zoom buttons is too slow for fast-paced shooting situations.

Borrowing the custom exposure modes from the 5D is huge. If I could set a different auto ISO threshold with each custom exposure setting, I could use, say, setting 1 with the wide angle, setting 2 with the standard, setting 3 with the tele so when I switch lenses, I just flick the switch and I’m back to shooting.

Highlight tone priority is huge. No more underexposing and bringing it up in post to handle scenes with bright highlights.

Dust prevention is huge. No more risking a scratched sensor to get that annoying dust out. I once cleaned my sensor the morning of a shoot but since I was switching lenses all day I saw some dust in the shots near the end.

6.5fps is huge. I’m intrigued by the option to go 8fps with the D300 though. I wonder how it would compare with the 1DMk2N. Nikon’s D3 also looks like it could be very competitive with the 1DMk3. At first I thought ISO 25600 was a typo, I’m definitely curious as to whether it will be even remotely usable or if Nikon’s simply trying to outdo Canon in the numbers game. Either way I have a feeling I’m going to start seeing more Nikon shooters on the sidelines in the next couple years.

1DsMk3 looks like it would be great for the advertising folk who need to fill magazine pages. 21MP without dropping the price of a Lexus on a Hasselblad system. I’m suprised that they don’t offer a 6400 ISO option, though perhaps the pixel density is too high to get it clean enough. I’ll bet most of the people who buy this camera are shooting with flashes anyway so they won’t go anywhere near the higher ISOs.

The one feature I wish I wish I wish Canon would give us is the ability to easily do a manual white balance. Shooting video I’m used to holding up a white sheet of paper and pressing a button, boom I’m white balanced. Canon forces us to switch to RAW, take a picture of some white paper, go into the menu and navigate to the white balance selection menu, select that picture, then go into playback and delete the picture and set shooting mode back to JPG (if you’re a mostly JPG shooter like me). It’s freaking ridiculous. Here’s my proposal: Holding down the WB button for 2 seconds automatically switches to manual white balance and uses the next shot you take to set the manual white balance without writing it to the memory card. The “old” way would still be available if you want to keep several white balance shots on file.

[staplermofo]

The one feature I wish I wish I wish Canon would give us is the ability to easily do a manual white balance. Shooting video I’m used to holding up a white sheet of paper and pressing a button, boom I’m white balanced. Canon forces us to switch to RAW, take a picture of some white paper, go into the menu and navigate to the white balance selection menu, select that picture, then go into playback and delete the picture and set shooting mode back to JPG (if you’re a mostly JPG shooter like me). It’s freaking ridiculous. Here’s my proposal: Holding down the WB button for 2 seconds automatically switches to manual white balance and uses the next shot you take to set the manual white balance without writing it to the memory card. The “old” way would still be available if you want to keep several white balance shots on file.

It’s doubly annoying because it’s been on their powershots for years.

I’d like to see 8 SD or CF in RAID 5, or at least 2 in 0. God knows they’re cheap enough now.
It could sit on the hotshoe, since anyone shooting that fast wouldn’t be using a flash anyway.

Nikon’s alternating between two cards is still the best option right now, which is a little sad.

[Analogy]

I think RAID 5 might be a little complex for a battery-conscious device to be worrying about. If you’re that worried, put a laptop in a backpack with EOS Utility and run a USB cable back into your laptop. And don’t cheap out on memory cards, get reliable brands. At a baseball game one day a sports photog I’m friends with stopped by my TV camera asking if I had a spare memory card with me ’cause the Kingston card he bought only very recently (within a week I think?) had crapped out. This guy was shooting with a 1DMk2N and was cheaping out on CF cards! So the lesson is, just don’t do it.

[Author]

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