I chanced on this DPReview thread where the Canon folks wished the EOS 40D digital SLR camera could match the Nikon D300 in terms of memory card write speeds.

The comments were made in the context of Rob Galbraith’s extensive Nikon D300 Write Speed (Firmware A:1.02 B:1.00) test.

The results show that the D300 gave the fastest write times (in excess of 20 MB/sec to 30 MB/sec) with SanDisk Extreme Ducati, SanDisk Extreme IV and Lexar Professional UDMA 300x cards.

There are actually two blog posts, the original review, and an update where Lou Schmidt, VP of Marketing over at Hoodman Corporation explained why Hoodman RAW cards cost more than the equivalent SanDisk and Lexar cards.

Basically, it boiled down to the fact that you get what you pay for. For the higher price tag, you get a memory card that has absolutely zero failure rate, backed by US-built reliability (that’s right, it’s the only card that’s made in the USA, and not in Asia).

One thing to take note of is that the Hoodman RAW cards won’t match the UDMA cards on offer by Sandisk and Lexar in terms of write speed.

Amazon has the Hoodman RAW cards at 2, 4, 8 and 16 GB capacities.

Read the DPReview forum thread to view a large version of the pics.

Conrad also revealed the setup for the “Camera Shy” pic.

You’ll also want to click through each thumbnail in this Flickr set and read the description for each photo to learn the lighting setup for each image.

Daniel posts in this thread an issue with RAW photos taken in a vertical orientation with the D300.

The embedded JPEG images display fine, but Adobe Camera RAW reports an error message and converted NEFs are totally blown when viewed on his Mac computer running on Leopard.

It was later found out that the NEFs were corrupted when being transferred from the card to the computer, and further tests lists the software and processes involved.

Daniel then explains how he solved the problem, giving more information on software de-installation / re-installation.

Thanks Daniel!

Ning.com offers such a facility, and from that service, The Nikon D300 Lounge is born!

Join the network and start a forum topic on anything related to the Nikon D300. Once you’ve got your camera, upload your photos (it’s REALLY FREE) and be prepared to be bombarded with questions.

The first forum discussion there asks about what lenses you intend to get with your D300 – see you there!

Here are links to the full-sized images. You might prefer to download all of them in one zip file (17.5 MB), or click on the link to the photo you’re interested in from the options below:

1. ISO 1000, EXIF
2. ISO 1250, EXIF
3. ISO 6400 (or 1EV over ISO 3200), EXIF

NR (noise reduction) was On at Normal strength. To view the EXIF data for yourself, download the free Nikon ViewNX program.

Personally, I think the “noise characteristics” in the ISO 1000 and 1250 samples are acceptable – in fact, I find them much more to my liking than say the ISO 1600 JPEGs out of the D200 (see these samples which I shot – first photo, second photo). Of course, it would have been preferable to judge using an ISO 1600 photo from the D3, but I can safely say that the ISO1250 sample should be a close approximation. Well, I can’t wait for my own copy of the D300 to arrive in order to perform comparison tests with.

In terms of comparing these photos against ISO1600 JPEGs from a Canon 40D, you might want to take a look at this post. Again, it would have been better if we had an ISO1600 photo from the D300, but based on the ISO1250 sample, I think the D300 stands a pretty good chance holding its own against the 40D.

Compared to the German samples, these photos were taken with a Nikkor 18-200mm AF-S DX VR lens and Active D-Lighting was off. From the EXIF, you can see that the VR (vibration reduction) mechanism on the 18-200mm lens was On.

If you can’t wait to get your hands on the Nikon D300, place your order right now at Lord’s Camera at Lucky Plaza, Singapore.

Daniel Soh’s getting his by October 2007.

See if you can get your order in, because it seems that all allocated units at the store have already been taken up.

Good luck!

For a larger version of the photo above, please visit this link.

According to this comment, a journalist will be able to get his (her) hands on a D300, shoot some sample photos, and post them up for the world to see.

Source of the information? This video in Italian:

I don’t understand a word of Italian, so if anyone would care to add a comment or two about the video, it would be much appreciated!

It was pointed out in that thread that this option had not been made available in mid-range Nikon digital SLR cameras since the D100 body. Not even the D200 has it.

It is a welcome addition, nevertheless, because some clients insist on having a TIFF file delivered to them, so having this feature is just a matter of convenience.

In terms of quality and flexibility though, RAW / NEF files rank higher than TIFF, while for best reproduction into other formats, it is best to process the NEF file through Nikon Capture NX instead of other RAW converters, say Adobe Lightroom.