I’m jsut sitting here wondering…

The D300′s new battery grip allows up to 8 frames per second shooting. Do we realize what this means?

The D2Hs is 4 MP and 8 FPS, for $2500+

The D2X is 12 MP and 5 FPS, 8 FPS in ~7 MP crop mode, for $3500+

The 1D mk2N is 8 MP and 8 FPS, for ~$3000

The 1D mk3 is 10 MP and 10 FPS, for $4500.

THE D300 WITH GRIP IS 12 MP AND 8 FPS FOR ONLY $2000!!!

Oh and the D300 has general speed specs that are about as good as or better than 1-series Canons- 13 milisecond power up and 45 milisecond shutter lag, 100 milisecond shutter blackout. Impressive! And the D300 has one thing that NONE of the other cameras have, a pop-up flash! It is VERY handy for wirelessly commanding other flashes in a pinch or extreme situation, trust me!!!

On paper, I see the previous 4 cameras being dumped from trucks into mass pit graves like holocaust victims, unless their prices come WAY down within the next couple months.

The things that I see that could “save” these other cameras from being slaughtered by the D300:

- The D300′s shutter is “only” rated to 150K actuations, while all the others are rated to 200-300K.

- The D300′s high ISO performance might be poor. This is where I’m scared the most. Nikon COULD totally blow this, but I’m hoping they don’t. If they do blow it though, I’m totally just getting a used D200, seriously…

- The D300′s new autofocus performance might be buggy or just plain poor. Possible, but not likely. More likely we’ll have some kind of banding / moire issue, yuck!

- The D300′s currently unknown buffer stats might be really bad, for example I THINK that if you switch to 14-bit RAW, you drop from 6 FPS all the say down to 2.5, which wouldn’t kill ME but might be a no-go for anyone psycho enough to try and shoot sports at RAW 12 megapixels… (JPG buffer stats are known and fantastic)

- [EDIT] I forgot one major thing! The BATTERY LIFE on the D300, if it’s anything like the D200, may really stink compared to the “full-body” D2 and 1D series cameras. The D200 is notorious for gobbling up battery power, with just a couple / few hundred shots when using just one battery. Oh wait, we’re talking strictly about using the D300 with it’s new battery pack, to achieve 8 FPS, I forgot. OH WAIT, THE NEW BATTERY PACK ALLOWS YOU TO USE D3 BATTERIES, TOO! Muahahahahahahaha!!!! Nevermind, this isn’t a strike against the D300 after all, it’s a point in favor. Oh and by the way, you don’t have to even take the normal battery out to put on the vertical grip, so potentially you could be using THREE D300 batteries, or one D3 battery and one D300 battery. WOW!!!

…I NEED A CREDIT CARD!!!

[/EDIT]

Other than that, for $1800 plus the price of the battery grip, I honestly cannot imagine even thinking about purchasing a D2H, a D2X, a 1Dmk2 or a 1Dmk3. They have literally had their price floors whisked right out from under them.

Wish I had the spare cash to get on a D300 mailing list! (or two!)

–OR–

Sell YOUR pro body now while it still holds retail value, and put the money towards a D300 and a couple sweet lenses!

=Matt=