test of the new Nikon D300 SLR

I consider the D300 camera body to be a big upgrade over both Nikon's D200 and D2X D-SLRs for low light action photography. I specialize in shooting fast action live dance in low light. This is like trying to photograph a basketball game with a three stop neutral density filter on the lens. I consider the dynamic range, the brilliant but accurate colors, the lightning fast autofocus, the improved buffer speed, and the high iso images to be substantially better than those taken with the D200 and and better than those taken with the D2X camera body. The iso 1600 images taken with the D300 were beautiful and the dynamic range was still very good at this iso. If you want to shoot at iso 3200 and above the Nikon D3 may be a better choice. The metering system and the CMOS chip is also big improvement over the CCD chip on the D200 and I might be able to use the matrix and centered-weighted meter on aperture priority at F/2.8 rather than constantly adjusting the settings manually. I highly recommend this camera for sports, wedding and theater photographers. Nature photographers will love the beautiful "Velvia" saturated colors.