My New Camera and Why It's Not What I Wanted

At the end of last week I purchased a used Nikon D300 to replace my D80 that I've had for two years. Seems like a pretty straight forward upgrade, but it was one that was made with some disappointment. Don't get me wrong, I love the new D300. It is everything I hoped it would be. It's just not quite exactly what I wanted.

The problem is I guess I wanted too much, or at least more than Nikon is able to offer at this time. My plan since the beginning of summer was to purchase the replacement to the D300. Why? Rumors had stated that it would gain video capabilities. I was hoping this meant video capabilities on par or better than it's year old effort with the D90 or it's rival Canon's 5D Mark II. It's been a year, surely they've got something up their sleeve, right? The inclusion of good video on these cameras make them very exciting for people like me. A large sized sensor in a camera body that can take removal lenses all at an affordable price in the video market just does not exist. I won't get in to why that large sized sensor is so important, other than to say that it helps make video look more like film. We all want our video to look like film, because that is what everyone perceives to be the best look.

So last week Nikon did announce the replacement to the D300, the D300S. The problem is they gave it essentially the same video that is in last years D90. Which fails in many ways including rolling shutter issues, 720p and not 1080p resolution, and a limit of 5 minutes of recording at a time. I was ready to move up on the stills side, and rather wait for Nikon for another year, I decided to get a D300. I was lucky that I stumbled across a wedding photographer in Indianapolis who was looking to sell two of them. They were backup bodies for him so they were in great shape and hadn't been overly used. After meeting with him and seeing the camera (and talking about photo and video and Mac stuff for nearly 2 hours). I walked away with a new camera!

The D300 is a huge jump up from my D80 in a lot of ways. I should be good for at least two years. That will hopefully give Nikon time to build a better DSLR camera with video features. Then maybe I'll finally get what I want - a camera with removable lenses, a full frame sized sensor, multiple recording formats, speeds, and resolutions (at least 1080 or larger), and that takes great stills. Is that too much to ask?