D300 Pre-order

[southjerseyphotos]

So everyone is going crazy about the new Swag from Nikon Where is the best place

to Pre-order The Nikon D 300?

[eric_brody]

If you're anxious to be one of Nikon's beta testers, you'll have lots of options. Your choices include the same places one would use to purchase anything photographic, if possible, your local store, since the price is unlikely to be lower via reputable mail order. If your local store is not a viable option, search the archives for comments about reliable mail order sources. I shop locally at Pro Photo Supply in Portland; they know me and vice versa. When I have a problem, they fix it. For mail order, I have done well with B&H, MPEX, KEH. YMMV.

 

Eric

[mjt]

Tom ...

 

all reputable stores will be competitively priced. the "best place" really is, at this point, about getting on ANY list before they grow. if Nikon manufactures at their announced capacity until they ship, they will no doubt sell out almost immediately (this is predicted by Thom Hogan, not me :)

 

i'm on the D3 and D300 pre-order list at Calumet - see my post in the "D3 - pre order list" thread for more info.

 

regards, michael

[iambaxter]

I agree with the previous posters, shop locally first, then try one of the big on line sites, like B&H Adorama. What ever you decide do it fast as the lists are growing. I pre-order with a local store on Thursday and they already had 5 orders for the D300 and 7 for the D3. I'm hoping to get mine before Christmas.

[marshall]

I also went local, as I have for most of my purchases in the last 15 years. Since they've known me so long, I didn't need to put down a deposit or anything (and I could leave the list if I so choose). Initially, the prices will pretty much be the same, and the larger online places (B&H, Adorama, Ritz) will all eventually have ways to pre-order, and will get larger allotments of cameras, though they'll also have larger allotments of pre-orderers, as it were...

[berg_na]

Many have reported placing their pre-orders at these stores:<p>

<ul><li><a href="http://www.calumetphoto.com/store/newnikonaug07&a=EWAYUS" target="blank">Calumet photographic</a></ul>

<ul><li><a href="http://www.ritzcamera.com/" target="blank">Ritz Camera</a>

</ul>

[tonybeach]

As I have written in the D3 pre-order thread, I just placed an order for a D300 at Berger Bros.

[walterh]

I will "post-order" once the first problems are solved.

[tonybeach]

Just to put things in perspective Walter, the D40, D80, and D40x didn't appear to have any problems. The D200 had some copies with severe banding, but they were rare and more mildly afflicted copies are still in circulation and rarely cause concerns for their owners. There are many, many D70 cameras that had BGLOD, and you could easily still end up with one if you were to buy a used one today. My guess is that you will have just as hard a time buying a D300 through most of next year as you will now, that the price will not drop substantially over that time, and that your chances or receiving a dud will only be slightly less.

 

I have never been on the cutting edge before, but my feeling with this camera is that I was going to buy a used D2x to get almost everything I will now be able to get from a brand new D300 for substantially less money than I was anticipating paying for a used D2x. In January I will report any issues I have with the new camera and post images made with it in my galleries with some side by side shots from the D200. My feeling has changed somewhat on this issue inasmuch as it seems that the longer I wait for the next great camera, the less time I spend enjoying the last great camera.

[ShunCheung]

Given the amount of new technologies Nikon is putting into the D3 and D300, IMO they'll likely have more glitches initially. The Multi-CAM 3500 AF moduel is brand new and pulling 8 to 9 frames/second is very demanding on the electronics.

 

Having said that, I am very glad to see so many people are pre-ordering the new bodies. The rest of us will benefit greatly from their field testing of the D3 and D300 starting in November.

 

The following thread in Nature Scapes on the Canon 1D Mark III AF problems has been on going since early June, shortly after that DSLR was actually available. It is still going now 2+ months and 1500+ posts later:

http://www.naturescapes.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=103425&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[tonybeach]

I didn't even click it Shun, way too many posts to sort through there (1500+!!!). Could you give us the consensus view or highlights from that discussion? What I've heard about the Mark III is that it does a decent job until you push it too fast (fps) and then it starts faltering; but since I'm not a Canon shooter I haven't followed the issue closely. Anyway, I'll report the good and the bad in January, and I expect more experience reviewers will have their initial observations online well before that.

[ShunCheung]

Anthony, that thread was just too long and I only followed it at the beginning, but the 1D Mark III AF problem is real. However, that is besides the point here in the Nikon Forum.

 

If you check my posts at the end of 2005 when the D200 started shipping, I essentially gave the same suggestion, and of course a lot of people disagreed with me. For the D200, at that time the Multi-CAM 1000 was brand new and so was the 10MP Sony sensor. And it turned out that some D200 had banding problems due to its 4-channel read out from the CCD.

 

As I mentioned back in 2005, the F5 had a lot of battery issues in its first year, the D2H had a lot of color problems that Nikon put it on a $1999 fire sale just a little more than a year into its production and then promptly replaced it with the D2Hs, and even some early D2X bodies had AF problems although that same AF system had already been tested in the D2H.

 

Personally, I consider the D3 and D300 "high initial risk" DSLRs because of the many new components. From the day(s) they are available to the general public, I would wait at least 3 months. If there are any issues, I am sure there will be a lot of posts in forums such as this one and in DPReview, etc. The problem is that if everybody uses that approach, there will be nobody to test them from day 1 -- but somehow I don't think that will be the issue. :-)

[bsd230]

I agree with shun. There will be issues, you just have to decide whether it's worth it to be the first on the block. I'm sure they will be great cameras but even the D200 which is my camera and IMO one of the best non pro cameras out there had some issues when it was first released.

[tri-x1]

I'm excited about the D300 cuz it may mean a few months down the road I can get a nice deal on a D200! I make it a point--for the sake of my pocketbook--to stay at least one generation behind on computers and DSLRs

[Robert DeCandido PhD]

If you do pre-order, go through ebates.com - you will get 3% cash back from Ritz mail order (about $50). I have gone this route with both the D70 and the D200 and the few sheckels that came back my way were put to good use.

[tonybeach]

"The problem is that if everybody uses that approach, there will be nobody to test them from day 1 -- but somehow I don't think that will be the issue. :-)"

 

I don't mean to suggest that everyone should run out and buy a D300 right away. Indeed, for many waiting is the prudent course.

 

I have two D200 camera bodies though, and as happy as I am with them, there are some things that I would like to improve upon. The AF system has only one cross sensor and the remaining sensors are not as close the edges as I would like. I would like perhaps one or two stops better high ISO performance. I would like more resolution and faster fps.

 

I had considered a D2x and actually tried to buy one (that's a story for another thread). However, there were compromises with the D2x which made using one almost a trade-off for me against using the D200 I already own. The D2x is larger then I would prefer for most applications. The D2x actually does worse than the D200 at higher ISO's. The extra fps from the D2x are only available by cropping the image down to 6 MP. I can only afford a used D2x, so there will be no warranty.

 

Now enters the D300. We know it has more resolution and fps than the D200; in fact, it has more fps at full resolution than the D2x. On paper it ostensibly has better AF and high ISO performance than both the D200 and the D2x. For me, it also has the smaller body I prefer and comes with a warranty.

[southjerseyphotos]

Well B&H has remove there listing for D300 As of this morning and they wont Preorder

[southjerseyphotos]

So Instead I went with Brad at Berger Bros.Just because of what I have seen on here and other sites