Africa Imagery - Photographs of Africa

top_links

Nikon P300

The Nikon P300 camera has impressed me. Why? Well for a start, it's very compact, has a really useful zoom range, shoots full HD video, fits in my pocket and the image quality is surprisingly good.

Important Features:

12 megapixel CMOS sensor (1/2.3in)
ISO 160-3200
1080p High Definition video mode (Full HD)
24-100mm (equivalent) lens with Vibration Reduction
PASM modes
Built-in stereo microphone
Very useful wide angle lens.

The P300 is a small (103 x 58 x 32 mm), light (189g) compact point and shoot camera and is almost perfect for what I was looking for - something that would easily fit into a trouser pocket and yet be capable of shooting usable images. As a Nikon shooter looking for a point and shoot camera, the P7100 immediately sprang to mind. Wonderful camera, great pix etc but it's somewhat larger and chunkier than the P300 and certainly wouldn't easily fit into my pockets which was really one of the primary requirements. After looking at a bunch of cameras I borrowed a P300 from Nikon South Africa to try out while on a shoot we were doing at Mala Mala Game Reserve. I immediately enjoyed it.

Controls are pretty standard and obvious with a largish dial on the top centre for mode selection and a very simple and logical little lever for zoom located to the front of the shutter release button. On the rear are the usual flash, exposure compensation (+/-), macro (micro?) and self timer controls and a button with a red dot on it to start video recording. And that's about it really. There are, of course a bunch of menus and sub-menus for controlling all manner of things from setting image vibrancy to the temperature of the G&T's in the cool box (perhaps I exaggerate a little here) but I haven't played much with these. I prefer to capture as much as I can in terms of data and then work on things later in Photoshop or Lightroom.

There is an interesting function that gives you stills at 120 fps or 60 fps (the minimum shutter speed is limited to either 1/125 sec or 1/60 sec respectively) at a resolution of 1280 x 960 and for a maximum of 60 frames which can be quite fun for capturing action sequences when used in time lapse videos.

Top ISO is 3200 but I wouldn't go there unless I absolutely had to, but using 400 is perfectly acceptable and even 800 if you must. Noise reduction, as can well be imagined, is pretty aggressive at higher ISO's and this at the expense of some detail but one must remember that this is a tiny point and shoot camera and expecting the sort of results that you get from the D3s is perhaps a tad unrealistic.

As a carry around camera the P300 is wonderful. It's light enough to go unnoticed in your pocket yet retains a "quality" feel to it. Ideally I suppose, I would have liked to be able to shoot RAW images but in the end this is probably not really as big a train crash as one imagines in this type of camera. One just needs to keep and eye on the pix to make sure that the bright areas are not being burnt out and there should be enough "meat" in the images to allow some enhancement on Photoshop or Lightroom.

Please e-mail me if you would like to purchase one of these cameras.

I Like:

Compact size
Quality of results
HD Video
24mm wide angle lens

I Don't Like:

No RAW shooting
No live histogram/exposure warning
Logical Mode Dial
Price

Please note there are no royalty free pictures on this site. All images are © to Africa Imagery's contributing photographers unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved. No reproduction, including copying or saving of digital image files, or the alteration or manipulation of these files, is authorised unless accompanied by a written sales advice issued by Africa Imagery. All images carry a unique embedded digital identifying encryption which cannot be removed by tampering with the IPTC field. This will allow us to track and trace any unauthorized web use. Email us for information on commercial and personal use of images.