Nikon
D300 Color Rendition
© 2008 KenRockwell.com
Nikon D300. enlarge. I got mine from Ritz; Adorama, Amazon and B&H Photo Video are also great places. It helps me keep adding to this site when you use these links to get yours, thanks! Ken.
January 2008
See also Picture Controls, Lunch in La Jolla D300 Examples and D300 Examples from Tower 29 for more examples
The Nikon D300 has bolder colors than any earlier Nikon
The D300's saturation control goes to +3, while every other previous Nikon digital has only gone to +1 or +2. Normal people may not care, but for those of us who always have used our Nikons cranked to the max, the D300 goes where no Nikon before has gone.
Roll your mouse over to see the difference.
This comparison is with my D200 set at its maximum as I always shoot it, and my D300 set at it's maximum of VIVID and +3 saturation. Each shot is exactly as it came from the camera in JPG, simply resized to fit this page.
Not that I'd ever shoot either camera at its defaults, but if you did, here's the lame colors most cameras would deliver:
Nikon D200 at NORMAL setting. |
Nikon D300 at STANDARD setting. |
Setting these colors are much more direct than before, but still a little weird. For instance, I get much stronger colors starting from VIVID with 0 saturation than I do starting from STANDARD at 0 saturation.
In VIVID at 0 saturation, my D300 looks about the same as my D200 cranked as far as I can. I still have three more levels of higher saturation in the D300, heh heh heh!
I'm getting deliciously psychedelic colors when cranked. I shoot starting from the VIVID preset, and cranking saturation to +3. I leave contrast alone, and since I'm using Active D-Lighting, the D300 uses its own contrast and gamma (brightness) settings anyway. All I have available to adjust is the saturation.
Here are some examples from my first day with the D300.
Palm in Shadow. Exactly as shot.
I'm starting you off easy. This palm is backlit (in shadow), lit by my D300's pop-up flash.
Busy Bee. Exactly as shot, cropped.
Frankfurter Umbrella. Exactly as shot.
Flowers, indoors under mercury-vapor lights! Exactly as shot.
My D300 did this, even in crappy light and auto WB. The flowers didn't look this good in person.
Vegetable Tray, under plastic! Exactly as shot. I shoot everything in program auto, matrix meter.
This looks far better than it did in person. This is in sunlight, but the vegetables are still under their semi-translucent polypropylene cover.
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If you find this as helpful as a book you might have had to buy or a workshop you may have had to take, feel free to help me continue helping everyone.
Thanks for reading!
Ken