Focusing speed on Nikon D300?

[jmwan]

Hi everyone,
I am new to this group and I had a question concerning the focusing speed of the D300 and I was hoping people who have used it could give me their opinion here.

I am actually a canon user and I am thinking about making the switch to the NIkon D300.
I know there are many discussions about canon 50D/40D vs NIkon D300 but very few compare the focusing speeds (in auto focus mode) between these cameras.
The only thing I could find is someone saying that the Canon 40D was a little faster than the D300 to acquire focus.

Anybody has experience on this subject?

THanks!

[Peter McLennan]

Hi everyone,
I am new to this group and I had a question concerning the focusing speed of the D300 and ...
Anybody has experience on this subject?

THanks!

My D300 focuses lightning-fast.   With the 70-200 installed, I can track flying birds and maintain accurate focus easily.  I have no Canon experience to draw from, but the D300 is faster than my previous D70 or D200.

Auto focus is not a problem with this camera.  In fact, there are very few problems with this camera.  I love it.

[Ken R]

I just used a D90 and is very very fast even with the kit DX lenses. The D300 should be even faster. I have a regular 5D and the Nikon is just way faster even if I have one of the L zooms on my Canon (17-40L and 24-70L) when using all the AF sensors. The Nikon just seems to acquire focus in the right place and shoot much faster from the moment one presses the shutter in multi-sensor mode. The D300 should be comparable to the Canon 1 series (maybe its even better), so its basically one of the best focusing DSLR's available, there just isnt anything better out there in that regard.

[Hank]

I can't compare it with any Canon, but I just finished an aerial shoot with the D300 alongside a D2X.  

It was an especially tough shoot, one of the most challenging I've ever experienced.  Due to timing and client needs, shooting had to be done just after "sunrise" on a cloudy day, so light levels were low and  I had to shoot at 2500 ISO in order to achieve 1/125 shutter speeds.  Worse yet, the helo I had chartered mechanicalled out the night before and I had to shoot from a plane, but not just any plane.  It was a Beaver on floats, and the doors couldn't be removed.  So here I sit in the front passenger seat shooting out the open window in the narrow span between the prop in front and the wing behind.  Talk about quick reflexes, a quick camera and good coms with the pilot!  It was low elevation shooting seldom above 500 feet and in order to keep steerage, speeds needed to be kept at or above 80 knots.  And lots of the shooting was with the right wing down and spinning in tight turns.

Dizzy yet?  No?  Stick a viewfinder in front of your eye.

And the D300 knocked the pants off the D2X!  Focus was distinctly faster, as was acquisition of VR, mandatory under those conditions.  Worst of all, the image quality with the D2X SUCKED in comparison.  I didn't get a usable shot from the D2X, while virtually everything from the D300 was stunning.  Ping pong ball grain from the D2X, while the D300 was grainless at 2500 ISO.  As the morning progressed I was able to drop the D2X to 800 ISO, but forgot to do so with the D300.  Shooting at 2500 ISO, the D300 beat the pants off the D2X at 800 ISO.

Buy the D300.   Don't look back.

[Dustbak]

The D300 shares the same multicam 3500 AF system  with the D3 and the D3x. I think that says enough about the capabilities of the D300 AF.