D300 Noise - What's All the Commotion About?

The D300 sensor is markedly better at high ISO's than the D200, and even the D2x. After reading up on some pictorialized reviews and comparisons, I found one reviewer's suggestion worth considering - turn Hi ISO NR Reduction to Low or Off. Huh? Makes sense actually. All that NR does is smear detail, so it'd be worth it to try to go without before stirring the pot, eh? I decided to give it another chance in my routine shooting technique... how so?

Let's start by repeating once again that underexposure is a major faux pas, and that it introduces noise immediately in underexposed (I prefer to call them unexposed) areas. Routinely overexposing at 1/3 of a stop is the right way to go with plenty of recoverable highlight data available in today's RAW files. Well-lit subjects (sports, birds, etc.) in particular won't suffer from noise like those dimly lit artistic shots taken at twilight. So use of higher ISO's shouldn't be an issue until there isn't enough light - ambient or artificial. (Sports shooters have been going this route for a long time, and with the advent of the D3 are pushing this envelope even further!)

Tests done on the D300 against its competitors reveal a tremendous high ISO performance in properly exposed images with half the noise of Nikon's previous top DX models. Do your own tests to discover this advancement - preferably with flash for maximum color saturation and proper contrast levels.

My initial test results below are RAW images taken with my new 16-85/3.5-5.6 VR Nikkor and the D300's built-in flash for a full histogram of data. The D300 was set with NR Off and images were saved as 800-pixel JPGs at the 100% Quality setting. (These are 350k+ images, so download 'em and take a closer look on your own screen.)

First, an unedited 200 ISO image...


200 ISO

Then, unedited 800/1600 ISO images and their counterparts with 100% Luminance NR applied in Lightroom to fully impact the image for noise reduction.


800 ISO


800 ISO w/ 100% Luminance NR


1600 ISO


1600 ISO w/ 100% Luminance NR

On my monitor, even at 1600 ISO, image quality is simply superb - excellent tonal range and fine detail is very well maintained. For any use other than stock photo submissions or extreme enlargement, you will get excellent results from 8X10 size prints to litho reproduction in brochures and magazines at the 800 and 1600 ISO settings.

Well, there you have it - no need to make a lot of noise over the D300. It is the 'quietest' DX camera available and designed to handle high ISO's very smoothly. Next, we'll be exploring the advantages of the Auto ISO feature for the most flexible shooting technique ever developed by Nikon. Stay tuned...