Com­pare Nikon D300s, D7000, D3100

Nikon has Released 2 new Cam­eras the Nikon D7000 and D3100. I thought it would nice to com­pare these 2 cam­eras along with the Nikon D300s. The D3100 is a 14.3 MP at a great low price, The D7000 16.2 MP touted as the new replace­ment for the D90 and the D300s as the pros chose as the top end cam­era of Nikon’s DX (APS-C) sen­sor format.

Nikon DSLR Com­pared all DX format
Nikon Cam­era Type	Nikon D300s	Nikon D7000	Nikon D3100
Rank	#1	#2	#3
Nikon D300s Body only Nikon D7000 Body only Nikon D3100 W/18-55mm NIKKOR VR Lens
Res­o­lu­tion	12.3 MP	16.2 MP	14.2 MP
HD Video	up to 720p	up to 1080p	up to 1080p
Exter­nal stereo micro­phone jack	Yes	Yes	No
Num­ber of Mem­ory Slots / Card Types	1 / SD,SDHC & 1 / CF	2 / SD,SDHC,SDXC	1 / SD,SDHC,SDXC
ISO range	100 — 6400	100 — 12800	100 — 12800
Live View	Yes	Yes	Yes
View Finder Coverage	100%	100%	95%
Frames per Sec­ond (FPS)	7 FPS	6 FPS	3 FPS
Self Timer	2,5,10,20 Sec.	2,10 Sec.	2 ‚10 Sec.
Flash sync speed max	1/250 Sec.	1/250 Sec.	1/200 Sec.
Max Shut­ter speed	1/8000	1/8000	1/4000
Optional remote con­trol connector	Yes	Yes + wireless	Yes
Max­i­mum Aut­o­fo­cus Points	51	39	11
Expo­sure Bracketing	2 to 9	2 and 3	No
Time­lapse Exposure	Yes	Yes	No
Active D Lighting	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bat­tery Type	EN-EL3e	EN-EL-15	EN-EL-14
Bat­tery Life ( Num­ber Shot per charge)	aprox. 950	aprox. 1050	aprox. 550
Wether Sealed	Yes	Yes	No
Image Sen­sor Clean­ing System	Yes	Yes	Yes
Price (ESP) Bode only except the D3100	$1699.95	$1199.95	$699.95 W/Lens
B&H Pho­toVideo	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now

Nikon D300s

 The Nikon D300s is truly a pro­fes­sional cam­era and the top of the line DX sen­sor cam­era. The D300s is almost the same lay­out as the Full Frame FX sen­sor Nikon D700. It is a 12.3 mega pixel dig­i­tal cam­era with a fast con­tin­u­ous shoot­ing up to 7 frames per sec­ond. Pic­tures are taken in JPEG, Tiff, AVI and 12 or 14-bit NEF (RAW) for­mat. The cam­era has a low noise ISO sen­si­tiv­ity range from 200 to 3200 and expanded ISO 100 and up to 6400. It has 51 aut­o­fo­cus points, pro­grammed, man­ual, aper­ture pri­or­ity, and shut­ter pri­or­ity expo­sure mode set­tings. It has man­ual and auto focus modes. There’s a 3 inch LCD mon­i­tor with 921000 dot res­o­lu­tion with one but­ton live view, a Rugged magnesium-alloy con­struc­tion, image edit­ing, and an auto­matic image sen­sor cleaner are also included. The new fea­ture on this cam­era over the Nikon D300 is that it shoots 720p (24 fps) HD movies. It also has a built in monau­ral micro­phone as well as exter­nal stereo mini-pin jack, along with a built-in pop up flash. The Nikon D300s has 1 SD card slot that sup­ports SecureDig­i­tal (SD) and SDHC SecureDig­i­tal High Capac­ity, It also has 1 Com­pact­Flash Type I &II (CF) card slot. The mem­ory cards are not included. I rec­om­mend 8GB to 16GB class 6, high speed for SD cards and 400x or higher for CF cards. The cam­era comes with video cable and USB cables, as well as an EN-EL3e Lithium-ion recharge­able bat­tery, bat­tery charger, strap, eye­piece shield, rub­ber eye­cup, hot-shoe cover, body cap, and LCD cover, also included are CD-ROMs with Nikon soft­ware suite and a man­ual. This is a rugged pro­fes­sional cam­era and did I say FAST 7 fps. If you’re into HDR then this cam­era is for you with expo­sure brack­et­ing from 2 to 9 expo­sures. WOW! The Nikon D300s is a bit expen­sive but is a work horse. I own this cam­era and even with the fea­tures of the new Nikon D7000 I would still own the Nikon D300s

Nikon D7000

The new Nikon D7000 will be the replace­ment for the D90. The Nikon D7000 is a 16.2 mega pixel dig­i­tal cam­era with con­tin­u­ous shoot­ing up to 6 frames per sec­ond up to 100 shots. Pic­tures are taken in JPEG and 12 or 14-bit NEF (RAW) for­mat. The cam­era has a low noise ISO sen­si­tiv­ity range from 200 to 6400 and expanded ISO up to 25600. It has 19 auto­matic expo­sure scene modes — pro­grammed, man­ual, aper­ture pri­or­ity, shut­ter pri­or­ity and auto­matic expo­sure mode set­tings. It also has man­ual and auto focus modes to ensure the full con­trol of the pho­to­graph regard­less of dis­tance or light­ing. There is a 3 inch LCD mon­i­tor with 92100 dot res­o­lu­tion, one but­ton live view, image edit­ing, and an auto­matic image sen­sor cleaner. The hot new fea­ture on this cam­era is that it shoots 1080p (24 fps), 720p (24 & 30 fps) HD movies. Another nice fea­ture is a built in monau­ral micro­phone as well as exter­nal stereo mini-pin jack and a built-in pop up flash. The Nikon D7000 has 2 SD card slots that sup­port SDHC SecureDig­i­tal High Capac­ity, SecureDig­i­tal (SD), and the new SDXC which sup­ports mem­ory cards up to 2TB. Note that the mem­ory cards are not included with the cam­era pur­chase. I rec­om­mend 4GB to 16GB class 6, high speed cards. The cam­era comes with A/V and USB cables, as well as an EN-EL15 Lithium-ion recharge­able bat­tery, bat­tery charger, strap, eye­piece shield, rub­ber eye­cup, hot-shoe cover, body cap, LCD cover, CD-ROMs with Nikon soft­ware suite and a man­ual. All of this hard­ware makes the cam­era sound like seri­ous busi­ness, and it is. The Nikon D90 stands at the point where dig­i­tal cam­eras start to get expen­sive. Its users would pay a higher price still for such crisp, clear pho­tographs and easy-to-use extra fea­tures. This is one cam­era that’s worth the cost.

Nikon D3100

The new Nikon D3100 one of Nikon’s new cam­eras for the ama­teur pho­tog­ra­pher and I think this will be a great cam­era for pho­tog­ra­phers on a bud­get who still want to be cre­ative with there pho­tog­ra­phy. The Nikon D3100 is a 14.2 mega pixel dig­i­tal cam­era with con­tin­u­ous shoot­ing up to 3 frames per sec­ond. Pic­tures are taken in JPEG and NEF (RAW) for­mat. This cam­era has a low noise ISO sen­si­tiv­ity range from ISO100 to 3200 and expanded ISO up to ISO25600. It has 6 auto­matic expo­sure scene modes, pro­grammed auto­matic, man­ual, aper­ture pri­or­ity, shut­ter pri­or­ity expo­sure mode set­tings. The D3100 has both man­ual and auto focus modes to ensure the full con­trol of the pho­to­graph regard­less of dis­tance or light­ing. There’s a 3 inch LCD mon­i­tor 230000 dot TFT LCD, one but­ton live view for stills and video, image edit­ing, and an auto­matic image sen­sor cleaner. The hot new fea­ture on this cam­era is that it shoots 1080p (24 fps), 720p (24, 25& 30 fps) HD movies motion MOV H.264/MPEG-4 for­mats, Also included is a built in monau­ral micro­phone and a pop up flash. The Nikon D3100 has 1 SD card slot that sup­ports SDHC SecureDig­i­tal High Capac­ity, SecureDig­i­tal (SD), and the new SDXC which sup­ports mem­ory cards up to 2TB. Note that the mem­ory cards are not included in the cam­era pur­chase. I rec­om­mend 8GB to 16GB class 6, high speed cards. The cam­era comes with AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5–5.6 VR, front & rear lens caps, as well as an EN-EL14 lithium-ion recharge­able bat­tery, bat­tery charger, strap, eye­piece shield, rub­ber eye­cup, hot-shoe cover, body cap, CD-ROMs with Nikon soft­ware suite and a man­ual. All of this hard­ware makes the cam­era sound like seri­ous busi­ness, and it is. The Nikon D3100 stands out as fea­ture rich cam­era for the price. This could make a great backup cam­era as well. Just remem­ber the price of this cam­era includes AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5–5.6 VR lens.

The Lenses

The Nikon D3100, D7000 & D300s uses the full line of Nikon DX lenses along with many other Nikon and after­mar­ket lenses. I rec­om­mend you buy the best lenses you can afford. The lens is one the most impor­tant fac­tors when it comes to image qual­ity. Lenses have a life cycle of 10 years or more. Cam­eras have a shorter life cycle of between 3 to 5 years because of the fast mov­ing tech­nol­ogy. Because the lens life is so much longer than the cam­era, I rec­om­mend you put more empha­sis on the lens qual­ity than the cam­era. One more thing, these cam­eras are very hi-tech and you should have the lat­est hi-tech lenses. The DX (APS-C) for­mat sen­sor used on these cam­eras, and most other D-SLR cam­eras, is smaller than the 35mm film or full frame FX sen­sor used on the Nikon D700, D3s and D3X. There­fore, qual­ity ED (Extra Low Dis­tor­tion) glass and VR (image sta­bi­liza­tion) is very impor­tant to get the best images from D-SLR cam­eras with DX (APS-C) for­mat sen­sor. There is one great advan­tage of the DX for­mat. You can mul­ti­ply the focal length by 1.5x mak­ing a 200mm lens equiv­a­lent to a 300mm lens in full frame 35mm or FX format.

Con­clu­sion

I picked these three Nikon cam­eras because they all will be good cam­eras for the cre­ative pho­tog­ra­pher from begin­ner to pro with a wide range in pric­ing. Pick­ing the right cam­era depends on what fea­tures are impor­tant to you. All 3 of these cam­eras will take great pho­tographs. If HD video is the most impor­tant to you the Nikon D3100 or D7000 may be best for you because of 1080p res­o­lu­tion. But, if you’re into HDR (high dynamic range) pho­tog­ra­phy then the D300s may be best pick. The D300s has expo­sure brack­et­ing from 2 to 9 expo­sures. So, do your home­work. Pick the fea­tures that you need the most and then choose the cam­era that best suits your needs. Just remem­ber, the most expen­sive cam­era may not be the best for you. One more thing — if you don’t own other Nikon lenses. When you are buy­ing a DSLR cam­era you’re buy­ing cam­era sys­tem with lenses and acces­sories that might still be good and usable if in the future you upgrade your cam­era. So chose your cam­era sys­tem wisely. The two top cam­era sys­tems are Nikon and Canon.