The Nikon P300 I received shortly after this camera model went on sale. Since then I've made many, many thousands of shots with it. In all conceivable lighting conditions, on occasions at home and native environment, and also to some, extensive travels Of course, I also have some image series taken with the intent to achieve the greatest possible expressive and meaningful motif design for posters, photo books etc. As you can see, the P300 had to really show in my things, what it can do. And to make it short, it's actually an incredible amount. What appealed to me about this camera from the beginning, was the exceptionally fast lens. I had on my travels so waived even on the zoom stronger TZ10 (and others), and that has paid off. The focal length of the P300 starts already with "24 mm", a strong wide-angle! (For example: Venice, narrow streets, small squares, hardly a way "back" to avoid, and yet you have the architecture fully in the picture.) The focal length extends then to "100 mm", that covers the most commonly used zoom claim completely off. (Even with snapshots is at this focal length little jitter, no color change and no, otherwise usual, complaining of excessive light intensity loss.) I have to say that I have, the flash is actually used in the huge amount of images that I have made with the P300 only for brightening backlit portraits. In vast majority of the recordings I have, thanks to the high-aperture objective no flash needed. Cathedrals, halls etc. in Andalusia, such as the Mezquita, the Alcazar, the Alhambra etc., I always was able to implement the most natural lighting effect of the space in atmospheric photos. Often enough, was in the photos then even more to realize than before with the naked eye. And all that. At an incredible detail diversity and accuracy, without noise and "Pixelvermatschung" as another reviewer wrote I have the camera on, however, max. Set 400 ISO, more is not necessary in this fast lens. Then, when it is absolutely necessary, as I have, of course, achieved with the setting 'Night scene' with no flashlight surprisingly beautiful and meaningful results. Plus offers the P300 above average in this camera class abundance of setting possibilities of the manual adjustment programs M, S and A to the fine tuning. What initially really surprised me was the very effective function for the Night Scene, and Auto HDR for backlit shots. In both cases, the camera takes multiple shots in quick succession, which are then immediately then optimized to a single, perfect exposed shot. The result: Night photography (also shooting in the above indoors) freehand with a quality, which I previously always had to lug my DSLR equipment, even with stand (!). And the effect of the Auto HDR can be adjusted in three steps even. Should occasion photographers but deal strictly with the most important chapters of the manual and with tests under various fine adjustments. The results of this screen are really referring P300 at its best, in the entire range of compact cameras. Nikon is my opinion currently the only camera manufacturer who has mastered the use of new, backwards illuminated CMOS sensor effectively. High-quality, high-intensity competition cameras are almost twice as expensive, yet larger, heavier and more cumbersome. These so-called "precious compacts" have then usually only a minimal push, maybe even only a fixed focal length, or only provide a set of buttons to manually achievable but only a scaled-down light intensity (such as the G11 / 12 or the P7000 / 7100). It has been my experience that other DSLR users, like me, came to the conclusion that one the bulky DSLR equipment in the majority of cases (as described above) quietly at home can be in the closet, because to a great photo books create or even posters, you can really with the inconspicuous, small and handy P300 in the matching! Gürteltasche content - and - has nevertheless, or even why, the full photographing fun! Quite contrary to my usual custom, I am writing this review quite late after the appearance of the camera, but I can from my own experience say with complete justification that potential buyers this rugged P300 found in terms of image quality and handling in this camera class hardly better! !! Of course, my times this practice test, as always, a subjective opinion. But the well-known photo-media and Internet portals run their self-designed testing procedures usually indeed only one copy of a specific camera model by, often without an extensive practice test, which would be very meaningful for most amateur photographers.
Addition: It has made me aware that I had said in my review nothing about the video quality of the P300! - well then: In addition to my photo-passion I used formerly intensively my cine-Hobby. Very expensive I cut (in the truest sense of the word) my films, they set to music with original sound, music and commentary. So many, fairly extensive films were made (up to a time length of about 90 '100 minutes). If occasionally one or the other film still comes to the demonstration (by 'Original projector') so all participants of the difference for today's video art is aware: Small (tiny) video cameras and storage devices, of course, with impeccable original, very complex and high quality editing programs on your home computer and, and, and '. And yet, although the video technology has become so advanced, I'll almost always the video cameras at home and only take a photo camera with, for example, the P300. I have anyway hardly time for a complex video editing on home computers, let alone for any length of video projects. So for years I have moved forward to create from our trips and other things best, large-scale and extensive photo books, with the best possible photo cameras. And if additionally having such a photo camera such a good video performance, as the P300, then I actually everything I need at present. There are always situations in which the significance of a photograph (MIR) is not enough: The graceful movement of two dancers (from a folk dance group in Sweden), the snorting pounding and hissing of a steam train on a mountain range, the rousing performance of a soul group with the appropriate headlight movement, the surf on a picturesque coast, panoramic swivel with the finest natural sounds ( birds, cicadas, etc.) and many more examples. In all these cases, pressing the video button of the P300 is sufficient and the mood is in the 'box'. Again cutting at home and I set to music this supplementary video clips then (currently with MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 17 Plus) and thus create a 'supplementary DVD' to my photobooks (in an envelope attached to the inside of the book cover). In this respect, the P300 offers me everything I need for this purpose: Clear, sharp and true-color Full-HD video with very good sound, optical zoom during recording, as well as exposure and focus tracking. The shooting in twilight and Darkness (eg of the abovementioned Soul Concert, nocturnal stroll through the streets of a big city, etc.) are stunningly in the Mood Play! By the way a tagless, disturbing noise when zooming, so such recordings mE rendering unusable (warning example in this regard, the Samsung WB2000)! And finally something for the handling of the P300: All switches and buttons are where they belong, intuitive and easily accessible, in a mE ideal size. And there is still enough space for a grippy, rubberized thumb plate on the back and a rubberised grip strip on the front, so that you can keep this camera without problems with one hand and operate. Finally, in my opinion, ideal, the flash is automatically extended when the camera is NOT. In the extremely rare cases where I really need it, I can extend it manually using a side-mounted switch.
