Continuing the “Should I Upgrade?” series we’ll discuss when to take the plunge and upgrade to the Nikon D300. The Nikon D300 is Nikon’s high-end consumer/low-end professional camera (behind the D700 and D3X). The Nikon D300 really is targeted at the professional photographer who is very demanding of their camera.

The average consumer will find the feature-set in the Nikon D90 more than adequate for general usage. However, there are some situations that do make a lot of sense for an amateur/hobbyist photographer to consider the Nikon D300 to get some of the features only on the professional line of Nikon cameras. There are really just a couple of situations where the amateur photographer might want to consider jumping up from the D80/Nikon D90 to the Nikon D300. I’ll elaborate on the situations where the Nikon D300 would be preferred to the Nikon D90 by the amateur photographer below:

1. Photographing events that require the ability to capture images at a high rate – examples include: sports events, dance events, and some wildlife photography. The 4.5 frames per second of the Nikon D90 is pretty darn fast, and will handle most situations. The slightly slower D80’s 3 frames per second may leave you missing the perfect picture in some situations. The Nikon D300 can hit 6 fps or 8 fps with the optional grip, this can allow you to capture the triathlete coming out of the water, or the perfect shot of the basketball player hovering around the rim. You’ll know if you need this feature – most of you won’t.
2. Macro photography that requires mirror lockup – Mirror lockup is one of those features that is hard to know whether you’ll need, or even in fact whether having it would improve your images you’ve been taking. I recommend looking at some of your recent images – and see whether you take many pictures off of a tripod at high magnification. If you do – zoom in and look at a spot of high detail. Which do you see first as you zoom in, pixelation (the individual pixels that make up the picture) or blurriness. If you see blur, and you shoot from a tripod, then mirror lockup could help you get that extra level of detail for large magnification images.
3. Frequent photography in dusty, dirty, or wet environments. I’ve never had a problem with the environment getting the better of my consumer grade nikon (D70/D80) – but I also don’t shoot frequently while whitewater rafting, in the desert, or in rainforests. Now, to be clear – the D70, D80, and Nikon D90 do a great job shooting in each of these environments for brief travel. I’ve successfully taken images in the deserts of Egypt, the rain forests of western Washington, and from kayaks. However, repeated exposure to these elements will certainly degrade equipment that doesn’t have professional grade sealing like the Nikon D300/D700/D3X.

There are certainly other reasons you may want to consider the D300 over the consumer-grade cameras. But these three are really the top three practical reasons in my mind for choosing to pay the extra money and move up to the next level of camera performance.

NOTE: There are increasingly reputable rumors that Nikon will be replacing the D300 shortly with the D300s. The D300s is rumored to have HD Video capability, like the Nikon D90. If you ever find yourself wishing you could capture just a 20 second to 2 minute video snapshot during a vacation or photographing your children’s antics I’d recommend holding off on buying the Nikon D300 and waiting for the D300s which should be coming out in the next several weeks or months. I’m quite excited to hear that HD Video will be coming to the Nikon D300, there have been many times where I just want to capture the sounds and mood of a place (African children singing, baby coo’ing) without pulling out a separate video capture device. I’ll be first in line for buying the D300s and will post my review here as soon as it arrives.