Nikon D300s - How Does It Rate Against Other Digital SLRs

The Nikon D300s has been out for over a year now, and it continues to shine in the eyes of its users. You would be hard-pressed to find a camera that has better user reviews... Well, maybe the Nikon D700, but that is a cat of a different color, being a full-frame camera.What makes this camera so special, and how does it stack up against the rest of the top rated cameras in its field?To begin with, it is the users that make or break the camera. If a model starts out with a few bad reviews, the users will find fault. It's kind of like football fans. You never heard of an Oregon Ducks fan outside the state of Oregon until this year, but now, being undefeated, the "fans" are everywhere. Fair weather exist in football and photography.But this is not about football, it is about the excellence and desirability of the Nikon D300s. With respect to sensor size, it is a 12.3-megapixel APS-C sensor. This is good in that the engineers did not try to stuff too many pixels into a small space. It can compete very favorably with the 15mp to 18mp competitors because you really don't need that many pixels unless you plan to print an image as big as your living room wall. 12-megapixels is plenty. It is the quality of those pixels that makes the difference, and the users agree that image quality "rocks" on this model.HD video is a feature that is not going to go away. Photographers want it and manufacturers are providing it. The 720p HD video at 24 frames per second has been upgraded from the D90 and D5000 because of the "contrast-detect" AF during shooting and the external stereo mic jack. One not-so-great point is that there is a "rolling shutter" problem when panning quickly while shooting video. It causes distortion of the video because the camera cannot keep up with the pan and it appears to be bending the objects.Continuing with the positives, this model shares some of the features of the more professional Nikon models. These include 51 AF points and 3D tracking which are the reason for such high image quality and focusing power.Here's something that is kind of handy. There are two Live View modes. There is a handheld mode which uses a quick phase-detection AF system, and there is a Tripod mode which uses a contrast-based AF system. Since there is more movement when handheld shots are being taken, this is helpful to get the right amount of image stabilization.Having a camera with an APS-C sensor has its advantages, as well. There is a multiplication factor of 1.5, meaning that a picture taken with a 100mm lens has the equivalent focal range of a 150mm lens on a full-frame camera. This gives you added range with a less expensive lens for shots like wildlife or sports. Speaking of sports, you can get a continuous frame rate of up to 8fps is you add the battery pack. All these features add up to quality and value. As a mid-range digital SLR, the Nikon D300s could be the right camera for you. This is true especially if you already own Nikkor lenses.But there are other digital SLR cameras. Maybe features are not enough. They shouldn't be, really. You don't buy a car just because it has 4 wheels and an engine that starts 9 times out of 10. Compare and contemplate before you commit.