Got my D300, battery grip, and 17-55mm lens. Initial impressions are very very positive.
Construction:
Awesome on all counts.
Grip: The grip is definitely a league above the shitastic 30D grip I've had to deal with for so long, which was even worse than my Rebel XT grip IMO. Examined the construction thoroughly and I don't see very many obvious places for the elements to screw it up. However, I am a little worried about the sliding battery tray door. It is sealed simply with a little bit of rubberized foam, no o-ring or anything. Might be OK for defending against water from up top, but what about from down below? There have been many cases where I have been in a large body of water and have occasionally dunked the bottom of my battery grip in the water. I'm not sure if this foam stuff will be sufficient in blocking water from entering the main battery grip cavity.
Body: Construction is wonderful. Few complaints. I do like the feel of the Canons though. More comfortable in my smaller hands. The Nikon seems harsher and more angular. I love how there are so many physical controls and switches available though that don't require you to verify on a screen that they've been set.
Pop-up flash: great area of worry for me. I do not see any kind of obvious weatherproofing around the pop up flash, and in the past sand and water have really screwed up my pop-ups. I want to say that this is the greatest weakness in the body construction.
CF door: sealed only with foam. Eh....
17-55mm lens: The best constructed lens that I've ever owned. I really like the rubber gasket around the lens mount. The fit and construction are perfect but I am uncertain how it will handle sand. It might still get gritty, but I doubt that it will outright die or lock up.
Shower: I installed some new shower heads today in my parent's house. I ran the whole combination through the shower on a torrential downpour for about 3 minutes, shooting pictures the whole time. Everything operated great before and after. When shooting in the rain I think it is best to remove the plastic LCD cover because water just gets between the LCD and plastic and makes reading the LCD very difficult. A good deal of water got in between the junction of the grip and the body though and was sort of pooling on top of the grip when I took the two apart. The contacts should be raised sufficiently enough though to prevent problems. Hopefully the top of the grip is sealed well enough to prevent the water that pools there from leaking down and inside and frying the circuitry.
Water got all up in the pop up flash area. Afraid to fire off the flash now. I would NOT recommend using the pop up flash in the rain.
I shall run it through the shower one more time, this time for a longer period of time and pressing as many of the controls as I can in an attempt to make it start acting wonky.
I will also test the grip and body to see how it does with light submersion.
Other:
Love the live view. Not sure how often I'll use it but it's good to know that it's there. Now need video.
SO many options and customizations.
14-bit shooting limits FPS to only 2.5fps. Bleh. 8fps only with heavy AAs or expensive EN-EL4 batteries, which I don't have. Bleh.
Viewfinder seems crisper, larger, and brighter than my 30D viewfinder. It's a joy to look through.
Lens hood is awesome! On/Off action is super smooth and there's a mechanical locking mechanism, unlike the simple friction lock that others have.
Shower v2.0
Took it in the shower again, this time with hot water. Lasted for less than 5 minutes being absolutely drenched with solid streams of water before the camera started acting strange enough to end the test.
1. The whole entire backside control panel area is very susceptible to water entry and severe malfunction from water. This includes the following buttons no longer responding:
D-pad, Play, Trash, AF selection toggle, Menu, Image Lock, Magnification, OK
It is very possible for just one of these buttons to be shorted, for example the D-pad, and lead to the disabling of all other buttons.
2. All other controls and functions worked, ie. all the main shooting functions including the scroll wheels, WB, ISO, Mode, Shutter, ON/OFF switch, and all the buttons on the grip. Camera would shoot, display the image on the LCD (but none of the buttons in #1 would work), and could continue on shooting and recording images.
3. Lens was zoomed in and out and focused during this whole thing. It went completely unfazed.
4. No water between the lens/body junction.
5. Lots of water pooling in the flash area, but flash fired just fine in the pouring water.
6. Condensation formed behind the glass of the viewfinder.
7. No water in the CF compartment.
8. No water in the battery grip compartment.
9. No water in the things sealed by rubber covers.
10. No water behind the transparent LCD screens.
After the entire rear control panel stopped responding, I stopped the test and after a quick wipe with a towel all controls returned back to normal.
Update
Ok, camera's got some issues. There's a short somewhere that's causing:
1. When the camera is turned off, the CF card green access light blinks every second continuously, draining both grip and body batteries in less than a day. I've heard of a Nikon BGLOD (Blinking Green Light of Death) that plauged D70 owners, but not D300 owners...
2. When the camera is turned on, the CF card green access light blinks every 5 seconds, which causes the top monochrome LCD to also blink. This also drains both batteries in less than a day.
3. The above only happen with the battery grip attached. The battery grip doesn't even need to have a battery in it for it to set off the blinking green light. I'm going to go wash out the grip.
Looks like this thing is going in for repair if it doesn't clear up on its own after a couple of days.
Nikon weathersealing preliminary conclusion:
Weathersealing is great as long as you don't press any of the buttons on the camera's rear face. Using the shutter button and aperture/shutter/EV comp spin dials are ok. So main shooting controls are ok to be used in a downpour, but nothing else.
Grip Update
I took apart the grip because it was causing the green light blinking.
The grip is not sealed well AT ALL. The top cover of the grip is sealed on all sides by that cheap, porous foam. In addition, remember when I said that water was pooling on top of the grip? Well, there are screws on top of the grip, and a lot of this pooling water seeped in through the unsealed screw holes, right onto the main circuit board underneath.
Saw a good deal of corrosion in various places. Used alcohol and paper to clean it all off as best as I could.
The joystick on the grip is not sealed well at all. Water could quickly drip in if the joystick is used while it is wet. Heck, it can drip in even if it's not used. All it is is a piece of silicone that flexes and leaves openings when the joystick is used.
After cleaning the grip as thoroughly as I could, I put it all back together and now the green blinking light is gone. But there are still other issues.
1. Grip scroll wheels don't work.
2. Grip joystick doesn't work.
3. Grip battery level does not display on the camera - it thinks there's no battery in the grip.
4. Camera displays dead battery when there is a full battery in the grip.
Other thoughts:
Grip is very easy to take apart, which is good IMO. It's not like the Canon 30D grip which is absofuckinglutely impossible to figure out unless you take out literally 30 screws just to get at the motherboard. And its construction still sucks.
Construction:
Awesome on all counts.
Grip: The grip is definitely a league above the shitastic 30D grip I've had to deal with for so long, which was even worse than my Rebel XT grip IMO. Examined the construction thoroughly and I don't see very many obvious places for the elements to screw it up. However, I am a little worried about the sliding battery tray door. It is sealed simply with a little bit of rubberized foam, no o-ring or anything. Might be OK for defending against water from up top, but what about from down below? There have been many cases where I have been in a large body of water and have occasionally dunked the bottom of my battery grip in the water. I'm not sure if this foam stuff will be sufficient in blocking water from entering the main battery grip cavity.
Body: Construction is wonderful. Few complaints. I do like the feel of the Canons though. More comfortable in my smaller hands. The Nikon seems harsher and more angular. I love how there are so many physical controls and switches available though that don't require you to verify on a screen that they've been set.
Pop-up flash: great area of worry for me. I do not see any kind of obvious weatherproofing around the pop up flash, and in the past sand and water have really screwed up my pop-ups. I want to say that this is the greatest weakness in the body construction.
CF door: sealed only with foam. Eh....
17-55mm lens: The best constructed lens that I've ever owned. I really like the rubber gasket around the lens mount. The fit and construction are perfect but I am uncertain how it will handle sand. It might still get gritty, but I doubt that it will outright die or lock up.
Shower: I installed some new shower heads today in my parent's house. I ran the whole combination through the shower on a torrential downpour for about 3 minutes, shooting pictures the whole time. Everything operated great before and after. When shooting in the rain I think it is best to remove the plastic LCD cover because water just gets between the LCD and plastic and makes reading the LCD very difficult. A good deal of water got in between the junction of the grip and the body though and was sort of pooling on top of the grip when I took the two apart. The contacts should be raised sufficiently enough though to prevent problems. Hopefully the top of the grip is sealed well enough to prevent the water that pools there from leaking down and inside and frying the circuitry.
Water got all up in the pop up flash area. Afraid to fire off the flash now. I would NOT recommend using the pop up flash in the rain.
I shall run it through the shower one more time, this time for a longer period of time and pressing as many of the controls as I can in an attempt to make it start acting wonky.
I will also test the grip and body to see how it does with light submersion.
Other:
Love the live view. Not sure how often I'll use it but it's good to know that it's there. Now need video.
SO many options and customizations.
14-bit shooting limits FPS to only 2.5fps. Bleh. 8fps only with heavy AAs or expensive EN-EL4 batteries, which I don't have. Bleh.
Viewfinder seems crisper, larger, and brighter than my 30D viewfinder. It's a joy to look through.
Lens hood is awesome! On/Off action is super smooth and there's a mechanical locking mechanism, unlike the simple friction lock that others have.
Shower v2.0
Took it in the shower again, this time with hot water. Lasted for less than 5 minutes being absolutely drenched with solid streams of water before the camera started acting strange enough to end the test.
1. The whole entire backside control panel area is very susceptible to water entry and severe malfunction from water. This includes the following buttons no longer responding:
D-pad, Play, Trash, AF selection toggle, Menu, Image Lock, Magnification, OK
It is very possible for just one of these buttons to be shorted, for example the D-pad, and lead to the disabling of all other buttons.
2. All other controls and functions worked, ie. all the main shooting functions including the scroll wheels, WB, ISO, Mode, Shutter, ON/OFF switch, and all the buttons on the grip. Camera would shoot, display the image on the LCD (but none of the buttons in #1 would work), and could continue on shooting and recording images.
3. Lens was zoomed in and out and focused during this whole thing. It went completely unfazed.
4. No water between the lens/body junction.
5. Lots of water pooling in the flash area, but flash fired just fine in the pouring water.
6. Condensation formed behind the glass of the viewfinder.
7. No water in the CF compartment.
8. No water in the battery grip compartment.
9. No water in the things sealed by rubber covers.
10. No water behind the transparent LCD screens.
After the entire rear control panel stopped responding, I stopped the test and after a quick wipe with a towel all controls returned back to normal.
Update
Ok, camera's got some issues. There's a short somewhere that's causing:
1. When the camera is turned off, the CF card green access light blinks every second continuously, draining both grip and body batteries in less than a day. I've heard of a Nikon BGLOD (Blinking Green Light of Death) that plauged D70 owners, but not D300 owners...
2. When the camera is turned on, the CF card green access light blinks every 5 seconds, which causes the top monochrome LCD to also blink. This also drains both batteries in less than a day.
3. The above only happen with the battery grip attached. The battery grip doesn't even need to have a battery in it for it to set off the blinking green light. I'm going to go wash out the grip.
Looks like this thing is going in for repair if it doesn't clear up on its own after a couple of days.
Nikon weathersealing preliminary conclusion:
Weathersealing is great as long as you don't press any of the buttons on the camera's rear face. Using the shutter button and aperture/shutter/EV comp spin dials are ok. So main shooting controls are ok to be used in a downpour, but nothing else.
Grip Update
I took apart the grip because it was causing the green light blinking.
The grip is not sealed well AT ALL. The top cover of the grip is sealed on all sides by that cheap, porous foam. In addition, remember when I said that water was pooling on top of the grip? Well, there are screws on top of the grip, and a lot of this pooling water seeped in through the unsealed screw holes, right onto the main circuit board underneath.
Saw a good deal of corrosion in various places. Used alcohol and paper to clean it all off as best as I could.
The joystick on the grip is not sealed well at all. Water could quickly drip in if the joystick is used while it is wet. Heck, it can drip in even if it's not used. All it is is a piece of silicone that flexes and leaves openings when the joystick is used.
After cleaning the grip as thoroughly as I could, I put it all back together and now the green blinking light is gone. But there are still other issues.
1. Grip scroll wheels don't work.
2. Grip joystick doesn't work.
3. Grip battery level does not display on the camera - it thinks there's no battery in the grip.
4. Camera displays dead battery when there is a full battery in the grip.
Other thoughts:
Grip is very easy to take apart, which is good IMO. It's not like the Canon 30D grip which is absofuckinglutely impossible to figure out unless you take out literally 30 screws just to get at the motherboard. And its construction still sucks.
