People have probably been wondering why I haven't been doing as many reviews on different cameras as I planned to in the past. As a wildlife photographer, I tend to opt to review the cameras that I use or am planning to purchase down the road as I upgrade my camera bodies. Namely that's the reason why there has been such a dearth of information on camera bodies and recommendations.
Most of us serious shooters have been screaming for a D300s replacement for the last 6 years. I got my D300s body in 2010 iat least an year after the body first came out so my camera is getting long in the tooth with at least 30,000 actuations of the shutter.
For the better part of four years, we've been screaming at Nikon to produce a replacement for their Nikon D300s and that's done about as well as screaming into a face of a hurricane because Nikon wasn't listening.
If there is one thing that pro and serious shooters hate is not having everything on an external manual switch. Diving into the menu system causes one to lose shot opportunities. That is one of the main reasons we hate the lovingly named "idiot dial" to the right.
The D300s dial that I am familiar with is on the left. This enables me to set the number of shots, the quality (QUAL), the white balance (WB), and ISO (digital film speed) with one hand, plus a lot of other camera settings (like mirror up) that are crucial without having to dive headfirst in the menu system of the camera which takes a ton of time and frankly is a pain in the posterior.
So we serious shooters have been begging and pleading for a semi-pro body DX frame camera (those of us who shoot wildlife on a regular basis if we aren't upgrading to the D4s (which will be my next move). With the D4s being an expensive proposition at almost $6,000 for a camera body only (no lens comes with that for that price -too bad; so sad) it's a camera for those who have the money to spare. If they have a D300s replacement coming out with a magnesium alloy body which would mean that it would be able to put up with the tough knocks that a pro or serious user would put that body through.
According to Nikon Rumors, there is exactly a body like that, that is on the drawing table at Nikon. Nikon Rumors - Breaking: Nikon D9300 DSLR camera on the horizon
Hopefully there is, because despite the 150,000 shutter actuations reputed to be the benchmark for the D300s, I'd rather play it safe and upgrade sometime in the next two years and that'll buy me enough time to save up for that D? professional camera body (whether it be the D5 or D6; who knows).
