Nikon D300, Slower than Canon’s 40D

I was checking out the DPReview preview on the Nikon D300 (the implementation of live view is sweet) and I noticed something I’m surprised more sites and camera fanatics haven’t picked up on much; at least I haven’t noticed them pick up on it yet.

The continuous shooting mode for the D300 is listed as 6 frames per second in raw capture mode; something Nikon has been touting quite a bit. Additionally, the camera can record 14bpc raw files, again something touted often. While these two bits in of themselves aren’t news, what is news to me is you don’t get both at the same time.

6 fps is only available if you are recording the raw files at 12bpc. Switch to 14bpc and the frame rate drops to 2.5 fps! That’s a considerable drop for files that are only 30% larger in size. As a matter of comparison, Canon’s 40D only records 14bpc raw files and shoots at 6.5 fps.

(Read my Bit-Depth Primer for more on why 14bpc is a big deal)

Why did Nikon optimize the camera’s circuit (the computer term is “bus”) bandwidth for 12bpc files and not 14bpc files? Would that extra bandwidth cost be significant enough to have raised the cost of the camera an objectionable amount? I doubt it; it’s already a $1,800 camera. An extra 25-50 bucks (if it would have even cost that much) would have hardly mattered. It’s not like Nikon to create silly limits like this just for the sake of differentiating between camera models; that’s what Canon does best. More than likely, I’d guess the move to 14bpc was added late in the game after the camera was designed to only shoot 12bpc.

At any rate, it hardly matters. While Canon fans can hold the higher frame rate over Nikon shooters, very few photographers actually need 6 fps of shooting speed. A majority of people buying in the 40D/D300 “prosumer” market have little need for ultra-fast frame rates. Those who do truly need a fast frame rate will generally buy a 1D Mk3 or D3.

Personally, the 2.5 fps of my aging 300D is more than enough for me, even when trying to capture fast-moving targets. While Canon may have a larger number for it’s frame-rate, the D300 looks to be a superior camera on almost every other front (we’ll find out for certain ones they hit the streets of course)—enough so, I would switch and buy a D300 if buying a new camera was something I actually needed right now.

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