I purchased this camera prior to leaving for a trip to the Galapagos & Panama
. I was very impressed with the quality and ease of the camera. I have shared pictures with the group I was traveling with and they were additionally impressed.
I would recommend this camera to somone that is aleady is into using a SLR.
I am a enthusiastic hobby photographer. After about a year with an entry level Nikon D40 I struggled a bit with which camera to select next. The D90 or D300s were my prime candidates. - I first ended up with the D90 of sheer budget reasons. The D300s was just released and fairly expensive. However the D90 was a good choice FOR ME at that time because I was not ready to drop the auto-programs (portrait, sports, etc.). The D300s has only (Aperture, Shutter, Program and Manual). Under pressure it was nice to have some of those auto modes to revert to.
A half year later I bought a second hand D300s at a very good price. - What made me choose the D300s now? - More practicing with the manual mode had made me confident that I could actually handle the camera without the auto-programs. This is important. If you buy this camera too early, then you probably will be frustrated. Understanding of the exposure triangle is required to get the results you are seeking. Are you ready to drop the ability to make your DSLR a point-and-shoot camera?
Where I live it rains a lot and the D300s weather sealed rugged body is really attractive (in combination with a weather sealed SB-900 flash). I also craved the faster AF (51 AF-points a BIG plus for moving targets) as well as a shutter speed 1/8000 sec which let me use larger aperture at bright days). A few more buttons to control parameters have also come to good use.
In my opinion the multi selector on the D90 is more pleasant to handle but I soon got used to the selector of the D300s. The ISO-performance do not seem to exceed the performance of the D90. The AWB seem to be at least as good as the AWB on the D90. Just my subjective opinion.
I have used the video several times (clips from concerts), and gotten reasonably good results. - I did not consider video as important when choosing the camera - and still don't. But nice to have anyway.
The D90 was a great camera and so is the D300s. I sold my D90 a couple of months after buying the D300s. For me I feel the D300s camera is more solid in my hands and the loss of auto-programs forces me to think more. Autofocus and weather sealing because of where I live were my important arguments to switch - not image quality.
I have been into photography for about 7 yrs. now. I bought a Nikon D80 approximately 3 yrs. ago and loved it...it was time to upgrade and the D300s was easily the right choice for me. At first I was a little intimidated by all the buttons and knobs but after playing with it for a while and buying/watching the Blue Crane Digital D300 DVD, everything sank in for me. (I am a "visual/auditory learner" so just reading the manual wasn't enough for me.) Don't hesitate buying this camera....it's great!