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I'm looking to purchase a new camera for both photoshoots and videos. I know all the technical differences like resolution, speed,...and all that. But I went to a shop where the sales lady told me that the controls were better on the D300s and also the Auto Focus is much faster.

  1. Does anyone have experience using the 2 and could tell me if there is a noticeable difference in Auto Focus between the D300s and the D7000
  2. Do you know what she meant by better controls on the D300s?

Thanks for any input.

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Well, I've had both and while it is a close call on AF and buttons, but I would give an edge to the D7000.

There are more AF-points on the D300S but I could not tell you which is faster, they are both very fast in that respect.

The controls is a matter of personal taste but the D7000 is more efficient to me, particularly with Easy ISO enabled. It has an actual mode dial too, which makes changing exposure-modes easier.

The D300S is a great but aging camera. The D7000's photo quality in low-light is much improved over it. I would suspect the sales lady trying to get rid of older models on unsuspecting clients. Luckily you came here and asked ;)

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In short: the D300s is an higher end body and yes, its autofocus is better, if we speak stricly numbers, as it has some more points. Also it can crank out more frames per second and the controls are better in that it has separated buttons for AF-L/AE-L(lock) and AF, a thumb-reachable metering mode dial and focus mode selection three-way switch.

Still the D7000's sensor is arguably better, and this camera (at a lower price) is so packed with features, even some the D300 lacks, that both being DX cameras (smaller sensor than film and actual professional DSLRs) I would go with the 7000. It also has better video capabilities, i.e. resolution and (I believe) editing tools.

If you were a pro reporter you would really use the D300's features I mentioned, but then you would know you need it and why you need it :-)

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  • \$\begingroup\$ For me, the lack of a dedicated AF-ON button is a dealbreaker. Otherwise the D7000 seems like a better camera in almost every respect. \$\endgroup\$
    – gerikson
    Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 12:46
  • \$\begingroup\$ Don't forget the buffer size. The D300s is better able to keep up with rapid shooting because it has a larger image buffer. A friend of mine bought a D7000 when it came out and the one negative he noticed was that when shooting NEF images on continuous high the D7000 kept filling its buffer and having to wait for images to be written to the card. \$\endgroup\$
    – Ian Lelsie
    Commented Sep 8, 2011 at 17:19

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