D7000 at high ISO(again)

[kiwi]

On the D7000 when most in-camera settings are turned off, the buffer can take 10 e NEF @14-bits at 6 fps.
I'm not sure about the D300...maybe around 13 NEF ?

I thought I'd read reports that there was a much more significant difference than that, ill have to
Look it up again

[Sar NOP]

For action & wildlife, 10 NEF in the buffer is really too small for me. This is far behind the 50 NEF at 8 fps of my D2Hs, which is my favourite camera when shooting action and birds...

[kiwi]

I shoot jpeg fine for sport. I thought d300 was 50 d7000 20 or similar

[Sar NOP]

Yep, 18 JPEG fine for the D7000. But I only shoot RAW...

[farmer_rob]

I though fps on the d300 was higher than 2.5? Buffered frame rate is apparently a restriction on the d7000, but not for me. Anyway, I am deeply satisfied with my d7000 and it would have to be prized from my cold dead hands at the moment

[kiwi]

Shooting raw at 14 rather than the default 12bit makes a huge difference Rob,

[farmer_rob]

Shooting raw at 14 rather than the default 12bit makes a huge difference Rob,

So the d300 only manages 2.5 fps with 14bit RAW? OK. (Quick test on the d7000 - it achieves about 6fps for 10 frames with 14bit RAW, and then stops to empty the buffer. It does 11 frames for 12bit RAW, still at 6fps.)

[arthurking83]

Yeah the frame rates was one of the comparisons I wanted to check on as well, while I had the chance the other week, and the 14bit difference is wayyyy in favour of the D7000.. D7000 doesn't slow down whereas the D300(and D300s) is far more sluggish when using 14bit mode.. it's not the fault of the camera per se, it's a property of the Sony sensor! D3x is afflicted by the same issue(and I think down to 1.5fps).

That weekend tho, I only had a very slow CF card, and my D300 ran out of puff with a very lowly card at about the 11-13th frame in a constant 6fps succession, and the D7000 ran out of puff at about the same.. maybe just a tad more, but with two higher end Sandisk cards in stead.
Now with my 90Mb/s capable card the D300 runs out of puff at about the 24th frame in a continuous session, and the card clears in a matter of seconds.. so that the camera has recovered again and is ready to go much sooner.

Burst mode in 12bit mode on the D300 surely produces more frames in a continuous session if required.. but it is only in 12bit mode. You just can't do that in 14bit mode at all.
The other issue in terms of ultmate quality, is that the D700 has no way of turning off NEF compression. No option to not compress the NEFs(and you'd have to assume it's a lossless compression method tho). D30 is far more configurable with three NEF quality types (lossless/non lossless/no compression). That could make a difference as well to overall quality .... possibly depending on software being used.

In jpg large fine mode, the D300 is certainly capable of shooting the full 100 frame that it's allowed to shoot(CSM menu d5 max continuous release). Card(fast card now remember) never drops below r11( where max r=12.. ie. buffer) until the final few frames in that maximum of 100 allowable.
(so obviously card speed is going to be a major factor here!!)
I only set mine to 24 tho, as I've never seen any reason to shoot any more than that. I only set it to 100 to see how far it'd go.
The card write green light indicator cleared in about 30-45seconds too, so yet again you're good to go again in a very short time.
From my very quick test of the D7000 (except in 14bit mode) the D300 is certainly a lot faster in most situations tho(and CF cards by their nature are faster anyhow, even though they're more expensive. That is, until faster SD cards come to market).

FWIW.. the Nikon specific sensor in the D3/D700/D3s don't slow down with the switch to 14bit mode either.

[farmer_rob]

...
The other issue in terms of ultmate quality, is that the D700 has no way of turning off NEF compression. No option to not compress the NEFs(and you'd have to assume it's a lossless compression method tho). D30 is far more configurable with three NEF quality types (lossless/non lossless/no compression). That could make a difference as well to overall quality .... possibly depending on software being used....

The D7000 allows lossless or lossy NEF compression. I use lossless. I think there is a net performance gain by having lossless compression (over no compression, which is NOT an option), as the image files will be smaller (faster transfer to SD card) and I'd guess the compression is done by custom hardware (so will be fast).

[arthurking83]

As long as there is a lossless compression option in there.
I'm curious Rob.. if you use either CaptureNX or ViewNX to review your images, is there any file size difference between the in camera file size of an NEF and the NEF rendered in the Nikon software.
An NEF with more colour, tones and brightness levels will have a larger file size of course, and possibly higher compression levels.
I have a few images from the D7000, and the images straight from camera seem to have file sizes of about 19Meg, and a few basically edited images via ViewNX, edits such as WB and Picture Control changes and not much else, seem to inflate these files to 30+Meg.. so it seems at least the Nikon software has an ability to recover the compressed data effectively.
With the D300's images, I use no compression at all, and I've never seen such a jump in file size(except via CaptureNX2 and a lot of edit steps(such as Tonal Contrast or lots of shadow recovery and whatnot).
As an average figure, I think a D300 NEF file may come out of camera at approx 20-25Meg, and may increase to 25-27Meg with only basic editing.

[farmer_rob]

Quick test: Out of camera - 13.4MB (lossless compression); after minor mods: 25.9 MB (with ViewNX)