And the winner is... the D3

While the D300 is a great camera and very similar to the D3 in many respects it is no D3. Take on look through the viewfinder of the D3 with a 14-24mm f2.8 and you will be sold. The huge, bright viewfinder is awesome and to have a 'real' 14mm again is great. The 100% viewfinder is a must for me apposed to the 92% coverage of the D300.

The lighter weight of the D300 is great and the smaller package is great when travel/climbing is concerned but to get the 8 frames per second you need to purchase the battery grip MB-D10 making it a similar size, the D3 shoot 9 FPS straight outta the box! Winner D3.

When I don't need high FPS is when I am shooting landscapes, the D300 is great as a landscape camera but many of my images are blown up to over a meter for galleries and the slight difference in quality at iso 200 is noticeable at this size. Again the D3 edges out the D300.

Then there is the high ISO, while the D300 is fantastic at ISO 200-400 and pretty good at 800, I have no problem pushing the D3 to 1600 to get shots that are otherwise impossible once the sun has hit the horizon.

The DX format is great for that extra reach when shooting wildlife, it doesn't beat the old school method of getting close. This is still the best way to get great wildlife images and using biological knowledge and a little know how you can get close enough to capture great images.

So while the D300 is a great camera, (I am going to take one with me when I am traveling in Asia later this year,) my main camera for the forseable future will definitely be the D3. Nikon has surpassed themselves with this camera, quieting all the doubters and producing a revolutionary tool that will open new doors in photographic creativity.