I very seldom use ISO higher then 400...I shot ballet in matrix at ISO 800 and got some great shots
That statement could have been written by me when I had my D300, but that's because I limited it to that rather than because I never needed higher. If I went into a church where I didn't want to use flash this was challenging if I wanted an acceptable handheld shutter speed. Also, living in the UK the days can frequently be dull quite and achieving 1/1000 sec or better for wildlife is hard on occasion when you stick to those limits.
On the flip side, taking landscape on a tripod, general photography with fast glass or if I could use flash such as in my home studio it took fantastic pictures and I would still use it today for that. So I'm certainly not knocking the 300 and both my wife and I used ours for many years and still regard it as one of the best products Nikon has made, which is why people are still buying them used and taking great pictures.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD