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I was doing some research on the value of shooting at 14 bits on the D300, and I came across these two rather well-written articles:

http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototip ... 2-bit.html

http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototip ... t-two.html

I don't shoot in 12 bit anymore after I got the D300. And the transition from 12 to 14 bit is subtle compared to those 16 bit medium format backs.

But of course you can always shoot in 12 bit and use photoshop to add some zing to it I guess.

TL;DR* summary:

Works wonders for shadow details - shoot 14bit mode if you have a fetish for shooting 4 stops underexposed and then fixing it up in post processing (great detail recovery possible). But the extra levels afforded by the jump from 12 to 14 bits do not tend to help with highlight recovery. 14 bit mode produces 25% larger NEF file sizes. Significant speed penalty: 6 FPS in 12bit vs 2.5 FPS in 14bit. Might be useful for digitally pushing exposures - ie. deliberately underexposing an image at a given ISO to obtain a suitable shutter speed, then fixing the exposure in PP (usually for extreme low light situations when at max ISO you still need a faster shutter).


* Too long; didn't read