Alberto... D3???

[JoePhoto]

Well... ???

[marokero]

Sorry for the delay guys This camera ROCKS!!! I missed 17mm so much on my DX bodies, now I have it back!!! From being able to turn night into dusk (handheld), to shooting an endless burst at 9/11fps, to a much more accurate AWB (not perfect, but very, very good)... I'm itching to try this beast at my next wedding. I should be getting the RRS L-plate for the D3 this coming Tuesday, so I can use it with my other RRS accessories. The D3 may be physically heavier than the D2, but for some reason it doesn't feel so in my hands. I already awed all of my co-workers with the high ISO quality, and one of them asked, several times, to borrow my D3 for a wedding that he was going to shoot. He even said he would leave me his 1Ds Mk II and 5D as collateral. Sorry, but I waited over 4 months for this camera, I told him to go get his own D3

Here are a few shots of the the D3, shot with the D2xs:








Here are some shot with the D3, exposure indicated below the shots (AWB on all shots):


ISO 25600, f/2.8, 1/8s, 17mm - this was shot a few minutes past midnight!


ISO 1600, f/5, 1/15s, 35mm


ISO 6400, f/4.5, 1/80s, 17mm


ISO 6400, f/4.5, 1/250s, 25mm


ISO 12800, f/2.8, 1/30s, 17mm


ISO 1600, f/4.5, 1/50s, 45mm


ISO 25600, f/2, 1/20s, 85mm


ISO 25600, f/2, 1/60s, 85mm


Here are some others from Planting Fields Arboretum nearby (14-bit NEF lossless, converted in Capture NX):


ISO 200, f/8, 1/400s 17mm


ISO 400, f/4, 1/640s, 70mm


ISO 400, f/ 5.6, 1/400s, 17mm

No chromatic aberration what-so-ever! WOW!!! I looked real hard on image _DSC0401 but could not find any. On the D2xs CA would creep in even at f/8. On the D3 it's virtually a thing of the past! No CA found with the 17-35, 28-70, 85, or 70-200! And Active D-Lighting is great to get that extra bit of detail into the shadows, and maintaining as much highlight detail as possible without blowing them. Oh, did I mention how much I missed 17mm?


And for the required ISO tests:


The doll was LED illuminated - the fluorecent lights in my livingroom were messing up the WB and exposure. The slight face underexposure is on purpose to make noise more visible.


NR is turned off, Active D-Lighting on High, shot with 105 Micro VR in Liveview mode.


Notice the difference in dynamic range from 200-6400 compared to 100, HI-1 and HI-2.


Using a Sandisk 8GB Extreme IV card, I was shooting bursts of 130 frames with no slow downs (HSC, 11fps), which could be immediately followed by another full burst of 130 frames. This could be done indefinitely, until the card was full. In full res mode, I can also shoot 9fps for ~75 frames, then the rate slows down a bit (7-8fps?) until it reaches 130 frames. But again I can immediately follow that with another burst, however not a full 130 frames, but I didn't have to wait for the light to go off to restart a burst at full 9fps. The tracking ability of the new MultiCAM 3500 is great! The initial acquisition of focus seems to be the same as the D2xs, perhaps a tad bit faster. I have to do more tests on that. I'm not a sports shooter, but it's good to know I have the speed and performance on tap

Joe, if you add a D3 to your arsenal you won't regret it!

[Vance]

ummm... WOW!

Look's like you've found the perfect toy ... er tool for work.

[marokero]

Thanks Vance, it really is quite the "toy"

[marokero]

A few more from this weekend at Robert Moses State Park in NY:








Same as before, all 14-bit NEF's, converted in Capture NX. The more I shoot with it, the more I like it

[Vance]

Dayum dude!

That first image is full of dust spots!!! I'm glad you were able to get it cleaned for all the shots afterwards.

[JoePhoto]

Great stuff - I'm sure you're enjoying the ISO - can you believe what Nikon has been missing the boat on for all these years!?

Everything I've seen thus far suggests that ISO 100-6400 is as good as anything, but you can clearly see that 12,800 & 25,600 are boosted by software. That said, I'd use the D3 up to 6400 without a second thought.

Active D-Lighting is interesting. The DR from the D3 is the best from Nikon, but I was hoping for more in the highlights, honestly. The shadows look good as it is Nikon's trade mark. Actve D-Lighting is a software tone curve manipulation (like Canon's Highlight Tone Priority) rather than a hardware manipulation like Fuji. Feasable when shooting in JPG or processing RAW's in NX only. Although they work on a limited basis, I'm not sold on Nikon or Canon's software solutions at the moment and hope that the next genration of cameras have a hardware DR solution.

But the D3 is deffinitely playing for keeps regarding performance and IQ. This is a camera you can keep for a good long time. End of the summer I'll likely have one (or two). I'm glad to see my 17-35/2.8 lens gained it's value back!

[Emcam]

hmmmmm....nice.

[TonyK]

Wonderful stuff. Now I wish I had won the lottery so I could get one (or the Canon equal) and a new MacPro all decked out with PSCS3 and tons of memory.