|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We clicked with:
Image quality
Low noise
Stuffed full of features
Build quality
Shots in the dark:
No anti dust (and cleaning may be tricky)
Autofocus switch
osts a lot more than the D300
Price Comparison:
Nikon D3
|  |
|
Nikon's official advertising slogan for the Nikon D3 is 'Discover New Territory' - but 'Believe the Hype' would work too. That's because, as the blurb suggests, the Nikon D3 is undoubtedly the best digital SLR Nikon have ever made. How does it compare to the rivals though, and - at more than three grand - do you need really one? Let's take a look...
Alive with technology
You can read the detailed spec sheet in forensic detail if you like, but the short version is if you think there's a DSLR feature worth having, the Nikon D3 has it (with a couple of key exceptions). Live View for example; digital compact cameras have had it since for as long as there have been digital compact cameras. Even bridge cameras have Live View... but the technology is hard to implement on a DSLR because of the mirror box inherent to the design. The Nikon D3, however, incorporates Live View. This isn't a new feature on DSLR - Olympus and Fuji got there first and it's now the 'must have' feature on most new DSLRs. However, it's generally only useful on a tripod, because it often disables focusing modes.
The D3 has two different modes for Live View - tripod and handheld - that use different focusing systems. You have the choice of the regular 51 point autofocus system used in regular TTL viewfinder work, or tripod style live view mode. You can use contrast mode autofocus which lets you put the focus point anywhere in the viewfinder. This saves you having to compose macro shots according to the focus point.
Live View is fiddly to set up, but it's easy enough to use when you've mastered the art. Press the Nikon D3 shutter to raise the mirror and turn the screen on then just take your picture without mucking about. And... it works. You can use it for taking low or high shots where it would be hard to look through the viewfinder but sadly the LCD screen remains fixed to the camera so you can't use it like an angle finder. You can even use it when shooting directly into the sun - no more blind photographers!
Virtual Horizon
The Nikon D3 sports a clever 'virtual horizon' system. More than a gimmick, this uses the tilt sensor to show you when the camera is level. In fact, there are three readouts - one on the LCD top plate, one in the viewfinder and a big 'pilot style' one on the back screen.
The last one looks the coolest but is actually the least useful, because it can be hard to read if using a tripod at below eye height. The viewfinder one works great for handholding though - and you can set it to work from the assignable FUNC button on the front of the Nikon D3. Lift camera to face, compose, focus, check for level, shoot. Okay, it's nothing a spirit level or a few minutes in Photoshop couldn't do but it's still good to have in camera.
Twin card slots
Having two card slots side-by-side is just fantastic. Load up with two compact flash cards and you can shoot all day in 'overflow' mode. Or shoot in 'backup' mode so the same files are written to dual cards. Or even shoot RAW to one card and JPEG to another. This means a photographer can put a big CF card in slot two and shoot JPEGs to it all day, while the RAW files go onto numerous cards in slot one, and don't need to wade past the RAW files on the card to get to the JPEGs if you need to download in a hurry.
|
New sensor size
After years of keeping silent on the matter, Nikon have gone "full frame". We'll talk more about the advantages when we get to image quality - first though the less good:
The sensor can work in 3 modes. FX is 'full-frame' 36x24mm (well, 36x23.9 really, but that's not much of a difference), which gives you 12.1 megapixels. 5:4 mode gives you a ratio similar to many medium format cameras and uses 30x24mm of the sensor. DX crops the sensor down to 24x16mm and yields five megapixels.
But why? The answer is simple - lots of lenses made in the past few years only cover a DX size sensor. If you use them on a full frame sensor then they have a dark circle around the edge. Since there were no full-frame Nikon DSLRs before the D3, this wasn't really a problem unless you used a DX lens on film. Now there are lots of people with a cupboard full of DX glass who would get bad results using them on a full-frame Nikon D3. DX mode automatically crops the sensor when you mount a DX lens and masks the viewfinder so you can see what you will get. You can turn this off but you'll get vignetting with most DX lenses. The bonus though is increased frame rate; the D3 churns out an impressive nine frames per second in FX mode and a blistering 11 frames per second when using the DX crop.
|
|
The new screen - 920,000 dot three-inch LCD - is simply gorgeous. It uses tempered glass, so no more plastic covers and it has a 170 degree viewing angle so you really can use live view. Then, there's active D-lighting built into the camera to give higher dynamic range than standard sensors, and a new WiFi system that also enables you to remote control and remote view up to five cameras at once. There's even a black and white mode that actually works. You can use in camera filters in the Nikon D3 and build your own tints - all the black and white pictures in this review are straight from camera.
It's a Nikon. It handles like a Nikon, so if you've used any Nikon DSLR made since the D100, you'll soon feel at home, even down to the daft positioning of the auto/manual focus switch. You can't see it without turning the camera round, you can't use it wearing gloves, and you can't tell what it's set to without looking. But if that's the worst one can say about the handling then Nikon D3 isn't doing so badly.
Some of the menus can get convoluted, but there's the brilliant new 'my menu'. Copy any menu command to your own menu and order them as you want. We were most comfortable with Active D lighting, Picture Control and Virtual Horizon, but if you use different items your menu will look different.
The Nikon D3 is also 'plenty tough' - that pro, weather sealed, mag alloy body weighs 1.24 kg and makes the camera the Tonka Toy of DSLR.
Noise
It's a Nikon - it's gonna be noisy... Except that it isn't. Not even slightly.
(For the pixel peepers, tests were done on maximum sized jpegs using NR set to 'normal' which is the default. According to Nikon this means no noise reduction is done until you reach 2000 ISO).
ISO 100
|
200
|
400
|
800
|
1600
|
3200
|
6400
|
12800
|
25600
|
Which means that, yep... 5 digit ISO can be used to make perfectly good A4+ prints.
Image quality
Image quality is just insane, but not in a Norman Bates way. We ran this entire test using JPEG and none of the pictures in this review have been edited, just resized. The files just look gorgeous. Any concerned that the Nikon D3 has 'only' 12.1 million pixels - that's slightly fewer than the D2X - are quickly quashed when you see the images. It's not the number of pixels that matters, though - the FX chip yields beautiful images with smooth transitions and incredible levels of detail.
It gets hard to write a qualitative review with this camera, because the only thing you want to write is 'wow'. Put simply, the files coming out of the Nikon D3 look better than any camera we've seen to date.
For most of the pictures, we used the new 24 - 70 2.8, which is a stunning lens. However, it's worth checking out how the D3 works with DX lenses, using a Nikon 12-24 as reference. The 12-24 performs extremely well and you could use it at 18mm and beyond in FX mode without appreciable vignetting; wider than that and you need to switch to DX mode. This gives the images look great, far better than you might expect from five million pixels. It does give you a field of view that's similar to an 18mm lens though.
What's not to like?
Remember there were a couple of features missing? The Nikon D3 has no built in sensor cleaning technology. You might think that's slightly odd since the D300 has it. You also need to be extremely careful cleaning a D3. Since the shutter mechanism is larger than a DX camera and operates very quickly (up to 11 fps) it needs more lubrication. You need to be very careful not to wipe oil across the sensor when cleaning it. This is also true of the Canon cameras with a full frame sensor.
It also has no in-camera VR, but this is not a big issue. The Nikon lens range has some fine VR lenses in the line-up and most pros seem to prefer in-lens VR.
Other than that, there are a couple of niggles but nothing much to put me off. The killer though is the D300. I'd better make it clear I didn't have a D300 to compare with but paper specs and user feedback show this to be a very accomplished camera. I'll reserve judgement until we get one in to test but if you don't need a full frame sensor, stupidly high ISO and build quality that could probably stop a bullet you might be able to save yourself 2 grand and buy a D300.
Conclusion
Is the Nikon D3 the best digital SLR Nikon have ever made? Oh yes... By a country mile. But is it better than the 1DS Mk III? You'll have to wait until we test one of those. To my eye it easily beats anything else for image quality and noise but there's the thorny question of the D300 - Nikon may have made that a bit too good. Either way £3,200 is a lot more than a D300 and a lot less than a 1DS Mk III.
|
Sensor
|
12.1 megapixel full frame CMOS sensor (36 x 23.9 mm)
|
|
LCD monitor
|
3.0 " TFT LCD (922,000 pixels (VGA; 640 x 480 x 3 colors) 170° viewing angle)
|
|
Sensitivity
|
to ISO25,800
|
|
Auto Focus Points
|
51-point
|
|
White balance
|
Auto, 7 modes, Colour temp 2500-10000 (in 31 steps), 4 Manual modes, bracketing
|
|
On board flash
|
|
|
Shutter speed and flash sync
|
30seconds (or bulb) to 1/8000th second.
Sync to 1/250th second
|
|
Continuous shooting
|
9fps continuous shooting (11fps in DX format)
|
|
Storage
|
Dual Compact Flash
|
|
Battery
|
Lithium-Ion EN-EL4a/EL4
|
|
Lens type / fitting
|
Nikon F-mount
DX AF NIKKOR (FX format is dropped, camera automatically works in 1.5x crop)
G or D AF NIKKOR
AI NIKKOR
|
|
|
Weight
|
1240g
|
|
Dimensions
|
160 x 157 x 88 mm
|
|
|
Price (RRP / SRP)
|
£4,000
|
|
Other / Key features
|
Nikon's first 'full frame' camera
Live View
Auto DX mode that detects when it is being used with DX lenses to prevent vignetting on the larger FX frame
5:4 (30x24mm) aspect ratio available
14-bit EXPEED image processing system
Active D-Lighting for improved dynamic range on in-camera JPEGs
HDMI output
0.12 seconds startup time
Magnesium body, extensive weathersealing protection and a Kevlar/carbon fibre composite shutter
|
Del.icio.us this
