NIKON D3S Review
Ever since Nikon entered the full frame game with the D3, low light photography took a different turn, now with the introduction of the D3S, Nikon claims to have provided
"Night Vision" to their flagship model, the new D3S with an unbelievable ISO range of upto 12800, extendable to ISO 102,400. But does the camera truly live upto the hype that surrounds it?
Lets find out.
The body of the D3S is built like a tank, very sturdy, weather sealed and also quite lighter than what I expected. My D700 with a battery pack weighed more than the D3S's bigger body. Well a lot of that can be attributed to the extra battery that the D3s doesn't have to deal with. Yet the battery life of the D3S is a little over an amazing, 4000 photographs.
The buttons are well spaced and I tested the camera in very cold weather here, about 3 degrees, so had to use it while wearing thick gloves. Well, I must praise Nikon for the button alignment and size since I was comfortably able to use it wearing my gloves on, which is quite painstaking with many other cameras I have tried before, a pointer to the fact that this body is targeted towards professionals who might take it to extreme conditions.. The dedicated buttons, and battery opening knobs are all noticeably larger as.
Picture quality is immaculate, thanks to the re-engineered full frame sensor(12.1MP). Nikon has been quite clear in their approach of keeping pixels larger in size rather than larger in number, which I believe is a very smart decision. Their show stealing headline of ISO 12800 is amazingly noiseless at higher ISOs and at 12800,the camera truly lives up to all the hype surrounding it. This takes indoor event photography, night snaps at higher shutter speeds and action photography to new heights of convenience. A very usable image at ISO 12800 means, much more usable images at all ISOs lesser than it. Check out the sample test shots shot at ISO 12800. All images are shot hand held.
Sample 1:
Exif Data:
Exposure: 0.067 sec (1/15)
ISO Speed: 12800
Aperture: f/2.8
Original Size:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2593/...484b0c56_o.jpg
Sample2:
Exif Data:
Exposure: 0.04 sec (1/25)
ISO Speed: 12800
Aperture: f/4
Noise Reduction applied.
Original Size:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2532/...9bcb4f5b_o.jpg
Speed has been one of the highest points of the Nikon D3. The D3S is no exception. It can shoot at 9fps, and when in crop mode can go upto 11fps. Very handy for action work and wildlife. The D3s has seriously expanded the buffer size as compared to the D3, with twice the capacity of the D3. Now, 36 14bit Raw files can be shot consecutively with no delay, and 124 Jpegs in the same way. The super-quick
MultiCAM-3500 AF system seems to have minor tweak as well, allegedly. The 51 point auto focusing system is precisely responsive and nails focus so fast that its quite impossible to miss your moving subject.
Nikon's proprietary
D-Movie mode which is a major addition in this model, captures smooth 24fps video at 720P and saves files up to 5minutes long/2GB in size, as Motion-Jpegs (MJPEG) format. The inbuilt microphone is excellent though only mono, it might catch focusing noise given out by certain lenses, so an external mike attachable to the hotshoe will be a good idea for stereo sound recording. Also, it's possible to pull still images back out from these movie files too, though only at their native 1280x720 resolution of course. I wish this camera had Full HD 1080 though 720 P is perfectly usable HD footage. Nikon's argument is that that this was all down to file size. At 720p, with the compression the camera is using you will get five-minute bursts out of the allocated 2GB continuous shooting space. If the camera were to shoot Full HD then this would be significantly less.So in essence, the D3S is a stills camera that is to be the very best at ISO, and the movie feature is an extra functionality. But there has been some impressible upgrades as well. the much criticized rolling shutter issue is better controlled. Looks like the built in rolling shutter correction algorithm is doing its job, but yet the issue has not vanished.
What is impressive though is the 24 fps smooth playback and auto-focus feature that works while filming. That is a very useful feature. The D3S uses contrast detecting to ensure that the auto-focusing while shooting actually works. The dedicated Live video button is a blessing. Also, for those shooting under incandescent light there is also a
flicker reduction mode, to reduce the irritating ‘flicker'.
The
quiet shutter mode is an excellent add-on and a nice touch, especially useful to the wildlife photographer to break peace with a loud clank of the shutter.
At $5200, Nikon's flagship model is a very well engineered, well thought out, smart camera. A 4.8/5. If it had 1080p video(Yes I am greedy), the its a 5/5 from me! No regrets though
Regards,
TG.