Jason Row has a short and sweet user review on how good (or not) the Sigma 12-24mm lens performs on his Nikon D3.
It was acceptable on his D2X, but performed way below par on the full-frame (FX) D3 camera at apertures of f/8 and below.
He has decided to purchase Nikon’s 14-24mm lens as a replacement.
This is something you don’t hear everyday.
Several Nikon D3 owners have reported improved autofocus performance after updating the D3 with v2.00 firmware.
And this improved AF is with non AF-S lenses, for instance with the Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF and the Nikon 60mm f/2.8D Micro-Nikkor.
Stany shared a stunning close-up photo of a bee shot with the Nikon D3 at ISO 1600 plus Nikkor 105mm VR macro lens.
View a larger version of the picture and read the related forum thread here.
In that post, Stany also commented that the new Nikon D3 firmware v2.00 has improved AF (autofocus) performance with non-AF-S Nikon lenses. The slight hunting experienced previously with some AF-S lenses has also been solved.
The photo was shot in RAW mode and converted using Nikon Capture NX2.
More shot data here: f/16, 1/400 sec, handheld.
Here are the relevant links for downloading the Nikon D3 owner’s manual (in English).
This page has two versions of the Nikon D3 User’s Manual, printable and non-printable.
The printable version needs you to input your Nikon D3 serial number, while the non-printable version doesn’t.
The size of the PDF download file is approximately 17.3 MB.
Having the Nikon D3 user guide on your computer is a convenient way of locating information quickly.
See a list of other Nikon manuals.
Josephpapa found a difference to the way the Nikon D3 camera autofocuses with the IR (infrared) beam from the external flash when compared to the Canon 1D Mark III camera.
With the Canon, all AF (autofocus) points are linked to the IR illumination assist beam, while on the D3, not all 51 points are linked to the IR beam from the Nikon SB-800 flash.
Because of this, it’s best to change the AF custom setting on the D3 to only use 11 points rather than all 51 so that’s it’s quicker to access the AF points that are linked.
After changing this camera setting, Josephpapa’s D3 now matches the Canon 1D3 in terms of initial focus lock speed, but with 40% greater accuracy.
The portion of the Nikon D3 manual that Josephpapa referred to in his post is probably the following (from page 195):
Assuming you have upgraded the firmware in your Nikon D3 to version v2.00, you might want some additional details on how the new Copyright information field is stored in the EXIF.
If that’s the case, read Keith Snell’s post, in which you’ll also find a link to a watermark script that can automatically read the Copyright info from the EXIF and emboss a watermark on the image using the data.
25-Apr-2008 Update: Nikon has released a revised version of the previously withdrawn firmware. DPReview has the details.
19-Apr-2008 Update: Nikon has withdrawn the firmware 1.10 update and disabled downloads of the files. Read this forum post for the link to Nikon’s announcement and the reactions to this recall.
17-Apr-2008 Update: A bug has been discovered with this firmware. David R Lane experienced the same thing while shooting a 14-bit RAW burst sequence, and later discovered that the problem doesn’t happen if the D3 is put into 12-bit RAW mode – this is a temporary solution.
For me, two of the biggest new enhancements introduced with firmware 1.10 are:
For more details and download information, see this piece by DPReview.
If you’re having trouble installing the firmware, be careful where you drag and drop the files into. The firmware update files need to go into the root folder of the CF card, rather than into a subfolder – please refer to this, and this link.
Somebody on DPReview.com managed to dig up this juicy piece of information from the B file of the the v1.10 firmware set – looks like a 24.4 MP D3X is on the way!
You might also like to gauge owner reactions to the new firmware by reading through this hot discussion.
Peter Haanschoten shared an excellent set of Nikon D3 images taken while on a trip to Paris.
Click the thumbnail below to access Peter’s 2008 Paris gallery (don’t forget to click the Original link below each individual photo for best viewing):
The related forum thread discussing these photos is here, and I list some of the more interesting points:
You might like to perform your Nikon D3 online shopping using the tools and sites below:
Amazon: This is a predefined link for Nikon D3 configurations on Amazon.
B&H: Here’s their D3 page.
J&R: Shop for the Nikon D3 SLR 12 Megapixel Digital Camera Body at J&R.
Search multiple stores: Here are links to Nikon D3 search results on Shoplinc and Shopzilla
There are no full-sized sample images available, but I’m already loving the color and noise performance of the D3, based on these photos.
Here are the links:
The Nikon D3 and 24-70mm seems to stack up well against the Canon combination in terms of less vignetting at f/2.8 and better colors and tonality. Of course, we don’t know for sure if the D3 was helped by its Active D-Lighting in bringing up the shadows.
I really wish I could get my hands on these full-sized samples (and who knows, the NEF / RAW files too) so that I could host them on my own server … sigh. There’ll be a ton of folks who, like me, would like nothing more than look at each pixel on our screens and print them up at 24 x 36!
Was the D3 firing off at 9 fps (frames per second)? Or 11? JPEG or NEF / RAW?
Whatever the case, just listen to this sweet 10-second mp3 clip of the D3’s shutter.
If you want to analyze the fps yourself, follow Buzzphotos’ suggestion to use the GoldWave sound editing software.
Somebody has likened it to the sound of his dollar bills flying out of his wallet.
Yum!
How do I get to be as lucky as Berkley White and have Nikon deliver me a pre-production D3 for my tests?
For those who’re wanting to take the Nikon D3 underwater, Mr. White has written up an article about how well (or otherwise) the D3 fits into the Subal and Aquatica underwater housings which were made specifically for the Nikon D2X / D2Xs digital SLR cameras.
Another interesting thing in that article is Mr White’s confession about wanting to switch to the Canon EOS 1D Mark III camera for its superb high ISO performance. Looks like the Nikon D3 arrived just in time to stop him from doing just that. I like his photos showing the Nikon D3 and 1D3 side by side.
To say that wedding and portrait photographer Cliff Mautner was pleased with the D3 would be the understatement of the year.
He’s positively raving about the camera and the images he got out of it in his Nikon D3 impressions, and the pictures he shared are superb – all 14 of them!
All straight out of the camera! That’s right – JPEGs, no post-processing, no post-editing, nothing, except for resizing.
The images have been resized for web viewing, and Chris made it clear that he’s not allowed to share the full-sized samples, but note the freedom at which he must have felt to be able to shoot ISO 1600 to ISO 6400 photos with absolutely no doubts that the image quality would hold up to close scrutiny.
Needless to say, the colors, contrast and composition skills are very evident on the photographs. I really like the Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 shot. I count a total of 5 lenses used:
To echo Chris’ reaction … WOW! … just WOW!
You might also like to read reactions to Cliff’s post on DPReview’s Nikon forum, and Canon forum.
Some people have all the luck, right?
I, like many others, really wish we could get our grubby little hands on Nikon’s shiny new wonder machine, but in the meantime, we’ll have to make do with D3 reports from folks like Scott.
In this article, Photoshop Guru Scott says of the Nikon D3:
“Bill did a demo for the class last night, and even showed images shot at 6400 ISO and there were literally gasps in the room at the low levels of noise. You’ve gotta understand; this isn’t just an improvement in the noise and detail—this is way beyond that. Without sounding corny (though it still will), this is like a new dawn in the digital camera era, and now I can see where noise will soon be a non-issue. I was fully expecting to be impressed with the D3’s low noise, but I honestly wasn’t prepared for this. I was blown away. We all were.”
… and …
“Bravo to Nikon for making a camera that is just a joy to shoot (the feel of the shutter is amazing), that is smart (it holds two memory cards at once; and has a double battery charger as well), and takes some amazingly sharp, crisp, low noise photos.”
Not a full-blown Nikon D3 review by any measure, but an extremely fun read all the same.
My favorite sections from Scott’s Nikon D3 Q&A post are:
I love the ability to use two memory cards, and all the ways you can configure them. I thought the airplane-cockpit-style leveling device was very clever, but I didn’t find myself using it in real life (though I probably would at some point). One thing I dearly love, (and this will probably sound silly), but it’s the ability to use the Main Control Dial to scroll though the images on the LCD, rather than the Multi-Selector switch. To me, that was almost worth the upgrade, which just proves to me once again that it’s “the little things” that sometimes make the biggest difference. I loved the feel of the shutter button–I think it feels better than any Nikon’s ever made (at least on a digital SLR), and the whole camera just has a wonderful feel in your hands. The images it produces are warm, crisp, sharp, and I was just delighted overall at the quality of the images. What do I like least? The price. I wish it was lower, but if you look at the competition, it’s really a very competitive price.
And here’s a Nikon D3 photo from Scott to make one drool even more.
Higuma posted this photo of a special edition postage stamp featuring the Nikon D3 / D300 and commemorating Nikon’s 90th anniversary.
Unfortunately, the item was only made available to those attending the roll-out of the Nikon D3 and D300 in Japan.
Some people just have all the luck … he’s even put an order for the D3 at 578,000 yen, and has some more details about the purchase transaction.
Ever wanted to know the relative dimensions of the D2Xs compared with the D3?
Well, Michael Klar has the figures, and I quote:
“…
However, the D3 is …
2mm wider, 7.5mm higher, 2mm deeper and weighs 170grams more than the D2x
…”
Derek posted a thread pointing to this source of Nikon D3 samples from web site of Fédération Française d’Athlétisme.
The link above takes you to a D3 photo. You’ll see two thumbnails above the photo – click the left one, and you’ll see Canon 20D pics (keep clicking the left thumbnail to see more 20D images); click the right thumbnail to see more D3 photos.
Due to the volume of images, you do get a mix of D3 and 20D pics, so you might want to try skipping several pics by changing the sequence number in the section of the URL that says mediaid=nnnnn. For some unknown reason, the Canon 20D photos are really bad – here’s Sean’s opinion.
Alternatively, go to their Osaka 2007 photos page, where you’ll see links on the right for each day of the event. Clicking the link takes you to the gallery of images for that particular day. Using this technique, I managed to locate this superb photo of Christine Arron doing her 100m dash (the bokeh’s fantastic! – data says Foc. 500,0 – I wonder if that means the new Nikkor AF-S 500mm f/4G ED VR lens was used?).
If you ask me, I think I prefer the D3 photos. And perhaps this photo is one reason why many have the opinion that the Nikon D2Xs camera is not at its best when high ISO is required (compare with the D3 equivalent).
Of course, this is provided the camera identification for each photo is legitimate, since there is absolutely no EXIF data available. Gerard McGovern, in a thread about the trial of the Canon EOS 1D Mark III’s latest firmware Version 1.1.1, confirms that there are a few D3 cameras in use at the games.
For what it’s worth though, they’re great images to look at regardless of the camera used to shoot them.
Most of us know that on the APS-C 1.5x-crop D2X / D2Xs, there is a 2x crop mode, meaning that you multiply the current focal length on your lenses by 2 to get the equivalent FOV (field of view).
For example, with your Nikkor 18-200mm DX VR (it’s a DX lens, Nikon-speak for lenses that have been designed to work with APS-C Nikon cameras, which is all DSLRs from Nikon except the full-frame (FX) D3) mounted on the D2X / D2Xs with HSC (high speed crop) mode activated and your lens at 18mm, your FOV would be the equivalent of the lens at 18mm x 2 = 36mm.
With the full-frame D3, what is the crop factor when you mount a DX lens onto it?
From the specs, the D3 will first automatically activate the DX crop mode, which gives you a 1.5x crop factor, so with the Nikkor 18-200mm VR DX lens at 18mm mounted on the D3, your FOV becomes 18mm x 1.5 = 27mm.
Additionally, the D3’s crop mode can be set to be automatic or manual (confirmed by Yves P). That’s good news for those who want to use DX lenses on the D3 and take full advantage of the 12 MP resolution.
In other words, there is a range of focal lengths where your DX lens becomes a “full-frame” lens on the D3, and this depends on the particular DX lens being used. For instance, with the Nikkor 17-55mm DX lens, you get to enjoy the full 12 MP from 27mm onwards, provided you remember to switch off the automatic DX crop mode.
For the mathematically-minded, Jim Kaye has an excellent explanation on why in DX mode, you get only 5.1 MP (megapixels) out of the D3.
Jim further explains the differences in FOV that you get if you mount a non-DX lens such as the 200-400mm vs a DX lens such as the Nikkor 18-200mm VR on the D3.
Julia Borg shares some further insights on the sharpness you can expect if you use the Nikkor 17-55mm and 12-24mm DX lenses on the D3 (interesting fact: the Nikkor 17-55mm basically becomes a 25-55mm lens on a full-frame camera, while the 12-24mm Nikkor becomes a 17-24mm). With the 18-200 VR lens, you get to enjoy FX (full-frame) coverage only in the 20-28mm focal length range.
It seems there’s no fixed formula to determine what focal lengths a DX lens can be used in order to cover the entire area of the full-frame FX sensor – it depends on the unique design of the zoom lens.
The technical detail covered by the replies to Neil’s thread is way over my head, though it makes for interesting reading.
Neil concludes that the more suitable camera is the full-frame D3 because of its (assumed) two-stop noise advantage over the D300 (APS-C DX crop camera), which is crucial in ensuring that the exposure time is kept as short as possible in order to avoid motion blur from the movement of the moon.
Additionally, Neil says that the camera should be set at approximately 1/1000th of a second, f/8 and shares a sample image from the October 2004 eclipse.
For this particular type of photography, the D300’s relative strength in reach and pixel density isn’t advantageous.
This is a collection point for discussions, user reviews and tests comparing the Canon EOS 5D vs Nikon D3 digital SLR cameras.
Andrew Chiciak says: Quirks of the 5D that he hopes won’t be present in the D3 are inconsistent flash and metering, overly saturated reds on skin tones, sync outlet that misfires at times.
Horizontal banding in Canon 5D high ISO pictures: Paul Guy states that the D3’s high ISO performance would be considered better than the 5D if high ISO images do not exhibit horizontal banding, assuming all other noise characteristics remain the same.
We’ve heard it being said so many times that Nikon is dead (especially after the Nikon D2H fiasco), and Canon will continue to be the market leader in the digital SLR world.
It was speculated that with the limited funds Nikon has, what with it being a small company and all that, it will sooner or later be absorbed by a bigger corporation like Sony (at one time, it was even suggested that Microsoft might want to consider acquiring Nikon 
)
Anyway, nothing is certain yet about Nikon’s future, but they have been furiously innovating and introducing new models that have done well in terms of sales for the past few years, and a forum thread discusses the changes, if any, that Corporate Nikon has undergone. In that thread, Bernie Ess makes a case for how the development cycles of digital cameras is far different than for analog cameras, while Jason Odell surmises that Nikon saw the benefit of focusing on lower to midrange DSLRs first in order to get enough funds to develop higher end models.
Nikon D3 images continue to appear on the internet, but no is able to claim with confidence, or otherwise, that these are indeed shot with the Nikon D3.
Thomas Comerford notes though, that if someone wanted to fake the EXIF, they certainly went to a lot of trouble, since the Nikon Makernote is present in the EXIF, complete with ” … an IFD that points to an embedded 570 x 375 JPEG preview image … “, which is also present. Also, if a file had been opened and saved with Photoshop, most of the EXIF data from the photos will not be readable in Nikon Capture / NX / Viewer.
EXIF may have been doctored, who knows? Personally, I’m not comfortable with the fact that Adobe Photoshop appears in the software field of the EXIF. This ISO 5000 shot, and another at ISO 2000 for instance, shows Adobe Photoshop CS2 being used on the image, although the focal length of 10.5mm and the image characteristics seem to suggest that the Nikkor 10.5mm DX f/2.8 fisheye lens was used.
For now, all we can do is just head over to these forum threads at DPReview.com (which then link to the Xitek.com threads, when you’re there, locate the page numbers at the bottom to progress through the thread) and hope that the D3 images are real:
• Mainly ISO 640 shots (these are from a recent volleyball championship in China)
• More D3 samples. There are three or more Canon EOS 1D Mark III shots in the mix, just so you are aware. Here’s a link that takes you to the entire collection of D3 images by this Xitek.com forum poster. My favorites are the Nikkor 10.5mm fisheye photos.
• Mainly ISO 5000 shots. These have gone through Photoshop, so we won’t know what sort of post processing, if any, were done on them. Joao Sobral is impressed with the Dynamic Range of the third ISO5000 shot.
Interesting is also the fact that quite a number of these photos have focal length of 600mm and Max Aperture of f/4 in the EXIF – perhaps the new Nikkor AF-S 600mm f/4G ED VR lens was used?
Thom Hogan’s done it again with another well-written piece.
This time he dissects the marketing push behind the D3, and how each message in the PR materials targets different sections of the consumer market.
This forum thread is another example of the reaction Canon photographers have after the Nikon D3 announcement started to sink in.
The fact is, Nikon now has a full frame, high performance camera. Neither of the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III and EOS 5D are high-performance cameras. The 1D Mark III is not a full-frame camera.
The replies in that thread make for very interesting reading as to what Canonians think Canon must introduce in their next batch of high-end cameras, beginning with Version / Mark II of the 5D body.
This Nikon D3 video is in Japanese, and loads rather slowly (at my end anyway), so just bring up the web page and wait for the buffering to complete.
Highlights of the video includes:
A rough translation of the video has been kindly provided by Yoshiki Nakamura in this forum post, which I’ve quoted with some edits below:
“Comparison with D2X.
Height: 157mm extended by 7.5mm
Weight: 1240g increased by 170g
Holding impression: comfortable yet large and heavy as expected as professional tool.
Viewfinder impression:
Very natural as full size image sensor makes focal length and viewing size matched.
Shutter sound for FX (9 per second) and DX (11 per second).
Capture a night view through interior window:
ISO6400 A-priority F5.6 (approx 1/60s): Can not see any noise from LCD monitor. By enlarging the night view, it seems to be very well captured. Beautiful image. It might be contributed by the superb lens but details are very sharp and very low noise in the night scene through the window.
Capture a lighting fixture in the ceiling with ISO6400:
This is not easy condition for the camera to capture but D3 captured very precise, detail, and accurate image as you can see through the LCD monitor.
Live view can allow high angle position with wider (170 degree) viewing angle of LCD monitor.
D3 also has in-camera level monitor. “
Probably made tongue in cheek, but this is one of funniest reactions to have come from the Canon camp in response to the unveiling of the Nikon D3.
Speculations like these are not helped by the fact that Nikon has yet to reveal who manufactures the D3 sensor.
Who’s the photographer? I want to shake his (her) hand!
By the way, the photographer with the Canon 1D Mark II / III cameras strapped around his neck happens to be on Gerard McGovern’s team.
The fact that the first ever full-sized images to come from a new Nikon digital SLR are high ISO samples shows how much pent up demand there is for a high-performance, high-ISO workhorse camera from Nikon.
Anyway, go get an eyeful of two, full-sized originals from a pre-production (Ver.0.25 appears in the Software field of the EXIF data). The 6.3 MB files were first found here.
If for any reason the download link above doesn’t work, I’ve mirrored them on my Pbase account:
_EF22344.JPG | _EF22348.JPG
The appearance of an underscore prefix in the filename means that the images were shot in Adobe RGB colorspace. If you have Photoshop and it’s set in a non-Adobe colorspace, you’ll get a message warning you that the file you’re opening was shot in Adobe RGB when you open the JPGs.
I’ve created two screen captures of EXIF for both files as seen in Nikon Viewer:
_EF22344.JPG | _EF22348.JPG
From the EXIF data, you’ll see that the lens used is the new Nikkor AF-S 400mm f/2.8G ED VR, Nikon’s latest super telephoto lens, announced on 23-August-2007 along with two other super telephoto zooms.
For a more complete set of EXIF data, read the post by Julia Borg that has links to the EXIF dump.
Additionally, D200_4me proves that it’s a cinch to apply effective sharpening and noise reduction to these photos in Nikon Capture NX.
Reactions to these photos
Here are a couple of examples:
I’m quite willing to bet that it’s been a while since you’ve seen such strong reactions to Nikon photos.
