Nikon set the photography world on fire this past week with their announcements for the new D3 and D300 DSLR’s. With the D3, Nikon has finally ventured into the world of full frame digital, a long awaited and much anticipated event for Nikon shooters. The D300 is a welcome surprise as well. The successor to the D200, it ups the ante and sports the same new auto-focus system that the D3 has.
The D3’s full frame, FX format, 12 Megapixel CMOS sensor is the real big news with this new DSLR from Nikon. Until now, Canon has been the only real player in the “full frame” DSLR arena. The development of a full frame Nikon DSLR has been rumoured for some time and has been the subject of many a heated online discussion. Now that it’s here, not only has Nikon done FF, it’s reported to be VERY good at high iso, something the D200 and D2Xs were not. To tease us even further, the D3 has a high iso setting of 25, 600!
Initial reports are even indicating that it’s better than Canon’s new 1D MkIII at high iso, something that, if it’s true, will make big waves in the world of wedding and sports photographers.
The D3 sports some other impressive specs besides its new sensor. It’s the first DSLR to have dual CF cards slots. Canon’s 1D series have had dual slots for a while now, but they were a CF & SD combination. With the D3, we now have the ability to use two CF cards, which remain the preferred digital media of choice for professional photographers. Those SD cards are just too darn small!
Nikon set the photography world on fire this past week with their announcements for the new D3 and D300 DSLR’s. With the D3, Nikon has finally ventured into the world of full frame digital, a long awaited and much anticipated event for Nikon shooters. The D300 is a welcome surprise as well. The successor to the D200, it ups the ante and sports the same new auto-focus system that the D3 has.
The D3’s full frame, FX format, 12 Megapixel CMOS sensor is the real big news with this new DSLR from Nikon. Until now, Canon has been the only real player in the “full frame” DSLR arena. The development of a full frame Nikon DSLR has been rumoured for some time and has been the subject of many a heated online discussion. Now that it’s here, not only has Nikon done FF, it’s reported to be VERY good at high iso, something the D200 and D2Xs were not. To tease us even further, the D3 has a high iso setting of 25, 600!
Initial reports are even indicating that it’s better than Canon’s new 1D MkIII at high iso, something that, if it’s true, will make big waves in the world of wedding and sports photographers.
The D3 sports some other impressive specs besides its new sensor. It’s the first DSLR to have dual CF cards slots. Canon’s 1D series have had dual slots for a while now, but they were a CF & SD combination. With the D3, we now have the ability to use two CF cards, which remain the preferred digital media of choice for professional photographers. Those SD cards are just too darn small!
Also new with the D3, and shared with it’s little brother the D300, is a new 920,000 pixel LCD. Initial testers and those lucky enough to get a hands-on play have said this new LCD is nothing short of incredible. It’s sharp and vivid, in fact Nikon has coined the phrase “stunning” to describe it. Featuring a 170 degree angle of viewing, I think D3 and D300 users will be in for a real treat when they first see an image on this new LCD!
The Auto Focus system has gotten an up-grade too! For a while now, many thought the D2X’s auto-focus was the best out there, and then the 1D MkIII came along and trumped it. It may well be a short-lived victory however, as the new 51 point Multi-Cam 3500 in the D3 (and D300 suprisingly enough) is reputed to take the lead in AF once again.
It’s interesting to note that this is another first for Nikon. Previously, the D2 series had the best AF Nikon had to offer, and the D200 had a simpler version that was good, but not as good. Now the new D300 shares the same top-of-the-line AF system as the D3. A good day for shooters everywhere as this pushes advancements down the line and will put pressure on Canon and other manufacturers to improve their lower end models.
And then there’s Liveview, a new feature that allows the user to focus with the new 920,000 pixel LCD instead of through the viewfinder. There’s two modes… a tripod mode and a hand-held mode, which is apparently necessary due to the complexity of this type of focusing and its inability to deal with motion. Regardless, it’s always nice to see progressive technology being introduced.
The D3 sports a new processing engine called Expeed. It works with 12 and 14 bit information to process an image, and Nikon has hinted at better sharpness and CA control, as well as increased dynamic range. All in all, it will be interesting to see just who much more advanced the D3’s image files are than the previous generation.
To top of my list of things that interest me on the D3, is a bigger and sharper viewfinder, always a welcome addition to any camera. Big and bright is beautiful in the realm of viewfinders. While I don’t mind shooting with some of the lower-end models that sport smaller and dimmer viewfinders, the difference is always noticeable when I pick up a higher-end model and I can see again!
And oh yeah… lest I forget, there’s a new piece of software called Nikon ViewNX. Sound familiar? Nikon View was always a personal favourite of mine, and like many, I was disappointed when Nikon discontinued it. Well, now it’s back in a new incarnation, and from initial reports, it sounds like an improvement over the old View which can only be good news!
