Nikon D3 and Superteles with VR finally here!

After months, no years of speculation Nikon finally release the D3 Full frame DSLR, so many new features, interesting time ahead me thinks. Specs can be seen here:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0708/07082312nikond3.asp

Nikon have also announced 5 new lenses including 400 f2.8, 500 f4 and 600 f4 supertele lenses with VR. You can read about those here:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0708/07082310nikonsupertelelenses.asp

How am I going to justify this lot to the wife

Mark

hoooooraaayyyyyy!!! And about bloody time too!

Looks impressive... and that's from a thru-and-thru Canon shooter!

Superb, on paper at least!

I never thought I would consider a switch to Nikon but the D3 is pretty much the perfect camera for me. I look forward to reading the independent reviews of the D3 and D300 but Nikon looked to have scored a winner here (twice in fact). And some excellent new lenses. Nice one.

Great for us that Canon and Nikon are competing so aggresively.

cheers

Sean

Sod the D3! its the D300 i'm more interested in! Hmmm tempting, but i'll wait till next year, when they are available and had the initial price drop. This is an actual upgrade to my D200.
51 Focus point!
HDMI?!?!?!
Live view (hmm i'm not so bothered by this... it has a viewfinder after all..

100% frame viewfinder!

mmmmm actually I'm not too sure which market the D3 is aimed at, FF with 10mp seems kind of small these days for studio/portrait work, 10 FPS and a quadzillion AF points suggests also targetting sports market, but surely the older style 1.5 crop factor sensors work better with telephoto lenses (and why have the ability for 12 FPS when servo AF is disabled ) - sort of back to the days of having to use a 1.4 tc permanantly glued to the back of the lens...... seems kind of a half way house body. I know that the Nikon camp have been crying out for a full frame camera (presumably more vocal from the wide angle and portrait work shooters) but a full frame speed monster with only a 10MP sensor seems to be wide of the mark somewhat. Over to the seasoned Nikonians for their views on this

VR teles look very nice tho'

Mike,
I think you will find its 12+ mp not 10. It also has a 1.5x crop mode at 5+mp.
Regards Rob.

Mike it's 12.1 like the D2X, the 10mp is in 5:4 format. The 12FPS, is with AI TRACK off, not AF-C.

The ISO 25600 looks like a god send for the low light photog's. But i'd want to see samples first... hmm just realised that i dont have any DC lenses, but the D3 is just too £$£$ for me...

I'm with Sean on this one that I will have to wait for independant reviews for AF etc before making my mind up.

I may be about to ask a very silly question here, but would you notice the difference in image quality between the cropped sensor D2X and a full frame D3, given that they are both 12MP?

Chris.

Rob

Oops yes my bad, 12 Mp not 10.

12 FPS possible in crop mode but with disabled servo AF and 5MP file size - kind of reminds me of the old Canon 1v that achieved 10 FPS in manual metering mode, you have to cut down functionality and camera processing to achieve the higher speed and file transfer rates.

Addendum - Ah not familiar with Nikon "speak", is "servo track" not the same as C-AF then?

I think the D3 does 9fps at full frame, 12 megapixels. That's enough for me, both in terms of pixels and frame rate. It's the high ISO performance I would like to see though.

D300 looks a perfect wildlife camera too. Weather sealed, pro-AF, 8fps (with battery grip), 1.5x crop, 12 megapixel. In fact, a mini D2x, for half the price.

cheers

Sean

Is this the end of the Pixel race?

T

I'm impressed and glad that Nikon throw this out (and I'm a Canon user). Now we are waiting for a third one. It's about bloody time for prices of these things to drop!

Now that D300 (where the heck are this marketing blokes coming from) is mighty impressive for a price tag, at least on paper. And since D3 I bet the there will be black lenses by race tracks/soccer fields from now on. Especially if Canon will not jump fix focusing problems on 1D (now this nomenclature is really ridiculous).

Cheers,
Marko

Mike, the tracking, is where it follows the subject through the viewfinder across multiple AF points. AF-C is just single point continuous focus.

I see it like this:

1DIII Vs D300

D3 vs 5D? 1DS (mk1)?

The D3 though low pixel count for full frame still looks like a decent camera, but i'm unsure i would buy it. It looks like a great camera for low light though.

Hi Mike unlike the 1dmk3 where you only get ten frames per second with shutter speeds in excess of 1/250 and the camera switch to manual focus the D3 will give you full AF tracking at 9 frames per second, the other thing I noticed is the 1dsmk3 you only get five frames per second with shutter speeds in excess of 1/500 I am not sure if you have to have it in manual focus as well, in Canon speak AI autofocus can be initiated in either, continuous autofocus or single frame focus in single frame focus the camera decides when the subject is moving and automatically switches to predictive focus in cannon speak.

I do believe the D3 is solely aimed at the sports PJ market and from what I have heard over the grapevine that the chip is revolutionary in how it uses the AD conversion not only does it do it on chip, it all so has noise reduction on chip, the same as all cannon models but also it has single line AD conversion, this benefit allows each line of pixels signals to be converted directly on the back of the chip reducing signal degradation with a possible benefit of two to three times less noise and also increased processing speed.

In fact I'm so impressed with it I am thinking of buying one although the 35mm frame doesn't really appeal to me greatly, I think the advantage of being able to use faster shutter speeds is more appealing via the higher ISO the only trouble is I think I'm going to have to buy it in America or Hong Kong as the ridiculous price of it here in the UK, I maybe be able to get both the d300 & D3 for the same price as just the D3 here in the UK.

Phillip.

Or fly to america, have a nice holiday, buy the D3 and then fly back for the difference in price!

I feel sorry for all those who bought the nikon dx lenses and my mate who after sitting on the fence for a few years has just jumped in to digital and bought a D200...

They look fantastic new cameras..Nikon users world wide will be very excited..and canon users will be preparing to jump.........

So Nikon's new top of the range camera will be the D3 - 12.1MP full frame
Canon's new top of the range camera will be the EOS 1Ds-MKIII - 21MP full frame

Forgive me if I'm missing something here but what's wrong with this picture? I know there is a price difference, but shouldn't the foremost camera manufacturer be produceing something more than 12MP on its top flight model? Maybe I'm looking at it wrong and am going to be very pleased if someone can point out my misguided views

Hi Gavin Parsons yes you are missing an extremely large point, the D3 is the replacement for the D2hs the D3x will be released sometime next year with a reputed 24 megapixel sensor stuffed in it, the D3 is aimed at the sport's PJ market just like the 1Dmk3.

Phillip.

canon users will be preparing to jump

Jump where? Into the local casualty unit when they split their sides laughing?

It's a very good move for Nikon owners (how long have Nikon owners had to wait for long VR lenses? 20 years? Longer?) but no Canon user in the right mind would even consider such a retrograde step.

There is NOTHING in the NEW cameras that is not matched or bettered by Canon in EXISTING cameras

Barrie (ex Nikon user)

Hi Larry Corbett is no need to feel sorry the D3 will automatically switch to DX size sensor when a DX lens is fitted but then you can get almost the same specification as a !Dmk3 in a D300 with the optional grip just and a few more megapixel with the D300 with slightly less frames per second.

Phillip.

Hi Barrie you you should stop eating them mushrooms you know their bad for you .

Phillip.

Barrie,
How about the fully functional AF in the live view modes? How about the 1.5 crop 12mp sensor? What about the superior ergonomics also of the Nikon gear?

From Paul (Ex Canon user..).

I'm all for competition and, IMHO ( having been Nikon and gone Canon) Nikon have just relaunched themselves back into the Pro Nature market big style with two good camera offering and, it has to be said finally, VR on their 500 and 600's.

I so hope Philip is right and they bring out a 20ish mega full frame in about 6 months as the price of the 1DS3 will drop at just the right time

I'll stick with Canon - for even if I want to swap ( and I don't) I have tooooooo much invested in Glass to even remotely consider anything else.


T (X Nikon user who switched then on the performance of big-glass: Canon won on IS)

OK children, time to stop arguing and back to play . There will always be difference in cameras and in opinions. Some will jump for sure and others will as surely not.

Marko

I knew I'd probably missed a very important point. Thanks philip for pointing out the D3x. I shall start saving now and am glad I didn't get rid of my 16mm fisheye lens which I adore, but not so much on the D2x

Who cares about N vs C debate/rivalry so long as they both keep egging each other forward with their 'innovations'.

At the moment I'm beginning to wonder if we should rename the forum UK-DPR

Can't understand what everyone is raving about here - with both cameras we'll have images 1/3rd smaller in the frame than the existing D2Xs - which cannot be good - yep, I know there's new lenses aswell but is anyone really going to replace the Nik fit glass they already have??

You can't really dig a bigger crop out of the frame because the pixel count is only 12 and a bit mp - unlike the new FF Canon jobby at 21+mp.

The only possible major improvement might be the EXCEED processor and the way it handles THE number one Nikon bugbare - NOISE - but we'll have to see about that one when someone decides to do some real photography with one.

I just can't believe they've stuck to 12mp on a full frame - Nikon are just not on this planet

Andy why would the D300 image be smaller then the D2X? Their both 12mp DX sensors.

Hi Andy

I think Nikon have pitched the 12 megapixel Full Frame perfectly at the target market, i.e. press/sports/journalist/wedding photographers. What these photographers need are good ISO performance (ISO 25600 should be interesting!), good AF, fast burst rate. Number of mega pixels is way down the list of priorities.

Nikon has suffered recently with poorer AF and high ISO performance compared to the Canon's so it will be interesting to see how well these new Nikons perform.

Generally this is good news for all photographers and the recent Canon and Nikon announcements have certainly moved the technology on a stage.

cheers

Sean

Paul - take no notice mate - that's just me babbling

Sean, my main concern with Nikon is the noise issue - and with the D200 the low dynamic range, which is why I junked the one I had.
Only time will tell if the D300 will suffer the same short-commings compared to the D3 as the D200 does to the D2X(s).

All Nikon had to do in reality was to improve high iso performance and not let themselves get left so far behind in the resolution stakes - I cannot see these bodies selling in EOS1 quantities - and as a Nikon user that annoys me.

Canon can handle noise so why can't Nikon?

And don't forget, the effective area pixel count on the D3 is lower than on a D2X - or even a D300 come to that.

Personally I think Nikon have gone mad and I certainly won't be banging an order in any time soon

What we really would like is the 26mp D3X now

Mike, for sports people who used the 4mp D2H/s then the 5mp from the D3 is a little improvement. I think like the original D1 the D3 is their new "stepping stone" camera. The big difference is that this camera will have better noise characterstics over the D2H.

The only other camera's to compete are the 1DIII which is 10mp 1.3, (the D3 offers a 10mp 1.13 crop mode) 12mp 5D which is probably in the ISO ballpark. The 1DsIII will probably have ISO performance like the current 10mp cameras.

The issue with be lens resolution. If you work out your physics we really need some new lense technology to get beyond 27M pixels, I think Canon and Nikon will pay it safe and stay well back from the 'Newton' zone; especially since Nikon have just launched new glass which tends to have a 6+ year cycle.

I said it above, I think the pixel decade/race has roughly come to an end, I think we will see MF digital next and advances in lense technology. I know can has both 50M and 80M sensors and I am sure that Nikon have similar.

Quality equipment is obviously important in achieving quality images, but the brand to my mind ,is relatively unimportant.

Equipment although essential, only accounts for a relatively small percentage of any impact/quality in the final image, say 25%, what is by far, more important is the person behind the camera.

Choose a make of camera with which you are comfortable and stick with it. The improved quality of your images will come, because you improve, not the equipment.


When people start talking about amount of pixels, I’m sorry, but for me they are just talking out of a certain orifice. What is important, is the quality of the sensor, not its mega pixel size.

Saying that, competition between manufacturers is a win, win situation for everyone,