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The D3 - A full field report

27th February 2008

Nikon D3 – A field report

The words “long awaited” and “much talked about” seem to apply to every new Nikon professional camera launched in the past few years but, in the case of the company’s new flagship model, the D3, they are perhaps more appropriate than ever. The question on most people’s lips over the past many months has been, Will they, won’t they? I am, of course, referring to the manufacturer’s much-debated foray into the full-frame market.

Well, in the D3 we now have our answer. But for me, format has been less of an issue. I have never agonised over Nikon’s devotion to the small-frame DX format chip. Indeed, there are certain advantages in terms of image quality (as well as narrower angles of view of my long wildlife lenses) of the so-called APS-size sensor.

For me, of far greater concern have been the issue of noise, from which the D2X, in particular, even at relatively low (in digital terms) ISO ratings (i.e. ISO 400) suffers badly; and the more general question of dynamic range (the camera’s ability to record detail across the tonal range in high contrast scenes). So when I got my hands on a D3 at the back end of November, these were the areas I was most keen to investigate. What I’ve discovered is that the engineers at Nikon have been busy!

Coping with noise

Let me first deal with the issue of noise, a problem that has not gone unnoticed amongst professional Nikon users over the years. Some or all of four factors cause noise. First, there is noise inherent in light, referred to as photon noise – not much we can do about that. Then there is dark-current noise, which is caused by heat generated during long-time exposures. Next there is read-out noise, a result of the amplification process (ISO), and finally fixed-pattern noise, relating to sensor type (i.e. CCD or CMOS). It is in these last two areas that Nikon appears to have made great strides.

As I alluded to earlier, the D2X is a particularly noisy camera. It was also the first Nikon camera to use a CMOS sensor, which is perhaps no coincidence. Fixed-pattern noise is caused by variances in levels of amplification across an array. CMOS sensors have individual amplifiers for every pixel, which makes variances (and noise) almost inevitable. CCD sensors, on the other hand, have a single amplifier for the whole pixel array, effectively eliminating fixed-pattern noise. Although the D3 continues with a CMOS-type sensor, Nikon appear to have improved the management of the amplifier array to reduce fixed pattern noise.

The D3 also has vastly improved read-out noise levels, which is just as well since the camera offers ISO ratings previously unheard of, up to ISO 25,600. The initial field tests I conducted reveal the D3 having around the same level of noise when ISO is set at 1,600 as occurs with the D2X set at ISO 400, which is about the fastest I would use the D2X in a professional capacity. This means that the D3 gives me at least two extra stops to work with, which can be critical in low light situations or when photographing high speed action. Beyond ISO 1,600 the question is, are the higher ratings usable?

To answer this question, I shot a series of images of the same scene photographed at ISO settings 3,200, 6,400, 12,800 and 25,600 with the camera’s High ISO noise reduction function turned on. These images show that up to ISO 6,400 degradation in image quality is visible but minimal. And, even at the highest setting (ISO 25,600) image quality is passable, particularly if this means capturing images in lighting conditions that would otherwise prove impossible for natural light photography – something I will remember on my next jungle assignment.

Dynamic range

My other major question centred on dynamic range. How will the D3 cope with high contrast scenes? Theoretically, compared to the D2X, the larger sensor (36 x 23.9mm vs. 23.7 x 15.7mm) coupled with roughly the same resolution (12.1mp vs. 12.2mp) should result in greater dynamic range due to the increased capacity of the capacitor wells. But how did the camera perform in practice?

In this instance, I photographed a landscape image that had a scene dynamic range (measured using a hand held light meter) of 11.2-stops. Exposing for the mid tones at ISO 200 reveals usable data and practically no noise in the dark tones, while the brightest highlights are over-exposed by approximately 1.85-stops. In this simple but practical test, the dynamic range of the D3 equates to around 9.35-stops, which is close to lab tests run by the DIWA (where the D3 achieved 10-stops DR at ISO 200).

A second image of the same scene but photographed at ISO 1,600 gave an almost identical result, which again stands up when compared to the DIWA lab results. Across the standard ISO range, in practical tests, the D3’s dynamic range measured between nine and ten stops, an improvement over the D2X. When ISO boost is applied (to increase ISO beyond 6,400 and when ISO values less than 200 are used) DR dropped to between seven and nine stops, the poorer return being at the higher end of the ISO range.

So far during testing the D3 has exceeded my expectations and delivered value above my existing D2X system, which makes me feel better for having forked out over three grand. And there’s more. The majority of current DSLR cameras use a 12-bit A/D converter, meaning they can record 4,096 tones, or levels. These levels are distributed across the tonal range in a linear manner, meaning there are more levels squashed into the brightest tones than the darker tones, where levels are spaced further apart. This can result in banding (the loss of the appearance of continuous tone) in shadow areas of a scene. The D3, however, enables images to be captured in 14-bit mode, which equates to four times the quantity of levels captured (16,384 to be precise) improving image quality in the shadow areas by reducing the occurrence of banding and improving signal to noise ratio.

All in all, in terms of image quality, the results from the D3 are beautifully sharp, with exceptional tonal gradation, and rich in colour – and a definite improvement on the D2X.

Exposure and focus

Once again, Nikon’s legendary exposure system surpasses itself. The D3 has a new metering system that, in Matrix metering mode (multi-segment metering), manages to record variances in tones with unerring accuracy. For example, I photographed a swan in bright sunlight, always a challenge for built-in light meters, and on reproducing the image as it was recorded by the camera, without the application of any in-camera or post-capture processing, the white tones of the feathers are perhaps just 1/2-stop under-exposed. This seems consistent with the meter’s overall performance, which tended towards 1/2-stop under exposure as a default.

In terms of focus, the D3 vastly improves on older Nikon systems with the introduction of the 51-point Multi-CAM 3500 FX AF-module. In practice, as a wildlife photographer, I often despaired at the paucity of AF sensors (which were never in a position appropriate to the subject) in my D2X and earlier cameras, particularly compared to the functionality my rival canon users enjoyed. I also found that AF tracking performance of earlier Nikons was sporadic and unreliable. The new system seems to have solved many of the problems I encountered previously.

To test AF on the D3 I headed to Portland harbour, the location for the sailing events of 2012 Olympic games. The harbour has become a bit of a Mecca for kite surfers and, being a windy day, I wasn’t disappointed. I set the D3 to continuous AF mode and selected the 51-point Dynamic AF Area mode. I was using the 200-400mm f/4 telephoto zoom lens with VR turned on. A sequence of five consecutive images shows the D3 coping well with the subject moving at pace towards the camera.

Handling

Perhaps my primary reason for choosing to use Nikon cameras is their handling and ergonomics, and the D3 doesn’t disappoint in this area. The body feels as tough as a Chieftain tank and should fare well in the camera hostile environments I’m likely to take it. It certainly coped with a drenching when an unexpected storm down at Portland Bill caught me unaware and unprepared. As usual all the buttons are in exactly the right place for instinctive operation, something that is critical to my, and many photographers’ styles of photography.

Along with the full frame sensor, the viewfinder, which shows 100% of the scene, is a delight after the pokey viewfinders associated with the DX-Nikons. The rear LCD screen is the best quality monitor yet, although I rarely use it for anything other than making camera and custom settings adjustments via the menus. For photographers that like to use the image review/playback facility, however, you will be impressed by both its size and resolution (though perhaps not for professional image editing just yet).

In terms of frame advance, this is one quick camera. In full frame mode the D3 rattles off up to 9-fps. However, when the camera is switched to DX-mode (reducing resolution to 5.1mp) frame rate shoots up to 11-fps. To be honest, while I can see the use for such high shooting when covering certain types of sporting and press events, for most users they are of little relevance. Indeed, I find that for many of the subjects I photograph on a daily basis (bearing in mind there are some pretty fast moving animals out on the African planes) all that these high frame rates give me is too many extra images to edit for very little return. Perhaps that’s the reason Nikon has introduced dual CF-card slots for the first time! Joking aside, this new feature of the D3 is well thought out and I have set my camera to record a backup image to the second card – call me paranoid but there’s nothing worse than losing a couple of hundred images to a faulty memory card.

The only negative I have so far come across is a tendancy for vignetting when using my favourite 70-200mm f/2.8 AF lens. This is a surprise, as the lens is not a DX (digital only) lens, however, it would appear that the image circle of this lens is too small for the new full-frame sensor size.

Conclusion

In the last twelve months Nikon’s sales have begun to catch Canon and, in some cases (the US and Japan), overtake them as the camera of choice with consumers. In digital terms, however, Canon has led the way with professionals for some time. The D3 changes the playing field. For the first time Nikon has a pro’ spec camera that can compete with and, in many ways, surpass the best its main rival has to offer. There are rumours that Nikon has a higher resolution camera up its sleeve and some may be tempted to leapfrog the D3 in pursuit of a megapixel Holy Grail. If there is such a camera, the new model is likely to be aimed at commercial photographers who want a file size convertible to a billboard print (and who can afford the price tag). For the rest of us, the D3 has the potential to be a more versatile camera lacking nothing in terms of image quality. Half a million pages thrown up by a Google search proves that the D3 is indeed a camera much talked about. If it was long awaited, it was worth the wait.