My first D3 shots

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PeteStewardson

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Well since everyone else is doing ISO tests, and I picked up my D3 yesterday afternoon, I figured it would be rude not to have a play at previously unthinkable ISO's :D So I took the D3/28-70/80-200 to a private party in a hired bar room to have a play...

All the shots are in camera jpgs, not touched out of camera except for resizing. I had the picture control set to vivid, manually set the ISO in each and used AV mode.

So first off is the bottles behind the bar ISO3200, 1/250s, 200mm/2.8

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Next up the fairy on the top of the tree ISO3200, 1/30s ( just balanced on a coat ) 200mm/2.8

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And a 100% crop of the fairy showing the detail and noise

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OK so then I saw the empty pool table and decided to try doing some comparison ISOs on it. I didn't have a tripod so I framed these with just the camera on the table.

First off a resized shot of the frame for reference. And then 100% crops for comparision ( they're not quite all the same but it's only for an idea )

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ISO200

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ISO400

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ISO800

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ISO1600

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Overall I'm overjoyed with the D3, it looks like it's going to allow much more detailed shots in very low light ( concerts being the big thing here ) I'm going to send some of these comparisons for print to check them in real life, but I suspect that the ISO1600 shot is not going to be a problem :)

The only things that will take some getting used to are the multi-selector as it seems to need a more positive push until it clicks to activate it, and the command dial on the vertical grip being below the AF-ON button rather than above it like on the D2x.

Pete
 
Great stuff!

You can change your signature now too :)

Question: how does it feel in your hands with the 80-200 ? Does it feel balanced or still nose heavy?
 
Funny you should mention the sig change, I was doing that as you replied :D

Must apologise for the images, they haven't quite survived my resizing for the web as well as I'd hoped and there's quite a lot of jpg artifacts.

As for the balance, I always thought it was well balanced on the D2 bodies so feels just perfect on the D3.

Pete
 
Looking good. To be honest I think the noise was slightly over hyped pre-release with some people saying ISO6400 was almost noise free. Judging by the above shots when you take sensor size into account Nikon have levelled the playing field in the noise stakes. Good news for all of us really as now the other makers have to repsond with something better (y)
 
Remember that this was the camera on full auto with no help, I'm sure the noise would have been much better had I tweaked the exposures. For me the thing that matters is that I can now get shots that I never could have got before, and all without flash :D
 
Aye, shooting at high iso will be a liberating experience, looking forward to it when it filters down to consumer level products.
 
Well the D50, and D80 have always been better at high ISO, but it's the detail with it that really stands out with the D3.
 
The high ISO performance is simply astonishing.
I want one so bad.
Just wondering how much Id get for the missus...
 
Very impressive piece of hardware.

Also shows how good the Nikon glass is, look how clean the edge of that 8 ball is. Great stuff
 
That's amazing! I can't believe that 3200 performance!
 
Hello everyone... First post!

I'm glad you liking your D3... Earlier this year I sold my D200 and jumped ship to Canon, investing in their mkIII - it seemed like a good idea at the time. 2 models later I'm still experiencing the much publicised focus problems. In the meantime Nikon release the D300 & D3 but more importantly VR on the big lenses... Doh!
 
Well I'm gradually getting the hang of this camera, it really does take some getting used to being able to use an ISO above 400 and get acceptable results.

Had a spare 30mins so took the D3 and Sigma300/2.8+1.4tc out to the lake again. The light was a bit better than yesterday when I set out but wasn't sure what would be around.

Anyway nothing but ducks about on the lake today, but got these at ISO1600. These are 100% crops of the jpgs straight out of the camera :eek:

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By the time I'd walked around to the spot this guy was sat it wasn't quite so bright, so upped the ISO to 3200. These are full frame shots, again straight out of the camera other than resizing. I'm going to print these to see how they look on paper.

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Pete
 
Nice pictures. The high ISO performance is incredible. I'm wondering how the D300's ISO performance compares to that of the D3. I suspect that it might be very similar, if not the same.
 
RichieRich said:
Nice pictures. The high ISO performance is incredible. I'm wondering how the D300's ISO performance compares to that of the D3. I suspect that it might be very similar, if not the same.
Click to expand...

I dont think it would be the same - the D3's larger sensor is likely to incur quite a bit less noise.

D300 is still pretty good though.
 
I just can't wait for a go with this beast in decent light.

I've not used a D300 but it should still be impressive, but the D3 is going to be the daddy of noise I think for quite a while.
 
As pointed out elsewhere, the shots weren't too sharp. So after some sharpening of the raw files in CaptureNX

_DSC0263_1.jpg


_DSC0296_1.jpg


Pete
 
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