gear

THE DIGITAL SOAPBOX OF ANDY CLEAVENGER

NIKON D3

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Email:  graycard18@gmail.com

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So... I finally have one. A year behind the rest of the world, but who’s counting?

I have to admit, I was skeptical of the hordes of zealots salivating over this camera to the point that they were soon sitting in expansive puddles of debt. Especially for photographers that built their businesses on developing a distinctive lighting technique using flash. What would those people want with a camera that excels at available/low light photography? Whatever... it’s their career I guess. I still don’t see the sense in spending money that you don’t have for something that’s not genuinely NEEDED, but that’s a separate issue. Having obtained one of my own now I can at least understand the desire, though I don’t see the D3 as a perfect camera by any stretch. There are actually even some things that my D2X does better.

For starters, the auto focus seems to hunt a lot more than the D2X ever did. I haven’t had much time to explore the many possible causes of this so I don’t have any specific theories yet. But it is an issue. The second area where my D2X is better is auto white balance, particularly in tungsten light. For some reason the D3 only cools off the white balance a little bit when confronted with a tungsten dominated scene. When confronted with mixed tungsten and daylight, or mixed tungsten and florescent it almost always guesses wrong. It makes the prospect of shooting JPEG a little scary in any situation that’s not completely lit in only one type of light (i.e. all daylight, all tungsten, all florescent, etc.) and setting the WB for that specific type of light.

The good news is that the D3 does indeed truly excel at low light photography. I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot something for the cover of my company’s magazine at ISO 1600. Even ISO 3200 produces passable results for a small image on an inside spread. The D2X by comparison, I wouldn’t shoot at anything over 400 if it was for the cover...  even then I’d be biting my nails a bit.

And we can’t overlook the lack of a sensor crop. Hallelujah...  20mm  is finally wide again! No more putting up with a blurry 12-24mm or waiting for a seemingly non-existent, yet purportedly sharper 11-16mm. I’ve missed my 20mm. It was about as wide and wacky as I liked to get back when I shot film and it was much easier to throw in a bag and take on vacation than any of these big ass zooms.

Playing with this camera did help me figure out which camera to go with when I finally get around to buying one for personal use. I’m probably going to save up for the D700 as opposed to settling for a D300. I’ve lived with a cropped sensor long enough.