Feature Film Shot in D3

Wes Anderson's upcoming stop motion Fantastic Mr. Fox was shot using a Nikon D3.

Nikon D3 Review

All armchair photographers rejoice.

Actually, it's called in-depth review which was credited to Simon Joinson and Phil Askey at dpreview.com. As noted, the review was done with firmware v.1 prior to the first firmware upgrade which allegedly could corrupt image files in certain circumstances and was hence pulled from distribution. Nikon screwed up.

After reading the comparison, and seeing with my own eyes and recalling what Ken Rockwell's early review, I have to conclude that, all things being equal, based on out of the camera unmolested JPEG, Canon delivers visually cleaner and sharper images.

More Trouble in Paradise
As if the firmware upgrade blunder wasn't bad enough, Nikon suffered another embarrassment. The latest review on its once class leading, pro grade lens Nikkor AFS-VR 70~200 f2.8 was deemed to be largely poor when shot using Nikon's own FX sensor D3 camera. Digital Loyd says"Its optical performance is without a doubt the very worst I’ve yet to see on the D3 from any lens." Long time Nikon shooter Bjorn declares that "the covering power of this slim design simply is not adequate for a good performance across the entire FX frame." And I have heard Nikon is going to sell newly designed nano coated lens. Could that be a marketing ploy? The 70~200 is up for an upgrade.

UPDATE
4/25/08
Just as promised, Nikon re-released the D3 firmware update.

D3 Review From Dpreview

I am wondering when the D3 review will be up on dpreview.com. As an armchair photographer, I just can't wait to see what Mr Phil Askey has to say about the latest and greatest from Nikon, even though I could hardly afford one, let alone all the good lenses one is supposed to use with it. Maybe the review will coincide with the Amazon's D3 availability? I don't think so. Right now, Amazon is selling the D3 via third party vendors. But judging from some of the reviews, Amazon did at some point had the D3 in stock and sold at list price, unlike some third party vendors which are selling above list price.

D3 Review

Bjorn gave everyone a New Year present, the D3 review. It's up here.

D3 Review By Michael Weber

Here is pro shooter, Michael Weber, who almost exclusively shoots JPEG for his assignments, has this to say about the Nikon D3:

The 3" VGA is a stunner, tack sharp, with vivid colours.

Full article here.

ghorse, this is it. A D3 with a VGA lcd monitor is just what you want.

D3 High ISO Comparison

Ken Rockwell got his Nikon D3 and did a quick IS03200 comparison with his D300, D200, 5D, the result is what most people expect and pretty much reflects on the price: D3 is the champ.

Here is his quick comparison. The site has some old school charm, by that I mean he doesn't do blog and everything is a bit disorganized. Hope the link survives his later update.

UPDATE: Ken did a Quickie Sharpness Test
Ken is at it again. He did a quickie sharpness test using the newish D3, D300 and Canon's 2 year old 5D. And 5D is the winner. And judging from the pictures he posted, he is right. The link is here. See for yourself.

UPDATE: More updates from Ken (I give up keep updating after this)
So far he has by far done the most works on comparing 5D and D3. And I have to say from the pixel peeping perspective, 5D just beats D3, not by a big margin but still. That said, there are myriads of things that make a picture looks good. So for all intents and purposes, the tests are really for online photographers like myself who got nothing better to do but reading reviews. I know it's pathetic. And I can never afford neither cameras.

Ready The Camera Stance

If only all the Hollywood extras who play photojournalists in those big budget movies read this page, perhaps the movies will look more realistic. Way too often those extras don't even hold their camera right, with elbows sticking way out like a chicken flapping its wings. I wonder why those directors don't even care.

Page 54 of the Nikon D3 manual. (17.3MB non printable pdf. When I first downloaded it at home at night, it went quite smoothly. In the morning, forget about it, it went insanely slow. So slow that I gave up). Notice that Nikon chooses to use a presumably female figure albeit a bit ambiguous (or simply a guy who discovers long hair and hair product) to illustrate its flagship professional D3.

Amateur Photographer: Dan Chung Switched?

Award winning Guardian photographer Dan Chung, in an exclusive from Amateur Photographer, is alleged to switch back to Nikon after a decade with Canon. AP still holds dearly to its content and I guess its operation is still largely based on subscription and newsstand sales. As such I could not access the content online (because there is none out there?). I made a trip to the Grand Central area hoping that maybe I can read or buy this UK weekly publication the old fashioned way, but no luck there. Previously, on Dan Chung's blog, he does give accolades to D3 and goes on to say he's going to order a pair of them. I may need to check out Barnes & Nobles for this AP piece.

UPDATE: 11/17/2007
Just checked out Barnes & Nobles at Bayside, and they don't carry that magazine either. I guess not a lot of people here in US care about what amateur photographers in UK have to say.

PHOTOPLUS 2007

There are no D3 samples here. The below are shot using my D70 or from one of the D2Xs' as seen from the picture below. The lenses used are either the 300mm or the 500mm fixed focal big glasses or my 18~70 kit lens; check the EXIF for more details.

Just another nutty, twisted Nikon shooter...

Nikon man in black. This one is shot using a 500mm lens.

She is one of the D3 mavens at the show. Shot using a D2Xs with a 300mm lens. The live view is operated in 4 simple steps. Turn the release mode button located on the top left hand side of the camera to Lv, press down the shutter release button to first lock up the mirror, now live view on LCD; press the shutter again to focus, now the LCD is blackout; press all the way down to get the picture.

Another D3 guardian/maven. He sits next to the lady shown above, guess who I asks the live view question.

Model/ballerina Irina for Joe McNally. The best model on the floor: classy, professional, and friendly.

The very animated Mr. Joe McNally. He ups the ante by doing some live shooting using the D3 and some speed lights from Nikon. It seems pretty easy ....

Mr. Joe McNally adjusting the flash. He is shooting tethered to a Mac, the JPEGs are shown on two monitors instantaneously.

Mr. Dave Black showing off his clean high ISO images on the big TV. His presentation is followed by Joe McNally's. Good showmanship and impressive images.

The show ends shortly after 4PM.

There are many many D3 previews and samples out there. so I don't bother to shoot yet another high ISO picture from D3.

Report from Wired.

More D3 In The Wild

This is again sourced from Nikonwatch.com which in turn got it from Luminance Landscape. The pictures were heavily processed in PhotoShop and have a specific look to them.

The guy, I mean James Russell is a professional photographer unlike me an armchair photographer who reads and talks about photography but rarely take any, or any good ones. Enjoy.

Nikon D3 Samples From The Moose

He took a few here and here in his blog. Again sourced from Nikonwatch.com, a web site that doesn't talk about Nikon watches (do they even exist?) but call itself Nikon watch.

UPDATE: A couple hours after the above link, Moose's Wordpress is totally overwhelmed.

UPDATE: Moose has created a D3 section for you D3 suckers out there.

Nikon D3 Samples

As a 3rd rate blogger, the best I can do is to recycle the news.

Here's is a post sourced from Nikonwatch. Nikon comes out with some samples from D3 and D300. The D3 samples are all shot with the newly AF-S 24~70mm f2.8G, except one that is shot with the AF-S Nikkor 85mm f1.4. The D300 has only 2 samples, both are done using the AF-S DX Nikkor 17~55mm f2.8G.

The D3 samples are here page in Japanese (page in English) and the D300 samples are here. Enjoy.

D3 From Guardian's Dan Chung

Here is a hands-on first impression from an award winning working professional as opposed to some armchair photographer in front of a PC monitor .... Dan's major complaint as a photojournalist is not on the D3 per se but rather on Nikon's lack of prime lineup like a 50mm f1.2 and a 35mm f1.4. Shooting wide and Shooting wide often in low light look like are requirements for journalists.

Dan Chung: Did you miss me? (Editor's note: what kind of a post title is that for a professional?). Also accompanying short D3 video in English English no subtitles.


Culled from Nikonwatch.com

D3 Video Demo

This is a video I found via Nikonwatch.com, the video is in Spanish. A guy in white polo shirt with Nikon's emblem is seen demoing the Nikon D3. If you know Spanish that's great, if you know only English, then you can read the English subtitles. If you know none, then just enjoy watching the D3.


Source:
Nikonwatch.com


Another one from YouTube. In Japanese, No English Subtitles.