Chrischong
09-27-2007, 11:59 AM
Hi all,
Attended a Nikon Malaysia press event last week where they let us try out pre-production models of the D3 and D300.
Everyone's probably seen sample shots from Nikon Japan's website already, so I'll talk a little about they handle.
The D300 feels very similar in use to the D200 - except for some buttons which have shifted around at the back of the camera. Its viewfinder, though with the same magnification, seems bigger simply because of wider frame coverage. Apart from ISO performance, the other big area of improvement is in its AF performance, which is noticeably faster and more accurate in dimly lit conditions. The shutter and mirror mechanism sounds different too, and this one's rated to about 150k shots, I think.
The new battery grip is awesome - feels really well made this time.
The D3, on the other hand, feels a lot like a D2X in use, though the viewfinder is super huge. It's probably using the same 51-point AF sensor as the D300's (or a similar model), which unfortunately means that the AF points only cover a fairly small section in the middle of the frame.
The contrast-detection based LiveView autofocusing is quite fast. In any case, it's better than any other implementation out there simply because it lets you choose any point on the frame to focus on, and also has a handy zoom mode to aid manual focusing.
As far as the high ISO performance is concerned, ISO 25600 is horrible and ISO 12800 is poor. You can still use it for emergency shots (for newspaper prints, maybe), but so much detail is lost that you wouldn't use it for anything else.
At ISO 6400, there's a lot more detail but you can still see some white hotspots here and there.
There was also a slight hue and saturation shift in both cameras as you bump up the ISO settings, though the Nikon representative said that these would be ironed out in the final release (if you're wondering, the D80 and D40x have incredibly stable saturation and hues as you increase the ISO speeds, so I believe that Nikon will sort it out).
Oh, and the new FX lenses are HUGE!!! If I ever got a D3, I'd have to get a whole new set of camera bags and tripods.
For your viewing pleasure, here's a video of the D3 and D300:
http://videos.thestar.com.my/default.aspx?vid=454
Attended a Nikon Malaysia press event last week where they let us try out pre-production models of the D3 and D300.
Everyone's probably seen sample shots from Nikon Japan's website already, so I'll talk a little about they handle.
The D300 feels very similar in use to the D200 - except for some buttons which have shifted around at the back of the camera. Its viewfinder, though with the same magnification, seems bigger simply because of wider frame coverage. Apart from ISO performance, the other big area of improvement is in its AF performance, which is noticeably faster and more accurate in dimly lit conditions. The shutter and mirror mechanism sounds different too, and this one's rated to about 150k shots, I think.
The new battery grip is awesome - feels really well made this time.
The D3, on the other hand, feels a lot like a D2X in use, though the viewfinder is super huge. It's probably using the same 51-point AF sensor as the D300's (or a similar model), which unfortunately means that the AF points only cover a fairly small section in the middle of the frame.
The contrast-detection based LiveView autofocusing is quite fast. In any case, it's better than any other implementation out there simply because it lets you choose any point on the frame to focus on, and also has a handy zoom mode to aid manual focusing.
As far as the high ISO performance is concerned, ISO 25600 is horrible and ISO 12800 is poor. You can still use it for emergency shots (for newspaper prints, maybe), but so much detail is lost that you wouldn't use it for anything else.
At ISO 6400, there's a lot more detail but you can still see some white hotspots here and there.
There was also a slight hue and saturation shift in both cameras as you bump up the ISO settings, though the Nikon representative said that these would be ironed out in the final release (if you're wondering, the D80 and D40x have incredibly stable saturation and hues as you increase the ISO speeds, so I believe that Nikon will sort it out).
Oh, and the new FX lenses are HUGE!!! If I ever got a D3, I'd have to get a whole new set of camera bags and tripods.
For your viewing pleasure, here's a video of the D3 and D300:
http://videos.thestar.com.my/default.aspx?vid=454