Overlooked D3 Treasures 11.26.07
The D3 has a number of refined and new features making our picture taking chores just a little bit easier. Here’s some you might not catch your first read through the instruction book.
| Color Space | No, this is not new but many photographers don’t know to set it to Adobe RGB to capture the biggest number of colors. |
| a7 Focus-point wrap | Not new either, but makes selecting the next AF sensor faster |
| a8 AF point selection | You have the option of cycling through 11 or all 51 AF sensors to your selected AF sensor. If you select 11, you still are working with the number selected under CS a3. |
| Setup Menu / GPS | In previous Nikon bodies, connecting a GPS unit to the 10-pin connector caused the camera to remain, it never would shut off. This caused undo battery drain. This feature when set to Auto meter off ON allows the camera to turn off like normal. |
| Virtual Horizon | You might have noticed there is no grid you can activate in the D3 like you could on some other bodies. If you have problems with the horizon, you might do what I’ve done. I set the DOF preview button to Virtual Horizon. I don’t use the DOF button for DOF but I do need to level the camera. With the DOF button depressed, you can see inside the viewfinder on the right the virtual horizon. |
| Virtual Horizon | But wait, there’s more work when the camera is turned vertically! |
| Multi Selector | We’re all use to the multi selector working at the 12 & 6, 3 & 9 positions, but on the D3, there’s more! You have diagonal movement now. This is very cool as you get use to working a8 51 point selection. It does make using a8 51 selection a whole lot faster when placing an AF sensor where you desire. |
| LCD Monitor screens | The D3 Data displayed on the LCD monitor is tremendously expanded. The 4th screen actually displays the amount of FLASH compensation. That’s a first! |
| No more PC Caps! | The D3 no longer requires the 10pin or PC cap, it comes with a new cover that just folds out of the way when a socket is being used. |
| AF Fine Tune | Nikon takes focus very seriously in the D3. You can download a chart for the AF Fine Tune feature here. |
| Info Button | The D3 has a “miny” instruction book built into it. When you depress the Info Button when a Menu item is open, the screen turns to a text screen with help. That’s cool! |
| Info Button | When depressed lights up the LCD with shooting info similar to the top LCD panel. The one exception is the selected AF sensor is displayed here where it no longer appears on the top LCD. |
| Picture Control System | is simply pretty darn cool. It gives you the ability to totally customize the image look coming out of YOUR D3. |
| High-definition LCD | Is vast superior to any other LCD when checking for critical focus. In this regards, it is remarkably accurate. This is especially true when you zoom in with it. I wouldn’t say that for color or exposure though. |
| High-def LCD glass | The D3 LCD does not come with a cover. This scared the crap out of me at first, I figured it would end up scratched beyond use. I decided to abuse the IP D3 I had since, it was going back to Nikon. To my great relief, the new tempered glass LCD didn’t scratch in a month of hard use. |
| Dual CF slots | ROCKS! Having two cards loaded at once really extends shooting, providing nearly 800 file captures (Raw +JPEG). |
| HIGH ISO | While is cool, keep in mind this amazing ability while is cool for ambient light, it also extends your flash ability! |
| My Menu | You can make your own Menu consisting of those menu items you always access. It's really cool! |