02.15.2010
The D3s is a beautiful camera and there is no way once you heat that shutter slam 8fps you can’t fall for it. Does it produce a better file then the D3, that’s the question most ask. Yeah, it does but you probably won’t see that improvement if you don’t take your images above 11×14 in size. Where will you see an improvement? The one biggie I feel is improvement over the D3 that’s not been documented nor that’s been in the press. And that’s the AF, the D3s is all new and it works just sweet!
Since you can’t see through the viewfinder when in Live View which is required for filming with the D3s, the grid of the E Screen isn’t available nor is the Virtual Horizon. Nikon thought this through. So when in Live View and you depress the Info button, you have a number of options you can see on the Monitor and one of them just happens to Virtual Horizon as you see here. Now what if you want to see the subject at the same time? I think that’s a work in progress but you simply hit the Info button to turn it off.
The D3s high ISO is just simply amazing! Shooting at ISO 1600 to the outrageous 10,465,877 or whatever the hell the top end is produces results I simply didn’t believe. The images I posted last night taken of dark subjects in low light with -1.5 dialed in had NO noise that would bother you in a 24×30 print. That’s just damn impressive!
The big news about the D3s is its video capability. The D3s is not a video camera, it produces beautiful video clips because it can only shoot a 5min clip. Its 720p while numerically sounds not top notch, in connection with Nikon optics, the results are damn stunning. It’s a great start to a system you know will grow in time.
The D3s is my “2nd” body so typically is on a strap on my shoulder.
You will find my D3 settings here. While not 100% applicable to the D3s, they will more then get you in the ballpark. Better yet would be watching the video that I produced with Kelby Training on the D3s.