The D3s – Nikon’s New Flagship - “The Beast” by Ian Cooper

tags nikon, d3s, wedding, ian cooper,

The D3s – Nikon’s New Flagship - “The Beast” by Ian Cooper

Three years ago, I started taking photography a little more seriously than I should have…so serious in fact, that come September 2009, I left the corporate world to go full time into photography, and never have I regretted it.

However, this is not why I am writing this column on the Nikon D3s, it’s because I have been truly blown away by the Nikon flagship D3s and so when asked to return a D3s review, I thought it would be much better to give you my opinions and thoughts as to why I first bought the D80, then the D300 and skipped the D3 and went straight for the “beast” which is the sensational and smashing D3s.

So when I started thinking that photography was definitely my game I was using a Nikon D80, in fact I have two of them. It is a great enthusiasts camera and it has fabulous ease of use. It does most things that an aspiring photographer would dream of doing….but, I needed something much more advanced, as by late 2008, I was heading straight for professionalism in photography and thus needed something to carry me through wild life shoots, demanding corporate and event shoots, plus I was starting to get loads of calls from Models to shoot their portfolios…..oooohh yeah baby! So I bought the D300. It has great handling features, it’s speed and low light features are great and handles most lighting situations truly well. There are many great features with the D300 as apposed to the D80, but there comes a time when ISO performance and a full format sensor cannot be ignored.

What I wasn’t expecting at the time was that I was getting more and more enquiries to shoot weddings. I have shot many weddings with my D300, using fill-in flash most of the time in low light situations because the ISO ratings are not that great at the top end, but I was becoming quite despondent with some of it’s features such as it’s battery life, frames per second, ISO performances and the lack of a second flash card slot. The cherry on top of the cake was one Saturday last October while I was shooting a wedding and the light was appalling in this particular chapel. Obviously I had to use a speed light to fill in where I needed to, but unbeknown to me this was actually becoming an irritant to the Father of the Bride who suddenly stood up rushed up to me and asked me to stop shooting! I think for the rest of the ceremony I probably took another 5 images at the most and those were of the ring exchanges and first kiss! When it became time to give the Bride her album she was more than upset at not having more images of the ceremony, thanks to her Father!

What I learned afterwards was that the flash was irritating some people in the congregation, including the Priest and obviously the FOB! It was never explained to me that this particular wedding was so deeply against flash photography throughout the ceremony (Bride’s fault), but this incident was to become the main factor and wake up call for me taking the big step to acquiring the D3s.

So why the D3s?

Without getting into heavy stats and technical features about the D3s, I started researching information and visiting helpful camera retailers in order to learn more about the D3s. I learned very quickly that the D3s has amazing ISO standards and one could literally shoot in the dark with out being able to see anything through the viewfinder. This isn’t that much of a gimmick, it does work, and although times will be few and far between when you will be shooting in the dark, at its highest ISO, the camera can amplify light much better than the human eye! But yes of course there will be noise, but this camera has ISO levels that are astonishing, in fact, more than astonishing, more like unbelievable. I am very left-brained and believe in being near anal about preparation, planning and being constructive. So when I am messing with a Bride’s most important day of her life, shooting away and my flash card dies on me, what happens next? Not to worry, just like the D3, the D3s has two flash card slots. You can either use both slots as “over-flow” for a much improved maximum allowable shot capacity, or you can set the camera to shoot RAW on the first card and jPeg on the 2nd…why I have no idea…who shoots on jPeg anyway? But yes, it’s a great safety feature to have. I just want it in case I get very excited, over shoot and suddenly need more storage, and without scrounging my bag for another card while the Bride and Groom get irritated, the camera simply moves onto the 2nd card, seamlessly.

The other major reason why I wanted the D3s is that it has some funny little buttons on it, just like the D3 has. Such as the Continuous burst mode in two different speeds, low and high. So if you are shooting faster events such as sports then you use CH (Continuous High) or like myself, shooting the Bride “running” down the aisle “screaming at the top of her voice”, “sorry Honey I am late but I am here, please marry me”, I choose CL (Continuous Low). The other great button is one called the “Quiet” button. Yes that father of the Bride scenario again, if only I had this camera on that day! So you are in the ceremony, you aren’t using a speed light because you don’t have to as you are shooting on 3200 ISO and you have switched the camera to “quiet mode”….no it’s not a dream! It’s fact!

Where the D3 has a maximum ISO of 25,600, the D3s goes two stops further, to a previously unheard of 102,400!!! Wow! Yes there is plenty of wow-factor to be had in pointing this camera at a very low lit room and then marveling at the amount of detail returned from a fast shutter speed, that’s why I have mentioned that at 102,400 it may be a bit of a gimmick, but in an emergency, or when the content of a shot means more than the quality, then this is the camera able to do it for you. You also need not worry about the quantity of light, as you almost always have enough to return a usable shutter speed. Yes the 102,400 ISO is the headline feature, but the real draw is the D3s’s performance a few stops down the line where the D3 or D300 shows large amounts of noise yet with the D3s, its hardly noticeable. Some of my test shots had noise starting to creep in at ISO 3200 and not becoming a cause for alarm right through until 25,600.

The D3s’s bulk takes some getting used to, so I was told, however, having owned a D300 with the battery pack and grip, the D3s’s 1.2kg weight was hardly going to weigh me down. The body of the camera is made from tough magnesium alloy with chunky rubber grips and is sealed against water and dust ingress by a series of rubber seals. Once in your hands the D3s feels like it will survive all but the most willful abuse. In fact I would go as far as to say that this camera actually feels bombproof. It wouldn’t surprise me if Nikons next batch of D3s’s were hijacked in transit from OR Tambo to Kyalami, only to re-surface on the streets of Johannesburg in the hands of criminals using them as new-aged weaponry! Jokes aside, this camera feels like military-grade construction; it’s truly that robust. It actually feels so good; it literally screams out, “use me”!

The other major point of improvement, which turns into a great feature for me, is the battery life. I can shoot a 10-hour wedding and still have approximately ¼ of the battery life left. This is truly amazing. With the D300, both the batteries in the grip and camera would be finished between 7 and 8 hours.

So, in a nutshell the most important pros and con’s I can summarize from a personal level are that the D3s has:

• Extremely high ISO performance
• Large 3” LCD
• Very quiet
• It is very easy to use
• Accurate Auto Focus (9 points – 51 with 3D-Tracking)
• Fast shutter speeds including at high ISO usage
• Excellent Image quality
• Good image stabilization
• Full Format sensor
• Dual CF Card Slots
• Ease of access to controls and menu’s
• Battery Life (up to 4, 200 exposures per battery charge)
• Very versatile
• In Camera RAW processing
• Easy menu access at the bottom of the LCD as well as in the normal Menu program

Anyway, it took me all of 20 minutes of caressing, feeling, prodding, poking, squeezing, ogling and admiring and I placed my order! Well not really, I walked out that shop with my new D3s camera tightly tucked under my arm! I couldn’t wait at the time, as there was a back order as long as my arm. So I made a plan!

As you can see from my analysis above there’s no need for me to give a verdict on what I think of the camera…but I will say that if you are in the market for a new camera, whether you are a wedding, sports, portrait, product or fashion photographer and for more or less the same reasons as above, then do your homework, research the technical articles and make sure it is a need and not a want and I am sure you, like me, will be astonished and will come to appreciate the marvelous capabilities of the D3s.

To compare and read about the test images, please read the full article as published in the July 2010 issue of Photocomment Magazine.

tags nikon, d3s, wedding, ian cooper,

tags nikon, d3s, wedding, ian cooper,