OK, It's after 1am and I'm totally spent after a busy weekend test driving the Nikon D3 and editing some files. I'm proud to say that I'm the only wedding or portrait photographer in the country to have been given this camera to test. I'll definitely post a review of the camera in the next few days, but I've got clients to take care of before I take the time I need to write it.
My first impressions, as expected, were mind blowing. To be brief, I'm stunned at how responsive this camera is and I didn't believe there was much room for improvement to the way the D2xs handled. I was clearly wrong. The Focus, feel of the shutter, focus point selection, enormous LCD, auto white balance, dynamic range, color rendition, and a few other things have all been written about and touted, but nothing prepared me for the incredible quality of the files out of camera. In addition, the high ISO performance, which was also talked about, is nothing short of revolutionary.
This camera literally changes the rules of photography and will simply allow me to capture things like never before. I'll post the full review asap. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the new lenses Nikon sent to me. The 14-24mm 2.8 and the 24-70mm 2.8 are amazing pieces of glass. I'll also review these as well. In a nutshell, you must handle them at Photoplus if you go. In any case, I took it for a test drive at yesterday's wedding. Cristina and Steven at the Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia. The decorator was the fabulous Evantine Design and the orchestra was The Eddie Bruce Orchestra. Please keep in mind that I shot this camera quite sparingly. I only had it in my hands for 24 hours before I needed to use it for a wedding. My obligation was to capture this day for my client, not test a camera. I did, however, find a few parts of the day that screamed for this camera. The only hard part was putting it down. I love my D2xs, but I'll be replacing them when I get my D3's on a permanent basis. I'll post some data above the files.
In case anyone was wondering, I'm unable to post full rez files until after Photoplus and these files were absolutely STRAIGHT OUT OF CAMERA!!!! In addition, there is no software to open NEF(RAW) files yet so these are all JPG's with absolutely nothing done to them besides a reduction in file size for the web. Most images were captured with auto white balance. For the decor photos, I dialed in 2500 K to nail the color temperature. If these are the JPG's, I can't wait to see the RAW files!!!!!!
50 1.4- 1/320th @ 2.8 shot @ ISO 1600
50mm 1.4- 1/125th @ 2.0 shot @ ISO 2000
70-200 2.8 VR- 1/320th @ 4.0 shot @ ISO 200
The new 14-24mm 2.8- 1/160th @ 2.8 shot @ ISO 3200
70-200mm 2.8 VR- 1/320th @ 2.8 shot @ ISO 3200
70-200mm 2.8 VR- 1/100th @ 2.8 shot @ ISO 4000
70-200mm 2.8 VR- 1/80th @ 2.8 shot @ ISO 1600
The new 24-70 2.8- 1/125th @ 2.8 shot @ ISO 3200
The new 24-70 2.8- 1/30th @ 2.8 shot @ ISO 2500
70-200mm 2.8 VR- 1/40th @ 2.8 shot @ ISO 3200
85mm 1.4- 1/100th @ 2.0 shot @ ISO 1600
85mm 1.4- 1/320th @ 2.2 shot @ ISO 1600
50mm 1.4- 1/60th @ 6.3 shot @ ISO 6400
85 1.4mm- 1/160th @ 2.8 shot @ ISO 3200
