The “s” stands for “sodding hell, it’s even better!”

The other day, the lovely people at AFP Paris sent me through my new toy, the Nikon D3s.  To those who aren’t as obsessed with keeping up to date with all things new, the D3s is essentially a D3 with the small amount of concerns that photographers had ironed out plus a few very attractive new features.  It replaces the D3 in the shops with a retail of virtually the same price.  If you’re looking for a comparison of every contour, button and digital input on the camera, there are plenty of sites out there that are more than happy to put all but the most avid technophile to sleep.  Here, I just want to share my “hands-on” thoughts after a few days of using Nikon’s baby.  Anyway, enough waffle.

Here’s the lowdown on the features that interest me;

• Noise at higher ISO settings has been improved, resulting in usable images even up to the frankly ridiculous 102,400ISO
• 720p video (1280 x 720 @ 24 fps) is now included on a Nikon pro body for the first time
• Auto sensor cleaning has been introduced
• The buffer is now extended as standard, rather than as an optional feature, allowing up to 48 RAW/130 jpeg images to be captured in one burst
• A “Quiet” mode has been added for discreet shooting in sensitive conditions.

First off the bat, it’s fractionally lighter than the D3 but aside from that, it seems virtually the same.  All of the buttons are in their usual place, aside from the introduction of the info and LiveView buttons on the back.  The first allows instant access to a screen displaying the cameras current setup with each parameter adjustable without having to access the main menu.  The second sees access to the LiveView feature move from the fiddly dial on the top left of the body to a single button.  On the D3, I found that I rarely used this feature but as the D3s comes with video, fast access to this area is now vital.

With noise being the rival camera company’s very own current Cold War, it takes some getting used to when working to consider that I can now safely shoot at 3200ISO without fear of grubby looking pictures.  When I first got it out of the box, I instantly fired a few frames at 12,800 and slowly lowered it with no glaringly obvious difference in the quality from 3200 down to 200ISO.  I used to start the day with my cameras defaulted to 400ISO and with the D3, that went up to 800ISO.  It seems to have reached the point where a news photographer could safely leave the camera on 1600ISO as a starting point.  Bloggers and websites with far more time (and inclination) have some stunning examples of just how good this is, even against rival company’s latest models.

Both of the images of Gordon Brown on this page were shot at 5000 ISO during his monthly press conference in number 10.  I’ve applied no noise-removal software or sharpened the images in any way.  The first was shot on a 300mm, hand-held.  Here’s a link to a full-size version which is well worth seeing, just for the fact that even at 5000 ISO, you can still see the fine hairs on the end of his nose (not a nice thought but worth a look).

Video is something that I’ve only been tickling up to now, having volunteered to take part in AFP’s trials with webclips and embedded media.  The videos that I’ve shot were captured on a D90 with a godawful 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 VR kit lens.  The problems were many and considerate.  Firstly, the D90 has the most unbelievable rolling shutter effect (also known as “wobblevision”) whereby when you pan the camera on a horizontal plane while filming, all vertical objects suddenly turn to jelly and bend away from the direction you’re turning.  Secondly, as I already carry a significant amount of kit on a daily basis including two D3 bodies, four lenses, a laptop and various other gubbins, having to then carry a D90 body and lens on the off-chance that I may find something to video became a real chore.  Compared to the D3, the D90′s images just weren’t up to scratch so I couldn’t just ditch one of the big boys either.  Thirdly, as previously hinted at, the choice of lenses was very limited in that as I’m on foot, I don’t have the space to carry any significant form of support (tripod/monopod) so it’s vital that I have a lens with VR (vibration reduction).  Unfortunately, the current range of f2.8 high-end Nikon lenses for everyday work don’t have it.  If I want a mid-range lens with VR, I end up having to go for something like the lens mentioned before.  The options at the mid focal range are also all DX chips so using them on a full frame camera is a bit of a travesty in my book. Yuck.  It has been replaced now with a VRII version that has a range of tweaks but I doubt anyone will be replacing this one in the near future.  Surely this is an area that both Nikon and Canon need to work on now that they both are aiming at getting photographers to move towards video.

With all that in mind, the D3s has arrived with a new algorithm in the video processor, dramatically cutting the jelly effect plus, as it’s all in one camera now, I can ditch the D90.  My back will be so pleased..  While I will still have the same issue regarding a lack of decent wide and mid-range Nikon glass with VR technology, the fact that it shoots high quality video while remaining an excellent stills camera will make up for it.  While its clear that the quality of the Nikon isn’t up to that of Canon’s latest range including the stunning 5dmk2 and the new 1dmk4, the file output of the D3s is perfect for what I aim to use it for; high quality video files for use on the web that could also be used for broadcast if the situation arose.  Knowing that there are many out there who are light-years beyond me in knowledge and ability with video production from SLRs, I’d feel a fraud to spout my thoughts on the pros and cons of aspects of the capability of this unit apart from to say that this is a massive leap forward for me in what I have access to.  AFP worldwide have bought the D3s for their photographers with this in mind so clearly there’s a lot of belief in Nikon’s choice NOT to go for full HD.

As a quick aside, after a quick search for hints and tips, it seems  that the D3s has full manual control in video mode, but it is not documented in the manuals. To get true manual control over the ISO, shutter speed and aperture while in video mode, press the OK button while in LiveView. A light meter will appear on the screen and the camera switches to whatever mode that you currently have the camera set on in stills camera mode (ie aperture priority, shutter priority, manual).  This means that if you’re in manual when you go into video mode, by pressing the OK button, you can adjust all of the settings while in video mode. Obviously for webclips, this may be overkill but for those who are interested, it’s a great option that for some reason Nikon have decided to keep hidden. Also, if you push the info button, you can shift through the different display modes including a virtual horizon, a live histogram and grid lines.

My main gripe with the D3 was always the lack of sensor cleaning facility.  With a full frame chip, it sucks in the dust at every lens change leaving globs of dust and dirt in every frame.  When I spoke to Nikon about this, I was told that when they were designing the camera, they had believed that the pro photographer would rather have a 100% viewfinder without sensor cleaning over a 98% viewfinder with.  Nope.  You kinda got that one wrong, chaps.  Thankfully, they saw the light and now the digital brillo pad comes out every time I turn my camera off.  Huzzah!  Now I can go and cover the “Wind-machine and household dust” conference at ExCel with impunity!

(D3s with 14-24mm. Full-size version of the above image with no noise-reduction software or sharpening here.)

For most photographers, the idea of filling a 130-frame buffer will just sound insane but as I shoot RAW .NEF files, it’s great to have the added headroom.  Like before, as soon as you turn on features like highlight recovery/vignette control/Long exposure noise reduction etc, that buffer drops significantly but still remains an improvement over the previous incarnation.  On a slightly different note, as always with new cameras, those of us who shoot in RAW should be aware that Adobe have only released their Raw update patch for Photoshop CS4.  Anyone who could be stupid enough to NOT be able to afford to buy the latest version every time it comes out (like 98% of the world) will find that they can’t edit their files.  I shot my first job with it, only to find that I couldn’t access the files when I came to edit them.  Thankfully, Adobe does provide an option with the DNG software, allowing you to convert the files to the supposed “industry standard” digital negative DNG format which will then be friendly to older versions of Photoshop.  Obviously, if you use the Nikon proprietary software, you’ll be fine but I can never face it.  Every time I’ve looked at either the Canon or Nikon bundled packages, they seem clunky, slow and poorly designed.  In a way, I’d rather this as it at least shows that when you buy the camera, you’re paying for camera R&D rather than their software developers costs!

It’s also good to see the return of the “Quiet” mode to my available tools.  With my previous life as a Canon user, I always loved the rather well hidden sneaky shutter feature that allowed you to shoot a single frame and as long as you held your finger on the shutter release button, the mirror would stay up.  This allows you to wait for a convenient burst of applause or music before you let go.  As I say, I loved it on the Canons and now I love it on the Nikon.  Well observed, Nikon peeps.

In conclusion, I’m a happy bunny so far.  My biggest problem since getting it has been slow news days and grey, dull weather that hasn’t been very inspiring to shoot in!  I guess I’ll have to wait for the D4 for cloud-buster technology.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 3:29 pm. It is filed under Thoughts and tagged with .nef, 102400, camera, convert, d3-s, d3s, d4, digital, digital noise, dng, leon neal, leonneal, manual, nikon, photographer, photographic, photography, RAW, review, rolling shutter, slr, video, vr, wobblevision. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.