Nikon D3S Digital SLR Review - by ephotozine

Nikon D3S Review - The Nikon D3S is arguably one of the most exciting DSLRs launched this year with an incredible ISO range. Join us for an exclusive preview ExclusiveePHOTOzine Exclusive!

ePHOTOzine's Will Cheung got the chance to spend the night with the new Nikon D3S

Having the freedom to shoot in the lowest lighting levels without having to resort to a flash or a tripod is something that is difficult to appreciate until you have done it. Now I have tried it, I must admit I am hooked. It is simply awesome.
I managed to borrow from Nikon a D3S fitted with the new AF 70-200mm f/2.8 (a preview of that lens will follow very soon) for an evening.
The D3S is a well-endowed camera with features aplenty but for this preview I concentrated on its high sensitivity capability. Its top true ISO is 12,800 with the option of a staggering ISO equivalent of 102,400 using the H3 setting.
I appreciate that my shots are not the greatest examples of low light photography but I hope you can see past that and appreciate what the camera is capable of, and that is the important thing.

Features and handling


The Nikon D3S is a pro-level camera and built very solidly to withstand hard, daily use. The downside, of course, is that it is a heavy beast.

The D3S is a typical member of the D3 dynasty. It is a large, solidly built DSLR designed for heavy-duty use without missing a beat. While I would not go so far as suggesting you could use it to bang in nails, I will say that the D3S has an incredibly robust feel and I would worry for my newly tiled kitchen floor if I was unlucky enough to drop it there.
Despite its weight, though, it does feel nicely balanced – especially when fitted with the high-spec, fast aperture lenses that most pros will be using.
As befits a DSLR with a £4200 body only price tag, the camera is positively festooned with features. This sample being a Nikon demonstration camera all sorts of strange functions and parameters had been set and it took me ages to work through the menus to set the thing up to the way I wanted.
With not a great of time available, I got the camera set-up and headed out onto the drizzly streets of Poole. Twilight was already on its last legs so I immediately set an ISO of 12,800 and concentrated on exploring the top speeds.
The amazing thing is that I was getting high shutter speeds despite the poor light. A fairly well lit shop front could mean exposure settings of 1/400sec at f/2.8 at ISO 12,800. Obviously going to the equivalent of ISO 25,600, 51,200 and 102,400 gave even higher shutter speeds.
Okay, it is true that for high quality night photography an ISO of 100 or 200 and a tripod is ideal, but being able to handhold in almost no light al all was incredibly liberating and speeded up shooting no end. For reportage and press photographers who often work in less than perfect light such freedom is surely worth its weight in gold.
At such high ISOs (or equivalent) you will not be surprised that digital noise was an issue. But, to be honest, who cares? To even get a decent, sharp picture in such poor light and without flash is a bonus.
The D3S did not miss a beat despite the inclement weather, but you would expect that from a pro camera with environmental seals.
While drying off in the pub, I tried the camera in continuous shooting mode. I got 30 Raw shots before it began to slow up, but got to 43 frames before the camera’s buffer was full and it took about 30 seconds before the green write LED extinguished without taking another shot.

Exposure
Generally, I had no real exposure problems with the D3S in this sneak preview. It did get fooled in some instances, such as when I did some night shots of a passing bus. When its brake lights came on, I got some underexposed shots, but with its normal rear lights the exposures were fine. Shop fronts with very bright spotlights also caused underexposure but that was not totally surprising.
One shop front I photographed was lit only by street lighting and from across the street, there was hardly anything visible and here the Nikon slightly overexposed the scene, as you can see here. I must admit the camera revealed more than I could see with the naked eye at the time.
The following morning, I took the D3S for a walk on the beach. While the sun was mostly obscured by clouds contrast was not too extreme and here the D3S dealt with most things I threw at it.

Nikon D3S test shots Nikon D3S test shots
No problem with this cloudy scene and exposure is spot on. More contrast but the D3S has done a fine job with it.
Nikon D3S test shots Nikon D3S test shots
A slightly contrasty scene that the D3S has just about got right. The D3S copes with no light at all - taken at the equivalent of ISO 102,400.


Focusing
On this brief preview, I certainly have no reasons to doubt the efficiency of the D3S’s AF system and look forward to an in-depth review soon.
I mostly stuck with the 70-200mm f/2.8 lens and only switched to the 24-70mm f/2.8 for some interior images. Focusing with both lenses was swift, response and accurate. This includes the low light scenes I was photographing.

Colour and sharpness
As with focusing, it is not appropriate to go into too much detail right now – especially since most of the shots I took were at high ISOs. Even the portraits of the model were taken at ISO 6400 upwards so not a real reflection of the camera’s colour rendition abilities.
So, more soon. The same applies to such performance parameters as white-balance.

Noise
Now we come to the nitty-gritty of its ISO performance.
I took several series of shots at ISO 6400, 12,800, then H1, H2 and H3, which give the equivalents of ISO 25,600, 51,200 and 102,400. I did this on the low light scenes – it was impossible to do it on normal daylight scenes because you run out of shutter speed and aperture settings.
I also did a set of shots featuring model, Felicia Field, repeating the same shots using a Nikon D700. The D700 has a top ISO of a modest 6400 with the option of shooting at H1 and H2 giving the equivalent of ISO 12,800 and 25,600. The images of Felicia were lit by a single LP MicroPro Litepanel.
You will not be surprised to hear that there is lots of digital noise and detail loss at ISO 102,400. There are plenty of blue dots in the shadows if you magnify into the image but in the highlights noise was well controlled. The thing to bear in mind is that the times when you actually need (truly, truly need) an ISO 102,400 will be few and far between and it is nice to know that should you need it, it can produce decent images.
Move down the speed scale and image quality gets better and better and I would certainly be happy shooting at ISO 6400 and 12,800 knowing that image quality would be first-rate.
Where it is really telling is comparing the D700’s images with the D3S’s. The D700 is recognised as being one of the very best DSLRs when it comes to noise performance at high ISOs. Compared with the D3S, however, it is nothing more than average. The D700’s images look mushy and lacking in detail compared with the D3’S – just have a look for yourself at the pictures of Felicia.
Check out the ISO 25,600 comparison images. In the D700 shot, there is lots of noise especially in the shadows but it is generally not a great image. By comparison, the D3S gives detail-rich, smooth images with hardly any noise at all. Quite remarkable.
It is worth noting that all the shots on the D700 and D3S were all taken without any high ISO noise reduction engaged. It was also worth saying that the D3S’s images here are all Fine, full-size JPEGs. I did shoot simultaneous Raws but there was no way of processing them in the software (except using a D3S which I did not have) at the time of writing this preview.

This is the full-frame image of model Felicia Field. Click on the enlargements below if you want to see the full-size image. Taken with the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens at f/2.8.


Nikon D3S ISO 6400 Nikon D700 ISO 6400
Nikon D3S ISO 6400 Nikon D700 ISO 6400
Nikon D3S ISO 12800 Nikon D700 ISO 12800
Nikon D3S
ISO 12,800 Nikon D700
H1: ISO 12,800
Nikon D3S H1 ISO 25600 Nikon D700 H2 ISO 25600
Nikon D3S
H1: 25,600 Nikon D700
H2: 25,600
Nikon D3S H2 51,200 Nikon D3S H3 102,400
Nikon D3S
H2: 51,200 Nikon D3S
H3: 102,400

Nikon D3S ISO test
Taken to check noise in low light outdoors, shot with the new 70-200mm at f/2.8 handheld. Click on the detail shots below for fullsize files.


Nikon D3S 12,800 Nikon D3S 25,600
Nikon D3S ISO 12,800 Nikon D3S H1 ISO 25,600
Nikon D3S 51,200 Nikon D3S 102,400
Nikon D3S H2 ISO 51,200 Nikon D3S H3 ISO 102,400


Nikon D3S summary
It would not be fair to say whether the Nikon D3S is worth £4200 body only on the basis of spending a single wet evening with it. I will say, however, that it is a thoroughly inspiring piece of kit to use and its high sensitivity means you can carry on shooting in the poorest light and without using a tripod.
That would count for nothing if the results from using the high ISOs were poor and unusable, but they are not. Yes, there is noise and detail loss at the equivalent of ISO 102,400, but you still get an image – and try getting that sort of speed from film!
Of course, the D3S is not a one-trick pony and with its impressive list of features and robust build, it has excellent all-round appeal.
Anyway, we will be fully testing it as soon as we get a sample. Speaking for myself, even after one night, I handed the camera back to those nice Nikon people with considerable reluctance.

Nikon D3S specification

* Resolution: 12.1-megapixels effective, 12.9-megapixels total
* Sensor size: 36x23.9mm (FX format)
* Sensor type: CMOS
* Image size: 4256x2832pixels
* Aspect ratio: 3:2, 5:4, 1:2
* Focus system: TTL Nikon Multi-CAM 3500 FX sensor
* Focus points: 51 focus points (15 cross-type sensors)
* Crop factor: 1x
* Lens mount: Nikon F mount
* File type: JPEG – Large, Medium, Small, Nikon NEF Raw, TIFF, AVI Movie up to 1280x720
* Sensitivity: ISO 200-12,800, expandable to 100-102,400 (H3)
* Focus types: Single-shot, continuous servo AF, predictive AF, manual
* Metering system: TTL open aperture using 1005 pixel RGB sensor
* Metering types: 3D Matrix II, spot (1.5%) and centre-weighted
* Exposure compensation: +/- 5EV in 0.5 or 0.3 EV increments, AEB +/- 3EV
* Shutter speed range: 30secs-1/8000sec, Bulb
* Frames per second: 9fps max (11fps in DX Crop mode)
* Flash: No built-in, hotshoe
* Flash sync speed: 1/250sec
* Image stabilisation: VR system in Nikon lenses
* Integrated cleaning: Yes, Image Dust Off (with optional Capture NX2)
* Live view: Yes, for still and movie shooting
* Viewfinder: Eye-level pentaprism, 100% approx
* Monitor: 3in TFT, LCD, 921,000 dots
* Media type: CompactFlash I and II, 2 slots
* Interface: USB 2.0, HDMI, video out
* Power: One EN-EL4a battery pack
* Size: 160x 157 x 88mm
* Weight: 1240g (body only)

-source with images

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These are great sample images from the Nikon D3s. Those high ISO shots of the face are very usable!

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Buy the Nikon D3s at B&H Photo
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