Nikon D2Xs (body only)

By Philip Ryan, CNET.com
Apr 12, 2007

Nikon likes incremental upgrades. Just as the company issued the D70s before moving from the D70 to the D80, they made a handful of upgrades to the 12.4-megapixel D2X to create the D2Xs. In addition to improving the LCD viewing angle and tweaking the autofocus performance, the battery life, and a handful of other minor features, Nikon also modified the high-speed crop function to make it more intuitive to use. They've also added a new black-and-white mode, added Adobe RGB as an option when using the camera's various color modes, and added 1/3 stop steps between ISO 800 and Hi-1 (Nikon's equivalent to ISO 1600).

If you've made it through reading the last paragraph, you've at least started to realize that the D2Xs is geared toward professional photographers. Just like Canon's EOS-1Ds Mark II, Nikon's D2Xs represents the pinnacle of the company's SLR line. As such, it's probably more camera than most people need and has a price tag that would make even Donald Trump sit up and pay attention.

         
For more details on the D2Xs' design and image quality, click on the image.

Once the Donald does start paying attention, he'll notice that the D2Xs' image sensor isn't the same size as a frame of 35mm film (meaning it's not a full-frame sensor). That means, like most less-expensive dSLRs and all other Nikon dSLRs, the D2Xs has a 1.5x focal length multiplier. While this can be useful if most of your shooting involves telephoto lenses--in which case, a 200mm lens ends up with an equivalent field of view of a 300mm lens--it also limits the camera's wide-angle capabilities, because a 16mm lens ends up with an equivalent field of view of a 24mm lens when used on the D2Xs.

Canon's EOS-1Ds Mark II and its EOS 5D both offer full-frame sensors. Nikon says that they decided to standardize a 1.5x crop factor across all their dSLRs in an effort to avoid confusion and maximize lens interoperability among their digital models, but some photographers insist on nothing less than a full frame. You'll have to decide how important a full-frame sensor is to you if you're looking for a dSLR of this caliber.

Design
Built to last, with a weather-sealed magnesium alloy body, the Nikon D2Xs sports the same thoughtful design as its predecessor. Its built-in vertical grip helps make this model larger than the average SLR. It measures 157.5 x 149.5 x 85.5mm without a lens, and at 1.07kg (with its battery and a CompactFlash card), it's not exactly light either, though it's still about 200g lighter than the EOS-1Ds Mark II. That said, the D2Xs is extremely comfortable to hold, with a fully rubberized grip that's very nicely contoured. It even has a slight indentation on the inside of the front of the grip that, along with the curved ridge on the camera back, keeps the camera feeling secure in your hand no matter what angle you hold it at.

Buttons and dials are conveniently located for the most part, and Nikon paid close attention to making sure that any controls that might be susceptible to accidental switching have some sort of locking mechanism. For example, you have to pull the diopter dial out before turning it, just as you have to pull a wristwatch's pin to set the time, and the second shutter release (on the vertical grip) and the menu navigation rocker can both be locked.

In our field tests, we were able to quickly and easily change any of the shooting parameters without confusion. The one slightly counterintuitive control involves playback. To navigate through images you've taken, you have to press up or down on the rocker control, but pressing left or right would make more sense. Nikon's big, bright viewfinder makes framing and manual focusing more enjoyable than they are on some less-expensive SLRs.

Current shooting information, such as shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and white balance, are spread between two LCD screens, one on the camera's top and a smaller one below the 2.5-inch LCD screen on the camera's back. The smaller one is dedicated to ISO, white balance, and image-size and -quality settings, and it has corresponding buttons below it to access those controls.

This system ends up being a bit quicker and less contorted than Canon's equivalent system of holding down pairs of buttons to access functions, such as ISO, on the EOS-1Ds Mark II. To change shutter speed and aperture, you use the two scroll wheels built into the body on the front and back of the grip.

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