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Nikon D3s   

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By Leonard Goh, CNET Asia
Oct 14, 2009

Nikon today introduced its latest professional dSLR, the D3s. The Japanese imaging firm said the new shooter utilizes a new CMOS sensor which delivers better ISO sensitivity (more on that below), image quality and performance.

The D3s is slated to take over the two-year-old D3, and will run concurrently with the D3x which was announced late last year. Specifications-wise, there is no change to the image resolution which stands at 12 megapixels. Nor has the 9fps burst mode been improved. The 51-point autofocus points and the dual CompactFlash cards slot remain the same. So what's new on the D3s?

Firstly, there's HD-movie recording, though the video resolution maxes out at 1,280 x 720 pixels and the onboard microphone captures only mono audio. Still, we're glad to see a 3.5mm stereo jack which accepts external microphones. Interestingly, the D3s also lets users save specific frames of a movie as JPEG files, so those who aren't particular about image resolution can just record a video and save the best frame as an HD-quality picture.

Then there is the whopping maximum ISO sensitivity of 102,400. Most dSLRs on the market offer only ISO 12,800 at most; the D3s trumps that by almost 10 times. That said, the image quality of photographs taken at such high sensitivity is begging to be scrutinized for noise control. And that's exactly the first thing we will do just when we test this camera.

The D3s' closest competitor is the Canon EOS 1D Mark III, so here's a comparison table to see how they stack against each other.
Specifications/model Nikon D3 Nikon D3s Canon EOS 1D Mark III
Sensor type FX format (full frame) FX format (full frame) APS-H (1.3x crop factor)
Sensor resolution 12 megapixels 12 megapixels 10 megapixels
Dimension/weight 159.5 x 157 x 87.5mm/1.24kg 159.5 x 157 x 87.5mm/1.24kg 156 x 156.6 x 79.9mm/1.155kg
LCD size 3-inch, 920k-dot 3-inch, 920k-dot 3-inch, 230k-dot
ISO range ISO 200 to 6,400 (expandable to 100 to 25,600) ISO 200 to 12,800 (expandable to 100 to 102,400) ISO 100 to 3,200 (expandable to 50 to 6,400)
Autofocus points 51 points 51 points 45 points
Max. video resolution N.A. 1,280 x 720 pixels N.A.
Audio N.A. Mono with 3.5mm stereo jack N.A.
Burst mode 9fps 9fps 10fps
Memory media Dual CompactFlash cards slots Dual CompactFlash cards slots One CompactFlash card and one SD/SHC slot
Battery type EN-EL4a/EL4 lithium-ion battery EN-EL4a/EL4 lithium-ion battery LP-E4
It seems the D3s has the upperhand in the professional dSLR game for now. But considering the EOS 1D Mark III has been on the market for more than two years, we're guessing its successor will be announced soon. Judging from the features Canon has been implementing in its recent dSLR, we think the 1D Mark III successor will have full HD video-recording function with a higher-resolution image sensor. That's when it may overtake the D3s. Until then, this Nikon dSLR is probably the better of the two.

The D3s will be in Asia from end November at a retail price of US$5,200.