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Nikon D3

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Features

Without a doubt, the feature Nikon shooters have been looking for is this camera's full-frame sensor. Nikon calls this the FX format, in contrast to the 1.5x field-of-view crop offered by its DX-format cameras. Lenses are labeled the same way and if you should choose to mount a DX lens on the D3 (something you can't do with Canon's sub-full-frame EF-S lenses on that company's 1D or 1Ds cameras), this Nikon can automatically adjust for the smaller circle of light shining onto the sensor and crop the image to 5 megapixels. (You can, of course, override this and end up with a 12-megapixel photo with black edges and a circular image in the middle.) Most importantly, all those Nikon users who were told time and again that the company would never go full frame will still be able to use the DX lenses in which they may have invested, though that comes at the cost of a lot of pixels.

Following suit with the latest trends, the D3 offers a pair of Live View modes--one for handheld and one for tripod use. Like most implementations, there's a substantial delay when focusing or shooting an image, since the camera has to flip the mirror up to provide the live feed, then flip it down to focus, then flip it up again during image capture. Sony's dual-sensor approach provides a much nicer experience, though you won't find it on a camera of this caliber. It may, however, hit the higher end of the midrange in a full-frame model by the end of this year, or early next.

The other big upgrade on the D3 is its LCD screen. Nikon has stepped up to a 3-inch LCD with 920,000 dots and a 170-degree viewing angle. There has been a lot of debate around the 920,000-dot specification as compared with the pixel spec we usually see in camera specs. We could go around and around on this, but suffice to say that the D3 has one of the nicest LCD screens we've seen on a dSLR so far. Image playback was very nice, but as with any dSLR, you really shouldn't trust the LCD playback too much for checking image quality in the field. You should always check the histogram if you want to verify exposure (make sure it's not bunched up too much to the right or left) and run home to a calibrated monitor if you want a really accurate rendering of your images' color.

 
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