The good: Full-frame sensor; well designed, pro-level weather-sealed body; very low noise, even at extremely high ISOs; fast.

The bad: Resolution lags far behind the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III and Sony's forthcoming 24-megapixel dSLR.

The bottom line: Nikon's flagship dSLR packs a full-frame 12-megapixel sensor and is a highly versatile imaging powerhouse that lets photographers create images previously impossible to capture.

Read full review of the Nikon D3 »

By Philip Ryan, CNET Asia
Nov 14, 2007

For years, Nikon users had been asking their favored camera maker for a dSLR with a full-frame sensor (the same size as a 35mm frame of film). Finally, Nikon caved, delivering the 12-megapixel D3. The result is a camera that reaches new heights in imaging with extremely low noise at astronomical ISO sensitivities, while maintaining the pro-level control and body design Nikonians have come to expect in the company's flagship cameras. Interestingly, Nikon seems to pit its flagship model against Canon's 10-megapixel EOS-1D Mark III, with its APS-H size sensor, rather than the 21-megapixel, full-frame EOS-1Ds Mark III. That makes sense on some level, though, since the 1D Mark III and the D3 are really all-around cameras that combine the burst speed to handle the demands of sports shooters with ruggedness and image quality that should appeal to news photographers and many others.

Design

Camera body design is an exercise in slow evolution; rightfully so, as current designs are the end products of decades of research going back to the good old film days. The D3 is nearly identical to the D2Xs it replaces. The grip is wonderfully sculpted, arching back toward the top, and with a recessed groove on the inside so your fingers wrap around it rather than giving the impression that you're gripping a bar, as we sometimes feel when holding the 1Ds Mark III.

The weather-sealed magnesium alloy body includes a built-in vertical grip, and like most bodies that do, it's heavy--about 1.24kg, before attaching a lens on. Your arms might ache at first if you shoot for long periods of time and aren't used to a camera this heavy, but over time you'll get accustomed to it, and we found that heavier cameras are more stable when shooting handheld (as opposed to on a tripod). The vertical grip is very nice to have if you shoot verticals often, but while Nikon does include duplicate front and back scroll wheels and AF-On button, we found ourselves wishing it had also included a duplicate exposure compensation button as well. Custom functions can help to overcome this, though, if you're willing to dig in to the menus and customize it to your shooting style.

All major controls can be changed through buttons or dials on the camera body, so you shouldn't have to sift through menus while you're shooting. Any buttons that might be accidentally pressed or dials susceptible to inadvertent turning have some sort of locking mechanism to prevent this. There are plenty of options to customize the controls to your needs, and you can even change the direction of the two main wheels that are used to change shutter speed and aperture, as well as the direction of the exposure compensation EV display. In the case of the exposure compensation, the defaults are positive exposure comp moves to the left while negative moves to the right. This only makes sense if you think about the fact that slower shutter speeds let you achieve positive exposure compensation, but in our world, positive adjustments should move to the right.

Some of the current settings are displayed on the LCD next to the shutter atop the camera, while others, such as ISO sensitivity and white balance, are shown on a smaller LCD below the 3-inch color screen on the camera back. Important information are also displayed in the large, bright viewfinder, which was an absolute pleasure to use when focusing manually, especially compared with lower-end dSLRs whose viewfinders tend to give a bit of a tunnel vision effect. If you're searching for reasons to step up to a pro-level dSLR, a finder like this one should be high on the list.

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