Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"Nikon Canada today introduced the FX-format D3s digital SLR, providing professional photographers with a powerful tool that redefines the boundaries of digital SLR versatility, while maintaining the strength of superior image quality and high speed performance inherited from its groundbreaking D3. The D3s enables new opportunities in low-light photography, providing photographers with an added shutter speed and aperture choice with a base ISO sensitivity range from ISO 200 to a remarkable 12,800; and features an incredible Hi3 setting of 102,400, enabling photographers to create images previously thought impossible. The Nikon D3s builds upon the success of the Nikon D3 -- the camera that set new standards for professional digital SLR performance -- and utilizes a newly designed, Nikon original 12.1-megapixel FX-format CMOS sensor that also integrates its amazing low-light ability to High Definition (HD) video, creating a uniquely capable multi-media tool to meet the needs of the ever-changing imaging industry"

The big deal with the Nikon D3s seems to be the ISO sensitivity - it uses a newly-designed sensor that works from ISO 200 to ISO 12,800...or ISO 100 (Lo 1) up to ISO 102,400 (Hi 3). No, that's not a typo - Hi 1 is ISO 25,600, Hi 2 is 51,200, and Hi 3 is a staggering ISO 102,400. Somewhat curiously, this new sensor is only 12.1 megapixels. I'm not a proponent for more megapixels "just because", but as anyone who's had to crop the heck out of a short-lens shot will tell you, more megapixels do come in handy - as long as the quality doesn't suffer. It might simply be that in order to reach those insanely high ISO values while still maintaining quality, the resolution had to be kept at 12 megapixels.

I'm really curious to see what kind of noise an image would have at ISOs that high - or, conversely, how clean the images are at ISO 3200, a value that I consider to be high when I have to shoot at it. Worth noting is that this sensor is touted as a "Nikon Original FX-format CMOS sensor" - Sony has designed many of the sensors in Nikon cameras. Is this the start of something new for Nikon? I think the D3 sensor might have been Nikon-designed as well - can anyone confirm that?

[The video above wasn't uploaded in HD, so someone fell off the cluetrain, but you can see the hella-good ISO performance. Another video here.]

Other features on the D3s include 720p 24fps HD video, which apparently includes a new algorithm that "severely reduces" the rolling shutter effect. No mention of what's needed most for shooting videos though: auto-focus with subject tracking and in-body image stabilization. I recently purchased a Nikon D5000 to get my first taste of DSLR HD video, which I'll write more about later, but the lack of in-body image stabilization when I'm shooting with my f/1.8 35mm prime makes for some nausea-inducing videos unless I'm extremely careful.

The remainder of the press release is after the break, along with a shot of the back of the camera. Read more...