[GreenPlease]

Anyone? If so, thoughts? Thanks.

[scollins]

Nope, I wish I had the coin for one though!

I'm renting a D3S this Friday to shoot my daughters' ballet/dance recitals on Sunday 6/27. Last year I used my D300 but limited the ISO to 2000. I wasn't getting shutter speeds greater than 1/100 or 1/125 with the 70-200 f2.8 VR at f2.8. I didn't feel like pushing the ISO higher than that to try and keep noise at bay, and I would have liked to have shot at f4.

This year though, I'm hoping to take advantage of the D3S's huge ISO range to get faster shutter speeds (and less unwanted motion blur vs. desired motion blur.....) I fear that this will be a tremendous mistake however, as how can I possible go back to my poor D300 after a weekend of shooting the D3S?

[GreenPlease]

Let me know your thought! The reviews I've read so far seem to indicate that the sensor has an insane ISO range.

[scollins]

Originally Posted by Railgun

Scott,

Are you planning to do any video with it? Are you also renting any particular lens?

Hadn't even thought about video until you mentioned it! Might have to give it a try.....

As for lens, I'm planning on just using my 70-200 f2.8 VRI. I bought it from a D700 user who said he didn't notice any vignetting. And for my particular pruposes, if it does vignette, it won't be a problem. The backgrounds are all just simple curtains, not anything like a full ballet production like The Nutrcracker.....


With respect to the ISO range, I don't think I'd get to the 102k range very often, or at all, but the noise at lower ISO settings should be a lot less than just about anything else out there. I know the Canon MkIV also does the 102k ISO, but it has more megapixels on a smaller sensor. Those photosites have got to be tiny, so I'd expect the D3S to outperform the MkIV at similar ISO settings....

[scollins]

I picked up the D3S today, and have just been goofing around with it. HOLY CRAP is 11FPS fast! And that is at 14-bit too. My D300 can do 2.5 FPS at 14-bit. Sounds like a machine gun going off.

I'll be playing around with it more tomorrow during the day, making sure I know how to run this thing for Sunday afternoon's performances. As I know the D300 pretty well, the menus are all basically the same, just some more buttons to deal with.

But yeah, so far it has been a terrible idea. Better start saving my pennies and stealing from my daughters' college funds.......

[E92Fan]

Originally Posted by scollins

I picked up the D3S today, and have just been goofing around with it. HOLY CRAP is 11FPS fast! And that is at 14-bit too. My D300 can do 2.5 FPS at 14-bit. Sounds like a machine gun going off.

I'll be playing around with it more tomorrow during the day, making sure I know how to run this thing for Sunday afternoon's performances. As I know the D300 pretty well, the menus are all basically the same, just some more buttons to deal with.

But yeah, so far it has been a terrible idea. Better start saving my pennies and stealing from my daughters' college funds.......

Don't try the D3X then....!

To be fair, the D3S is THE best low-light camera on the market today. It is so far ahead of every other camera in terms of it's low-light capability - ISO6400 is entirely useable and looks like ISO1000 on a D300. The most impressive thing is how it handles noise - Nikon go quite hard on chroma reduction, but leave luminance relatively untouched. That means that any grain you see resembles old-style film grain as opposed to colour dots that occur from chrominance noise.

You'll have noticed by now the handling differences. You should also be aware that the AF sensors cover a smaller part of the frame, as the D3S is a full-frame as opposed to DX on the D300. If you're using a 70-200mm f/2.8 Mk1, on the D3S you'll notice quite a bit of vignetting and a moderate loss of sharpness in the corners, especially wide open at f/2.8. The Mk2 version of this lens addresses these issues and is notably improved. On a DX sensor, the Mk1 is fantastic because only the central portion of the lens optics is really being used.

For your application now at this ballet, you'll probably benefit from the natural vignetting as it will lend more weight to your central framed image.

Something else to note - the resolving power of the D3S sensor means that you really need to keep your lens scrupulously clean.

Enjoy using it!


ps... if you think the D3S is good, just try the D3X. Beyond ISO1600 the D3S is quite noticeably better, but below ISO1600 the D3X is just so far ahead in image quality it's unreal. If you are an outdoor shooter, you owe it to yourself to try a D3X. I did exactly this - borrowed a D3X from Nikon for a wedding shoot, and by the end of the day I'd ordered one with a new 135mm f/2 DC lens as well