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| Click photo for more images of the Nikon D3. |
Nikon has announced a groundbreaking new professional digital SLR. The 12.1-megapixel D3 is the first camera to employ Nikon's new full-frame FX format, using a 23.9x36mm CMOS sensor. The D3 can also be used in a DX-format mode, which makes it compatible with all existing Nikon F-mount lenses, including those designed to be used with the smaller DX-format sensor that Nikon has used in digital SLRs before the D3. The D3 also ushers in a plethora of technological improvements and new features, most notably a 9fps drive mode, a live LCD viewfinder function, a light-sensitivity boost that goes up to a stratospheric 25,600 ISO, and 51-point autofocus that uses 15 cross-type sensors.
With a weather-sealed magnesium alloy body, the D3 incorporates a vertical grip and a control layout that will be familiar to Nikon shooters. What's strikingly new in the camera body is its extremely high-resolution 920,000-dot (* see Editor's Note below), 3-inch LCD. The screen serves as a viewfinder in one of two modes, Tripod and Handheld. The screen has a 170-degree viewing angle to facilitate shooting from high and low angles or off to the side. The D3's optical viewfinder provides a nearly 100 percent view of the image frame and 0.7x magnification in FX-format mode, and takes interchangeable focusing screens. The camera body also incorporates dual CompactFlash slots and an HDMI port for outputting images to a high-definition screen. The D3 supports the UDMA standard for fast CompactFlash write speeds, and the dual card slots can be used for both consecutive and simultaneous recording. In RAW+JPEG mode, the camera can record each of the two file types to a separate card.
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The D3's exposure controls include a 1/8000-30 second shutter speed range and a native 200-6400 ISO range. Its Low 1 setting brings the ISO down to 100, and two Hi settings push it up to 12,800 and 25,600. The camera's shutter is rated for 300,000 exposures, and a new monitoring system produces a warning when shutter timing is off. Nikon has used a new implementation of its D-Lighting technology in the D3, making it available in shooting mode instead of simply as an image-correction tool. Active D-Lighting applies localized tonal changes to open up dark shadows while retaining highlight detail, and can be used at low, medium, and high settings. Naturally, the D3 supports Nikon's iTTL external flash system. It does not include a built-in flash.
Nikon has put a lot of muscle into this camera, building it around a new 16-bit processor it calls EXPEED. The company claims its shutter lag clocks in at a mere 0.37 millisecond and its startup time at 0.12 second. Nikon rates its drive mode speed at 9 frames per second for a series of 64 JPEGs, 17 14-bit RAW files, or 20 12-bit RAW files. In DX mode, the company claims it can capture 5.1-megapixel shots at 10fps without autofocus changes or 11fps with both AF and autoexposure locked.
The D3's 51-point autofocus system uses a new MultiCAM 3500 FX sensor, offering selectable 9-, 21-, and 51-point group dynamic autofocus. Its 15 cross-type sensors remain active with all Nikkor lenses. The camera employs face-detection technology and Nikon's new Scene Recognition System to distinguish between subjects and backgrounds and detect movement, improving both autofocus performance and automatic exposure and white balance settings.
Other innovations in the D3 include built-in chromatic aberration correction, an autofocus fine-tuning control that can be applied to 20 Nikon lenses, and a Picture Control System that allows photographers to fine-tune image parameters and save a group of adjustments as a setting that can be applied to photos in any Nikon camera that supports the feature. There's also a virtual horizon correction tool that functions with the LCD viewfinder. A yellow indicator line turns green when the camera is level, and can be used in both horizontal and vertical shooting. The camera's Image Authentication tool works with separately sold software to verify that no changes have been made to images once shot. The D3 is also supported by Nikon's Camera Control Pro 2 software for wireless or wired-remote camera control from a computer. Wireless control requires Nikon's WT-4A transmitter.
Nikon shooters will have until November 2007 to come up with $4999.95 for the D3.
Nikon also announced a DX-sensor DSLR, the Nikon D300.
* Editor's Note: About those dots and pixels.
There has been some confusion about the LCD resolution on Nikon's new D3 and D300 DSLRs. Nikon states that the LCDs feature "an ultra-high definition, 920,000-dot VGA LCD screen." The important distinction that needs to be made is that Nikon's new LCDs for these cameras feature a different type of filter array than traditionally used in digital still cameras (DSC). Nikon's Steve Heiner offers the following clarification:
The terms "pixels" and "dots" seem to be interchangeably used throughout the industry depending on the source or manufacturer.
Difference between our new LCD and current LCD is the pixel number and filter array used.
New LCD for D3/D300 has 640x480x3 (RGB Stripe array filter) = 921,600 dots. Rounded to 920,000 dots.
Our current LCD (D2Xs) has 960x240 (Delta array filter) = 230,400 pixels. (Not 320x240x3)
Stripe filter array LCD is more expensive but suits display geometrical data better (character, CG, line).
Almost all DSC use Delta array LCD because of lower cost.
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