According to Rob Galbraith, Nikon has taken a grassroots approach to marketing their upcoming D3 digital SLR, putting it in the hands of professional photographers far and wide in the months leading up to its expected late-November release. And while this practice isn’t new, it is uncommon to allow those same photographers to use and distribute the files freely, especially from bodies running relatively early firmware. Such is Nikon’s confidence in their first full-frame offering.
Rob Galbraith had compiled photographs taken by Nikon D3 ranging from ISO 200 to ISO 25600.
The following comment attracted my attention:
We were given a preproduction D3 in late October, but in making the body available, Nikon USA stipulated that we not publish pictures from it. If we could, we’d show examples of how the D3 stacks up against Canon’s EOS-1D Mark III at higher ISOs, and those examples would reveal that, while there are differences in the appearance of image graininess – Canon’s grain is tighter and slightly less visually objectionable – the D3 produces the higher-quality file overall at ISO 3200 and beyond. On the other hand, EOS-1D Mark III files – especially CR2s processed through Canon’s Digital Photo Professional – are generally slightly crisper and more detailed (this could be because we’re looking at photos taken with preproduction Nikon equipment, but experience has taught us that production gear is likely to show the same image quality traits). More about this, and other comparisons, including how the D3’s autofocus system stacks up against an EOS-1D Mark III with the recently-announced sub-mirror fix in place, will come when we have a production-level D3.
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