Nikon D3 and D300, Official Image Samples

[oskar_ojala]

ellis, do you really use the 28/3.5 for environmental portaits? I haven't done that, but consider it a useful walk-around lens. However, it's not the sharpest lens ever, it would be interesting to see if Nikon would actually bring out some special purpose lens (other than macro).

[elliot1]

I printed the ISO 6400 and ISO 3200 images (trumpet and model) on my Kodak Pro 1400 dye-sub printer which gives very high quality prints. The quality of the prints from these images is remarkable!

 

The ISO 6400 image prints as clear and as noise free as any low ISO images I have printed with my D200s or D80s. Most amazing is how well the fine detail in the picture is retained, especially around the eyebrows.

 

The image of the model at ISO 3200 prints totally noise free and with rich color and superb detail - truly amazing!

 

Both pictures have High ISO Noise Reduction turned on and were shot in sRGB color space.

[jemini_joseph]

Bjorn, Elliot

Any comment on D300? Why we are not hearing much about D300? Why there are only ISO 200 samples? Can you guys give us some heads up?

 

Thanks a lot for your comments and reviews.

 

Jemini

[gy]

I dont think D300 is going to have great low ISO characteristics as D3 will have.. That is

why they may not be marketing high ISO pictures as they do with D3. And honestly Im not

too much thrilled by the D300 samples in low ISOs as well. I believe the future is FX sensor

and some point there will be Dxxx body in FX format as well..

 

I have D80 and will try to use it as long as I can without investing much on DX system.. I

love primes and wideangle. D3 is great but D300 with fx sensor would be my dream

camera. And the price for D3 is not at a point I can afford for the time being :( . I also

beleive the next 5D will be a great camera and with a much affordable price than D3.. so

lets see..

[elliot1]

We will have to wait for more images to be released. You really can't tell a lot from either of these shots. Settings on the first D300 image included contrast set to +2, Adobe RGB color space and white balance color temp set to 5000k - not necessarily the ideal settings to judge image quality of the camera. The lack of color in the picture doesn't help either. Although upon examination of the dark areas of the picture (which there are a lot of), I find them to be totally noise free which is a BIG plus.

 

I also find it odd that they would release an image shot at f14 with the 17-55 which is not an ideal aperture for that lens. All the D3 shots were shot at f2.8-f5.6.

 

Oddly, the picture's data shows the shot was taken January 26, 2007 (they possibly did not set the clock). The D3 images show a date of August 8, 2007.

 

In any case, there is good reason why the D3 is more than double the cost of the D300. The sample pictures speak for themselves.

[bsd230]

The 6400 and 3200 images are impressive.

[daniel_bliss]

I was absolutely stunned by the trumpeter shot. Usually camera manufacturers don't show off their product with handheld camera torture shots like this -- 6400 ISO, lighting off kilter, white balance off kilter, and it still looks great.

 

Let's hope we get D300 high ISO samples too. I will say this -- D300 ISO 200 looks better than D200 ISO 200 on this evidence.