First, you should know I'm a Canon guy. I've owned the following Canon SLR's:
35mm: AE-1; T-70; 630; Elan; A2E
Digital: D60; 10D; 1D; 1D Mark II; 30D; 1D Mark III
By contrast, I've only owned ONE Nikon (a D70), which I bought on a Friday when I needed another camera for a third shooter at one of my events. I sold the D70 the following Tuesday; I didn't like it too much.
I love the (Canon) 1DM3. It's a great camera. It's amazingly responsive, well thought-out, has excellent ergonomics, an easy-to-use menu system, and it makes some very nice images. And I do have a bunch of money into my Canon system, with three 1-series bodies, a Sigma 120-300/2.8, a few Canon L lenses, including a 400/2.8, plus flashes, remotes, etc. But I was (obviously) curious about the D3. It has a bunch of nice attributes, primarily the full-frame sensor; but also the high ISO performance; the 4:5 and DX crop modes; the amazing LCD screen; a Live View mode that actually allows AF(!); and Nikon's highly-regarded flash metering. So I bought a D3 and a 24-70 AF-S f/2.8G ED, and "Brown Santa" (LOL @ Bill) brought it to me today. So I thought I'd share my initial impressions, which I thought might be an interesting read, coming from a self-proclaimed Canon guy.
First impression - physical:
The body seems so BIG. And I have LARGE hands, but the camera does not fit my hand comfortably; the contour at the front of the grip is too sharply defined, and I don't feel like a one-handed grip is solid enough. I am surprised at how thick the camera is overall from front to back, but I guess it doesn't really matter, since in my hands the camera feels large, but well-balanced, and not too heavy. The viewfinder is beautiful; nice and large, and the superimposed crop marks (when in DX and 4:5 modes) are very well implemented. I like the size of the top LCD screen, but the rear screen is just a thing of beauty, and displays an impressive amount of information. The zoom feature in playback is very useful.
Controls/layout/menus:
It will take some adjustment for me to get used to the placement of the main and sub control dials. The Nikon has a LOT of buttons (too many, is my first thought), and some are labeled cryptically. I like the menu system, and there are a lot of nice features. I don't like the manual focus point selection using the multi-controller; the Canon utilizes the large rear dial for focus point selection, which I think works a bit better.
Image quality:
Wow. Not bad, and just what I was hoping for. I'm sure the fact that the 24-70 is a great piece of glass doesn't hurt.
I only shot about 20 frames, but I figured I'd share a couple. These were both shot as NEFs and converted using PS CS3:
The first shot (my dog) obviously has just a tiny touch of saturation...
...but I'm pretty happy with the detail at 100%. This was literally one of the first dozen frames I shot.
The second (my cat) was done using only the rapidly diminishing sunlight coming through the window in my office, and was shot at ISO 12,800, and in 4:5 mode. No, it's not noise-free...but it's not bad, considering there is no noise reduction done in the file conversion. (Note: I mistakenly thought the NR feature on the camera was disabled, but I later saw it was on the normal setting. This is a little disappointing...)
Overall, I like it so far. I'd like to use it for back-to-back weddings I have scheduled in mid-June, so I'm going to need to practice with it a lot. I will, of course, have my 1DM3 on hand to back me up, but I think I'll be fairly adept with the D3 by then.
By the way, I did NOT buy the D3 because I'm unhappy with my 1DM3, or with Canon's handling of the 1DM3's "autofocus problems". In fact, I was pretty pleased with the AF performance of my 1DM3. And judging by how many prints I sold from that camera at events I've covered since last September, my customers don't have a problem with it, either. Admittedly, when viewed at 100% magnification, I found the focus to be slightly off in more shots than expected. Fortunately, it is close enough that on an 8x10 print you'd be hard-pressed to tell, and fortunately, it does not happen when shooting in one-shot AF mode, or when you're shooting in AI Servo focus mode, but at slow frame rates (up to a few per second), or when the subject is not traveling directly towards the camera. I dropped off my 1DM3 at Canon right after doing the transaction for the D3, and I am VERY happy with the level of service they are providing (2-3 day turnaround and FedEx next-day shipping), and particularly the fact that the factory warranty is starting over.
Somehow I doubt that if some pixel-peeper discovered that some D3's have some kind of problem, but only on the third Tuesday of each month, and only when the moon is full and near the horizon, that Nikon would respond to the same level that Canon has over this issue. And frankly, I hope I never have to count on Nikon to fix and return my D3 in a hurry, because most of what I've heard about Nikon's CS is negative.
So here I go, playing the same game on opposing teams. Should be fun...
Linear Mode
