CameraHobby - Nikon D3X Review

B&H Photo - Video - Pro Audio

Search and Shop at the B&H Store

Home

Home >> Photography >> Digital

Nikon D3X Review
May 18, 2009

Introduction
I, and I think many other Nikon users, have been dreaming about the D3X for a number of years. Not to take anything away from the D3, an awesome camera built for speed and low light capabilities, but the D3’s pixel resolution is not pushing the edge of the art for where some of us like to live.

I came to photography as a wannabe landscape photographer, meaning I want to be out in nature, photographing with the intention of capturing all the details for a large print. I know it’s a bit silly to be obsessive about being able to print big, when most pictures end up as small prints, or merely to be posted online in some web gallery. However, my approach is like scanning film: you scan at the highest resolution possible and then down-sample as needed for small prints, while being able to maximize the print size when called for. Thus, I don’t always need or even want 20-plus MP of resolution, but when I do, it sure as hell is nice not having to interpolate from a smaller file size.

With the D3X offering 24 MP, I’m very much at that ideal where I can produce a print from my Epson 4800 without needing any or much interpolation. The aspect ratio is not quite there due to the D3X being 3:2 whereas most framed prints are 4:5, but then, like the D3, the D3X offers a 4:5 shooting mode, so you could compose without worrying about cropping in post production.

The D3X has been a long time coming, ever since Canon threw down the glove and offered high resolution, full frame D-SLRs with the 1Ds and 5D series. Until 2008, nobody picked up the glove and the challenge until, first Sony then Nikon announced high resolution SLRs of their own.

Sony took a different route with the A900, offering high resolution in a fairly robust camera at a real world price (real world being relative, because it’s still expensive for the likes of me), Nikon clearly had its sights set on the Canon 1Ds Mk III, a flagship, statement camera. Canon improved on the quality of the original 5D build with the Mark II version, but some user reports still indicate that the 5D2 is not particularly robust out in the wet wilds.

Aiming to equal and even surpass the Canon 1Ds3, including initial retail pricing, led to an uproar from many armchair pundits, including me. Yes, the D3X has pro specification build quality; yes, it offers class-leading resolution; yes, its pricing is about what Canon charged when the 1Ds3 came out, but the timing was just not good for Nikon and the D3X rollout.

The economic crisis made everyone that much more sensitive to costs and it just seemed unrealistic for Nikon to introduce such an expensive SLR that is little different from the cheaper D3, save for the sensor. Not that the D3 is cheap, because it’s still listed at CAD $5,000; however, I doubt that there would have been such an uproar if the pricing were in the CAD $6,500 to $7,000 range instead of CAD $9,000 (all prices quoted in this review are in Canadian dollars).

However, with that cleared off, the D3X is still a desirable camera to me, because of what it offers. Although I’ve been using and enjoying a Canon 5D2 for some time now, I am still a Nikon user first with lenses and accessories accumulated over the years that would make the idea of switching systems a foolish, money-losing proposition. I would certainly consider supplementing my photographic kit with another brand, but an outright switch is out of the question, which is why I’m eager to see what the D3X is all about.

It’s not about wanting to buy a D3X, so much as it is to get a sense of what a future Nikon SLR might offer, a la, the D3 and the D700. Put another way, I want a D3, but can barely afford a D700 and likewise, I’m hoping that there is a D700X in the making from Nikon at a much lower price point than the D3X.

Caveats
Similar to boilerplates seen in other online reviews, this is not a meticulous review in the style of DPReview, et al. This far into the D3X lifecycle, most of you reading this already know what the D3X is about and thus it would be redundant for me to repeat the basics that have already been covered admirably and far more capably than I could do here. Two weeks is also not enough time to dig deep down into what a camera can do, so consider this more of a set of first impressions.

My testing methods are primarily done for my own edification and as much as I try to make it fair and consistent, you may not agree and may consider the tests flawed and invalid. When doing comparisons to cameras and lenses from other brands, there will of course, be parameters beyond my control. A key one is comparing the D3X to the Canon 5D2. While the lenses used are brand equivalents, the comparison is really of one sensor and lens combination against another sensor and lens combination.

With that out of the way, let’s get started…

Gestalt
The D3X follows the form factor of previous generations of Nikon’s top-of-the-line D-SLRs. The ergonomics have evolved slowly over the years, but there is a reassuring familiarity going all the way back to the F801 (N8008 for the USA) circa 1988. Buttons and their positioning have been mostly consistent, which allows long-time Nikon users to be able to pick up the D3X and immediately understand how to make the basic adjustments. I confess that I did not pick up the D3X’s manual even once during the two-week affair with my pixelated heart’s desire.

As with other Nikon SLRs since the D2 series and D200, the menu system offers an enormous amount of user flexibility. Some would complain that it’s gotten to be too much and bloated to complexity, which requires a thorough rethinking by Nikon of the menu system.

Consider that within the custom functions, you have a grouping of six major functions (A to F) and within each major function are a number of sub functions, each with their own choices. It’s little wonder that a cottage industry of how-to, instructional books has developed to allow users to keep their head above the water of so much choice.

Me, I’m all for progress and more choice is better than little to none, but I don’t find myself digging too deeply into the menus that often. I certainly do set certain menu options, but after that, my use of the cameras is pretty simple. Below are my basic D300 settings, which crossover easily to the D3X and even the 5D2 where settings and features are comparable:

Aperture priority
Minimum shutter speed set to 1/30 for both ambient and flash exposures
Auto ISO using the lowest ISO as my base and up to ISO 3200
AF-C focus mode
CH shooting speed with the custom function set for 7 fps
51-point 3-D tracking to allow use of all 51 points in the viewfinder
RAW capture at full resolution (no compression)
12-bit depth to ensure maximum speed and responsiveness

If I’m trying to do some serious landscape work then I would forego Auto ISO for the lowest ISO setting, as well as setting the bit depth to 14-bit, and set the exposure delay mode, which gives the tripod-mounted camera and lens a second to settle before the shutter is actually released, along with the mirror lockup mode.

I won’t try and BS you about the difference between 12 and 14-bit depth, because I’ve not done any meaningful comparison of the two. I use it as more of a theoretical in trying to gain every bit of quality possible in my RAW files for postproduction editing.

Handling and use
Handling has always been a Nikon strong front with its higher end SLRs and even with its lower cost models. I don’t know how many times I’ve read other reviewers remark about how good a Nikon SLR feels in the hand, whether it be the smallest D40 or the biggest D series SLR (the D300/700 with MB-D10 is slightly taller than the D3/X models).

The D3X is big, heavy and it makes no apologies for this. It’s meant to be used hard in trying conditions and environments where the photographer needs the superior build and resolution provided by the camera.

I brought the D3X to my workplace to show some other shutterbugs and with all of them, the first comments to come out of their mouths were about how big and heavy the camera is. I smiled and said that it was not so, it’s just right J

Thom Hogan uses a vehicular analogy to describe Nikon’s SLRs. The pro D series are the Mack trucks while the D300/700 are like the full sized consumer pickups; still very well built and durable, but lacking that brick outhouse, bombproof build in the D3X.

Since Hogan has the vehicle analogy, let me come up with another one that also caters to my love of big-ass, naval warships. The D3X is the dreadnought of SLRs – think Iowa class battleships (the Iowa, the New Jersey, the Missouri, and the Wisconsin). Fearsome, surface leviathans with nine 16-inch guns, each of which can hurl the equivalent of a VW Beetle, 20 miles onto a distant target – imagine being bombarded by one of these battleships!

For what it’s worth, the D300/700 class are like battle cruisers. The D90 class are cruisers and the D40/60/5000 are destroyers. I have no analogy for Coolpix cameras other than as civilian, pleasure vessels ranging from dinghies to yachts (tongue firmly planted in cheek). J

While I did do a walk-around session handholding the D3X, I did so with some mixed feelings, because the D3X is really not a street photography camera. The size and weight when used with the 24-70mm f2.8 lens is an obvious reason, but I also felt that I was cheating the D3X without a tripod and cable release to really milk the quality offered.

I did no tests of the D3X’s auto focus engine and don’t have much to say about it since it’s the same as used in the D3 and D700. A variant is used in my familiar D300 and while almost identical, Thom Hogan has written that the D300’s engine is not quite as good as the engine used in the more expensive SLRs.

I had no action sequences to test either, but there’s nothing about the D3X’s auto focus that led me to think anything is amiss and while the D3X is not a sports camera, you would expect Nikon to incorporate its best AF engine in its flagship camera.

Speed wise, the D3X offers 5 fps when shooting 12-bit RAW files, but goes down to a pedestrian 2 fps when shooting 14-bit RAW files. 5 fps already seems slow in these times of prosumer SLRs capable of firing at 6.5 to 8 fps, never mind the D3’s ability to machinegun frames at 9-11 fps. Shooting landscapes with a tripod though, I never cared whether it was 2 fps or 9 fps, because I only take one shot at a time. I would say though, like other SLRs that shoot at 5 fps, the D3X does not have the hair trigger action that faster cameras have. If you just want one frame, it was easy to do without taking a second or third frame as happens regularly using my 8 fps D300/MB-D10 or the slightly slower Canon 40D at 6.5 fps.

Shutter noise wise, the D3X is very similar to my D2X, which is to say rather raw and loud compared to the smooth and quiet Canon 5D2. Think old school, US muscle car versus European sports car. It would be great if Nikon could design a robust, but smoother and quieter shutter. I think, eventually, we will all use electronic shutters and electronic viewfinders, at which point, the shutter noise will not be an issue, since it will be completely silent.

Unlike the D300 and Canon 5D2, the D3X does not offer a sensor cleaning feature. As doubtful as I was about this feature when it was first offered, I'm a firm believer after using SLRs that have it. I cannot think of any shot I've taken where I've seen a tiny dust bunny marring a continuous tone area of my photos when using D300 or 5D2.

As the D3X was used by others before me, I noted that the sensor did have a number of dust spots when I started reviewing the files in Lightroom. Since it's not my camera and given its worth, the most I did was lock-up the mirror and blow out the sensor area with a handheld air blower. Thankfully, only a handful of my photos required spotting in Lightroom and at most, it was four or five spots. All I can say is if Canon and Sony can do it for their high resolution, full frame SLRs, why can't Nikon (Nikon does offer sensor cleaning with the D700, but not with the D3 either).

Due to the size of some of the picture samples, I have separated the review into multiple pages: