Nikon D3s (a.k.a. The Beast)

I've been shooting with this monster for about 15 months now, so know my way around it pretty well. What can I say, it's an absolute joy to use. Rugged like you wouldn't believe, fast as lightning and just wants to go and go. I work with the Nikon D4 as well and use both bodies side by side. I will be writing a comparison between the two at a later date. I had been using a Nikon D200 exclusively before purchasing the D3s, and as soon as I started using the new camera, I felt as though my creative ability had been set free. That's not to say that the D200 is a bad camera, far from it. I love it and still use it on a regular basis. The images have a certain understated, soft quality which I find fantastic, especially when paired with the Sigma 50mm F1.4 DG HSM EX lens. Where it struggled was in the ISO department. I didn't like to take the ISO above 200 if I could possibly help it. No such issue with the D3s. Absolutely astonishing. Where is the realistic limit with this DSLR? Well, at the first Wedding event using the new camera, I was regularly shooting at ISO 12800, and when I looked at the images at 100% on the computer I was simply amazed. No detail lost, punchy colours, and fantastic dynamic range. There was of course some noise, but unlike earlier cameras which exhibited blotchy colour noise, this was more reminiscent of fine film grain... lovely. Images captured with this high ISO made it in to the final Wedding book, and they looked fantastic. What about the pixel count? People kept saying to me, "Brett, 12 mega pixels isn't enough if you want to print big", and nothing could sway them from this belief. What they fail to understand is that it's the quality of those pixels and the amount of light that each one of them can capture, which is the most important factor.  C&G Photography have produced banners 2 metres tall which look absolutely fantastic, every single detail can be seen on close inspection, so no problem there. I give all my cameras a nickname, (told you I was a geek) and the D3s' is 'The Beast', drop it on the floor and it would probably crack the pavement. It really is an amazing bit of kit, and the fact that 'Photography Monthly's' recent list of the 50 greatest cameras of all time had this camera placed at number two, just behind the Kodak Brownie is testament indeed.

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