High ISO Samples of the Nikon D3

Now that the D300 and D3 have been announced all eyes are on the samples leaked by various sites, especially Japanese and Chinese.

Both cameras are significant upgrades to the previous D2X and D200, respectively. It's worth mentioning that the D3 is the first full-frame camera emerging from the famous manufacturer and an important step in Nikon's strategy for the professional segment, predominantly ruled by Canon.

One of the most important components in the new professional D3 is the sensor unit, which is somewhat similar to the EOS 5D preferred by fashion photographers for its excellent image quality. Both units have a 35mm full-frame CMOS sensor with around 12 megapixels, a recipe with excellent results.

However, despite being similar in the sensor department the two cameras are radically different in terms of ergonomics and features. The D3 is in the same feature league as the EOS 1Ds Mark III, but with a much lower pixel count, which makes the Nikon more versatile; after all, few people actually need the 21 megapixels featured by the new Canon flagship.

Apparently, the new CMOS sensor (manufactured by an yet unnamed partner) coupled with equally new Expeed imaging processor allowed engineers to give the D3 a most impressive ISO range of ISO 100 to ISO 25,600 (native ISO ratings range from ISO 200 to ISO 6,400). Aside from the ludicrous ISO range, Nikon also claims a dynamic range 300% higher, but thorough tests are needed to prove this.

As crazy as these values might sound, samples found on this site reveal some spectacular results. These are 100% crops of the same image taken at different ISO setting (200 to 12,800). Here are the images for ISO 200, ISO 1600 and ISO 12,800. It's worth noting that the image supposedly taken at ISO 12,800 does not contain the ISO information in the EXIF data, which could mean that they have been tampered with.

The Nikon D3 can be preordered, but at $5,000, you'd better make some good money with your photography, be incredibly rich or completely insane to afford it.

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