Nikon D3S 12.1 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 3-Inch LCD and 24fps 720p HD Video Capability (Body Only): Customer Reviews & Product Details

I have shot with the Nikon D3 since it was released in November of 2007 and have over 150,000 shots on it. I shoot a great deal of Action Sports photography for a local Newspaper as well as H.S. sports magazine. I am not sure there is a better test for the quality of low light photography than a H.S. Football Field on a Friday night or H.S. basketball in a poorly lit gym. The D3 excelled. After reading the early findings of the ISO ability of the D3S I decided to sell my trusty backup (Nikon D700) and add the D3S. I am in total awe. I would never venture into the "HI" ranges of ISO on the D3, but recently shot an entire wrestling event in ISO 25,600 (HI 1.0) with stunning results (I cleaned up with N. Ninja with relatively no loss of detail). Now I am totally comfortable shooting cleanly at 12,800 which allows me to increase my shutter speeds. For years Canon had a lock on the low light high ISO photography, but with the D3 that has changed, and now Nikon has raised the bar even more with the D3S. At this point I have come to realize that if I can not shoot in a particular gym, then it is too dark for the athletes to see the basket:)

Having shot with Canon for the last 15 yrs, moving over to Nikon was not an easy decision. I had a decent collection of lenses and the 1D Mark II was beginning to show its age. The mark III had its issues and the mark IV had shown promise.

Many friends asked why switch now? Simply put, low light is where I shoot most of my jobs. Nikon at the moment has the advantage. Selling my Canon gear was the big question. I ended up selling ALL my gear (1D Mark II, 135L, 28-70L, 70-200L IS, 35L, 85, 100 macro, and 580EX) in 1 week CASH... It covered the D3s, 24-70, and most of the 70-200 VRII.

While I waited for my gear to sell, I rented the D3s for a week along with Nikon's recent additions -- 14-24, 24-70, and 70-200 VR II. The images from the D3s with the aforementioned lenses were quite simply just amazingly sharp with minimal noise.

One can read the many reviews of the D3s out there.

Here's what impressed me about the D3s:
1. Ergonomics -- well designed button placements, easy to nagigate menus, buttons for metering/shooting speed/autofocus.
2. Image quality -- AMAZING images at high ISO. Check out Rob Galbraith's images.
3. 9 fps full sized RAW files/11 fps DX files
4. Screen size (a big change from my 1D Mark II)
5. Autofocus is stellar even in low light. I've not had issues like others have described.
6. I like 2CF cards vs 1 CF and 1 SD. Using Photofast Plus 32GB ($250) and no problems.
7. self cleaning sensor

Other things that impressed me about Nikon:
1. 5 year lens warranty vs Canon's 1 year
2. 24-70 images are sharper than my 28-70 Canon
3. 70-200 VRII images better than my Canon 2.8L IS

Suggestions for improvment:
1. selection of autofocus point with the back button. I think Canon's method appeals to me better.
2. Battery life is not the 4000 shots as advertised. Not sure if these are done with jpeg images, but I gotten ~ 1500 shots with 14 bit RAW images, a fair amount of chimping, and occasional video.
3. Focusing on video mode needs improvement. Its clunky and slow.
4. Video -- meh...great in a pinch, but its not a high priority for me. Others I'm sure feel differently. Canon's got the upper hand for now.

I like the direction that Nikon has choosen. Image quality over megapixels. Its a balanced camera with more than enough features for me. If you do advertising or need high resolution, the D3x is for you. This is a professional camera inside and out. Its worth every penny I've put out for the body and Nikon's lenses. I have no regrets!

I was using a Canon 5D Mark II camera for over a year but became more and more disappointed with it as time went on. The focusing system used on the Canon was poor and the high ISO was good but not great.

Finally tiring of the soft focus of the 5D Mark II, I decided to either upgrade to the 1D Mark IV or the Nikon D3S. The decision was a very painful one to make and I dwelled on the subject for weeks before making a decision.

I finally decided on the Nikon D3S because of its full frame sensor and how its relatively large pixel size would be an advantage in low light situations (i.e., High ISO). Also, it didn't hurt that it was available right away through Amazon and I needed it for my trip to Europe at the end of December.

Now, after having used the Nikon D3S for around 2 months in a variety of situations I can say without hesitation that this is the finest DSLR available. Its ability to shoot sports action in low light is stunning and the focus is very responsive and always spot on! The lenses which I have purchased have all been superior to their Canon equivalent counterparts. Although, the Nikon does have some wholes in their lineup, most notably the the 85mm f/1.2.

While I believe that the filming features of the 1D Mark IV are likely superior it was a mute point for me after a year of experiences with the 5d Mark II. Unless you are very serious you will not get good results filming with any DSLR so I did not consider this when deciding which camera to buy.

In conclusion, I was very nervous about buying the Nikon D3S instead of the Canon 1D Mark IV. However, after using the D3S in a variety of situations I have absolutely fallen in love with this camera.

The D3 was such a breakthrough camera that I didn't expect much from this mid-product-cycle upgrade. I don't use video, so I can't comment on it, but the bigger buffer and even better than the already-great D3 low light performance are both welcome. You will be making great available-light photographs in places where your only alternative would have been flash.

I initially started this comment as a reply to someone who asked why anyone would need a camera that goes higher than 12,000 ISO unless you wanted to take pictures in a closet, especially since you can get a much less expensive consumer-level DSLR with more mega pixels and higher resolution video. I decided to post my response here with the hope than someone else might find it to be useful:

For the past couple of years, I have been using a Nikon D80, which from all the reviews I have read competes fairly well with other cameras in this class. I am not a professional photographer, but I enjoy photography enough that the limitations this consumer-level DSLR seems to have became a source of frustration to me.

I recently upgraded to a D3S, and I am absolutely amazed at the difference between the two cameras. The D3S is ten times the camera--and not because of the marginal difference in mega pixels.

It's not all about being able to take pictures in near darkness either. I take a lot of wildlife pictures with a solid, f 4.5 70-300mm zoom lens (popular because of its good price/performance tradeoff), and with my D80, if I am zoom out much at all, it has to be a bright sunny day to get really good pictures. Cloud cover and even shade results in quite a bit of color noise and a loss of detail, even at ISO settings as low as 400, and I almost always have to shoot with the aperture wide open to mitigate these problems, which, of course, limits my flexibility in terms of depth of field and tends to wash out bright areas. It is also very difficult to stop the motion of things like birds in flight with the low ISO settings that are required to avoid color noise and loss of detail. This is a very frustrating tradeoff to have to make.

With my D80, I have also noticed that the shading gradation of things like fog and shadows in snow is fairly limited--to the point where pictures of things with subtle shading almost always look washed out or have very little detail. The D3S, on the other hand, has an amazing amount of detail no matter what the subject is, no matter how subtle the shading and despite poor lighting conditions. (For the first time ever, I have been able to take pictures of things like fog rolling over a lake and have it show up just the way my eyes see it! No more blending of subtle shades into a single patch of white.)

My D80 also struggles to be consistent with color balance and metering. The D3S is almost always dead on in terms of color balance and metering and is faster and more consistently accurate with its auto focus.

The fact that the D3S's image sensor does such a great job in low light situations has opened up new possibilities for me. I can even stop down my slow f 4.5 300mm zoom lens significantly at any focal length and get outstanding results, even on a cloudy day. Think about the possibilities this opens up in terms of lens choices. As an amateur, I simply cannot afford the 10K-a-pop, fast professional lenses, but now I can get great pictures with slower, less expensive lenses, and I can actually extend the capabilities of the lenses I have with things like teleconverters and still get good results. In this sense, the D3S is a bargain.

I have mostly mentioned the quality of the pictures this camera takes, and I do not intend to go into its rich feature set and build quality (other comments below have already done this), but I did want to tell you about some of the considerable advantages I have found with the D3S and tell you about the outstanding results that I have been getting. I am amazed at the quality of the pictures this camera takes, and I am thrilled with the way this camera performs! This camera is in an entirely different class than the consumer-level DSLRs I have used in the past.