D3x is a capable camera for event

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antoinerose
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D3x is a capable camera for event

Post by antoinerose »

Dear Nikon fans,

Just to let you know that my D3x has landed this Monday ;-)

I haven’t had the time to read the 3 cm manual of use (& do not intend to do so), nor to familiarize myself with the camera. (but obviously having used a D3 for a year, I’m not that disturbed)

The first assignment I had with it was a party organized by young lawyers in a cocktail bar. (I knew lawyers liked to party & this event just confirmed this ;-)

As usually, shooting in pubs is always difficult due to the darkness & that you have awful colored moving spots that are unpredictable.

I was used to this kind of shooting with my D3 (@3200 iso) & the results were quite okay. I often shot in RAW to give me some room for PP (or to correct any over- under- exposition).

Shooting RAW with the D3x was not an option (I haven’t yet ordered 16 Gb Cards) & I’m afraid that prost processing 500+ Nefs even with a good PC wasn’t being to be a cup of tea.

I then decided to shoot JPG medium fine & tried to be very careful with the exposure & WB.

My settings were:
-D3X + 24-70mm f/2.8
-SB-900 in TTL mode + Lumiquest pocket bouncer + Amber filter + exp correction -1,3~-1,7 EV (Why the hell do I always need to correct that amount ??? Anybody any suggestion ?
-ISO HI-1 (I suppose it’s 2000 iso)
-Flash sync 1/15
-Aperture f/5.6 most of the time
-White balance set to 5000k

What worked ?
# Noise: With those above mentioned setting & after a quick review of the files, they looked quite okay. The noise is present for those who will put the files under a microscope. But my customers usually don’t do this so it is not an issue. With a D3x & shooting JPEG, carefully check your exposure all the time & fine-tune it accordingly.
# Sharpness: Interestingly, JPEG medium fine gives me an impression of very good sharpness, even sharper than the files delivered with my D3.

What didn’t ?
# Flash comp of -1,3 to 1,7 IL is something a flash expert needs to explain.
# Shooting @ 1/15 (sometimes I used 1/8) gives you little room when people are moving or you’re a bit pushed by other people. Switching to 1/30 or more gives no pleasant results. (bright foreground, black background)
# SB-900: although I always bring a SB-900 ready to fire in case my primary fails. It nearly failed due to the overheating protection (it was at the beginning of the shooting & I never used full power) This is something weird that Nikon need to fix.
# WB set to 5000. I didn't bring my gray card. (I'm waiting for a CBL lens to be delivered) but with a 1/15 speed, maybe 4500k would have been slightly better.

What I’d like to see in a future firmware update ?
# D3X: Small NEF’s (Small-Medium-Full). Canon does that so I’m not sure it would be so complicated
# Bracketing: By default the steps in bracketing are 1IL (& I think 0,3 & 0,5IL) I’d like to be able to choose a 2EV increment (not for party but for HDR)


Bottom Line
Altough I certainly miss a little bit the 1 to 2 EV advantage of my D3, I’m not sure I really need a D3 as second body.

The D3x is a very capable camera for event although the D3 still has a little edge & is more versatile.

I will try to post some pics If I have time.



Best regards,

Antoine Rose
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Stany Buyle
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Re: D3x is a capable camera for event

Post by Stany Buyle »

Hi Antoine,
I was doing quite a bit of testing and comparison with D3 and D3X with Rudy Dusslier for our comparison test on this website.
http://www.fotografie.fr/n3-test4-e.htm
According to our findings the difference about IQ @ high iso are rather marginal if you take following into account:
The maginfications you need for eventual crops with a 24Mp vs a 12Mp are smaller, which limits noise showing up.
Shooting jpeg medium (10Mp) @ very high iso produces results nearly identical to what D3 produces, I used this technique with my D200 those days and the results were very satifying.
As you mentioned on Dpreview, Nikon should enable medium and small NEF size with D3X, just like Canon 5DMkII and Kodak 14n those days. I would even appreciate a 6Mp NEF size on my D700, for many situations it's enough resolution.
kindest regards,

Stany
I like better one good shot in a day than 10 bad ones in a second...
http://www.fotografie.cafe
jhaas
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Ups wrong message...

Post by jhaas »

Ups wrong person whom i wrote to...
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