Nikon D600 Full Frame Dslr

(Pocket-lint) - Nikon's new flagship DSLR, the D3s, builds on the groundbreaking D3, which revolutionised the high-speed professional person DSLR market on its introduction in August 2007. The D3s has an all-new FX format total-frame sensor and enhanced specification, rugged build and shooting controls. It's expensive, much more expensive, but equally with the D3, information technology'south certainly a whole lot of camera.

The D3s is pretty much identical to its D3 predecessor and reveals how Nikon has evolved the former camera rather than gone for a revolutionary new model. A D4 this is not which means there could certainly be one of those on the cards in the upcoming yr. But speculation aside, the D3s has some significant and not so significant improvements and new features.

The new full-frame sensor is a completely redesigned affair with improved micro lens assortment to help enable the new high-ISO (low noise) capture settings. This includes a boosted ISO 102,400 mode for shooting in extremely low light without additional light/flash. The low noise image performance "war" between Canon and Nikon, which Canon had the march on for quite some time, were pegged back by the D3. Canon improved things further with the introduction of the EOS 5D MkII and so the EOS 7D merely Nikon has pulled alee over again with the D3s.

The Nikon D3s almost identical to the D3 in terms of size and design, the most obvious changes are the more intense light-green colour on the white balance (WB) and ISO buttons on the back; the fact there is now a dedicated Live View control (in which you can besides become to the movie capture mode) is as well another obvious modify.

Other controls remain unchanged and mean if you've shot on a D3 (or any other Nikon DSLR for that matter) then the layout is wholly familiar. Nevertheless, the camera is a hefty animal, particularly with the excellent lxx-24mm F/ii.8 zoom nosotros had to play with for this test, a test carried out during the worst of the snow and freezing conditions in Kent, with which the camera and battery pack coped well.

At ane.24kg (body simply and identical to the D3) and some other 902g gives a camera weighing in at near 2.3kg (with this lens) so wilting violets need not apply. What yous get though is a ruggedised and weather sealed photographic camera capable of shooting at up to 11fps (in DX format) or 9fps (in the full frame FX format) in RAW for up to 48 shots in i burst, a vast improvement on the 18 RAWs at a time from the D3.

The new sensor provides the same 12.1-megapixel resolution from the D3 and equally with the D3, the upside of this (comparatively modest) resolution means the greater pixel pitch (so bigger core sensitive pixels) means an excellent indicate to noise ratio, a ratio even more than enhanced past the improvements to the redesigned sensor and improved micro lens array.

Image processing is controlled by Nikon'south EXPEED image engine and it is superb, and with the new sensor, allows the camera's standard ISO range of 200 to 12800 (ISO 100 to 102,400 in boosted modes) to become a realistic and usable proposition.

Image noise is and then well controlled and equally with the D3, we found routine shooting above ISO 1000 no problem. Noise is merely actually credible (simply very subtly) at ISO 6400 and in a higher place, racket in shadows reveals blotches of blockiness at ISO 8000 and it becomes very noticeable at ISO 12,800 and above. Interestingly, areas of smoothen featureless color, such as skies, start to option upwards artifacts less quickly.

While the majority and weight of the D3s mean your boilerplate Joe might baulk at carting the camera about with it circular their neck, the camera's treatment compensates; it is simply excellent with great ergonomics and easy to use/reach controls.

The integrated vertical grip helps remainder the apply of the camera too and houses a big lithium-ion battery pack that survived hours of snapping in temperatures as low every bit -five, shooting 228 images (with plenty of reviewing) and it still reads 74% at time of writing. The camera comes with a dual charger every bit standard also, and then it darn well should given the price of the camera.

The excellent 3-inch screen has a 920,000-pixel resolution and wide viewing bending making it a bully to use, add together in the large info display that'southward aided by dainty (backlit) meridian and back plate data LCDs and you have data galore. Live View is included and has AF in two modes; mitt held and tripod modes so where you need Live View to help limerick; it works a treat.

Although much of the D3s is gleaned from the D3, another characteristic here is the ability to shoot 720p HD movies (with built in and external sound - if you lot link up a microphone) at 24fps and up to the Hi3 (ISO 102,400) sensitivity setting, making pic capture in low calorie-free equally flexible as information technology is in still capture.

The aforementioned external audio connects into a dedicated audio port under the cover on the camera's side and the HDMI socket also located here is at present of the mini-HDMI type, allowing room for the audio socket.

In terms of shooting modes, the D3s has a full complement of the manual shooting options, every bit you'd await (aperture and shutter priority, program, and full manual control) and this is at present enhanced with Nikon's Scene Recognition Organization that uses the AE and AF sensors to appraise the bailiwick and pick the "correct" setting for the subject.

This type of mode or feature is common today within many consumer oriented cameras but feels a little incongruous here, but I suppose if it helps get better results, then why knock it? The Motion picture Command System is yet in at that place and this enables tweaks to each shooting mode and allows pre-settings such as standard, vivid and monochrome and allows y'all to tailor the way each mode reproduces the prototype.

Then throw in the power of in-photographic camera RAW processing where image size, quality, white balance, picture control settings, noise reduction, colour infinite and vignetting control are all available to help chop-chop process the RAW files, and that can help salvage a lot of time later, in your mail-shoot workflow.

The D3s now has a "quiet" shooting mode plant on the drive mode punch just beneath the flash, bracketing and Command Lock "turret" on the top plate. When active this helps reduce the noise the photographic camera's shutter and mirror mechanism make when you take a shot, but it's a subtle divergence, the most obvious change being the slower mirror render. Another very subtle but nice change is the pressure sensitivity of some controls has been enhanced and this makes information technology a far more positive feel using controls such equally the AF-On button on the back plate.

Dual CF Type I/II storage provides aplenty room for your photos; you can assign which of the two cards has priority, only apply the 2nd card as an overflow when or if the offset becomes full or save RAWs to i and JPEGs to the other. Withal, the D3s brings UDMA media support to the party and this helps get all the data off the photographic camera's buffer and into the cards more rapidly, vital also for shooting the massive 720p Hard disk drive videos.

Image formats include JPEG (basic, normal or fine) and RAW with simultaneous JPEG capture in each quality setting and you can shoot TIFFs besides. You besides get four card banks (denoted A, B, C and D, although you tin can proper name them something more than meaningful) so that yous effectively get four means to gear up the camera up and retrieve them quickly by selecting the respective banking company of menus.

This means - on elevation of the four carte banks - at that place are four custom mode banks as well, on which you can layer various custom modes, once again for item camera set-ups y'all might utilize repeatedly. Added to the 43 custom options y'all have 344 possible set-up options in menus and custom modes.

In terms of prototype quality the metering is handled by a combination of Nikon's 3D Matrix system and a 1005-pixel RGB sensor, and similar the D3, information technology works amazingly well. However, the (predominantly) snowy subject matter we were forced to shoot (we had weeks of snow) meant the photographic camera would yet underexpose, the snow made the metering err as it "idea" everything was brighter than it actually was.

Exposure bounty and bracketing made information technology due south unproblematic job of dialing in a one-half stop of exposure bounty to bring exposures dorsum into line.

AF'due south controlled by Nikon's Multi-CAM 3500FX processor which, while very reliable, predominantly dark or very light scenes can fool the AF. And although the focusing has 51-AF points - to which metering tin can be locked - and you can select and move the AF point of choice around the zones bachelor, or select 11 specific zones and all of which can exist tailored to use all or within user specified groups, we constitute the AF struggled in some low light scenes that the new camera is capable of shooting in, the AF hunting on diverse occasions.

Colour and white remainder control are excellent. Color is natural in the camera's default "standard" manner simply in that location are and so many ways to tweak the colour performance (forth with everything else), that you tin pretty much punch in whatever colour parameters you demand, depending on what you want from a subject.

In terms of white balance the D3s is as peerless as the D3 and even the machine WB control provides a nice neutral result in mixed lighting only information technology'southward not so much fun in very low, mixed lighting. In terms detail you loose a slight amount at college ISO settings as the EXPEED engine works through what dissonance there is and at the very high sensitivity settings, blocks of noise in shadows can overwhelm detail that is in that location. Nevertheless, when yous look at the sensitivity in utilise, it's remarkable, at that place'south an image as adept as there is to fifty-fifty quibble over.

The not-additional sensitivity settings provide plenty of pristine detail and while on the original D3 it was only in a higher place ISO 1000 that the image processing could exist seen to affect fine details to any extent, the D3s' new sensor and its enhanced circuitry mean that limit is non reached until you lot hit ISO 2000, simply only visible (equally with the D3) in fine portrait detail such as peel pores.

To recap

This evolution of Nikon'south D3 total "FX" frame professional digital SLR brings new features such every bit Hd movies into the frame. A new 12.1-megapixel sensor with improved circuitry allows superb epitome quality at very loftier ISO settings makes the D3s a stunning pro model

Writing past Doug Harman.