D3s Test
D3s is the brand new camera from Nikon. I’we been fortunate to play with it before the launch for a few days. The D3s is much more than just a minor upgrade from the D3! You can’t justify calibrated ISO from 6400 up to 12800 a minor upgrade! And then you throw in a little bit of D-movie as well. And you have a completely new media than still photo. To me it’s a major upgrade and an exiting upgrade!We have filmed the testing of the camera see it HERE
And to keep updated add to ouer FACEBOOK page or follow us on TWITTER
D3 was love at first sight for me, it had everything I had hoped for. I have two housings, and they have served me well these two past years. High ISO, FX-format and 9 FPS, are just a few of the features I love about the camera. In total they have delivered about 350.000 quality raw images.
As far as I know, I was the first to ever take the D3 under water. And in this environment the camera was groundbreaking. The camera produced superb files at ISO 2000 and up . You can see the YouTube film HERE
I tested the D3s at two locations. The first location was in a training sight for firefighters with a “hot” group called Fremmedfirma. We worked together for approximately four hours and used 30 liters of jetfuel...
Most of the shooti was done with the actual flames as the main light. I used some flash as well, but that was more as fill light.
Shooting with 12800 ISO it’s like a dream.. It generates very little noise, and the noise is not like red, white and green dots all over, its more like good old fashion filmgrains, and mostly in the areas of the picture that’s not in focus.
When filming on High3, which is un calibrated ISO over 100.000, it's some noise and grains, but at least you get the shot. And it's probably better than any equivalent cameras, I belive. But this high ISO really exits me and it might indicate what the future bring.
One thing I’m exited about is that it’s indication what might come the future.
 |  |
Filming with D-movie fullframe is a heaven! And there’s a few really nice features!
1)You can film in almost no light. I filmed in i pitch black cellar, with two light bulbs (25W and 40W) and a small backlite. I could have set it in a high ISO mode, but the D3s can manage to film with little light, so it was enough with what I had.
2) You have a flicker deduction at 50 Hrz and 60 Hrz, very handy when you are filming indoors.
3) You can set the REC button at the <Pv> button in front. It’s better to push REC in front of the camera than pushing the Center button at the mulitiselector, it’s easier, and you are holding the camera more steady as well.
4) You can record with an external microphone and choose your own level settings.
I love video, but hate video cameras (normal video cameras that is). Meaning that I love motion picture, but I dislike using a regular video camera. The lack of being able to control my depth of field and not being able to use all the optics you want, it’s sometimes frustrating. Unless you pay a huge amount of money, a video camera, to me, is a big compromise. You can’t go really wide, close or shot a huge tele, with a normal video camera.
But with the D3s I can! This is the exact same tool as I’ve always been using. I feel like a kid in a candy store, filming with my huge Tele-lenses, macros, 14-24mm wide angles, tilt and shift lenses like the 85PC...
And this is just the beginning... so I’m looking forwart to where this will end.
When filming I used a video tripod and I’ve recently been experimenting with a regular follow focus rig normally used for cinematography, and it’s working really well.
There are many things I appreciate about the D3s!
Oh yes, here it comes….
- It comes ready upgraded to a 2 GB buffer
- It has sensor cleaning without limiting the view finder
- Quiet mode with less shutter noise
- I can edit my films in the camera!
- I can convert raw files to JPG in the camera
- I can select a frame from anywhere in the film and have a 720 x 540 PIX Jpg
This is just a bit of the D3s and I have more do discover… So stay tuned to Scanout.
Add to our fanpage on facebook or follow me on twitter.
