NIKON D3
Eight years after Nikon’s D1 camera changed professional digital photography forever, Nikon today introduced the D3 – a new digital SLR camera that is poised to once again revolutionize photography for professionals. The 12.1 effective megapixel D3 features Nikon’s new FX-format CMOS sensor, measuring 23.9 x 36mm, which is nearly identical to the size of 35mm film. With the fastest startup time, shortest viewfinder blackout time, and shortest shutter lag of any digital SLR camera as well as the capability to shoot up to nine frames per second at full FX-format resolution, the D3 is the world’s fastest digital SLR camera in its class.*
Designed with sports photographers and photojournalists in mind, the Nikon D3 introduces an astounding list of brand new features and technologies that make it the most sophisticated and advanced Nikon digital SLR to date. In addition to the new FX-format CMOS sensor, the D3 incorporates Nikon’s new EXPEED Image Processing System that is central to the blazing speed and processing power needed for many of the D3’s new features.
Images taken with the D3 reflect exceptional overall quality, broad tonal range and depth, along with extremely low-noise throughout its normal ISO range of 200 to 6400. By setting the camera to its built-in options of Lo-1 or Hi-2, the ISO range of the camera can be expanded to the equivalent of ISO 100 or ISO 25,600 respectively, offering unmatched versatility in practically any shooting situation.
The D3 also features an entirely new 51-point auto focus system with Nikon’s 3D Focus Tracking feature and two new LiveView shooting modes that allow photographers to frame a photograph using the camera’s high-resolution LCD monitor. The D3 uses the world’s first Scene Recognition System to greatly enhance the accuracy of auto focus, auto exposure and auto white balance detection in the camera by recognizing the subject or scene being photographed and applying this information to the calculations for the three functions.
“Nikon is proud and excited to once again respond to the needs of professional photographers by introducing the D3. Nikon engineers have successfully combined ultra high-speed shooting capabilities and handling with outstanding low-noise image quality, offering professional photographers an ideal tool for a broad range of shooting disciplines,” said Edward Fasano, general manager for Marketing, SLR Systems Products, at Nikon Inc. “Sports, commercial and press photographers are increasingly demanding higher ISO sensitivity, better resolution, wider dynamic range and a familiar depth-of-field in relation to picture angles. With the D3, Nikon is excited to deliver a solution that represents an ideal unification of unsurpassed image quality, high-speed operation and professional durability, without compromise. Nikon fully expects the D3 to positively affect the photographic community in a way that hasn’t been seen since the introduction of the Nikon D1.”
