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After a year of dreaming and a few months of tight saving, it is finally here. On Friday of last week the Nikon D3s was delivered to my office. I was like a little kid ripping into the last present on Christmas morning(we all know the last gift is the best one).

Here are the specs for those who want to see em: Nikon D3s

When I got it it only had a tiny charge in the battery, so I couldn't use it for the remainder of the work day. However, I did take a photo to be the first photo. Image _DSC0001.jpg. And since I was in the office I decided to photograph the most important thing in the building.

The great and powerful Floyd!


Since Friday I have used the camera to shoot a story and it performed brilliantly, but those photos have not run in the paper yet and so I won't be showing them here. But what I do have is an image detailing just why this camera costs so much and why it's a photojournalist's ultimate weapon.

What this image shows are to photos taken with the same lens at f/4, both using ISO 3200. One is the D300 I've been using for a few years(and will continue to use) and one is the new D3s. These have not been processed in any way other than converting them from RAW to jpg and cutting the chunk out of the middle. As you can see the D3s has far less noise, has better color, and is much sharper at the same ISO.

Keep in mind that these are chunks taken out of the middle of the image, so if you were viewing the whole image on screen the noise on the D3s would be even less noticeable.

*Be sure to click the image to see the full size version.


And here is the whole D3s version(resized for easier viewing) so you can see about how big of a chunk the shots above are compared to the whole.


That's all for now. I can't wait to share some real work with the new camera, photos and video alike.