Resolution:
12.1MP
LCD Size:
3inches
Picture Quality
9.5
Show what experts say (7 sources)
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"Color accuracy is among the best we've seen...and overall image quality is wonderful.... I have to give Nikon a slight edge over the 1D Mark III for its remarkable noise profile, which enables shooting photos that couldn't be captured as they can now."
"The Nikon D3's images have a smooth, film-like quality to them, with colours realistically and accurately rendered – primary colours in particular delivering plenty of punch."
"The JPEG performance is excellent, especially in regards to the noise reduction which eliminates noise without sacrificing detail and sharpness. Mid-tones, highlights and shadows are all correct and exposures for average scenes are accurate."
"Exceptional color and image quality…"
"Image quality (especially at higher ISOs) is stunning, the camera a joy to use and the speed and responsiveness breathtaking."
"Though it has been supplanted at the top of the heap by Nikon's 24.5-megapixel D3x, the 12.1-megapixel Nikon D3 still stands strong in the area of overall full-frame image quality, especially as light levels drop."
"To my eye it easily beats anything else for image quality and noise but there's the thorny question of the D300 - Nikon may have made that a bit too good."
Prints
9.5
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"Noise remains well under control through ISO 1,600, and begins to creep up a bit at ISO 3,200 and ISO 6,400…. [At high ISO there is] obvious noise, but depending on the situation, you may be able to eke out some very usable prints, especially at smaller sizes."
"At ISO 3200 the noise becomes noticeable, but it's still quite low overall. That trend continues at ISO 6400, but the results are definitely still usable, especially if you're shooting RAW. Just send those photos through noise reduction software and you'll get yourself some nice 4 x 6 inch prints..."
"Though the D3 sports a resolution of 'only' 12MP next to Canon's 21 megapixel 1Ds MkIII, that's plenty big enough for print media. You also get a choice of RAW (Nikon NEF format), JPEG or RGB TIFF files, plus the expected RAW + JPEG option."
"Overall, the D3 produces the best quality images at high-sensitivity settings that we have ever seen, and even at the really high setting of ISO 25600, images pass."
"Noise remains well under control through ISO 1,600, and begins to creep up a bit at ISO 3,200 and ISO 6,400. As usual, Nikon includes its Hi1 (12,800) and Hi2 (25,600).... Hi2 gets rough around the edges, but is still surprisingly decent considering you're shooting at an equivalent of ISO 25,600 at that point, something you just couldn't do with 35mm film. Sorry diehards: your celluloid just can't keep up with digital anymore."
"Very good resolution and detail without looking over-processed…. [But] it can't match the resolution of the EOS-1Ds Mark III at lower ISO settings, ruling it out for the most demanding studio photographers."
"The Nikon D3 is an amazing machine, built to handle all kinds of photography. Until the advent of the Canon 1Ds Mark III and the Sony A900, we'd also have said, "including high resolution photography." But honestly, 12.1 megapixels is plenty to work with for almost any circumstance."
"For most pro assignments, the detail it captures is more than what's needed -- enough to make high-quality enlargements of up to 14x21 inches (at 200 ppi)."
Ergonomics
9.0
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"The D3's body is sculpted and shaped to provide a secure grip, whether simply carrying or shooting. The shutter button and command dials are easily manipulated by the thumb and forefinger."
"The grip is wonderfully sculpted, arching back toward the top, and with a recessed groove on the inside so your fingers wrap around it rather than giving the impression that you're gripping a bar, as I sometimes feel when holding the 1Ds Mark III."
"As you may expect the D3 feels comfortable and sturdy in your hand, the grip is just the right size, depth and shape to be both comfortable and easy to hold. Careful shaping of the rear and the use of soft rubber add to the overall feeling of solidity, buttons and other controls are positioned to be used easily."
"Very good ergonomics."
"The rubber coating on the outside feels secure and provides a good grip."
Advanced Features
10.0
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"Naturally, the Nikon D3 is only for the serious photographer, as its construction and size should indicate. It's not for the casual snapshooter, so don't even consider the D3 just because it's "the best one." You'll be frustrated. Better to look at the Nikon D700..."
"Keenly aimed at pro sports and reportage photographers who will get most out of the choice of either 9fps or 11 fps capture speeds...Nikon's D3 – its very first full-frame DSLR – upgrades the D2x to challenge the might of what is arguably Canon's closest competitor in the 10fps, 10.1 megapixel 1D Mark III, which targets (and, like its MkII predecessor will doubtless largely monopolise) the same market."
"First, it’s Nikon’s most highly specified camera to date, aimed at the pro market mainly, but is sure to be picked up by the more comfortably-off enthusiast."
"There are plenty of options to customize the controls to your needs…"
"The default of the D3 is still the old 24x36mm size. What makes the D3 smarter is that it adds a mode that allows images in the standard 5:4 shape. I set my D3 so I can change aspect ratios with one button. This way I can shoot verticals that aren't so foolishly tall and skinny."
"I think it's the best choice as a first pro camera, because it offers the best of all worlds. High speed, high resolution, and high customizability."
Menu System
9.0
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"All major controls can be changed through buttons or dials on the camera body, so you shouldn't have to dig through menus while you're shooting. Any buttons that might be accidentally pressed or dials susceptible to inadvertent turning have some sort of locking mechanism to prevent this."
"There are a host of such menus, but the Nikon's settings lists are largely intuitive. Make no mistake – this camera has myriad setup and shooting options, but getting there is straightforward and logic will serve you well once you arrive."
"The menu screens, which again are bright and logically laid out across a series of self-explanatory icon or annotation led folders."
"There are a lot of menu items on the Nikon D3 but don't let them confuse you. The Menu system features a context-sensitive Help feature accessible by pressing the ? button (third down on the left of the LCD). If you find an option unclear, just hold down the ? button to see a text explanation."
"While the camera offers fairly standard operation, a range of custom options in the well-thought-out menus allow you to shoot the way you want. This includes nice touches such as changing the primary functions of some external buttons and changing the rotation directions of the command dials."
Low-light
9.5
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"My D3 works in more crazy lighting conditions than any previous camera. I can shoot at ISO 6,400 without any excuses. I can get good color rendition in any crappy lighting, even under orange high-pressure sodium street lights, due to the astoundingly large range of accommodation of the manual PREset (gray card) white balance."
"Simply put, the D3's low-light performance is wonderful."
"It's more expensive than the 1D, but even in the murky depths of the dank, dark rock clubs of New York's lower east side, the D3 can shoot at speeds fast enough to stop the swaying motion of annoying hipster Axel Rose wannabees…"
"I took two kinds of low-light shots.... There is some noise, but there's more than adequate color (given the original scene, which is less vibrant than the images) and detail is very sharp.... I had the feeling I could see in the dark with some of the street light scenes."
"The speed of shooting is matched by the speed of the AF – the 51 points provide accuracy and quickly latch on to the subject…. It also coped admirably in low light shooting moving subjects."
"The Pop Photo Lab results are in, and they prove why Nikon's $5,000 pro-level DSLR is the low-light world champ…. We expect to see the D3 being used without flash by photojournalists in a variety of shooting conditions -- even dimly lit sports events."
Action and Sports
9.5
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"In continuous shooting mode, we were able to capture 37 frames in 3.3 seconds for an average of 8.6 frames per second at full resolution. That's quite impressive and near, but not better than the Canon EOS-1D Mark III's 9.9-frame-per-second burst in our lab. Of course, the D3 does have 2 million extra pixels to process..."
"The 9fps continuous mode, even when shooting RAW images, should appeal to all the sports photographers out there…"
"Breathtaking continuous shooting rates."
"Allows press photographers, say, which is Nikon’s traditional pro market, to shoot high-res for magazine work, or shoot to a fast frame rate for sports or news stories."
"Keenly aimed at pro sports and reportage photographers who will get most out of the choice of either 9fps or 11 fps capture speeds (the latter accessible only in DX crop mode), Nikon's D3 – its very first full-frame DSLR – upgrades the D2x to challenge the might of what is arguably Canon's closest competitor..."
"The D3's 51-point autofocus with 15 cross-type sensors delivers a major upgrade…. If you're shooting a bird perched on a post and waiting for it to take off...you should probably use 3D tracking. If you're framing around a soccer goal and waiting for the player to run into frame...you should use one of the non-3D modes."
"[The D3] is, without a doubt, built for speed - in every sense of the word. From the almost twitchy responsiveness...to the astounding image pipeline that can pull huge amounts of data off the sensor and process.... [It's] a camera that is uniquely capable of keeping up with the action even when light levels start to drop perilously."
"It's just the most responsive camera we've ever used. Touch the Shutter button and the camera fires before you've finished pushing it down. If you don't immediately release the Shutter button, you've got a series of images."
Snapshots and Performance
9.5
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"The Nikon D3 has got to be the top choice for anyone wanting high quality, rapid-fire image capture, or extremely low light photography without flash, who is not otherwise wedded to the Canon system."
"The Nikon D3 performed quite well in CNET Labs' tests. It took 0.1 second to start up and capture its first JPEG. After that, it took 0.3 second between JPEGs and raw images. Shutter lag measured a very impressive 0.3 second in our high-contrast test and 0.6 second in our low-contrast test, which mimic bright and dim shooting conditions."
"So, while the Nikon D3 is the fastest digital SLR on the planet, it has to cut a few corners to get there."
"Nikon credits the D3 with the fastest startup time, shortest viewfinder blackout time, and shortest shutter lag of any Digital SLR Camera in its class. Flip the power switch and the camera is ready before you can get your finger off the switch; hit the shutter button and the picture is taken. World class performance, plain and simple."
"The dummy auto AF-area selector mode (white rectangle on the selector) works great. It lets me compose and press the button to take a picture, skipping the old focus and recompose step of the past 75 years of hand-held photography!"
"It is responsive and easy to manipulate. Frequent users will find it easy to make the Nikon D3 serve whatever situation they encounter, bending it to their will with familiar controls and well-considered design."
"It focuses super-fast in bright light and takes less than 1 second to focus in extremely low light at EV -2 (think several feet away from a 5-year-old's birthday cake). In field tests, it also showed prowess in locking onto skin tones and tracking a subject by color."
Sensor Cleaning
2.5
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"No in-camera dust removal system."
Kit Lens
9.0
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"The Nikon D3's AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm 1:2.8G ED kit lens handled chromatic aberrations extremely well, with just a little pixel fringing visible on very close inspection."
"The Nikon 24-70mm is very easy to use and has exemplary optics, except for the strong, but easy to correct, distortion at 24mm. It's the easiest-to-use professional midrange zoom ever offered by Nikon. The only odd thing is that sometimes I can knock the manual focus ring by accident...which can knock the focus."
LCD Screen
9.5
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"The 3-inch monitor is a joy to use for image review, and may be used in live view modes to compose and shoot images. It's bright enough to use for composition and shooting in the bright, direct daylight conditions that typically hamstring ordinary monitors, although image review would be best done in good light."
"The other big upgrade on the D3 is its LCD screen. Nikon has stepped up to a 3-inch LCD with 920,000 dots and a 170-degree viewing angle…. Suffice to say that the D3 has one of the nicest LCD screens we've seen on a dSLR so far."
"The 3in LCD is one of the D3’s crowning glories, allowing excellent contrast and sharpness and, thanks to the high resolution, close-up sections of the recorded images are easy to check for AF accuracy."
"Large LCD control panel that takes up most of the top right hand side of the Nikon D3. It's legible even in fairly bright sunlight."
"From a convenience aspect, the larger 3" LCD screen is nice, but far nicer is how much faster playback responds to button presses. I can scroll around a magnified image much faster, and RGB histograms come up instantly instead of bogging down for a full second for each image as they did on the old D200."
"This high resolution screen really has to be seen to be appreciated, it's beautifully detailed and extremely smooth in appearance because the tiny gaps between dots are too small to be seen with the eye."
"The 920,000 pixel, 3-inch LCD rivals the Nikon D3's own optical viewfinder for clarity; both offer 100% viewfinder coverage."
Viewfinder Quality
10.0
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"All important info is also displayed in the large, bright viewfinder, which was an absolute pleasure to use when focusing manually, especially compared with lower-end dSLRs.... If you're searching for reasons to step up to a pro-level SLR, a finder like this one should be high on the list."
"Large, clear crystal viewfinder…"
"I've never seen a better finder than the one in my D3. It's big, bright and sharp - a far cry from the wimpy DX finders for which people settled in early days of digital photography. It's bigger than the D300 or any other small-format DSLR of which I know."
"Large, bright viewfinder."
"The viewfinder itself is quite accommodating. I was able to wear glasses and get a full view without touching the eyepiece."
"Our lab tests confirmed our initial reaction to the D3's impressive fixed eye-level pentaprism viewfinder. Bright and clear, it provides a field of view that covers 100 percent of the captured scene, earning an Excellent rating."
Live View
8.0
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"Nikon's live view implementation on the D3 is one of the most usable and comprehensive to date, the high resolution screen and addition of contrast detect auto focus, in addition to the now typical mirror down / mirror up passive auto focus system, mean that are more situations where live view becomes useful."
"Live view function the best of the top end DSLRs."
"The D3 offers a pair of live view modes--one for handheld and one for tripod use--which let you frame your images on the LCD. Like most live view implementations, there's a substantial delay when focusing or shooting an image.... Sony's dual-sensor approach provides a much nicer experience..."
"Using the live view feature when panning outdoors with plenty of light rewards with a smooth flowing image, while indoors with less light around, said image is relayed in slightly jerkier fashion."
"Live view isn't great for shooting action sequences -- better to use the viewfinder and 9-fps burst mode (up to 130 images in Fine JPEG mode, and up to 18 RAW images, according to our tests). During bursts, mirror blackout is incredibly short and hardly interferes with tracking."
Battery Life
10.0
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"My D3's EN-EL4a lithium-ion battery has taken over 1800 shots and still shows 1/3 strength on the "fuel gauge." A lower capacity battery on the D2X was always good for well over 2000 shots with that camera, and the D3 reportedly has lower power consumption. Battery performance is not a concern for the D3."
"My D3 gets about 3,000 shots per charge. My D300 gets about 1,000, and my D200 gets about 450. I've made over 10,000 shots with my D3 in the past six weeks, and can't remember when I last charged it. I'm not buying a spare battery."
"Probably the best battery information display in the business (% charge, shots, aging)"
"Detailed battery information [and] excellent battery life."
Build Quality
10.0
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"This is truly one amazing piece of technology encased in a solid-feel magnesium alloy body built like the proverbial outhouse at a weight of 1240g (2.7lb)."
"The magnesium-alloy body is weather sealed and the exterior has tacky material in all the right places to promote a firm grip. I had the D3 out in a light but persistent rain for over an hour today.... Back in the car, dry it off with a towel and on we go without incident. The camera exudes quality with its construction, fit and finish."
"The D3's proportions make it almost square, and thanks to a magnesium shell it is literally as solid as a brick. Robust surfaces, soft rubber on the grips, oversized buttons, locked controls and environmental seals add up to a purposeful camera which has been designed with the requirements of the professional photographer in any situation."
"The rear monitor is a solid slab of tempered glass.... Having made over 12,000 shots and worn my D3 everywhere for the past seven weeks I can't see a single scratch.... Tempered glass, unlike the regular stuff they mold, is so tough that you just can't break it, much less scratch it. Bravo, Nikon!"
"A DSLR that costs five grand had better withstand abuse. While we didn't test the D3 under gunfire or in a hurricane, we're impressed with its magnesium-alloy chassis and extensive water- and dust-resistant seals."
"The exterior shell of the Nikon D3 is made of magnesium alloy, and sealed against dust and water."
"It’s a big camera and robustly built. The tough chassis should survive most knocks and conditions, while the rubber coating on the outside feels secure and provides a good grip."
Size
10.0
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"Your arms might ache at first if you shoot for long periods of time and aren't used to a camera this heavy, but over time you'll get used to it, and I find that heavier cameras are more stable when shooting handheld…"
"'My, she's certainly a big girl, isn't she?' In the same vein, welcome to the D3: 6.3 x 6.2 x 3.4 inches and just over three pounds with battery and memory cards, but no lens."
"The EOS-1D Mark III and EOS-1Ds Mark III have virtually identical bodies."
"We all agreed that the one thing we did not like about the D3 is its weight. At 2.73 pounds without a lens, it's not going to go everywhere with you even if it won't fit in a drawer. It means business and it isn't shy about it."
"It’s a big camera and robustly built. The tough chassis should survive most knocks and conditions, while the rubber coating on the outside feels secure and provides a good grip."
Reliability and Warranty
8.0
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Nikon was rated ABOVE AVERAGE in a 2008 survey of 44,000 PC World readers measuring the "overall satisfaction with reliability" of digital cameras. There were 13 manufacturers scored, 7 of which were average, 4 were above average and 2 were below average.
Nikon provides a 1 year limited parts and labor warranty on its digital cameras. For digital camera batteries, Nikon has no warranty. During the warranty period, Nikon states on their website that “if this product is found to be defective in material or workmanship, Nikon Inc, or one its authorized service facilities will at its option, either repair or replace this Product without charge.”
Customer Service
7.5
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Nikon received an 8.6 out of 10 in a 2009 survey of PC Magazine readers, which measured companies across 6 criteria to determine customer service satisfaction. Nikon tied for 1st out of the 9 digital camera manufactuers in the survey.
"Based on BBB files, this business has a BBB Rating of F."
Measy Score
n/a
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Review Score
9.8
smart average based on expert reviews
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Release Date
November 18, 2007
General Specs
Resolution:
12.1 MP
Battery
Has
Proprietary Battery
Features
Has
A/V Out
Has
USB
Has
HDMI
Has
Full Frame
Composing and Reviewing
LCD Size:
3 inches
Has
Viewfinder
Has
Optical Viewfinder
Storage
Has
Compact Flash (CF) Card Support
Style
Has
Black
Size and Type
Weight:
43.7 ounces
Volume:
136.7 inches ^3
Depth:
3.5 inches
Width:
6.3 inches
Height:
6.2 inches
