Comments on: The Nikon D4 vs D3S, D3, and D7000… D3S Wins??? [Updated]

By: Jeff Shapiro

Jeff Shapiro — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 15:53:00 +0000

Was the lack of sharpness due to you need to AF tune each lens? I just received a used D3s the camera is incredibly sharp! The D3s is still a great camera and will be for some time! The D4 dynamic range is a tad better until you get to the extremely high ISOs – http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/en…./Cameras/Compare-Camera-Sensors/Compare-cameras-side-by-side/%28appareil1%29/767|0/%28brand%29/Nikon/%28appareil2%29/628|0/%28brand2%29/Nikon/%28appareil3%29/441|0/%28brand3%29/Nikon

By: Jeff Shapiro

Jeff Shapiro — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 15:53:00 +0000

By: Robert McLaughlin

Robert McLaughlin — Fri, 25 May 2012 19:17:00 +0000

I sold my D3s and got the D4 and noticed the lack of sharpness immediately. I have time to tweak the settings before my next shoot. I use a high ISO and high motor speed all the time so every stop I can get is better. I avoid flash when possible. Losing the AF switch ability to go to AF-C and AF-S is the worst though, that change was unnecessary. Overall I am glad I opted for the D4, it is newer and in production, the new card included is way fast, and the CAT5 is a nice touch. Mostly little things, and lenses are where to put your efforts anyway!

By: neversink

neversink — Tue, 15 May 2012 07:20:00 +0000

Suggestion…. Before you publish a test, make sure your focus is not in question. Otherwise reshoot the test and then publish…. a lot less headaches….

By: Sean Nel

Sean Nel — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 06:59:00 +0000

Maybe your photographic model is broken? ;)

I only recently found out that Nikon seems to also apply NR on RAW files? any way to equalize this in your test?

By: Blair Wright

Blair Wright — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:10:00 +0000

Why would you downsample the D4 image? You can’t equalize a test like that, you need to shoot the cameras as they are designed, you effectively gimped the D4 by downsampling. Really, since you downsampled the image why didn’t you shoot the D3 at ISO 1600 when you shot the others at ISO 3200? We all know they are a stop apart, same thing right? Sorry but this not not a very scientific test IMO

By: haze2

haze2 — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 05:28:00 +0000

I have found that the default High ISO NR default setting of NORM can affect the sharpness of an image. Did you turn NR off on all the cameras for the test?

By: Kai Mueller

Kai Mueller — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:50:00 +0000

If you open the 25600 ISO samples with CaptureNX2, you can see that the D4 raw noise reduction level is higher as the D3s noise reduction level. Thats why the D4 picture looks softer.

By: Geoff Powell

Geoff Powell — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:59:00 +0000

I’m seeing much more detail in your eyebrow in the D4 images on both the 6.4k ISO and 25.6k ISO samples. So I think your focus thesis has some merit before we can conclude one way or another.

By: Ken Yee

Ken Yee — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:30:00 +0000

I think you have to underexpose deliberately to see how they perform as well.
That’s why the Nikon D7000/Pentax K-5 sensor is so good….you can royally screw up and underexpose it so it looks like a black frame, but then in post, you can pull out a black cat and the entire scene because it has so much dynamic range in the blacks…