D3s Vs 1D Mk IV (Large file sizes in this thread)
Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 4:16 pmAs you know, We currently have one of each of these cameras to review.
Thanks to Nikon Au, who supplied us with a D3s and 70-200 lens, and thanks to Canon Au, for supplying us with a Mk IV, also with their latest 70-200 lens.
First impressions are important, and here both cameras shine. They both feel great in the hand, and both feel very tight and solid. Oddly, although they're both near enough to the same weight, the Canon feels somewhat lighter. Subjectively, the Canon seems to be the more responsive of the two, acquiring focus more readily.
The Nikon feels a little slower in this regard, but it's no slouch either, and its build quality is just tank-like. it seriously reminds me of the old school film Nikons, such is the heft of the D3s.
While things like ergonomics are often a personal matter, and especially when it comes to how a camera feels and handles in your hands, there are a couple of things that I think that both manufacturers need to pay attention to. For instance, it seems that almost every time Canon release a new model camera, they relocate the on/off switch. It might be on the back of the camera, or on the top deck, maybe to the left of the prism, or maybe not. The bottom line is that whenever I pick up a Canon body, I have to think about which camera am I using, and look for and find out where the this most basic of controls is.
By way of contrast, on picking up the Nikon, the power switch is in the same place on every one of their SLRs - surrounding the shutter release button. It's readily accessible without needing to remove your eye from the viewfinder, and switching between bodies requires no real retraining the hands in terms of locating many of the controls.
In a similar vein, one of the controls I use very frequently is the focus point selection dial, and on the Canon, this is a two handed exercise. Sorry guys, but no; you've got that wrong. This should be as simple as using only the command dial; the need for pushing buttons for this functionality is just plain wrong.
Nikon have yet to get their act together when it comes to image previewing though. I think that the manner by which the image zooms on each Nikon body is different: hold one button and turn a dial as on the D3s - which I think is wrong, or plus and minus buttons somewhere in the ether (wrong again), or maybe just as simple as the context sensitive buttons next to the rear lcd on the D300/D700 bodies, which, to me, seems to be the simple, logical, and most appropriate means of implementing this functionality.
In use, both cameras are simply pleasures to drive. They're both high performance vehicles, with fast frame rates, great AF systems, able to sustain long bursts of image making, and able to shoot in something that's close to darkness.
And while both cameras will let you go where no camera has gone before, the Nikon truly excels with its high ISO performance.First up, here's the test scene, Canon first. These shots are full frame, raw images, resized and converted to jpg only.
These were shot using one floodlight, through a beauty dish. ISO was 12800 +3EV (102000) and according to my handheld meter, correct exposure was f/13 and 1/200. So that's where we are. I recomposed the Nikon shots to take account of the crop factor on the Canon; although Canon's marketing people might want you to believe that these cameras are direct competitors, the fact is that the Nikon is a full frame camera, while the Canon is not. There are advantages to both formats, and we all are well aware of them. Suffice to acknowledge that this is a fundamental difference in the cameras, and move along.
I think that for non-critical application, either camera can produce acceptable results, but observe the lower section in the Canon's image. Note the purple tinge in the bottom rh corner. We observed this sort of thing across all of the Canon's high ISO images, and we don't know if this is common across the camera model, or just with the unit we have.
Given the exposure as set by the handheld meter, the Canon's images appear to be slightly over-exposed and verging upon burned out, in the higher brightness areas of this image. I would probably choose to pull back the exposure a little in terms of EV compensation on the Canon when using the camera in a more realistic environment. Unfortunately, this extra brightness in the image means that the blacks are not as rich as they should be,which, overall, makes the image look, to my eyes, a little "thin" and underexposed, but over-compensated with brightness adjustments.
The Nikon's image appears to be pretty close to spot on exposure wise, and this is confirmed in the histogram.
If your images are for a more critical application though, this becomes a Nikon show. The purple tinging seems to be an indication that the Canon's sensor isn't quite there yet. Here's a pair of 100% crops; one from each camera, and again, Canon first.
Thanks to Nikon Au, who supplied us with a D3s and 70-200 lens, and thanks to Canon Au, for supplying us with a Mk IV, also with their latest 70-200 lens.
First impressions are important, and here both cameras shine. They both feel great in the hand, and both feel very tight and solid. Oddly, although they're both near enough to the same weight, the Canon feels somewhat lighter. Subjectively, the Canon seems to be the more responsive of the two, acquiring focus more readily.
The Nikon feels a little slower in this regard, but it's no slouch either, and its build quality is just tank-like. it seriously reminds me of the old school film Nikons, such is the heft of the D3s.
While things like ergonomics are often a personal matter, and especially when it comes to how a camera feels and handles in your hands, there are a couple of things that I think that both manufacturers need to pay attention to. For instance, it seems that almost every time Canon release a new model camera, they relocate the on/off switch. It might be on the back of the camera, or on the top deck, maybe to the left of the prism, or maybe not. The bottom line is that whenever I pick up a Canon body, I have to think about which camera am I using, and look for and find out where the this most basic of controls is.
By way of contrast, on picking up the Nikon, the power switch is in the same place on every one of their SLRs - surrounding the shutter release button. It's readily accessible without needing to remove your eye from the viewfinder, and switching between bodies requires no real retraining the hands in terms of locating many of the controls.
In a similar vein, one of the controls I use very frequently is the focus point selection dial, and on the Canon, this is a two handed exercise. Sorry guys, but no; you've got that wrong. This should be as simple as using only the command dial; the need for pushing buttons for this functionality is just plain wrong.
Nikon have yet to get their act together when it comes to image previewing though. I think that the manner by which the image zooms on each Nikon body is different: hold one button and turn a dial as on the D3s - which I think is wrong, or plus and minus buttons somewhere in the ether (wrong again), or maybe just as simple as the context sensitive buttons next to the rear lcd on the D300/D700 bodies, which, to me, seems to be the simple, logical, and most appropriate means of implementing this functionality.
In use, both cameras are simply pleasures to drive. They're both high performance vehicles, with fast frame rates, great AF systems, able to sustain long bursts of image making, and able to shoot in something that's close to darkness.
And while both cameras will let you go where no camera has gone before, the Nikon truly excels with its high ISO performance.First up, here's the test scene, Canon first. These shots are full frame, raw images, resized and converted to jpg only.
These were shot using one floodlight, through a beauty dish. ISO was 12800 +3EV (102000) and according to my handheld meter, correct exposure was f/13 and 1/200. So that's where we are. I recomposed the Nikon shots to take account of the crop factor on the Canon; although Canon's marketing people might want you to believe that these cameras are direct competitors, the fact is that the Nikon is a full frame camera, while the Canon is not. There are advantages to both formats, and we all are well aware of them. Suffice to acknowledge that this is a fundamental difference in the cameras, and move along.
I think that for non-critical application, either camera can produce acceptable results, but observe the lower section in the Canon's image. Note the purple tinge in the bottom rh corner. We observed this sort of thing across all of the Canon's high ISO images, and we don't know if this is common across the camera model, or just with the unit we have.
Given the exposure as set by the handheld meter, the Canon's images appear to be slightly over-exposed and verging upon burned out, in the higher brightness areas of this image. I would probably choose to pull back the exposure a little in terms of EV compensation on the Canon when using the camera in a more realistic environment. Unfortunately, this extra brightness in the image means that the blacks are not as rich as they should be,which, overall, makes the image look, to my eyes, a little "thin" and underexposed, but over-compensated with brightness adjustments.
The Nikon's image appears to be pretty close to spot on exposure wise, and this is confirmed in the histogram.
If your images are for a more critical application though, this becomes a Nikon show. The purple tinging seems to be an indication that the Canon's sensor isn't quite there yet. Here's a pair of 100% crops; one from each camera, and again, Canon first.
There are two bits of plastic in the box, one is the cover for the flash shoe, do you know what the other one is for?
When I handed it to my mate who is a camera mechanic for a clean he put it under his scope and found a filamentous strand of glue running over the corner of the sensor. I had cleaned the sensor myself several times and had not seen it, nor dislodged it. Haven't seen the purple since. I can only guess that it was catching some light and spraying it onto the sensor.
