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One of the members of the photo club I am a member of asked for a high ISO photo with the D3 so I thought I would make some comparisons between the D3 and the D2X.
I set up a lead figurine approx 3cm tall and used apiece of orange construction paper as a scoop. The lighting is ambient (halogen).
The cameras were tripod mounted with a remote release using mirror up mode. A 60mm f2.8 micro was mounted and used in manual focus. Auto white balance. Aperture set to f13. Images are captured as RAW (12bit, compressed)
Once I had all my photos taken, the RAW data was batch processed in Nikon Capture NX2. The Picture Control settings are:
D2XMODE2
Sharpening = 0
Contrast = 0
Brightness = 0
Saturation = 0
Hue = 0
Noise Reduction
Color Noise Reduction
Intensity = 0
Sharpness = 5
Method = Better Quality
The processed images were then exported to PhotoShop CS4. I used the Marquee Tool to select portion of image and drag to new frame. I then changed the Mode to 8 bit, the image was resized to 1024 pixels across (bicubic). The section dragged off was brought back into the image to show 100% crop view. Finally, the picture was flattened and an Unsharp mask was applied (Amount = 120%, Radius = 0.9 pixels, Threshold = 0 levels). Image saved as JPG level 10.
No effort was made in any of the images to clean up the noise other than changing the default setting for Noise Reduction from "faster" to "better quality"
In hindsight, I should have used the right angle finder in 2x mode to find an exact focus point. As you'll notice, the images from the D3 are focused a little further back than the D2X.
D2X at ISO 100 (this is the D2X's base ISO)
D3 at ISO 100 (base ISO -1EV)
.
D2X at ISO 200
D3 at ISO 200 (this is the D3's base ISO)
.
D2X at ISO 400
D3 at ISO 400
.
D2X at ISO 800
D3 at ISO 800
.
D2X at ISO 1600
D3 at ISO 1600
.
D2X at ISO 3200 (this is as far as the D2X goes - probably just as well)
D3 at ISO 3200
.
D3 at ISO 6400
D3 at ISO 12800
D3 at ISO 25600
.
Just for fun, I cleaned up the 25600 shot a bit. Pretty impressive
I set up a lead figurine approx 3cm tall and used apiece of orange construction paper as a scoop. The lighting is ambient (halogen).
The cameras were tripod mounted with a remote release using mirror up mode. A 60mm f2.8 micro was mounted and used in manual focus. Auto white balance. Aperture set to f13. Images are captured as RAW (12bit, compressed)
Once I had all my photos taken, the RAW data was batch processed in Nikon Capture NX2. The Picture Control settings are:
D2XMODE2
Sharpening = 0
Contrast = 0
Brightness = 0
Saturation = 0
Hue = 0
Noise Reduction
Color Noise Reduction
Intensity = 0
Sharpness = 5
Method = Better Quality
The processed images were then exported to PhotoShop CS4. I used the Marquee Tool to select portion of image and drag to new frame. I then changed the Mode to 8 bit, the image was resized to 1024 pixels across (bicubic). The section dragged off was brought back into the image to show 100% crop view. Finally, the picture was flattened and an Unsharp mask was applied (Amount = 120%, Radius = 0.9 pixels, Threshold = 0 levels). Image saved as JPG level 10.
No effort was made in any of the images to clean up the noise other than changing the default setting for Noise Reduction from "faster" to "better quality"
In hindsight, I should have used the right angle finder in 2x mode to find an exact focus point. As you'll notice, the images from the D3 are focused a little further back than the D2X.
D2X at ISO 100 (this is the D2X's base ISO)
D3 at ISO 100 (base ISO -1EV)
.
D2X at ISO 200
D3 at ISO 200 (this is the D3's base ISO)
.
D2X at ISO 400
D3 at ISO 400
.
D2X at ISO 800
D3 at ISO 800
.
D2X at ISO 1600
D3 at ISO 1600
.
D2X at ISO 3200 (this is as far as the D2X goes - probably just as well)
D3 at ISO 3200
.
D3 at ISO 6400
D3 at ISO 12800
D3 at ISO 25600
.
Just for fun, I cleaned up the 25600 shot a bit. Pretty impressive
