Nikon D3s (vs Canon EOS 5D Mark II) First Look: Incredible ISO Performer

If you’re as prone to shooting in low light environments as I am, you’re going to love the Nikon D3s. I’ve been greatly anticipating getting a chance to test one ever since hearing about its extraordinary ISO setting of 102,400, and thanks to the incredible efforts of B&H Photo, I’m finally now able to put this professional grade DSLR through its low light paces.

Availability

The Nikon D3s is slowly trickling into retailers as we speak. You can place a pre-order for one at B&H Photo in order to secure your Nikon D3s  as soon as possible. If you’re considering purchasing a Nikon D3s, or any camera equipment, using the following links goes a long way to supporting this site, and allows me to keep providing quality content like this.

• Nikon D3s at B&H Photo: $5199
• Nikon D700 at B&H Photo (priced to low list here)
• Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II Lens at B&H: $2399
• Canon EOS 5D Mark II at B&H Photo: $2699

In the Hands

Before we get to its capabilities, a few notes on build and ergonomics. Out of the box, and wow! The D3s really impresses. Maybe it’s the unconscious knowledge of a $5000+ price tag, but this thing has a certain “presence” shall we say? Build quality is top-notch and camera feel is darn near perfect. The D3s is, well, it’s big, but smaller than what you’d expect. If you’re familiar with the D3, you’re familiar with the D3s, but folks used to the D700 and D300 will feel pretty comfortable too, the layout is pretty similar–which is great as far as I’m concerned. The D3s is a beast, but it’s also a beauty. I’m not sure how objective this is, but just walking around, the D3s draws attention, even non-photographers have stopped me to give the D3s a compliment. I’m really struggling to find some negatives, but from a handling perspective there aren’t many. I find the vertical grip a bit shallow and odd, and in my opinion, buttons that light up would be quite welcome. As we will see in a moment, the Nikon D3s essentially sees in the dark, it’d be nice to be able to see the camera in the dark.

Performance

Finding the right words to describe the abilities of the D3s without them beginning in curse words is difficult. The D3s is an absolutely blazing performer. Focus in low light. Check. Fast AF and ability to track subjects. Check. Fast continuous shooting. Check that too. In short you’ve got 51 AF points and 9 fps in a camera that’s perfectly fine with being used in a pouring rain, so yeah the D3s kicks some, well you know. We’ll discuss this more in our full review, but in nearly every way, viewfinder, LCD, build, performance, dual CF card slots, and so on, the D3s is a photographer’s dream.

Low Light and Image Quality

OK, here’s where the D3s gets even more interesting. ISO 102,400. Let that sink in for a minute. Is it usable, no not really, well maybe in a pinch it is, or smaller sizes, but what it does is raise the ceiling for every ISO setting under it. Now at ISO 200, image quality is beautiful. These are incredibly clean files, making files you thought were clean from any other camera look a bit less clean. The real fun begins at ISO 1600, or is it ISO 100 still? I was a bit stunned at just how clean ISO 1600 was. ISO 3200, again shockingly clean. It isn’t until ISO 6400 than noise become noticeable and that progressively continues through the rest of the ISO range, but compared to anything else available, I don’t see any of these settings being beat. Seriously, ISO 12,800 and 25,600 can provide entirely usable, printable files. I’d probably not recommend ISO 51,200 and the top-end 102,400, but you can decide for yourselves how usable they are. The secret upon closer review is Nikon’s excellent management of chroma noise. Compared to something like the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, the D3s leaves behind virtually no chroma noise, just the luminance noise, which makes for much more pleasing files, especially when pixel peeping.

Outside of low light quality, the D3s produces beautiful files with amazing dynamic range and high levels of detail.  There’s a certain quality to them, maybe it’s their cleanliness, but I love the look of image files pulled from Nikon full frame bodies, and that is certainly continuing with the D3s.

Samples

Of course we’re going to focus on low light performance here, and to make things more interesting, we’ll compare the D3s with Canon’s full frame ISO champ, the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. I went to one of my favorite locations, an abandoned racetrack here in town, and went with the sun already touching the horizon. In the stands where these samples were taken, it was pretty dark, so it seemed like a good test with the darkness inside, but the relative brightness outside (in the very back of the scene). The dynamic range was huge, and the detail involved was significant, so on a tripod we put the Nikon D3s and the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Both were fitted with 50mm f/1.4 lenses. Both in aperture priority (f/8), both center focused at the same points. Noise reduction was off on both cameras, as were both cameras’ highlight recovery options. We started at ISO 200 for both cameras, then skipped to the good stuff, ISO 1600. At ISO 25,600 the comparison ends and the last thumbnail is Nikon D3s only with its two highest ISO settings presented together. These crops haven’t been resized, due to the 5D Mark II”s resolution, its files are bigger. We’ve left them as is, so this a pixel to pixel comparison, and results could be different printed, since you could resize the 5D Mark II’s files down to match final print sizes. Click each thumbnail for a full size crop, and you’ll want to check the original full size files here at Neutralday.com’s flickr.

Crop Source

Crop 1

ISO 200	ISO 1600
ISO 3200	ISO 6400
ISO 12,800	ISO 25,600
D3s Only: ISO 51,200 and ISO 102,400

Crop 2

ISO 200	ISO 1600
ISO 3200	ISO 6400
ISO 12,800	ISO 25,600
Nikon D3s Only: ISO 51,200 and ISO 102,400

Crop 3

ISO 200	ISO 1600
ISO 3200	ISO 6400
ISO 12,800	ISO 25,600
Nikon D3s Only: ISO 51,200 and ISO 102,400

You’ll note in the above that the D3s is superior to the 5D Mark II from the outset. Yes even at ISO 200, the D3s is noticeably less noisy. Also of note, the D3s’ dynamic range performance. Check the way back, where the light is coming in from outside, on the D3s you can see some detail of the exterior, on the 5D2, it’s just white (or is it? see below).  Of course the D3s is more underexposed by default so that’s probably playing some factor, but in general the D3s files look more like the actual scene, much more like it in fact. In the 5D Mark II’s defense, it displays more detail (has a resolution edge) and more shadow detail. One more thing, those blown highlights in the back? I just had to try and see what the RAW files had captured back there, and as it turns out, the 5D Mark II did get all the information. The recovery slider reveals plenty of detail back there, in the end, more than the D3s. Check the samples below to see what I mean.

Dynamic Range Comparison

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, before and after recovery of highlights.	Nikon D3s and Canon EOS 5D Mark II crops "recovered".

Conclusion

We’ll of course have more thought in our upcoming review, but it’s safe to say at this point that any pro looking for superior low light performance need not look any further than the Nikon D3s.

Get the Nikon D3s

• Nikon D3s at B&H Photo: $5199
• Nikon D700 at B&H Photo (priced to low list here)
• Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II Lens at B&H: $2399
• Canon EOS 5D Mark II at B&H Photo: $2699

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1. 

   Dan says:

   December 28, 2009 at 8:26 pm

   Can I ask why you compared the Nikon to a camera that costs 50% less? It would be like comparing the 7D to my 40D… I believe a more suitable comparison would be to use the 1DMkIV.

   reply
   • 

     Patrick says:

     December 28, 2009 at 9:58 pm

     Not sure what price has to do with it? D5000 is half the cost of D300, but equal ISO. Pentax K-x is cheaper still, but again equal. That said, The 5D Mark II has the best ISO performance of any current Canon full frame, and is within inches of the D700/D3 at ISO. Why not compare it to the previous bests? Of course once we get the 1DMKIV (not yet shipping) we’ll do more comparisons, but not exactly a full frame camera, so not apples to apples again.

     reply
2. 

   Haifidelity says:

   December 29, 2009 at 4:30 pm

   “Of course the D3s is more underexposed by default so that’s probably playing some factor, but in general the D3s files look more like the actual scene, much more like it in fact.”

   What were the shutter speeds of the two cameras (also which metering mode)? If the D3s is underexposing compared to the 5DII, then it would stand to reason that the D3s’s images would contain less noise (which I’m not arguing) because the noise is is mitigated by the lower exposure.

   The only reason I bring this up is to make a more accurate comparison between the two cameras in the criteria you are testing for (notice I said accurate, not fair). Why not retest these images with the same shutter speeds as well?

   reply
   • 

     Patrick says:

     December 30, 2009 at 2:57 pm

     I went with aperture priortity because identical manual settings would have left different exposures, given the setting sun…which seemed less fair.The D3s was in matrix metering, and the Canon on the equivalent (can’t remember what it’s called right now for some reason). I think for the most part you can see the D3s offers loads of detail (but less than the 5D2), super clean files at low ISO, and cleaner files throughout its ISO range. Also, a real champ at dynamic range…that background really impresses me…9 out of 10 cameras blow that out with all the darkness, and it was much darker than the files let on.

     reply
     • 

       Haifidelity says:

       December 30, 2009 at 8:06 pm

       Patrick,

       Fair enough. I would still be interested in seeing how the D3s shadow noise performs with an exposure bias similar to the 5DII, at least a histogram that is mapped similarly. For example, in Crop 3, the differences in exposure are obvious, as the frame of the building on the 5DII crop is much more apparent. Bringing the D3s exposure maybe 1/3-1/5 would show a comparable noise performance.

       I have no doubt that the D3s is the superior high-iso camera, but I think the samples you posted could be seen as misleading. Thanks for the evaluation though, no doubt the D3s is an amazing camera.

       reply
     • 

       Wayde says:

       February 27, 2010 at 5:54 pm

       If D3s and 5D Mark II share the same ISO, shutter speed and aperature, D3s ends up with underexposure. I suspect that D3s has over-stated ISO number, so to achieve the same exposure, on 5D Mark II you can just use lower ISO keeping the aperature and shutter speed unchange. In this case, 5D Mark II actually achieves better IQ.

       reply
3. 

   Bill Cooke says:

   January 16, 2010 at 11:45 am

   Hello,
   I love to see comparison between competing models. That was missing when I moved from Pentax to Canon ~5 years ago. At the time I felt the Pentax was a sharper image, then I find out that Canon shoots “soft” and you have to sharpen a bit post process. It seems that Nikon is sharper out of the box but the high ISO noise is simply amazing. When I used film, I never used anything above ISO 100 and as such could not get many shots without a tripod and long exposure that one can now. It amazes me how ISO 3200 gives such low noise in a digital camera compared to the old film versions. The D3 is a beauty! Oh to have an extra 5G’s in the closet!

   reply
   • 

     Patrick says:

     January 17, 2010 at 1:43 am

     Bill,
     I’m also a fan of comparisons, but to the D3s, it really is quite amazing. We’re testing the Canon EOS 1D Mark IV right now, and you’ll see if you stop back in…at ISO 1600, the D3s looks just like ISO 200, no kidding…the Mark IV looks real good, better than almost any other camera, but side by side with the D3s looks quite noisy. I have to keep checking the EXIF on the D3s to make sure I’ve got the right file…

     reply