Review of Nikon D3S Digital Camera (price, best, purchase)

[reviewer]

Having owned several Nikon cameras over the year, when I decided to purchase a digital SLR I was confident that Nikon would have a model to suit my requirements. I decided to go with their D3s with the Nikkor 50mm lens and I am extremely glad I did.

The Nikon D3s is a tough, solidly built camera, designed to take the sort of abuse that professional photographers expect their cameras to withstand. Because of this it is a heavy camera to carry about but in use this is not a drawback as the weight helps to keep the camera steady and it has a nice, balanced feel.

One of the most important parts of a camera for me is its viewing system. The film cameras of old have always been better than digital cameras in this respect. However, Nikon has the made the transition from traditional SLR's to Digital SLR's relatively seamless. The D3s viewfinder is about the best I have seen, even compared to non-digital professional cameras.
Another feature which makes this camera worth its asking price is the lack of any shutter lag. This is when you press the shutter button but the shutter does not release for a short time, sometimes a half second or so. Most digital cameras suffer from this to some extent but in the Nikon D3s it is conspicuous by its absence.

The image quality from this camera is impressive. There are many cameras around which boast of having 10 or 12 megapixel resolution. Unfortunately if this resolving power isn't matched to an equivalently powerful image sensor, then you might as well just buy a 4 megapixel camera. The Nikon D3s couples its 12.1 megapixel s with Nikon's own CMOS image sensor giving outstanding image quality.

The outstanding performance aspect of this camera, however, is its low light performance. Nikon have made great efforts to improve the performance of the D3s when taking photos in poor lighting conditions. It is possible to achieve more than acceptable results without flash and without using a tripod in situations when most cameras wouldn't produce a picture at all.

Sometimes it can be relaxing to forget about technicalities and just let the camera do the job of capturing the moment for you. The Nikon D3s is up to this task as well. Its Through The Lens metering system allows you to let the camera set the appropriate exposure and image control to ensure you get the optimum result, whatever the conditions.