Nikon D3X Preview - Expeed Resolutions
02 December 2008
It looks like it's an early Christmas from Nikon with their announcement of the Nikon D3X yesterday on the 1st December. Ever since the release of the D3 took Nikon into the full frame arena, there has been an almost immediate call for an upgrade version that provides more than the 12.1 megapixels which was then on offer. At long last, about one year from the release of the D3, we are now presented with the Nikon D3X. Sporting a 24.5 megapixels FX format (full frame) CMOS sensor which many claimed to be manufactured by Sony and is similar to that of the Sony Alpha A900, the D3X is Nikon's first DSLR over the 12.1 megapixels mark.
Inheriting a lot of the excellent features from its predecessor, the Nikon D3X offers the same 51-point AF system, Live View, 3-inch (920k dots) LCD and Dual CF card slot. The size is identical with the Nikon D3X and a negligible 20g lighter. The response of the camera should also be very similar to the D3 as the Nikon D3X employs the same shutter unit and benchmarks the same lightning fast response with an approximate 40ms shutter-lag and 55ms viewfinder black-out. Also in keeping with the other FX format cameras Nikon has offered, the D3X also supports photography in the DX format so that your DX lenses could still be used.
However, with increased resolution, there are a few tradeoffs that should be expected. The D3X provides a slightly slower maximum continuous burst speed in FX mode at 5 frames per second, which is still very good given the size of the files that are being churned out. More so when you consider that the Nikon D3X is only using one EXPEED image processing engine. One feature that is increasingly being taken for granted is sensor cleaning but unfortunately, this is equally missing on the Nikon D3X again. However, the D3X does provide Image Dust Off reference data which helps remove those blemishes on the images caused by dust when used in conjunction with Nikon's Capture NX2 software.
With the release of the D3, Nikon got a lot of attention with its high ISO capability and it was definitely one of the features we expected to see again in the upgrade. Unfortunately, the ISO sensitivity only ranges from 100 to 1600 with the extended range giving an equivalent of 50 to 6400. Having said that, high ISO is not something that everyone needs and so it's really down to the image quality that the Nikon D3X can provide. We will be monitoring the latest news from Nikon to find out more about that.
Inheriting a lot of the excellent features from its predecessor, the Nikon D3X offers the same 51-point AF system, Live View, 3-inch (920k dots) LCD and Dual CF card slot. The size is identical with the Nikon D3X and a negligible 20g lighter. The response of the camera should also be very similar to the D3 as the Nikon D3X employs the same shutter unit and benchmarks the same lightning fast response with an approximate 40ms shutter-lag and 55ms viewfinder black-out. Also in keeping with the other FX format cameras Nikon has offered, the D3X also supports photography in the DX format so that your DX lenses could still be used. "Nikon D3x Digital SLR Camera")
 "Nikon D3x Digital SLR Camera")
