Waiting for the Big Brown Truck

XMENPorsche · Post by **XMENPorsche** » Wed May 07, 2008 10:19 am

Just pulled the trigger on one of these:

Should be here tomorrow.

"I'm happier than a tornado in a trailer park"!

Spinning Hat · Post by **Spinning Hat** » Wed May 07, 2008 2:35 pm

Very nice... You plan on doing a lot of large images? Or did you outgrow your other bodies and need more functions? I'd just be happy if I could get my hands on a Nikkor 17/55 f/2.8...

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Wed May 07, 2008 7:12 pm

Iy yi yi. Congrats.

Well, enjoy it! Supposed to be a great little machine. Are you at a point where you can write off this stuff yet?

XMENPorsche · Post by **XMENPorsche** » Thu May 08, 2008 6:54 am

Hat - I won't be able to produce much larger images than I can right now. My current D200 is 10.1 mp, and the D3 is only 12.1mp. However, the D3 will allow me to shoot stuff that I literally cannot shoot with the D200. Specifically, I'm referring to low-light, fast-action, high-ISO kinds of things. The D200 starts to get very ugly above ISO800 or so. The D3 absolutely rocks all the way up to ISO6400, and can even go to ISO25600 if needed. The images at ISO25600 are not that great, but no other camera on the market today would be able to get any image at all in such lighting conditions.

Gambit - I'll be writing this one off this year.

BlackRider · Post by **BlackRider** » Thu May 08, 2008 1:36 pm

Congrats Porsche! I played with one at the store and have to say that I couldn't figure it out! There were buttons all over the place and a great many of them had pictures or text that meant nothing to me. The menus were foreign, but I quickly figured out how to put them into German... and they still made as much sense to me.

Honestly, my only complaint was the lack of the Canon type giant thumb wheel. I cannot live without that thumb wheel!

So when should we expect some more wonderful pictures from you?

XMENPorsche · Post by **XMENPorsche** » Thu May 08, 2008 4:10 pm

BR - I guess it really all depends upon what system you're used to. For the life of me, I cannot figure out the thumb wheel on the back of the Canon. The D3 control layout is almost identical to my D200 so there will be very little time spent figuring out where things are located. I'm sure that there will be a steep enough learning curve, though. The Nikon user's manual for this camera is about 450 pages long. Oy.

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Thu May 08, 2008 7:08 pm

Heh. Don't wait for the truck - start reading now!

XMENPorsche · Post by **XMENPorsche** » Thu May 08, 2008 9:43 pm

I downloaded the D3 manual several weeks ago. I think I just finished the Features List - page 3.

XMEN Ashaman DTM · Post by **XMEN Ashaman DTM** » Thu May 08, 2008 10:01 pm

Read faster!

Spinning Hat · Post by **Spinning Hat** » Sat May 10, 2008 2:21 am

Speaking of ISO performance... I know my D40 will go to ISO 3200 but haven't ever taken an image with an ISO that high. ISO 1600 performance is pretty good on my camera, but not the prettiest on the block. A new body like yours won't be in my hands for a long, long time, I'm sure.