[shuttertalk]

I just saw these photos from a wedding photographer who used the new Nikon D3 on a job - I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:
http://cliffmautner.typepad.com/my_weblo...er-1a.html

[Kombisaurus]

Some beautiful photos in that gallery there ST! Thanks for the link.

I have also seen some more D3 sample photos on the Nikon website. I was particularly interested in the quality of the high ISO shots (3200/6400) and I have to really hand it to Nikon with this camera, they have made some massive improvements in noise reduction at high ISO and really come up with a great response to Canon's dominance in this area with the 1D3 and 1Ds3.

I'm not trying to start a "which one is better?" thread, suffice to say that it appears to me these three cameras (Nikon D3, Canon 1D3 and 1Ds3) might be considered to be a full generation ahead of the others when it comes to high ISO performance. And being able to produce quality photos at 6400 iso is opening up low-light photographic opportunities that simply weren't possible until now, as that wedding gallery shows.

Of course there is a lot more to choosing a camera than simply its high iso performance. and you can bet your life that the other brands are busy refining their own new models with much less noise at high iso.... but now that the "megapixel race" is finally not as important as it used to be, it's great to see camera manufacturers pushing the state of the art in other very useful ways.

This kind of competition is good for all photographers.

[Rabid Penguin]

I reckon in the end, a camera is only as good as the photographer using it.

[matthew]

.... but now that the "megapixel race" is finally not as important as it used to be, it's great to see camera manufacturers pushing the state of the art in other very useful ways.

What really made me sit up and take notice of the D3 was how few pixels it has. For a full-frame sensor, its count is quite modest. It's fantastic to see a manufacture decide that 'enough is enough' and go back to having better pixels instead of more of them. (It took me a while to get used to the idea that my 10mp camera doesn't really take better pictures than my 5mp camera.)

Of course, there's certainly no fault in Canon's uber-pixel offerings. It will be interesting to see how the technology and its implementation continues to diverge.