Saturday, December 8, 2007

Nikon vs Canon - The Future


I feel that the Megapixel race is over, and that it's no longer about chip sizes, especially since Nikon has essentially returned to Full-frame with their FX sensor. It's going to be clarity and fidelity and bit-depth moving forward.

It has come to my attention that another camera is coming down the pike though.

(Continued after the Jump)

One of the key points that was made when I interviewed Steve Heiner at PhotoPlus, was that he was saying how great it was for the sports photographer and photojournalist. He, and I've heard this elsewhere, others, are positioning the camera as one that shoots fast and so forth. They are not referring to the commercial photographers. Why? Well, because of the D3x, that's why. Following in the footsteps of the D1, and the D2, so too will there be a D3x. I've heard that it's comparable to the Mark III as to file size. If the D3x has a comparable filesize to the Mark III, and the high ISO's of the D3, it'll trounce all over the Mark III, but I'll not hold my breath for that "perfect storm" of capabilities. It's coming in the Spring, certainly in time to get into the hands of photographers before the Olympics.

Will the capabilities of the Foveon chip, with it's Leica-like clarity make it's way in some altered form into the next generation of Nikon or Canon cameras? Who knows. I do know that when the D3x hits the stores, it will forever relegate my D2x to copy-work, and I'll begin re-thinking the notion of an 18 month technology life-cycle for cameras. I may not change my position, but these current offerings certainly make it worth discussing.


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5 comments:

jock said...

As for the D3x - when that many pixels (22+ MP's) are packed on to a full frame censor - it will be inherently noisier than a 12 MP full frame censor. John, this may be a factor in why you feel the Nikon nudged out the larger MP Canon in your high-iso noise comparison. Obviously - the results are very similar and barring any serious glitches - the D3 and forthcoming D3x are and will be a huge leap forward over the D2x. And I think it is safe to say that users of either brand of camera will finally be on a level playing field when it comes to high-iso and AF performance.

Thanks for the review John!

Anonymous said...

To be honest as a Conon user and the owber of a 1ds3 I am glad that Nikon have caught up - a little bit of competition should drop ALL prices.

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed your down to earth comparisons of the new Canon/Nikon. But you didn't talk much about any differences in Shadow/Highlight detail in the images. Will the larger Canon file size bring out more detail in these areas? Can anyone answer that?

Anonymous said...

I have been a Canon shooter from the start and have no problems with any camera manufacturer who makes a quality product. I bought a Mark III 1d the second it came out and was one of the firsts to have one and had nothing but problems with it from the beginning. They finally gave me a new body after back and forth to CPS over 5 times for the same issue in ONE month. I loved my Mark II 1ds and love my Mark III 1ds. I heard a ton of great things from people I knew who shot the D3 and imagined what it would be like if it were all true, so I rented one one long weekend and shot some personal work and a job the following Monday and the camera blew me away. I feel like I would be at a loss not having it in my arsenal. It handles low light like no other and cannot even compare in regards to ISO with either of my Canon Mark III's.

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