Stuart Richardson
Active member
Steen -- just to answer your question about S2 owners -- a tripod and mirror lockup is necessary to get the best out of it, though it will do very well handheld too.
My biggest concern on this camera is where the heck are you going to find lenses that are worth putting on it? I had the D3 and a number of lenses, including the 24-70mm, 17-35, and a number of primes. Almost all of them were mush in the corners at wide apertures, and that is on 12mp. Many were mush in the corners even at middle apertures (17-35, 35mm f/2). With 4.9 micron pixels, the diffraction is going to kick in really early too, probably f/11 or so. I am not saying it is impossible to get 36mp on 35mm, but you are only going to be getting the full benefit with the very best lenses at f/8 or f/5.6.
Not sure if that really matters though...even if you don't actually get 36mp of detail, you are going to max out your lenses, which is pretty nice! I still doubt it will compete with MF digital in most respects...it will still have an AA filter, still not have 16 bit color, not have the same tonal range etc. At the same time, it will focus much faster, give you full motion video, fit in a much smaller bag, have a wider range of cheaper lenses, cost a tiny fraction and I am sure have other advantages and disadvantages. Pretty much the only thing it has in common with the S2 for example is the number of pixels. Everything else about the cameras and about how those pixels actually translate into an image are going to be very different!
My biggest concern on this camera is where the heck are you going to find lenses that are worth putting on it? I had the D3 and a number of lenses, including the 24-70mm, 17-35, and a number of primes. Almost all of them were mush in the corners at wide apertures, and that is on 12mp. Many were mush in the corners even at middle apertures (17-35, 35mm f/2). With 4.9 micron pixels, the diffraction is going to kick in really early too, probably f/11 or so. I am not saying it is impossible to get 36mp on 35mm, but you are only going to be getting the full benefit with the very best lenses at f/8 or f/5.6.
Not sure if that really matters though...even if you don't actually get 36mp of detail, you are going to max out your lenses, which is pretty nice! I still doubt it will compete with MF digital in most respects...it will still have an AA filter, still not have 16 bit color, not have the same tonal range etc. At the same time, it will focus much faster, give you full motion video, fit in a much smaller bag, have a wider range of cheaper lenses, cost a tiny fraction and I am sure have other advantages and disadvantages. Pretty much the only thing it has in common with the S2 for example is the number of pixels. Everything else about the cameras and about how those pixels actually translate into an image are going to be very different!