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D3/D300 illustrated

harmsr

Workshop Member
Woody,

Even though these are just web size photos, I do see a difference between the two which is actually more than I expected.

The D300 is a little overexposed compared to the D3. The D3 seems to show a little more detail and really has a nicer tonal range.

Is this what you see, as you have both cameras to compare?

Best,

Ray
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member
Great samples Ray and Woody ! The D3 images have more warm and rich colors. They remind me of DMR images, e.g. look at the grass in the first view over the beach and the sea. What RAW-converters did you use ? And Woody, did you use the same settings for both D3 and D300 during conversion ?
 

woodyspedden

New member
Great samples Ray and Woody ! The D3 images have more warm and rich colors. They remind me of DMR images, e.g. look at the grass in the first view over the beach and the sea. What RAW-converters did you use ? And Woody, did you use the same settings for both D3 and D300 during conversion ?
Hey guys

I agree with your comments and especially that the D3 has a warmer presentation than the D3. I am sure that you can set up the Capture NX or Lightroom or ACR to make the two look much more alike but out of camera this is what you get. I made no changes to the file in ACR other than a bit of sharpening (both cameras were modified the same amount.) I did nothing with regard to HSL so the colors were as they came out of camera. I think the D300 is a superb instrument but clearly the D3 has some advantages over the D300 which cannot be ignored. Frankly I love both and find that you simply have to learn the idiosyncracies of both to get the maximum value from either. i look forward to the D3 being my primary instrument and the D300 my backup. What wonderful choices don't you think?

Best always

Woody
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member
OK Woody, so this is basicly how ACR sees the two NEF file types. Do you see the same difference if you convert both files with NX ? Some have said that NX delivers the best colors. So far I have only used NX. I have tried to open the D300 RAW files with Capture One PRO 3.7.7, but it can't read them yet.
Ray, did you use NX ? There are some very sparkling colors in your D300 racing team shots, of course it is also a colorfull scenery in the first place.
rgds Steen
 

woodyspedden

New member
Steen

I Just reprocessed both in NX just to see and got the same color differences as I did in ACR. I suspect the color difference is more a function of the coatings on the Voightlander compared to the Nikkor. I will do some more shooting using the 28-70 on the D3 and the 17-35 on the D300. Here the colors should be more representative of the camera's performance than the lenses

Woody
 
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woodyspedden

New member
Great samples Ray and Woody ! The D3 images have more warm and rich colors. They remind me of DMR images, e.g. look at the grass in the first view over the beach and the sea. What RAW-converters did you use ? And Woody, did you use the same settings for both D3 and D300 during conversion ?
Steen

Couple of points.

Yes I used the same settings for raw conversion for all images. I basically used the ACR defaults but added 20 points of local contrast, 15 points of vibrance, and added some sharpening.

I mistakenly had the D300 set for bracketing which is why one of the images was overexposed. Bracketing is dangerous unless you always remember to disengage it. It doesn't default back to normal shooting when the bracketing sequence is finished. It just starts a new sequence.

I will reshoot some of these images using the 28-70 Nikkor on the D3 and the 17-35 on the D300. This should eliminate the color differences evidenced when I was using the 40mm Voightlander on the D3 and the 17-35 Nikkor on the D300.

I reprocessed the images in Capture NX and could see no substantive differences in color from that from ACR.

Hope this helps to explain some of the things seen in these images.

Woody
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member
Thanks a lot, Woody ! I already peeped into the EXIF data because I was curious to see if it partly was the glass. But that doesn't seem to be the case. Here is what I found.

D3
(A) Beach and sea: Voigtländer 40mm
(B) Bucket in sand: Nikkor 17-35mm (at 35mm)
(C) Straw on roof: Nikkor 17-35mm (at 35mm)

D300
(A) Beach and sea: Nikkor 17-35mm (at 35mm)
(B) Bucket in sand: Voigtländer 40mm
(C) Straw on roof: Voigtländer 40mm

Image (C) is less important here since the versions are pretty similar, colorwise.
But in both (A) and (B) D3 shows more warm and sparkling colors out of the box than D300, despite the fact the two bodies change optics between these two scenarios. Apparently not a matter of glass, so I don't think you need to reshoot the test with same brand optics on both bodies. On the other hand we would love to see more pictures from both cameras. And from all the members who have them :)
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member
Ray, I hope that at some point you will show us some actual pixel crops as well as some more out of focus rendering shots with that new 24-70/2.8 Nikkor. Looks like that lens is completely fantastic. Especially number two shows both tack sharpness and very nice OOF rendering in the background at the same time. Great picture, and very three dimensional.
 

woodyspedden

New member
Ray, I hope that at some point you will show us some actual pixel crops as well as some more out of focus rendering shots with that new 24-70/2.8 Nikkor. Looks like that lens is completely fantastic. Especially number two shows both tack sharpness and very nice OOF rendering in the background at the same time. Great picture, and very three dimensional.
Bondo

I have now reshot the scenes posted previously and I assure you that the issue is the look of the lenses. Using the 28-70 on the D3 and the 17-35 on the D300 proved to me that the Voigtlander lenz was responsible for the warm tones we all responded to. There was no difference of any magnitude with regard to the sensors of the D300 vs the D3. Over and out. I will be happy to post any images to prove the results

Woody.
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member
Oh thanks Woody, very useful information. I'm grateful that you bothered to do this, because obviously I was wrong in my conclusion. Useful to know that these differences were in the glass and not in the sensors & processors.

Think we need an image now to keep the headline on track :)

D300, Nikkor AI-S 2.8/28mm 1/10 sec. at f/8, ISO 200, pretty much handheld
 

woodyspedden

New member
Since another thread on the forum is quesioning how alike are the D3 and D300 I thought I would repost some of the images I took with both. The lens used on the D3 was the 28-70 and on the D300 was the 17-35/ Basically processed using the ACR defaults with identical and slight sharpening on each image.

Not great images but hopefully good enough for those evaluating the Nikons to get a feel.

Best

Woody

by the way I have others if you need more to see.

The top image is with the D3 and the bottom with the D300
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member
Illustrative. And convincing ! Thanks Woody.
And yes, I'm sure those who haven't made up their minds yet would love to see more comparisons, maybe even with actual pixel crops. Just along the road if you yourself feel like comparing. No obligations. Let's just have fun illustrating this thread. Join the party folks.
rgds Steen
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member
Fulton, I have uploaded my own sample pictures from this thread to a web page: "bondo dot be" where you can see full res versions of the pictures. If you want to play with a couple of RAW files and if you have a converter that can read D300 .NEF files, just send me a PM or an email and I will send the files to you with "yousendit dot com". rgds Steen
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member
From inside Hagia Sophia (turkish: Ayasofya), Anno Domini ~535. D300 + 18-70mm.
 

David K

Workshop Member
Shot with the D3 and 70-200 zoom. Handheld at 1/20th f/8, ISO 100. Did some PP on these... curves, saturation, sharpening but it was getting dark and the AF works like a champ. Just realized the crop is from a different shot... but you get the idea :)
 
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Steen

Senior Subscriber Member
Whoa, David. Great captures, nice lighting.
And "70-200mm zoom, handheld at 1/20th" ... you have a steady hand, Sir. Impressive.
 
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