Nikon d700 high iso performance

So, no critique there, please! These images will give you an idea of the progress that has been made in sensor technology. Actually, the D holds up pretty well, until around ISO. JPG stone. But I am including them here since they do still give a reasonable comparison.

At some point, I did run out of shutter speeds, and then I changed the aperture accordingly. I shot with Auto WB to see how well each camera coped. You figure out how good the Nikon D4s affiliate is in comparison to the other cameras.

Have fun, and let us know your observations. Hey Neil, I think you forgot to add the links to the D files. I own the infamous D and I feel the ISO performance could have been better with the available tech at the time. I am really disappointed with Nikon in the past two years crippling most of their camera models to retain a selling edge on their higher-end models. The D should have been much better in many regards. Otherwise, they will fall behind.

On another note, I am very keen on the new DS that is supposed to be announced during this month. Thanks for the review. The D4S is one big beast of a camera indeed. Canon does the same thing. Their high end models are too expensive for the casual or low end professional who seem to be migrating to other brands — sad.

I also think there is a gap in the line-up. A Dx or something. A direct competitor to the Canon 5D mk3. I totally agree with your note on the gap in the lineup. A Dx should have been introduced instead with unleashed specs.

Product variations. Tech Specs. Effective Pixels Megapixels Sensor Size Image Sensor Format FX. Hi-1 ISO 12, Hi-2 ISO 25, Monitor Size 3.

Dimensions Width x Height x Depth 5. Weight 35 oz. FX-format L 4, x 2, M 3, x 2, S 2, x 1, DX-format L 2, x 1, M 2, x 1, S 1, x Timer duration electronically controlled. CPU AI. Monitor Collapse Monitor Monitor Size 3. EH-5a AC Adapter.

For some reason, the D3 mis-exposed badly when shooting through this lens. So there's a nice point in the Nikon D's favor. Minor edge-enhancement on high-contrast subjects and minimal noise suppression.

The Nikon D captures a lot of fine detail, with excellent definition. Some slight enhancement artifacts are visible on high-contrast subjects such as the crop above left, but they're really pretty minimal. Again mimicking the D3, the D's in-camera sharpening is very restrained at its default setting.

This leaves its JPEGs looking just slightly soft overall, but they take sharpening in Photoshop and other software pretty well. There's still some minor sharpening artifacts present. Overall though, detail is excellent.

We're a bit surprised to see some of the subtle differences between the D3 and D's images; we expected the results to be essentially identical. There are a number of subtle differences, though, and the Nikon D's handling of fine detail appears to be one of them. The differences are subtle indeed, but we think the D's rendering produces slightly more delicate-looking fine detail in its images.

The crop above right shows only minimal noise suppression in the shadows at ISO , as individual strands of hair can be seen even in the darker areas.

Noise-suppression systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast. The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears. Camera settings for the JPEG settings were the defaults. This is also to be the case for the Nikon D Its in-camera JPEG processing is actually pretty good, but you can nonetheless produce a sharper, more finely-rendered image by manipulating the RAW files in a good third-party RAW converter.

The size of the sharpening operator in Capture NX2 seems to be somewhat constrained, though, preventing you from using as tight an operator as you might like. We've generally found that careful unsharp masking delivers better results than we can achieve using the sharpening built into Camera Raw.

Noise levels are remarkably low at the Nikon D's lower sensitivity settings, with very smooth images up to ISO , where there is only the slightest hint of "grain" visible in darker shadows.

We start to see some minor loss of detail at ISO 3, where high ISO noise reduction scrubs away a little fine detail along with the image noise. Noise and the effects of noise reduction becomes obvious at 6,, with stronger blurring, and increased grain, but chroma noise is kept in check and overall results are still excellent for a megapixel sensor at such a high sensitivity setting.

As with the D3, the D's big pixels really help with light sensitivity and low noise, and Nikon's sensor technology and noise reduction appear to be top-notch as well.

ISOs 12, and especially 25, are quite noisy and soft looking, with blotches of chroma noise and little fine detail remaining after default high ISO noise reduction is applied. That said though, even ISO 12, images look surprisingly usable when printed as large as 8x10 inches, and ISO 25, ones seemed usable at 5x7. Very impressive! Extremes: Sunlit and low light tests Excellent detail in both highlights and shadows, high resolution and good overall exposure.

The Nikon D did very well under the deliberately harsh lighting in the test above. The best exposure is probably that at The image looks a little contrasty, but that's just representative of the lighting itself. The key is that highlight and shadow detail are both very well preserved, with good-looking midtones as well.

The very brightest highlights are lost, the very darkest shadows are a bit plugged, but you have to go really far in both directions before you'll find any problems. Noise and noise suppression are quite low in the shadows, and fine detail in these areas looks very good. Still, the camera's adjustable contrast, saturation and D-Lighting adjustments do help fine tune the exposure in conditions like this.

As always though, we remind readers to be sure to use fill flash in situations like the one shown above; and it's better to shoot in the shade when possible. Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range , we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light.

The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. You can read details of this test here. Color balance is a bit cool from the Auto white balance setting, especially at the darkest light levels. The camera's handling of noise was again very good, with minimal interference even at very high sensitivities. As you would expect, noise is much higher at ISOs 12, and 25, Probably no surprise, noise levels at the highest ISOs are noticeably higher under these very low light conditions than they are in our more brightly-lit test shots.

The D gives you 4 options for high ISO noise reduction: Off, Low, Normal and High, so you have some flexibility in deciding how much noise to trade for detail.

Interestingly, we saw somewhat fewer hot pixels with NR both on and off at ISOs 12, and 25, than we did with our D3 test body, making the D's highest-ISO shots at the lowest light levels somewhat cleaner overall.