Micah Walter

Ever since the Nikon D3 was announced I have been thinking about whether or not full-frame cameras have really come into their own. For a long time Canon has been the only full-frame player in town with their 1Ds line of cameras and their very affordable and popular 5D.

But now that Nikon has their D3 on the horizon, I have to wonder which camera maker is on top of things at the moment, and really, if full-frame cameras are really there yet in terms of the specs that matter to me.

Below is a quick comparison I put together that includes the current full-frame models as well as the Canon 1D Mk III. I wanted to look at the technical specs that really interest me the most. I’m not looking at image quality at all, and just sort of assuming that all cameras produce great images at high ISO. (I will get to that topic on another post.)

To be fair, no one really knows what the Nikon D3 will boast in terms of frame buffer. The pre-production models that are floating around seem to have room for about 9 RAW frames, which in my opinion is really too low.

The Canon 1D Mk III, while still a 1.3x sensor, seems to have some pretty good numbers with 10 fps, 10 mpix and a RAW buffer big enough to hold 30 frames. That’s nearly an entire roll of film!

If you have the money, the 1Ds Mk III looks pretty viable with 5 fps, and a 12 frame RAW buffer. But wait a second, that’s 12 frames of 21 mpix images! I wonder if that equates to 30 10 mpix frames on the 1D Mk III!

If Nikon ships the D3 with a larger buffer it will really be a viable Canon killer. Full-frame shooting, 12 mpix, and 9 fps for only $5000. It seems to me that all they need to do on this camera is up the buffer to match the 1D Mk III.

And what about an update to the 5D? Maybe a 6D? This camera has been so popular in the pro and pro-sumer market since it was introduced, but it hasn’t seen an update at all. Maybe Canon is following the old adage that if something aint broke, don’t fix it.

Upgrading the 5D to add 5 fps, a few more frames in the buffer, and better weather sealing would really be nice. 5D Mk II?

I’m really dying to shoot full-frame, but I think my minimum requirements are as follows:

5 fps
12 mpix
12 frame RAW buffer
A price tag less than $5K

Hmmm, maybe a used 1Ds Mk II would be a good choice, it comes pretty close.

What do you think?

Rob Galbraith has a cool article up on his site with a number of sample images from pre-production Nikon D3s. These cameras were given out to a handful of lucky pros who put them through their paces in real life situations. The results? Total camera lust.

Just skip past all the ISO 200 shots of the baseball fields (though note that they were shot with the new 14-24 f/2.8 lens) and find your way down to the bottom. You can download the full resolution images and zoom in all you want on the cheerleaders, but man oh man, ISO 25,600?!?!

This is absolutely incredible. Now, I already know what some people are going to say. Uh, there’s lots of noise at 25,600. For those of you who just said that, please, leave this website immediately, go to the kitchen and smack yourself in the head with a rolling pin. We did say twenty-five THOUSAND six-hundred, right?

One of my favorite films back in the college days was Tmax P3200. I loved the grain, and the sort of shot-in-the dark look it produced. I feel like the new Nikon at 3200 has leaped over Tmax P3200. I can’t wait to try out some black and white conversions from some of these files. Wait, what am I saying? I shoot Canon!