Say hello to my little friend, THANK YOU Santa

Santa dropped off my gift for being a good boy & busy photographer this year early. Please meet my new Nikon D3s. The BADEST as in most AWESOME camera on the planet. "Awesome" being used as a relative term. It is certainly the best for wedding photography To a photographer we are kids in candy store when ever we get new "toys" or "gear". I currently shoot with the D3/D700 & D300 which are all used differently. I know for most of you reading this, you may not even find this informative or fun to read, but you should understand why I am sooooo stoked. Let me also say that quality lenses are as important or even MORE important then camera bodies. They also last a lot longer. I will spare you on that topic for another time.

I am a firm believer that the camera is merely a tool that is used by photographers. Weather Nikon or Canon or any other brand for that matter. It is what you capture that is the most important and to a very large extent the camera means very little. Creativity is priceless & were I live to be. I have caught the coolest images on my Iphone,but I wouldn't shoot my kids plays or a wedding with it.

In this digital era cameras have become much like computers. With new models being introduced every year or two. As a professional photographer it is important for me to have the "most effective" tools to do my job which is wedding photography. The D3 Introduced in November 2007 has been said to be the most ground breaking camera since the 1st digital camera was introduced. It was proclaimed to be the KING of low light photography. Prior to this camera shooting above 800 ISO w/o a flash was deadly. Pictures would look grainy and at 3200-6400 ISO would look EXTREMELY grainy and unusable for most photography. Most were skeptical of Nikon claims since prior to this HUGE mega pixels was what was thought to be "important" & Canon has lead that race for a long time (read below). But after initial stock images were seen online it quickly became "THEE camera" to have for wedding/ indoor sports and anything that requires the highest image quality in low light. Canon has now seen the "light" pun for Canon users. MANY MANY canon shooters switched to Nikon due to this & now they are in a frenzy trying to compete with NIKON on clean low light photography. Nikon also offers the D3X which offers sharpest images in any 35mm SLR at 24.5 mgs which are razor sharp and a totally different camera then what I need it for.

Well, The D3 which I thought I would keep until the D4 comes out at the end of 2011 has been retired. Typically with Nikon when they add an "S" to a current model it is just a very small difference that not really worth the upgrade. The D3S is DEFINITELY worth the upgrade. Now includes a few things the D3 did not have such as image sensor cleaner like D700 which is a mini D3, it now also sports High Definition video & a few other advancements, BUT none that excited me more then even CRAZIER High ISO shooting. Images now usable at ISO 12.800 topping out at 102,400 ISO which is basically night vision w/o any light needed of course above ISO 12,800 for me will not be an option, but just the fact that it is capable is insane.

One of my photographers is a 5d markii shooter so I am also able to compare side by side images of the same wedding. I would like to be clear that I am In no way against canon they are INCREDIBLE cameras & the end the battle between Nikon & Canon is good for us all.

For me available light is king and this new camera just fits my style perfectly.

I can't wait to post some images for you to see.

Until Next time,

SC