A few weeks back I had a chance to take the new kit out on a street test. The label on the tin said that it has phenomenal low light performance. The reviews seem to back that claim. However, I wanted to see with my own eyes, with shots I’d taken myself.
What did that mean? A perfect opportunity to take the camera out on some night time street photography. Time, however, was limited, on that day, so I decided to limit myself to only a couple of locations in Melbourne. These two locations were Collins St, and around the Flinders St Station area.
The results were, quite frankly, astounding.
The above 100% zoom crop is of a shot that was taken at 1/60s, 140mm/6.3, ISO 12800. I should also point out that the RAW version of the original image does not display the chroma noise that you see here. It has, instead, a fairly monochromatic grainy look, much like what one would expect of film. In fact, the chroma noise seen here is the result of the JPG compression.
In effect, as the test results indicate, the sensor on this machine affords the photographer the opportunity to shoot handheld in any light with impunity.
The above 100% zoom crop is of a shot that was taken at 1/25s, 200mm/4.0, ISO 12800. We can see that the shots retain almost full resolution. Combine that with the stellar corner sharpness of the Nikkor 70-200/2.8 VRII, you find yourself, all of a sudden, to be a very happy camper.
1 comment
Nice shots in the dark. I too have seen great results from my Nikon D3s in challenging, low light situations.