Nikon D3 vs Canon 5D - High ISO Competition
I have been a 5D shooter since almost the day it came out. I simply love the full frame, and never looked back at the 20D, XT and 300D I had before that.
I always preferred Nikon bodies though, and was hoping someone would release a D200 body with a 5D sensor in it.
Well, that didn’t quite happen, but the new D3 had me intrigued since the day it was announced.
Last week I saw an ad on a public forum where an established member was selling an essentially brand new D3 for a very good price, so I jumped on it. I figured the way it’s backordered everywhere, if I don’t like it I won’t have any problems reselling it for the same or even a higher price.
So the D3 arrived, and the first thing I did was to put it up against my 5D to see what the hoopla is all about. I only have a 50mm 1.8 and 35mm 2.0 Nikkors, so I compared those with 50mm 1.4 and 35mm 2.0 Canons.
1. Handling and build quality
Well, there’s no contest here. While 5D is nice, it feels like a snail and 2 generations behind the D3. One thing though, although I much prefer the resolut and snappy shutter action on the D3 than the kla-chunk of the one on 5D, the D3 shutter is a lot louder.
2. Autofocus in good light.
Again, no contest. D3 will just snap in place. With a 50mm 1.8, 19 out of 20 shots will be spot-on, with 1 maybe slightly off. With the 5D and a 50mm 1.4 at f/1.8, around 10 out of 20 will be spot-on, with another 5-6 slightly off and 3-4 quite a bit OOF.
And this is all with the screw driven 50mm 1.8. Can’t wait to try some of the AF-S models.
3. Autofocus in low light.
The 5D is actually slightly better here. The center point will lock on things in low light that the D3 has a problem with, and will hunt quite a bit. 40D smokes them both in this regard.
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