It's a gorgeous camera. I had a chance to play with the one we got in today (I work for Nikon) and I'm utterly impressed. Very low noise, excellent dynamic range, and fast! The dual CF card slots is a great feature.

Sadly, even with the employee discount, it's not going to get added to my kit any time soon, but I may have some other plans (I'm looking at you, D300...).

i'll give you some gummy bears for that 70-200 f/2.8 glass.

Dang! Follow the link and see the whole lot. There must $10k worth of stuff on the table. $5000 for the D3 and it doesn't look like it ships with an HDMI cable. That's a bit cheap.

I think the D300 will be a worthy successor to my trusty D80, in about a year, when they're $1500.

@Maxwells_Nylon_Hammer: so sorry. they won't be $1500 in a year. maybe used on ebay...

*hugs my d200*

D3 wont be that price in 3 years from now.. keep wishing.

**Hugs my D200 TOO!!!**

I may as well just pre-empt the inevitable.

Nikon fanboi: NIKON IS TEH BETTAR!

Canon fanboi: ZOMG IS NOT. CANON FTW.

[retarded flaming ensures]

New technology is great and all, but it won't do for you what shooting 10,000 pictures will.

At the end of the day, the order of importance goes photographer > glass > camera.

Now is a good time to watch for deals on the D80 and D200 with the D300 having hit the market. I picked up a D80 a few weeks ago and wish I could have waited for a price drop. Regardless, they are all great cameras.

Enjoy your 12.1MP...

Or is that a typo and should read 21.1? Oh no, right that's the 1Ds III, sorry Nikon. Good effort though.

All for you 'mullingitover'! ;)

I look forward to the quotes which say "MP isn't all that matters!11eleven"

Despite the comment above, I'm a Canon (pro) shooter and this camera is a great step forward for Nikon... I'm not longer looking down on all things nikon. I'll have to see what the next year or so has in store for the 'big two' but Nikon with the support of their world class glass is looking ever so tempting.

who ever did the unboxing, is now on my do not like list.


d3


*drool*

Well, MP's are nice but, mullingitover is right. If you have 300 MP and take an overexposed picture with an infinite depth of field on a subject in the middle of the frame, it still will suck. The best picture I have framed is a cropped 3 MP from a S1-IS. So whoop-de doo MP. Try scanning some old pictures and you will realize we surpassed (average) film detail a while ago. Particularly when it comes to low light.

I'm a Canon owner. I would have gotten a Nikon, but the camera bodies were big, bulky and ugly compared to my Rebel XTi. Seems rather pointless for them to put that ugly old-fashioned black and white greenish LCD screeen on top of the camera when they have a perfectly good modern high res color LCD on the back on which they can display the same information.

How come [chromatic] above links to engadget? Is this a future merger, maybe?

While you guys sort it out, I'll be happy to keep that D3 safe for you.

PS.
It's like looking at pornography. I can't stop staring!

The combination of high iso performance and great low-light autofocus means that it will be a justifiable expense for a lot of pros.

@Elliuotatar:
You're joking, right?

I can't wait for them to slap those innards in a D300 body; basically a Nikon "5D." I'll be first in line.

Canons have better support for high speed shooting, especially true for sports. Nikon's image processing and glass, however, surpass Canon in nearly every benchmark. Check out www.dpreview.com for some great comparos! And now that D3 is full frame ... AHHHH ... The space/time continuum has been disrupted and worlds exploded.

href="#c3196979">mullingitover:

BTW ... Kudos to you. That's how the order SHOULD indeed go. I have some AMAZING shots on an old Fuji Camera @ 3.1mp that rival some of my D200 shots. That's not to say my D200 is worse. I'm in love and personally, I LIKE having a removable grip. I don't need all that extra weigh at times!

Yikes... I just got its baby sister, the D300, a week ago, and already I am lusting after the D3!

If only it had a small slave flash built in...

Will work for D3.

I'd prefer a Leica M8 and a f1.0 50mm for that price...

i know this will sound silly for many, but what exactly is the difference between the [d3] and the [d300]

I had an unboxing experience with my HTC Touch recently and documented it. I wish I had video.

@Elliuotatar: Your comparing the D3 to your Rebel???? Of course it is bigger, it is also 4 times the camera your Rebel will ever be.

@toddkravos: Many things. The biggest difference is that the D3 is full frame body, like the Canon 5D and Canon 1Ds. You get the actual focal length of your lense.

@mullingitover: I agree with that order. I'm still shooting with a Canon 10D and 20D, I spend all my money on glass, very expensive L glass. I may even add high-quality filters (like singh-ray) in between glass and body.

Heck, I still shoot E6 on my Elan film body. I'll probably get a new body next year if they announce the 5D M2.

On that note though, this D3 is pretty sweet, it has that balance of full frame and speed which would be ideal for me. Makes me almost wish I was a Nikonian. Of course the enormous investment in Canon glass and accessories makes it out of the question.

That's hot, but too rich for my blood.
I did however get my early Christmas present to myself yesterday in the mail. A nice new Canon 40D.

Holy Christ on a stick. I just started photography and shelled out $1100 for my first SLR - Nikon D80. My boyfriend shat kittens. I can't imagine his reaction if I bought a $5k SLR. =P

At least camera fanboyism makes some amount of sense when you consider the money a lot of photographers have invested in one or the other system.

@Elliuotatar:
Man, you got to be joking. You have a long way to go my friend. Spend some time to read more about camera history, or just browse through Flickr - not the specification, or MP. Camera is like a pen - it is tool. ..

I keep waiting to hit the lotto so I can buy one or two of these cameras. One to drop and break, and one to take pictures with. Fran Lebowitz said she finally figured out the odds of wining a lottery. She found the odds to be the same whether she played or not.

If you $150/m for three years for the camera you will pay it off. If you are in a photography business, and own nikon already, you should consider the investment, but I would wait until the D3s comes out. "S" usually refers to some updates.