i am looking at getting one or the other in the next few weeks.i have a D7000 and sigma lens now.sold d300 and d90.i do sports 85% of the time.indoors and out but i also like to drive around and do pictures of animals or just anything.the inside sports dont have good lighting.my biggest thing is the d3s is old but great,if something happens to it will it be able to get fixed from nikon.was told my lens will work fine,sigma 17-50 2.8 ex dc hsm,70-200 apo ex dg hsm.like i said my biggest thing is if something happened to the d3s in a year couldn't get it fixed.
well if you do sports 85% of the time you answered your own question. D3s would probably be your better option. I've never personally used one but it's low light performance is much better than the D800. Also its frame rate is MUCH better.
robby521 wrote:
i am looking at getting one or the other in the next few weeks.i have a D7000 and sigma lens now.sold d300 and d90.i do sports 85% of the time.indoors and out but i also like to drive around and do pictures of animals or just anything.the inside sports dont have good lighting.my biggest thing is the d3s is old but great,if something happens to it will it be able to get fixed from nikon.was told my lens will work fine,sigma 17-50 2.8 ex dc hsm,70-200 apo ex dg hsm.like i said my biggest thing is if something happened to the d3s in a year couldn't get it fixed....Show more →
For what you're doing, i'd go for the D3s all the way. The D3s should still be fixable for many years to come if it needs to be fixed.
robby521 wrote:
i am looking at getting one or the other in the next few weeks.i have a D7000 and sigma lens now.sold d300 and d90.i do sports 85% of the time.indoors and out but i also like to drive around and do pictures of animals or just anything.the inside sports dont have good lighting.my biggest thing is the d3s is old but great,if something happens to it will it be able to get fixed from nikon.was told my lens will work fine,sigma 17-50 2.8 ex dc hsm,70-200 apo ex dg hsm.like i said my biggest thing is if something happened to the d3s in a year couldn't get it fixed....Show more →
I've owned both. The D3s is probably best for what you shoot. Not familiar with your Sigma lenses, but any lens that is slow to acquire focus (Nikon or 3rd party) reduces the D3s performance for sports. Guess that is the same with any camera.
Both are great cameras. I went from a D3 to a D800e to a D4. The reason was the D800e didn't feel good in my hand. Also, the smaller file size did speed up post processing.
Note that your Sigma 17-50 is a DX lens, so you can only use it on the D3s in crop mode, which is only ~5 megapixel. You would have the same restriction on the D800 of course, but the crop files would be 16 megapixel there.
I have both. I shoot dog shows, retriever hunt tests, agility trials. D3s is my go to camera for most situations. The D800 seems old school when it comes to FPS. I need the burst capability to get fast moving dogs at just the right moment.
I use the D800 mainly for video but also for slower moving situations.
Bottom line is that I love them both for different reasons!
I went from a D3 to D800 to a D3s. D3s destroys the D800 in everything but resolution. D800 eats up hard drives like nothing, requires a new hand holding technique and takes forever when processing.
Ohh, forget these opinions. Get the d800 and never look back. You can use your d7000 (which out-resolves the d3s) for action shots. The d800 is an amazing camera, and downsized images (to 12MP) are nearly as clean as the d3s. Don't buy old tech....if you're doing that, then just get the d700 with battery grip for 8FPS.
I just got a D3s and love it, considering you might need some new lenses have you thought of a D3 which is still very good for your style of shooting and the money saved can buy the lenses you will need.
