dj dunzie
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After a lot of recent discussion on the forum about the differences between the D3S and the D3/D700 in terms of low-light capability, I thought it would be interesting to do some side by side comparison, since I really haven't done any direct comparing between the two sensors at various ISO settings. I always had a gut feeling about where the two have their "peaks" and where the limits of their usability was, but never did any direct testing side by each.
So I took a fairly dark indoor setting - my shelving unit - and threw the cameras into basically the same settings, shot raw, and shot at various different ISO settings and spent some time pixel-peeping on the computer. I learned a few things, but basically re-affirmed what I believed anyway.
At the end of the day, both cameras are fantastic in low light. Anyone who's come up through the D100 - D70s - D200 - D1H - D2H - D2X - D300 - etc progression that I have has faced some challenging low-light shooting results up until the more recent generations. The D300 was a near-revelation after the D200/D2H, but the D3 and D700 completely changed the game for me. Then the D3S came along and now it's a new game yet again. But how much different could the game really be?
I've always heard the comment "they're the same up to ISO3200 and then the D3S is a stop better from there on" or "you won't notice any difference until ISO3200". My gut feeling was that there was less than a stop difference between ISO800 and ISO3200, because both bodies were just too good to really distinguish much difference up to there. The D3 and D700 hit their peak low-light at ISO3200 for sports shooters. ISO3200 is really clean, and allows the shutter for most situations. But it did tail off from there to ISO6400 noticeably. ISO6400 is still very usable, but you do need to ensure the exposure is right. ISO12800 (HI1) was a serious slip but still salvageable, and ISO25600 (HI2) really was reserved for more artistic shooting, and usually B&W grainy conversions.
The D3S to me hits a peak at ISO12800. There is honestly not a lot of difference between ISO6400 and ISO12800 on this machine. There is some, but just not enough to ever make me hesitate to use ISO12800 for terrible indoor lighting. Proper exposure and ISO12800 is really clean. I've proven it many times in dingy hockey arenas. ISO25600 was where it started to decline noticeably, but heck I've even got some pretty clean results here. I would have guessed that ISO51200 was similar to the ISO25600 setting on the D3/D700, and ISO102400 worse.
Anyway, enough pre-amble, here's the setting:
http://djsphotography.smugmug.com/photos/969933233_uUGPm-O.jpg
Nothing special... just some lenses and stuff in a room with a small dome ceiling light, shot ambient on a tripod with a delay. Auto WB, RAW, matrix meter, f8, standard PC's, ADL on low, NR on "low". I know some folks would question not completely shutting down the NR, but I wanted to see how the cameras reacted in fairly common settings, and also compare in post the levels of NR the cameras wanted to apply, and learned something interesting...
The D700 applies more in-camera noise reduction levels than the D3s, significantly so. The D3s applies less than the D700 does by more than a stop. The D700 starts applying NR at ISO3200, the D3s at ISO6400, and less at those settings.
Anyway, I would confidently say both cameras are outstanding to ISO3200. However, I did find that there IS some difference in the two cameras at ISO800. You had to search for it, granted, but in the colors in the shadows, the D3s was cleaner and sharper. I would venture to say that there is a one stop difference even at ISO800. ISO1600 on the D3s gives nothing away to the D700 at ISO800. I mean, we're splitting hairs here, but they're both excellent at these settings, verified by 100% crops:
http://djsphotography.smugmug.com/photos/969932619_nxR87-O.jpg
Now moving the D700 up to ISO1600, it's still really good as everybody knows, and so is the D3s at ISO3200. Still really close comparing a one-stop difference here:
http://djsphotography.smugmug.com/photos/969931851_hfwNE-O.jpg
Which brings me to the point of diminishing returns I claimed earlier. For sports shooting indoors, I almost use ISO3200 as a starting point on the D3/D700, but feel that the same point is ISO6400 on the D3s. This comparison shows I'm still getting excellent saturation and detail on both cameras, again still one stop apart:
http://djsphotography.smugmug.com/photos/969932312_WuLku-O.jpg
... but remember I also said that ISO12800 is so good on the D3s there's very little between it and ISO6400? Let's see if there could in fact be a comparable 2-stop difference then between the cameras at this point:
http://djsphotography.smugmug.com/photos/969932188_2pH9N-O.jpg
If you check out the texture on the Expodisc cover, the writing on the TC's, and the noise forming in the color shadows in the BG, I think it's fair to say that they are really closer to 2 stops apart here, only because while the D3/D700 drop off in IQ from ISO3200 to ISO6400, the D3s really doesn't suffer much at all from ISO6400 to ISO12800. I really think we're looking at a healthy comparison of D3s at ISO12800 and D3/D700 at ISO3200. Both are excellent.
Moving the D700 up to ISO6400, you start to see some slight inrease in the shadow noise, a little loss of finer detail. But since the camera now wants to apply fairly significant NR in-cam even on low settings, the results are still very clean and highly usable. How would the D3s in its first boosted setting - HI1 or ISO25600 - fare, still comparing a 2-stop difference? Not badly...
http://djsphotography.smugmug.com/photos/969932458_M4RiH-O.jpg
Similar noise characteristics, similar levels of detail. Might give a slight edge to the D3 with the 2 stops in its pocket, but it's close.
Obviously the next step is maintaining 2 stops difference and throwing the D700 up to its first boosted setting...
http://djsphotography.smugmug.com/photos/969931709_6Z7D8-O.jpg
Hmmmm... even with a 2-stop disadvantage, I'm thinking the D3s is better at ISO51200 than the D700 at ISO12800. There might be slightly more noise pattern, but it's also capturing more detail and with better saturation. The D700 has applied more NR and the Expodisc case has lost most of its texture, where the D3s is still able to render some detail there. Call it even - the D700 a little cleaner and the D3s a little more accurate despite a 2 stop difference.
Then surprisingly a funny thing happens, the 2 stop disadvantage disappears and the D3/D700 are better at HI2 than the D3s at HI2. Of course, that's still a 2-stop disadvantage because we're talking ISO25600 vs ISO102400.
http://djsphotography.smugmug.com/photos/969932019_GKgYt-O.jpg
They've both pretty much let go of all fine detail not surprisingly. Put it back on a level playing field though, and you see the D3s can spank the D3/D700 at ISO25600:
http://djsphotography.smugmug.com/photos/969932904_gVuLC-O.jpg
But both bodies can make a salvageable B&W scene even at their HI2 settings and we've all seen it done around here.
SO at the end of the day I guess what I found out after this little experiment is that we've been pretty much right all along and I want the last hour of my life back!  Really both are incredible performers up to ISO3200, with the D3/D700 still very good at ISO6400, and the D3s at ISO12800. From there you can nail pretty much any shot you want to nail with proper exposure. If you need the very best low light performer, the D3s wins by at least a stop, but maybe even more at extreme high ISO's. If you NEED that difference, you know who you are, and you'll likely want the D3s. Most folks I bet would never have issue with the D3/D700 low-light ability. I reckon wedding shooters and sports shooters who spend times trying to stop movement indoors will be the prime customer... but we knew that all along.
That's it. Hope SOMEBODY found this at least HALF way interesting. Comments welcome.
CHEERS
Edited on Aug 15, 2010 at 12:49 AM · View previous versions
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at ISO6400 for night rodeos and would kill for clean ISO12800 
